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ObamaCare's Economic Dominoes


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Another reason my insurance agent is not blessing Obama or thanking(blaming) God.

I didn't have the full explaination in front of me at the time but this is one of the domino's waiting to fall.When it does with all the other mess that has been inserted in this bill,hello public option,Obama's stated agenda

April 02, 2010

ObamaCare's Economic Dominoes

By C. MacLeod Fuller

Now that health care reform in the shabby disguise of ObamaCare has been crammed through Congress, a peek at the president's precariously stacked dominoes confirms that sooner than you may suppose, there won't be any private companies selling health insurance in America. Consider:

There are approximately 1,300 insurance companies in America today.

Beginning January 1, 2011, these companies will be required to pay out 85% of all premiums collected as direct medical care, leaving 15% of corporate income to fund operations and yield any potential profit.

The health care industry has a profit margin of about 3%. Most American businesses rely on securing annual profits of 8% to 10%. American oil companies operate on about 4% profit. Alcoholic beverage sales net annual profits of 26%.

To maintain even slim profitability or cash reserves, insurers will be compelled to run austerely.

Why?

Among numerous regulations implemented immediately, ObamaCare cannot deny children with preexisting illnesses coverage, no matter the illness, no matter the long-term cost -- and children are now "children" until age 26. It is irrelevant there may never have been any contribution for such children into an aggregated "risk pool" of insurance policy purchasers -- the very idea of which is to "spread the risk" around. They will be able to have all their medical costs paid for by the responsibility and forethought of unrelated others.

Adults currently uninsured due either to preexisting illness or choice can now buy into government-run and guaranteed plans which insurance companies will in essence be required to assume beginning 2014, when they will no longer be allowed to exclude anyone based on actuarial or other rational data standards.

Costs for insurers will further increase as they pay more and larger amounts in claims that have no dollar ceiling -- they are immediately banned from implementing lifetime caps on coverage.

Under ObamaCare, once subsidized purchases begin no later than 2014, millions of formerly uninsured will be eligible for federal subsidies to help purchase coverage they can already afford but choose not to buy. There are currently eight million uninsured Americans earning over $50,000 a year and another nine million uninsured Americans earning in excess of $75,000 a year who willfully play medical roulette by refusing to purchase health care insurance for their dependents. Nevertheless, a family of four with an income of $88,000 a year will be eligible for financial aid.

Healthy, and especially young, people will predictably opt to pay the $750 ObamaCare fine assessed for failure to purchase coverage since it is less than the yearly cost of insurance premiums. Quite literally, there will be no need to purchase "insurance." One can simply wait until illness or accident strike, but in the meantime spend money in other ways.

More and more workers and families who previously sustained the business of insurance companies will weary of witnessing millions of Americans game the system and take a free ride. Formerly responsible citizens will allow their health care coverage to lapse and adopt the same wait-and-see attitude. If an emergency occurs, they too will have failed to pay into a health care risk pool for months or years, but their medical bills will be paid -- by insurance companies who received nothing from them or millions of others who made similar self-referential decisions.

As payouts broaden and escalate, insurers will not have sufficient financial resources to operate within the allowable 15% of gross income. Forced to meet the 85% mandatory payout threshold, they will do one of two things -- raise premiums on those diminishing customers actually purchasing insurance or cut costs.

Business operating expenses include a vast array of liabilities, from buildings and taxes to furniture and computers, but after medical care payouts are made, insurance companies' biggest cost center is personnel -- which is where cuts have already begun.

As staff reductions continue, tens of thousands of insurance industry employees will be thrown out of work -- estimates run as high as 690,000. These are American workers with spouses and children, mortgages and car notes, food bills, utility bills, and hundreds of other financial responsibilities. Unemployed, they will add to the worsening overall economic situation and be remanded into the ranks of the fully subsidized health "insured."

The dominoes won't stop falling there.

Many more than just direct insurance personnel will be affected. As cutbacks intensify, reliance by insurers upon various vendors and suppliers will be curtailed and terminated. Independent brokers will no longer receive business as insurance companies take direct sales and other functions back in-house. Hundreds of related external service providers will be cut or canceled, as will their employees when work supply exceeds demand.

Massive increases in the use of medical services will overload doctors' and hospitals' ability to provide adequate care. It will become rationed as too many people chase too few services too much of the time at too great a tab because too few people contributed too little money to its actual cost. Physicians and pharmacists who accept Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements will continue to see earnings both diminish and become more government-controlled. At the same time, medical innovation will slow if not cease because ObamaCare levies a massive new excise tax on medical device manufacturers. They will stop "innovating," and many go out of business, unable to pay the cost of business in a nationalized industry -- literally taxed to death. The inevitable result will be fewer doctors, fewer specialists, and greatly reduced and rationed care.

