Leading actuarial firm: health care premiums to rise up to 85% thanks to resurgence of deadly Bubonic Plague and Obamacare but mostly Obamacare

Milliman is one of the world's leading actuarial firms. One of its specialties is helping insurers appropriately and competitively price their products. And its latest report on the effects of Obamacare on health insurance premiums is decidedly problematic for "the middle class". And the rich. And, of course, the poor. That is, all Americans, irrespective of class, religion, race, creed or other arbitrary segments Democrats use to divide us.

The report, conducted by Milliman, Inc., projects the impacts of the federal health care reform law starting in 2014, when most of the law's provisions go into effect. The report shows significant changes that will increase premiums while expanding government programs.

Specifically, Milliman's report projects that individual premiums in Ohio could increase by as much as 55 to 85% in 2014, not including the current medical trend which has been an average increase of 7 to 8% nationwide each year. Moreover, some individuals may see their premiums increase by 90 to 130% depending on their current health status...

...In addition to significant changes to premium rates, more than one million Ohioans are expected to join the State's Medicaid rolls in 2014 and more than 500,000 are expected to join the government-subsidized individual exchange. Consequently, as many as half of all Ohioans could be enrolled in some type of government-subsidized health coverage, including Medicare, when the law is fully implemented.

...[Worse still,] small businesses offering health insurance to their employees will see their premiums increase 5% to 15% in 2014 with the Health Insurance Tax (HIT)... The HIT is part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and will be levied on health insurance companies that operate in the fully-insured marketplace, where nearly all small businesses purchase their premiums. It will reduce take-home pay for the average employee with a family plan by $500 every year over the next decade, impacting the 12 million employees and self-employed who purchase insurance in the individual market and the 26 million employees who are covered by their employer.

I could have imagined it, but didn't the president promise that -- when Obamacare passed -- our health insurance premiums would immediately drop by an average of $2,500 a year?

Or was that only for union bosses?

Neurosurgeon reports back on HHS meeting: yep, there are death panels that will prevent us from treating the elderly

The indispensable Right Scoop:

Tonight, a brain surgeon [Ed: vetted by Levin's staff] called into Mark Levin's radio show and said that he had just recently visited Washington DC to review Obama’s new health care plan for advanced neurosurgical care for patients over 70 years old, issued by HHS. The plan, that included "ethics panels", stated that if you are over 70 years old and on government supported healthcare and you visited an emergency room, you get “comfort care” [Ed: that is, no aggressive treatment].

Caller: Basically what the document stated was that if you were over 70 and you’d come into an emergency room and you’re on government supported health care, that you’d get “comfort care”.

Mark Levin: Wait a minute... what’s the source for this?

Caller: This is Obama’s new health care plan for advanced neurosurgical care.

Mark Levin: And who issued this? HHS?

Caller: Yes. And basically they don’t call them patients, they call them units. And instead of, they call it “ethics panels” or “ethics committees”, would get together and meet and decide where the money would go for hospitals, and basically for patients over 70 years of age, that advanced neurosurgical care was not generally indicated.

Mark Levin: So it’s generally going to be denied?

Caller: Yes, absolutely... If someone comes in at 70 years of age with a bleed in their brain, I can promise you I’m not going to get a bunch of administrators together on an ethics panel at 2 in the morning to decide that I’m OK to do surgery.

The ludicrous "Politifact" website hardest hit.

Obamacare Architect Jonathan Gruber Fears Supremes Could Rely Upon Constitution, Other Old Documents In Voiding Health Care Law

I've dispensed with my usual blockquote style to interject responses more rapidly because... the stupid, it burns:

Jonathan Gruber, a key intellectual architect of President Obama's overhaul of the American health care system, is a little frustrated... "I'm frustrated that the future of the American health care system rests in the hands of one or two of these unelected people who might make the decision based on political grounds..." a few hours after the Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari to hear challenges to the Affordable Care Act. "It's very disturbing."

Gruber wasn't disturbed by other rulings, however, that upheld left-wing positions like the Constitutional right to an abortion and the Constitutional right to collect welfare.

The court consolidated several different challenges and will hear a host of issues related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which became law in March 2010, granting a full five-and-a-half hours for oral argument. But the central question is whether Congress can require people to buy health insurance, and, if not, whether that mandate can be severed from the rest of the bill.

Yes, because the Constitution can be interpreted to allow a massive, authoritarian, centralized government to force people to buy health care insurance, to buy certain kinds of clothing, to buy certain kinds of housing, and to buy only approved food items. After all, food, housing and clothing are as essential to human beings as heath care (if not more crucial), which means the government can compel you to buy those products.

