Humana has already announced that they will no longer participate in Obamacare in 2018 and the CEO of Aetna recently stated that “they had not made the decision yet about 2018 ” If both of these very large ACA providers are not participating in 2018, that means that there will be a lot of areas that will not have the first insurance company to sell policies and competition in a lot of areas will be limited to just one provider… basically NO COMPETITION.
All Congress has to do is repeal/rescind the premium subsidies and the ACA will collapse under its own weight… when people are expected to pay the “full rack rate” for their health insurance premiums.
Insurance can’t even approach an “affordable level” unless all that expect/need coverage participate. Below is a table of per-cent of drivers that are uninsured per state.. from a low of 3.9% (Mass) to a high of 25.9% (OK). Every state has MANDATORY VEHICLE INSURANCE.
http://www.carinsurance.com/Articles/uninsured-motorist-coverage-state-averages-of-uninsured-drivers.aspx
Estimated percentage of uninsured motorists by state
State Uninsured Rank (2) State Uninsured Rank (2)
Alabama 19.6% 7 Montana 14.1% 15
Alaska 13.2 21 Nebraska 6.7 44
Arizona 10.6 29 Nevada 12.2 23
Arkansas 15.9 11 New Hampshire 9.3 34
California 14.7 13 New Jersey 10.3 30
Colorado 16.2 9 New Mexico 21.6 4
Connecticut 8.0 41 New York 5.3 49
Delaware 11.5 27 North Carolina 9.1 35
D.C. 11.9 24 North Dakota 5.9 47
Florida (3) 23.8 2 Ohio 13.5 17
Georgia 11.7 26 Oklahoma 25.9 1
Hawaii 8.9 37 Oregon 9.0 36
Idaho 6.7 45 Pennsylvania 6.5 46
Illinois 13.3 20 Rhode Island 17.0 8
Indiana 14.2 14 South Carolina 7.7 43
Iowa 9.7 32 South Dakota 7.8 42
Kansas 9.4 33 Tennessee 20.1 6
Kentucky 15.8 12 Texas 13.3 19
Louisiana 13.9 16 Utah 5.8 48
Maine 4.7 50 Vermont 8.5 39
Maryland 12.2 22 Virginia 10.1 31
Massachusetts3.9 51 Washington 16.1 10
Michigan 21.0 5 West Virginia 8.4 40
Minnesota 10.8 28 Wisconsin 11.7 25
Mississippi 22.9 3 Wyoming 8.7 38
Missouri 13.5 18
I would suspect that you will find similar numbers of people driving cars that don’t have a driver’s license.
It is estimated that the USA has a 1-2 TRILLION/yr underground economy and the income taxes evaded on that money… would close the annual deficit in the Federal budget… about 600 billion/yr
Congress has mandated that hospital have to treat/stabilize anyone walking thru their doors… seeking treatment. Also medical bills are the largest single reason for personal bankruptcies. Meaning that a lot of “small businesses” – doctors, pharmacies, hospitals end up “eating” those $$$ wiped clean with a person declaring bankruptcy.
Let’s approach this issue of providing healthcare in a business like manner.. even though Obamacare has abt 20 million people with coverage.. we still have abt 30 million that still doesn’t have any health insurance.
Lets start with a 5% sales tax very soon and beginning with 2018 let everyone enroll into Medicare in their birth month. Like most sales taxes… food, medication, rent, utilities will be exempt. Phase out Obamacare in the same manner. Everyone will have a deductible of maybe 5% of their gross income, and will pay 20% after the deductible. There will be no more prior authorizations, quantity limits, step therapy and the rest of the BS that insurance companies have put in place in order to “save the system money”,but has done more to establish their dictatorship over our healthcare and help “pad their bottom line”. Those currently on Medicaid or getting some sort of subsidy will continue to get some sort of subsidy.
The sales tax rate will be adjusted annually based on one year back actual cost per capita to provide healthcare to our citizens. No system will ever be perfect, but we need to strive to improve upon what we have failed to do to date. The transition will be neither painless nor transparent, but there are no quick fixes.
Filed under: General Problems
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