Add to this statist medical assurance the fact that incrementalist Democrats fully intend, eventually, to provide universal care to over 12 million illegal foreign aliens, and the rising price of medical care defies comprehension. Illegal aliens, like millions of freeloading citizens, will have paid little or nothing for benefits parasitically leeched from the insurance industry, the economy, and the American ideal -- which until the past few decades didn't include an ever-enlarging entitlement appetite of something for nothing.

Finally, "risk pools" will have filled -- overpopulated with people who have rarely or never paid into the health care system before and who, even if not extremely or expensively ill, will contribute to the crisis of underfunded overutilization. Insurance companies will run out of costs to cut and people to lay off. They will cease to do business, existing only as collection points for government oversight. Taxes will rise exorbitantly to pay for "free" universal health care. Socialized medicine will reign.

Americans will have the single-payer health care system President Obama and the extreme Left-dominated Democrat Party and Congress have explicitly schemed towards for seven decades: the federal government. And the system will no doubt be underwritten by confiscatory taxation.

One-sixth of the United States economy will transform into an even larger percentage due to the complete destruction of an industry, hugely magnified unemployment, and overutilization of underfunded, mandated medical care and resources.

The economic chaos resulting from ObamaCare will trigger the collapse of one economic domino after another. As it does, America will become a statist's Socialist's dream, but an unqualified socialized nightmare. The human cost in this is incalculable, but quite easy to imagine.

Thank an Obama voter today.

Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It's not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument, or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make, period ... ... Wish more people would realize this.

Quotes by Susan Gottesman

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The sky isn't falling. Small businesses have to operate on larger margins than big businesses. Obviously the more volume a company does, the small the margin they need to survive. There is also a risk factor. The greater risk a company has, the greater profit margin they need so that they are compensated for the risk. When the risk is reduced, the profit margin can be too.

For example, a typical commercial building contractor will shoot for 5% - 8% profit margin on bid work. If the work is negotiated it allows the contractor to hand select subcontractors and to review the plans more thoroughly. Thus the risk is reduced substantially and profit margin can be reduced to 2% - 4%.

All this concern regarding the public option is unfounded. President Obama doesn't have enough support in Congress for a public option. He just barely got this recent legislation through.

Insurance agents have reason to celebrate.

Pastoral Family Counselor... Find me at www.PostumCafe.com

Author of  Peculiar Christianity

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The sky isn't falling. Small businesses have to operate on larger margins than big businesses. Obviously the more volume a company does, the small the margin they need to survive. There is also a risk factor. The greater risk a company has, the greater profit margin they need so that they are compensated for the risk. When the risk is reduced, the profit margin can be too.

For example, a typical commercial building contractor will shoot for 5% - 8% profit margin on bid work. If the work is negotiated it allows the contractor to hand select subcontractors and to review the plans more thoroughly. Thus the risk is reduced substantially and profit margin can be reduced to 2% - 4%.

All this concern regarding the public option is unfounded. President Obama doesn't have enough support in Congress for a public option. He just barely got this recent legislation through.

Insurance agents have reason to celebrate.

Insurance agents,those in the business don't seem impressed with the assurances of those not in the business. Wonder why that is?

I will certainly share with her the expert opinion given. She will be glad to know that after 25 years in the business she really knows less than others not in the business. I am sure she will be glad to know that it has been proclaimed that God has placed Obama as our president.

Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It's not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument, or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make, period ... ... Wish more people would realize this.

Quotes by Susan Gottesman

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Obamacare "devil's in the details" that Dems do not want people to learn.

Causes 9 million people to lose the insurance they now have;

Increases the already bloated deficit by $260 billion over the next decade when all the components are included;

Adds $371 billion to the deficit by not including the Medicare physician fee schedule change, also known as the “Doc Fix” provision;

Raises taxes by $569 billion on small businesses and creates a new marriage penalty with new income and investment taxes;

Cuts Medicare by $523 billion;

Increases premiums by 10% for people without employer-based insurance;

Expands the power of the IRS to enforce a government mandate that requires Americans to purchase government-approved insurance.

----------------

AND, after all the spending is done and the bill is fully implemented, 23 million people will still be uninsured in 2019.