Those sections are right next to the Abortion Clause of the Constitution.

Gruber, whose ideas also made up the landmark overhaul of health care in Massachusetts that was overseen by then-governor Mitt Romney, thinks that the Obama health care package would still be better than nothing if the mandate were removed, but said that it wouldn't be nearly as effective... Without the mandate, Gruber said, the bill would only cover a third to half as many people, and that premiums go up 20 to 30 percent.

What a schmuck. The European social welfare states -- with cradle-to-grave "free" health care and outrageous pension programs -- are collapsing as we speak. And Gruber thinks that the individual mandate will help drive down costs.

"Look, if this succeeds, then Obama becomes F.D.R. This is the most important social policy accomplishment since the 1960s. And if this succeeds, this could be the kind of benefit to the Democratic Party that Social Security was..."

Would that be the same program of which its trustees -- including Timmy Geither, Hilda Solis, and Kathleen Sebelius -- wrote, "Projected long-run program costs for both Medicare and Social Security are not sustainable under currently scheduled financing, and will require legislative corrections if disruptive consequences for beneficiaries and taxpayers are to be avoided"?

And yet Gruber evangelizes for still more deficits as the economy teeters on the brink of utter and complete collapse. He screeches for more debt as Democrats fight the reform of Social Security and Medicare, which -- according to their own experts -- are poised to implode in just a few years' time. He cries to borrow more money as Democrats have already saddled our children and grandchildren with debts that simply can't be repaid.

There's a special place in Hell for the likes of Gruber, who represents nothing less than an enemy of civilization. For he is helping to shred the most magnificent society ever created on the face of the Earth; and he does so in order to construct some sort of sick monument to Soviet-style central planning, which can't succeed and has never succeeded in all of human history.

"If you like your health care plan, you can keep it (except for 4.5 million of you gullible schmucks)"

I wonder how many of these folks were among the saps who voted for Obama?

Throughout the Obamacare debate, President Obama repeatedly promised, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” Now, Gallup reports that from the first quarter of 2010 (when Obama signed Obamacare into law) to the third quarter of this year, 2 percent of American adults lost their employer sponsored health insurance. In other words, about 4.5 million Americans lost their employer-sponsored insurance over a span of just 18 months...

what’s clear is that, more than 25 months before Obamacare would really go into effect — if it’s not repealed first — employers are already dropping employees from their insurance rolls.

Take Walmart, for example — a prominent Obamacare supporter. Gallup writes,

“The nation's largest private employer, Wal-Mart, announced in October that new part-time employees who work less than an average of 24 hours a week would no longer be able to get their health insurance from the company. Wal-Mart laid out several other cuts to its health insurance offerings, including some workers’ ability get coverage for their spouses. Other companies have already made and will likely continue to make similar changes to their health insurance benefits….

“If Wal-Mart's decision is a precursor of how employers intend to manage their healthcare costs, the downward trend in employer-based healthcare will likely continue.”

So in addition to costing about $2.5 trillion over its real first decade (2014 to 2023), looting nearly $1 trillion from Medicare over that time (according to the CBO), forcing Americans to buy government-approved health insurance under penalty of law, and amassing unprecedented power and money in Washington at the expense of Americans’ liberty — if Obamacare stays on the books, you may like your health care plan, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you can keep your health care plan...

Jeffrey Anderson concludes: "It's time to repeal Obamacare."

And he's right. But we had better nominate a Constitutional Conservative to battle Obama, for the RINOs and big-government, establishment types like Mitt Romney haven't demonstrated they have the stones for this fight.

Holder Justice Department on Both Sides of Obamacare's Tax Status

Well, this figures:

In anticipation of the Supreme Court choosing to hear the suits filed against the federal health care reform law, referred to by critics often as “ObamaCare”, the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice is pointing to issues they think the justices should address. Although the administration is alleging the penalty for running afoul of the law’s individual mandate should not be considered a tax, they have previously argued the penalty is a tax...

...This seemingly contradictory stance raises a significant issue …   Read more here and here.

I'm so surprised that a 2,200-page bill that no one read could cause this much confusion.

Great news, New Yorkers: if you think Medicaid is 'breaking the bank' now, just wait 'til Obamacare kicks in!

Democrat drones hardest hit:

...New York’s Medicaid program has ballooned into America’s most expensive, and its runaway costs are pushing many localities to the brink of fiscal insolvency. Without question, we need real solutions to reform New York’s Medicaid program, reduce costs, increase efficiency and save taxpayer dollars.

