It’s been a bad week for Obamacare and the bad news has come in threes:  1) We have learned that people will not be able to keep their insurance if they like it, 2) Obamacare is going to cost more than Obama said it would and 3) Companies are planning to lay people off and cancel expansion to cover the costs of Obamacare.  Let’s take them one at a time.

Losing Their Insurance

We remember when our Community-Organizer-In-Chief said:

“If somebody has insurance that they like, they should be able to keep that insurance.”

Conservatives knew this was a lie when Obama said it but gullible people bought it and sure enough this albatross called the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was forced through Congress and is now the law of the land. 

Why do I say Obama was lying?  Instead of telling you what conservatives suspected, let’s look at what the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) stated in their report they issued yesterday on the ACA (emphasis mine): 

“CBO and JCT now estimate that, because of the ACA, about 3 million to 5 million fewer people, on net, will obtain coverage through their employer each year from 2019 through 2022 than would have been the case under prior law.4 (That estimate is reflected in CBO’s latest baseline projections.) That projected change in the number of people with employment-based insurance is the net result of several shifts in coverage, which can be illustrated using the estimates for 2019. For that year, CBO and JCT estimate a net decline of 5 million in the number of people obtaining coverage through their employer, as a result of the following changes: 

“About 11 million people who would have had an offer of employment-based coverage under prior law will not have an offer under the ACA. That estimate represents about 7 percent of the roughly 161 million people projected to have employment-based coverage under prior law.5 The businesses that choose not to offer coverage as a result of the ACA will tend to be smaller employers and employers with predominantly lower-wage workers; those workers and their families are more likely to be eligible for Medicaid, CHIP, or subsidies through the health insurance exchanges.”

3 to 5 million people who might like their insurance will one day come to a stark realization that they have been dropped and the only choice is to pay for an individual policy (expensive) or join the government plan (Obamacare).  This is exactly what I knew would happen – Many smaller companies would just drop coverage for their employees versus having to answer to some Health and Human Services (HHS) bureaucrat whose sole purpose is to make sure the company is providing a vaguely defined ‘qualified health plan’ to its employees.   

Go look at the ACA and do a search on ‘qualified health plan’ and it will scare you.  From the ACA, here is the definition:

“SEC. 1301 o42 U.S.C. 18021.. QUALIFIED HEALTH PLAN DEFINED.

(a) QUALIFIED HEALTH PLAN.—In this title:

(1) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘qualified health plan’’ means

a health plan that—

(A) has in effect a certification (which may include a

seal or other indication of approval) that such plan meets

the criteria for certification described in section 1311(c)

issued or recognized by each Exchange through which such

plan is offered;

(B) provides the essential health benefits package described

in section 1302(a); and

(C) is offered by a health insurance issuer that—

(i) is licensed and in good standing to offer health

insurance coverage in each State in which such issuer

offers health insurance coverage under this title;

(ii) agrees to offer at least one qualified health

plan in the silver level and at least one plan in the

gold level in each such Exchange;

(iii) agrees to charge the same premium rate for

each qualified health plan of the issuer without regard

to whether the plan is offered through an Exchange or

whether the plan is offered directly from the issuer or

through an agent; and

(iv) complies with the regulations developed by

the Secretary under section 1311(d) and such other requirements

as an applicable Exchange may establish.”

This definition is rather vague and references many other sections of the ACA but I’ll take a look at one of these in a little more detail.  A ‘qualified health plan’ must meet the requirements in section 1311 (c) and here is a portion of this section (emphasis mine and you can stop reading after that if you choose):

“(c) RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE SECRETARY.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall, by regulation, establish

criteria for the certification of health plans as qualified

health plans. Such criteria shall require that, to be certified,

a plan shall, at a minimum—

(A) meet marketing requirements, and not employ

marketing practices or benefit designs that have the effect

of discouraging the enrollment in such plan by individuals

with significant health needs;

(B) ensure a sufficient choice of providers (in a manner

consistent with applicable network adequacy provisions

under section 2702(c) of the Public Health Service Act),

and provide information to enrollees and prospective enrollees

on the availability of in-network and out-of-network

providers;

(C) include within health insurance plan networks

those essential community providers, where available, that

serve predominately low-income, medically-underserved in-

dividuals, such as health care providers defined in section

340B(a)(4) of the Public Health Service Act and providers

described in section 1927(c)(1)(D)(i)(IV) of the Social Security

Act as set forth by section 221 of Public Law 111–8,

except that nothing in this subparagraph shall be construed

to require any health plan to provide coverage for

any specific medical procedure;