Libs have absolutely got to love Obamacare. Accomplishes nothing substantive, but costs a mint.

Let's destroy the USA. We've always hated it. We want to be like other countries, instead. Like France, maybe, only without the nuclear power.

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Maybe we look at things a bit differently than some. I had knee surgery this week. Before I agreed to it I spent time with a orthopedic surgeon.I did not go to the lumber store and ask my questions.

When we were getting ready to build our home I spent time with the building contractor making sure I understood. I did not go to wal-mart and ask my questions.

I have no faith in expert wannbe's on every subject. I have faith my insurance agent has a lot more knowledge when it comes to the impact on the insurance industry.Mine was not the only call she received as to when personal insurance could be cancelled in lieu of the pre-existing clause. She also received calls wanting to know if as a parent of a "adult child" they could be forced to cover them up to 26. That alone sounded like a catylist for some to cancel and let the government take care of them.

Assurances from Pelosi,Reed,Obama and Shane don't seem real comforting

Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It's not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument, or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make, period ... ... Wish more people would realize this.

Quotes by Susan Gottesman

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I think this plan is going to get tweeked here and there before it all goes into effect and we will be very happy with the new system. As it is right now, only the insurance companies come out the winners.

Pastoral Family Counselor... Find me at www.PostumCafe.com

Author of  Peculiar Christianity

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I think this plan is going to get tweeked here and there before it all goes into effect and we will be very happy with the new system. As it is right now, only the insurance companies come out the winners.

Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It's not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument, or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make, period ... ... Wish more people would realize this.

Quotes by Susan Gottesman

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The great elaborator [liar]: Obama gives 17-minute [lie]answer to health-care query in N.C.

I don't want to see the President of the United States of America called a liar again in this forum. Those were the tactics the Bush-haters used. We are above that. If a member wants to infer such things they can use the word "misled" instead of "lie".

Future comments calling the President a liar will be edited.

Pastoral Family Counselor... Find me at www.PostumCafe.com

Author of  Peculiar Christianity

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Originally Posted By: bonnie

The great elaborator [liar]: Obama gives 17-minute [lie]answer to health-care query in N.C.

I don't want to see the President of the United States of America called a liar again in this forum. Those were the tactics the Bush-haters used. We are above that. If a member wants to infer such things they can use the word "misled" instead of "lie".

Future comments calling the President a liar will be edited.

I agree, Shane. It is disrespectful for anyone to call anyne a liar, without having indisputable proof,particularly the President. I'm convinced that Mr. Obama has never lied to the American public (it's above his paygrade).Intentionally mislead?Yes.Lied? No.
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Quote:

Future comments calling the President a liar will be edited.

Quote:
I agree, Shane. It is disrespectful for anyone to call anyne a liar, without having indisputable proof,particularly the President. I'm convinced that Mr. Obama has never lied to the American public (it's above his paygrade).Intentionally mislead?Yes.Lied? No.

Misled works. I will leave "intentionally misled" as your definition:))

It would be helpful and add to credibility if those in position of power made sure of their facts.Facts readily available to anyone that can read before stating something factually wrong time and time again

Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It's not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument, or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make, period ... ... Wish more people would realize this.

Quotes by Susan Gottesman

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Quote:

Future comments calling the President a liar will be edited.

Quote:
I agree, Shane. It is disrespectful for anyone to call anyne a liar, without having indisputable proof,particularly the President. I'm convinced that Mr. Obama has never lied to the American public (it's above his paygrade).Intentionally mislead?Yes.Lied? No.

Misled works. I will leave "intentionally misled" as your definition:))

It would be helpful and add to credibility if those in position of power made sure of their facts.Facts readily available to anyone that can read before stating something factually wrong time and time again

Then "liar,liar.pants on fire" would not be appropriate in this setting? Yes?
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I'll let the American people decide whether to call these lies:

1. Promising to "publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days... before the President signs it," then breaking that promise over and over again.

2. Despite promising to keep lobbyists out of his administration, Obama has broken his word again and again (making 17 exceptions to this promise in his first two weeks).

3. Obama promised to eliminate income taxation for seniors making less than $50,000 a year. He has broken this promise despite numerous opportunities to keep it, including the economic stimulus package and his administration's first budget proposal.

4. The President also boasted during his campaign that "During 2009 and 2010, existing businesses will receive a $3,000 refundable tax credit for each additional full-time employee hired," and has failed to keep his word.