...Medicaid is jointly funded through federal and state government, with the federal financing share constituting approximately 50 percent. In New York, state and local governments share in the program’s cost. The state share is approximately 35 percent; the local share amounts to roughly 15 percent. However, even though localities shoulder a significant portion of Medicaid’s hefty price tag, they have virtually no say in how the program is administered...

Since the program was launched, New York’s Medicaid costs have steadily risen to the highest in America. Medicaid spending in New York is now 69 percent more per beneficiary than the national average. This is why Medicaid was cited by the New York State Association of Counties as the largest of nine state unfunded mandates that consume 90 percent of county budgets and contributes to our having America’s second highest combined state-local tax burden. New York’s Medicaid expenditures have soared due to several factors including our state’s above average share of elderly and disabled residents, higher costs for healthcare practitioners and excessive compliance costs caused by state regulations.

Another reason for our state’s nation-leading Medicaid expenditures is New York’s generous income eligibility levels and extensive optional services, which other states do not provide. All of this contributes to the hefty Medicaid costs state government imposes on localities.

Just how out of control is New York’s Medicaid spending? New York spends more than Texas and Florida combined, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The combined population of Texas and Florida is 43,948,871, while New York’s population is over 19 million, meaning we spend more than Texas and Florida together, even though we have nearly 24 million less residents!

Well, New York drones Democrats: your state's finances have only just begun to bleed, thanks to your politicians' reckless support of Obamacare.

According to a recent study by Ed Haislmaier of the Heritage Foundation, the rolls of beneficiaries and the costs of Medicaid continue to rise, bringing state budgets to the point of crisis. Thanks to Obamacare, this process has been accelerated.

Under Obamacare, Medicare and Medicaid can be expected to add 35-40 million enrollees in the next ten years, with cost projections amounting to a 35 percent increase of the current state burden of $190 billion. States will face massive cost-sharing increases...

State budgets are already at the breaking point. Thanks to Obamacare, we will soon see the structural collapse of Medicaid. Doctors, nurses and health care providers will disappear or simply stop treating Medicaid patients to survive.

And rationing of health care services will become a deadly reality.

Health care premiums to leap as much as 85% in Ohio; HHS response: spend $100MM investigating insurers

In states like Ohio -- "the heart of it all", if its license plate is to be believed -- health care premiums are slated to leap by as much as eighty-freaking-five percent:

At the request of the Ohio Department of Insurance, benefit consultants Milliman, Inc. prepared an estimate of the impact on coverage and rates of ObamaCare when major provisions take effect in 2014... 660,000 are forecast to lose their group coverage from employers... The percentage of all covered with some type of government coverage is forecast to increase to 31% from 20% in 2010.

Although the percentage of residents with coverage could rise by about 7.9%, the price of individual health insurance coverage might rise about 55% to 85%, excluding the impact of medical inflation, the Milliman consultants predict.

Just in time to combat the negative publicity, our beloved Department of Health and Human Services has cut checks worth $109 million (thankfully, only one-fifth of what the feds spent on Solyndra) to help states "fight unreasonable premium increases and protect consumers."

As of Sept. 1, the Affordable Care Act requires health insurers seeking rate hikes of 10% or more in the individual and small group market to submit their request to experts to determine whether the rates are unreasonable... ACA also requires insurance companies to publicly justify unreasonable premium rate increases...

...Another provision of ACA requires health insurers to spend at least 80% of premium dollars on healthcare and quality-improvement activities as opposed to overhead, advertising, and executive bonuses. If they don't they must reduce premiums or pay rebates to consumers and employers.... Also in 2014, insurance exchanges created by ACA supposedly will use competition and transparency, including information on unjustified premium increases, to help make insurance more affordable, HHS said.

I can save them some money. The root cause of these massive premium increases is a bunch of Statist, totalitarian masterminds trying to centrally plan a full one-sixth of the economy.

This is akin to the task of the Soviet Politburo, circa the sixties, announcing yet another successful wheat-growing season when, in fact, a large portion of the population was starving to death.

• When they said, "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it" -- they lied.

• When they said, "On average, families will see their health care premiums drop by $2,500 a year" -- they lied.

• When they said, "My health care plan will be one of the greatest job-creating programs ever" -- they lied.

Everyone rational citizen -- which excludes you drones and other irregular Americans -- knew the Democrats were lying and said so at the time.

Central planning can't work, won't work and, in fact, has never worked in all of world history. That is why we need a GOP candidate with the backbone and drive to repeal Obamacare, soup to nuts. And a personal aside: Mitt Romney doesn't strike me as that person.


Related: Good news: 83% of Obamacare Grants Awarded to Local Health Centers In States That Supported Obama in 2008