(D)(i) be accredited with respect to local performance

on clinical quality measures such as the Healthcare Effectiveness

Data and Information Set, patient experience ratings

on a standardized Consumer Assessment of

Healthcare Providers and Systems survey, as well as consumer

access, utilization management, quality assurance,

provider credentialing, complaints and appeals, network

adequacy and access, and patient information programs by

any entity recognized by the Secretary for the accreditation

of health insurance issuers or plans (so long as any

such entity has transparent and rigorous methodological

and scoring criteria); or

(ii) receive such accreditation within a period established

by an Exchange for such accreditation that is applicable

to all qualified health plans;

(E) implement a quality improvement strategy described

in subsection (g)(1);

(F) utilize a uniform enrollment form that qualified individuals

and qualified employers may use (either electronically

or on paper) in enrolling in qualified health

plans offered through such Exchange, and that takes into

account criteria that the National Association of Insurance

Commissioners develops and submits to the Secretary;

(G) utilize the standard format established for presenting

health benefits plan options;

(H) provide information to enrollees and prospective

enrollees, and to each Exchange in which the plan is offered,

on any quality measures for health plan performance

endorsed under section 399JJ of the Public Health

Service Act, as applicable; and

(I) report to the Secretary at least annually and in

such manner as the Secretary shall require, pediatric quality

reporting measures consistent with the pediatric quality

reporting measures established under section 1139A of

the Social Security Act. oAs added by section 10203(a).”

So the definition of a ‘qualified health plan’ is basically at the discretion of the Secretary of HHS.  What could go wrong with that?!?!  This places too much power in the hands of one person, expands the role of government in our lives and is one of the main reasons I was against the ACA.  It’s no wonder the CBO predicts companies will be compelled to stop providing insurance plans to their employees so they can avoid this new regulation nightmare.  

Obamacare Is Going To Cost More Than Was Advertised

We remember on 09-SEP-09 our President made this claim about Obamacare:

“Now, add it all up, and the plan I’m proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years”

According to the CBO report the final cost of Obamacare will be $1.76 trillion over 10 years and that is a difference of $860 billion from what Obama stated in 2009.  This is mere chump change to a Socialist but to the rest of us this is either a gross lie or a failure to fully understand the problem.  It’s probably both and something tells me that the actual costs of Obamacare will be even higher than this recent CBO estimate.  God help us.

Medical Device Companies Cutting Back

We remember that Medical Device companies refused to back the ACA and they were punished by having a 2.3% device excise tax levied on them once Obamacare was finalized.  This amounts to $650 million dollars annually according to a recent study so this is not an insignificant amount of money.

How will these companies compensate for this new tax?  Massdevice show us here:

“Massachusetts medical device executives forecast job losses and budget-cutting for research & development efforts, as the industry nears the launch date of a 2.3% medical device excise tax.”

“Half of the 42 senior executives surveyed in the Bay State said they would slash R&D budgets and 25% said they would cut jobs at home and outsource manufacturing to lower-cost areas.”

“We warned 2 years ago that medical device companies would be forced to deal with this tax by preparing for job cuts and reductions in R&D spending,” MassMEDIC president Tom Sommer said in prepared remarks. “The U.S. leads the world in developing and manufacturing medical products, it doesn’t make sense that on 1 hand the government is promoting exports and manufacturing jobs, while on the other hand it is implementing policies that will cut jobs in this sector and harm its competitive advantage – the development of innovative medical technologies.”

“The MassMEDIC survey isn’t the 1st to issue an ominous forecast for the tax, which Cook Group chairman Stephen Ferguson called “a bad idea that will only get worse with time.”

“Cook blames the tax for its decision to put the kaibosh on plans to build 1 new U.S. factory a year in the U.S.; and orthopedic giants Zimmer Holdings (NYSE:ZMH) and Stryker Corp. (NYSE:SYK) have both announced layoffs directly tied to the expected cost of the revenue tax.”

“A February survey of 180 device industry executives found that more than half planned to increase prices for their products in order to fully or partially offset the effects of the tax, according to Emergo Group.”

It’s been a bad week for Obamacare but it pales in comparison to the pain that all Americans will experience if we don’t repeal this law.  If only we had a time traveler from the future to tell us of the impending doom that awaits us if we don’t repeal and replace this law.  Oh, wait.  We do and they are located here and here.