5. Obama made a promise to "allow withdrawals of 15% up to $10,000 from retirement accounts without penalty (although subject to the normal taxes). This would apply to withdrawals in 2008 (including retroactively) and 2009," but didn't include this measure in the stimulus package or his budget proposal.

6. Obama broke his promise to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

7. Obama did a shameless 180 degree turn on earmarks by sharply criticizing them (and bragging that he would pass legislation without a single one) and then signing a spending bill with literally thousands of them.

8. Obama promised a $4000 tax credit for college tuition, but backpedaled when he signed a much smaller $2,500 college tax credit into law.

9. Obama called presidential "signing statements" (letters of interpretation and recommendations attached to Congressional legislation) unconstitutional... then attached a signing statement of his own to a $410 billion spending bill.

10. Obama promised a different tone in Washington D.C. and a move past bitter, partisan rhetoric. It took him less than a week as president to berate Republicans and he has continued to do so. In his first private meeting with Congressional Republicans, instead of "reaching across the aisle" and seeking earnest dialogue, he smugly told them that he should have his way because "I won."

11. Obama did not criticize Congress for its secrecy and closed-door committee meetings in crafting the stimulus package and healthcare bills despite his calls for greater transparency in Washington.

12. The Obama Administration ended funding for Washington D.C.'s school voucher program, while suppressing a study that showed it delivered better results at a lower cost. Obama's daughters however, attend a private school in Washington D.C., enjoying the freedom of educational choice that the Obama administration has denied to poor children who live in Washington.

13. Saying on the campaign trail: "There is no doubt that we’ve been living beyond our means and we’re going to have to make some adjustments."

14. "The White House said the president was unaware of the tea parties-" either they were lying or the President really was/is clueless. Pick one.

15. Choosing purebred dog, "Bo" for the White House family's "first dog" instead of adopting a dog from a shelter like Obama promised.

16. False: "More than 90% of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States." -President Obama

17. Bragging about his tax cut for 95% of Americans and not realizing (or conveniently not addressing) the fact that if it's funded with deficits and debt, it isn't really a tax cut because taxpayers will have to pay off the debt eventually (with interest) and the tax cut is offset by the rising prices of inflation.

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I'll let the American people decide whether to call these lies:

1. Promising to "publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days... before the President signs it," then breaking that promise over and over again.

2. Despite promising to keep lobbyists out of his administration, Obama has broken his word again and again (making 17 exceptions to this promise in his first two weeks).

3. Obama promised to eliminate income taxation for seniors making less than $50,000 a year. He has broken this promise despite numerous opportunities to keep it, including the economic stimulus package and his administration's first budget proposal.

4. The President also boasted during his campaign that "During 2009 and 2010, existing businesses will receive a $3,000 refundable tax credit for each additional full-time employee hired," and has failed to keep his word.

5. Obama made a promise to "allow withdrawals of 15% up to $10,000 from retirement accounts without penalty (although subject to the normal taxes). This would apply to withdrawals in 2008 (including retroactively) and 2009," but didn't include this measure in the stimulus package or his budget proposal.

6. Obama broke his promise to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

7. Obama did a shameless 180 degree turn on earmarks by sharply criticizing them (and bragging that he would pass legislation without a single one) and then signing a spending bill with literally thousands of them.

8. Obama promised a $4000 tax credit for college tuition, but backpedaled when he signed a much smaller $2,500 college tax credit into law.

9. Obama called presidential "signing statements" (letters of interpretation and recommendations attached to Congressional legislation) unconstitutional... then attached a signing statement of his own to a $410 billion spending bill.

10. Obama promised a different tone in Washington D.C. and a move past bitter, partisan rhetoric. It took him less than a week as president to berate Republicans and he has continued to do so. In his first private meeting with Congressional Republicans, instead of "reaching across the aisle" and seeking earnest dialogue, he smugly told them that he should have his way because "I won."

11. Obama did not criticize Congress for its secrecy and closed-door committee meetings in crafting the stimulus package and healthcare bills despite his calls for greater transparency in Washington.

12. The Obama Administration ended funding for Washington D.C.'s school voucher program, while suppressing a study that showed it delivered better results at a lower cost. Obama's daughters however, attend a private school in Washington D.C., enjoying the freedom of educational choice that the Obama administration has denied to poor children who live in Washington.

13. Saying on the campaign trail: "There is no doubt that we’ve been living beyond our means and we’re going to have to make some adjustments."

14. "The White House said the president was unaware of the tea parties-" either they were lying or the President really was/is clueless. Pick one.

