Last week, Moody’s rating agency lowered the outlook for health
insurers from stable to negative, blaming Obamacare. Few Americans will
shed tears for insurance companies. But the Moody’s announcement is a
warning sign to taxpayers. They’ll be getting clobbered. Section 1342 of
the Affordable Care Act forces taxpayers to make insurers whole for
most of the losses incurred selling Obamacare exchange plans through
2016. The bailout is designed to conceal the failure of the president’s
signature health law until he is out of office.
No one in the
Obama administration talked up the advantages of bailing out insurers.
It was kept under wraps until the fall of 2013. That’s when five to six
million health plans were canceled because they didn’t comply with
Obamacare’s one-size-fits-all-coverage requirements effective January 1,
2014. Insurers developed new plans, as the health law required, set
premiums (generally higher) and sent out notices canceling the old
plans.
That caused public outrage. Trying to quell it, the
president ignored his own law and told insurance companies on November
14 they could keep selling the old plans. Insurers were caught off
guard. They predicted there would be less demand for their new plans,
and they’d lose money.
Here’s where the plot thickens. On the same
day, an Obama administration health official, Gary Cohen, announced
that the federal government (taxpayers) will offset most losses, citing
section 1342. Sweetening what the law already guarantees, he pledged to
“modify” the bailout’s “final rules to provide additional assistance.”
That’s when Congress finally did its job and read section 1342.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) called it a “dirty little secret” and offered
legislation to repeal it. House Republicans held a hearing at which
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius confessed that
the administration had never tried to estimate what the guarantee could
cost taxpayers. Ah, how freely government bureaucrats spend other
people’s money.
Last Thursday’s downgrade underscores the
likelihood that taxpayers will be socked with bailout costs of unknown
proportions unless section 1342 is repealed.
That’s just one
reason for repeal. Another is that Section 1342’s purpose is to
bamboozle the public and hide Obamacare’s inevitable failure until
health “reform” is entrenched beyond turning back.
(Click link below to read more)
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- Judy Chaffee
- This site is the inspiration of a former reporter/photographer for one of New England's largest daily newspapers and for various magazines. The intent is to direct readers to interesting political articles, and we urge you to visit the source sites. Any comments may be noted on site or directed to KarisChaf at gmail.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
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