■ First up, a tale of wasteful spending courtesy of co-blogger Bob V. According to the Congressional Budget Office:
"It will cost the federal government – taxpayers, that is – $50,000 for every person who gets health insurance under the Obamacare law"
And keep in mind, that's in addition to any actual premiums paid directly to insurers. And it still doesn't actually solve the "problem" of the uninsured:
"The best-case scenario described by the CBO would result in ‘between 24 million and 27 million’ fewer Americans being uninsured in 2025"
That's almost 1½ trillion dollars spent over 20 years and there will still be millions of folks left uninsured.
Great job!
■ Next up, from FoIB Jeff M, is some bad news for some Tar Heel State employees, who "could lose access to a popular health insurance option and see costs for other options rise." [ed: Updated, see below]
This despite the fact that President Obama himself promised that this could never happen.
UPDATE: It appears that this plan will not be eliminated (at least for now). Interesting.
Oh, and the bureauweenies in charge are also considering "eliminating coverage for spouses."
To be fair, lots of employers have begun adopting this strategy, and from their perspective it makes a lot of (financial) sense. And everyone then talks about how that's "dumping" these people "onto the Exchange." But what no one seems to have noticed is that it also creates an additional burden on families: health insurance plans have both individual and family Maximum Out-of-Pockets. But when you split them up, so that Dad's covered on one plan, and Mom and the kids on another, you've just added an additional additional out-of-pocket expenses.
Nice.
■ For Ohio-licensed insurance agents, there's some good news: the Buckeye State joins "21 other states that already allow insurance agents to carry over excess CE credits." This is welcome news for those of us who find themselves with extra CE's at the end of a cycle.
So what's keeping those other 36 states from joining in?
"It will cost the federal government – taxpayers, that is – $50,000 for every person who gets health insurance under the Obamacare law"
And keep in mind, that's in addition to any actual premiums paid directly to insurers. And it still doesn't actually solve the "problem" of the uninsured:
"The best-case scenario described by the CBO would result in ‘between 24 million and 27 million’ fewer Americans being uninsured in 2025"
That's almost 1½ trillion dollars spent over 20 years and there will still be millions of folks left uninsured.
Great job!
■ Next up, from FoIB Jeff M, is some bad news for some Tar Heel State employees, who "could lose access to a popular health insurance option and see costs for other options rise." [ed: Updated, see below]
This despite the fact that President Obama himself promised that this could never happen.
UPDATE: It appears that this plan will not be eliminated (at least for now). Interesting.
Oh, and the bureauweenies in charge are also considering "eliminating coverage for spouses."
To be fair, lots of employers have begun adopting this strategy, and from their perspective it makes a lot of (financial) sense. And everyone then talks about how that's "dumping" these people "onto the Exchange." But what no one seems to have noticed is that it also creates an additional burden on families: health insurance plans have both individual and family Maximum Out-of-Pockets. But when you split them up, so that Dad's covered on one plan, and Mom and the kids on another, you've just added an additional additional out-of-pocket expenses.
Nice.
■ For Ohio-licensed insurance agents, there's some good news: the Buckeye State joins "21 other states that already allow insurance agents to carry over excess CE credits." This is welcome news for those of us who find themselves with extra CE's at the end of a cycle.
So what's keeping those other 36 states from joining in?
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