15. Choosing purebred dog, "Bo" for the White House family's "first dog" instead of adopting a dog from a shelter like Obama promised.

16. False: "More than 90% of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States." -President Obama

17. Bragging about his tax cut for 95% of Americans and not realizing (or conveniently not addressing) the fact that if it's funded with deficits and debt, it isn't really a tax cut because taxpayers will have to pay off the debt eventually (with interest) and the tax cut is offset by the rising prices of inflation.

Recently released and subsequently censored photographs of Mr. Obama making these claims and promises clearly reveal that he had his fingers crossed behind his back on each occasion. Therefore, the label of liar cannot apply.Come on America, can't you take a joke??
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Here are some more Obamanations for you to consider (regarding their truth level.)

1. During his campaign for the presidency and since, Obama repeatedly assured us that he would protect Medicare against cuts.

2. To obtain passage of his first stimulus bill, Obama assured us that 90% of the jobs created would be in the private sector; but as he well knew, most of them were to be in the public sector.

3. Obama gave primary voters a firm assurance that if he became the nominee of the Democratic party he would (unlike Hillary Clinton) abide by the campaign finance limits of public funding; but as soon as he became the party’s nominee, he reneged on that pledge.

4. Obama criticized the size of George Bush’s deficit and promised to stop deficit spending if elected; but he has already quadrupled the size of the deficit he objected to and recklessly continues new federal spending in the trillions.

5. When campaigning Obama criticized bills before the congress that were too long for anyone to be able to read and promised to stop that; but the bills he has been backing throughout his first year are far longer (2000+ pages) than the ones he criticized.

6. Obama assured a joint session of Congress that the health bill he supported (pre-Stupak) would not provide public funding for abortions; but bitter resistance on the part of House Democrats to inclusion of language to that effect soon proved that it did.

7. Candidate Obama promised bipartisanship and an end to partisan bickering; but in a display of especially ruthless partisanship his allies have shut Republicans out of all key meetings on his health care initiative, with the unprecedented result that domestic legislation of historic importance garnered not a single Republican vote in the Senate.

8. Candidate Obama criticized his opponent’s plan to tax employer paid healthcare benefits, and promised he would not tax them.

9. Obama promised that his cap and trade legislation will create jobs; but its massive tax increases will certainly hobble the economy and destroy jobs, while green jobs in significant numbers can at best be hoped for, but never promised.

10. Obama has just as often assured the public that under his health plan everyone will be able to keep their current doctor; but many are certain to lose their doctors when ObamaCare’s large cuts in Medicare funding induce more doctors to withdraw from Medicare coverage.

11. Obama claimed that Caterpillar’s CEO had told him that Caterpillar would begin hiring again as a result of the stimulus bill; but that individual immediately announced that he had said no such thing, and that Caterpillar would in fact be laying off more workers.

12. Candidate Obama promised that Guantanamo would be closed by January 1, 2010; but it is still open.

13. Candidate Obama promised that his administration (unlike his predecessor’s) would be so transparent that TV cameras (C-Span) would be there for key deliberations; but an unprecedented level of secrecy prevailed in the final stages of the healthcare bill scamming and ramming. Requests for Obama to honor the promise of C-Span cameras were ignored.

14. Candidate Obama claimed that violent radical Bill Ayers was just another guy in his neighborhood; but the record shows that the two had worked closely together.

15. Obama assured us that his health plan would never ration care, or “pull the plug” on grandma; but the legislation he backed sets up panels to make crucial decisions on when to withhold care, and it makes such deep cuts in Medicare that rationing is inevitable.

This is an extraordinary record of serial mendacity. One or two instances might charitably be regarded as rash promises later regretted, or as the wishful thinking of someone who had not thought through the implications of what he was saying. But when it happens again and again....

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I have started to receive bills from my recent knee surgery.

The explanation of benefits is interesting.How anyone thinks care given will be the same or better is hard to grasp.

My pre-op office visit,with blood tests etc totaled 250.75. The clinic is only allowed 126.77

Laboratory work was 119.00,clinic can only charge 15.42

Cardiovascular (ekg) was 38.50,clinic can only charge 1957

I don't have the surgeons bill as yet but am anxious to see it.

This is quite a reduction Dr's take to care for medicare patients.

With Obama reducing medicare by a hefty 500 billion and Dr's will be accepting less it will not take long before the quality of care or even the availability of medical care?

Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It's not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument, or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make, period ... ... Wish more people would realize this.

Quotes by Susan Gottesman

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