Trump administration proposes stricter Obamacare rules

Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini on Wednesday said during a Wall Street Journal forum that the Obamacare exchanges had entered a “death spiral” in which rising premiums pushed out the healthiest customers, which in turn raises rates.

Who have been rising the premiums to maximize profits?

The whole plan for forcing everyone to get an insurance was to cover the sick ones but healthy people didn't want to pay (who wants to pay for something they don't need, yet). Both left and right would welcome being covered once they are sick and insurance companies had no other choice than accept them.

The health business is sick itself...

Sorry, I have been away for a few weeks. Surely President Trump abolished Obamacare on day one of his presidency, so this article about reforming and improving the system must be incorrect or, perhaps, fake?

How about creating a government healthcare program and eliminating the insurance companies from the equation? All the insurance companies mentioned in this article made billions in profits for 2017, so they won't have to complain about any losses due to Obamacare.

The system was really messed up before the Affordable Care Act and is really messed up now (Humana is the next insurance company to be pulling out altogether). I admire the fact that the ACA tried to fix the system, however it backfired in many respects and alot of promises made (you can keep your health plan, you can keep your doctor, it would cost $2,500 less per year) did not come to fruition.

In the end I still favor a single payer system as exists in Japan. It seems to work (it is not perfect) and costs are reasonable and the way it is paid for (payroll taxes which are progressively based) is fair. As a business owner I am quite OK with paying 1/2 and each employee paying 1/2.

The one issue I do have however with the U.S. government is they have a demonstrated history of raiding funds (such as Social Security) for money to use for things the money was not originally intended for.

The cheap and brillant replacement plan should be coming any day now.

The Republican party is insane.

So the poorest people, those least likely to be healthy are the ones losing out on this because they want healthy customers only? So what's the incentive for the least well-off people to take out medical insurance? This is where the US medical system seems geared towards profit and not health... Just take a small percentage from everyone's wages as a health tax, create a healthcare system funded by this tax and allow free medical care, with only the top earners needing to pay. Everyone's happy and people will never need to worry about having to see their doctor or have an operation, etc...

What's wrong with that?

Simply put, as long as healthcare in the US is a "for profit" model instead of a non-profit "Keep your citizens healthy" model, it's only going to get worse. But a nationalized healthcare system that forces the system into a truly non-profit model is deemed too socialist. Even though it would be more efficient, everyone would get coverage, the money people can't afford to pay rising "for profit" costs would probably pay quite a bit less reallocating those funds to a nationalized healthcare tax. But it's not going to happen as long as people have to make cash off the healthcare system.

TheFu - from your comment I gather that you've done pretty well for yourself, having enough money to invest in stocks and all that - good on you.

You say that 'we' in the US are against larger govt and overreaching by the Feds for anything not specifically in the constitution - let me note that the US constitution was signed in 1787, a time when no country in the world was thinking about Universal Healthcare. Just to put things into perspective, the NHS was formed in 1948, 150 years after the constitution was signed.

If the constitution had never been amended, only white men over the age of 21 would be allowed to vote today. These articles were wisely amended, as they should have been.

Most of the doctors and and people in the medical field that I speak to support Universal Healthcare. They don't equate dinners with saving people's lives.

So instead of repealing, the plan is to increase??

I have been enrolled in Humana for many years. I am old so often I goof when I rush to walk. Recently, I slippe on a building floor and my doctor assigned me to physio therapy for at least six sessions and Humana paid all. But I have to be careful from now Lon even Humana mailed me to assure no increment on'remium payment.

In USA, big Health Insure companies are advertising on TV explaining how their plans are Beneficial. Ad agencies must be very profitable. They use respectable nice older familiar faces. I think Alex Trave k makes a lot of money than his brainy game show.

paulinusa

How about creating a government healthcare program and eliminating the insurance companies from the equation? All the insurance companies mentioned in this article made billions in profits for 2017, so they won't have to complain about any losses due to Obamacare.

You seem to have a flawed view of the USA. We are against larger govt and overreaching by the Feds for anything not specifically in the Constitution as an explicit power of the feds. There isn't any mention of health care in the US constitution OR any amendments, therefore it is illegal for the feds to be involved.

Having a different opinion on whether this is a good idea or not is perfectly valid, but that is the stance of people who are against federal overreaching, like they have been doing for decades. It all began with forcing states to change their drinking ages by withholding high repair funding and it hasn't stopped.

Putting an entire industry out of work (health insurance) and reducing salaries for everyone in the direct health care business will have ramifications across the entire US economy. Any change has to be slow and carefully considered when millions of families will be directly impacted. The AMA (American Medical Association) will lobby with all their money against govt mandated price controls. The plastic surgery specialists alone will throw $50m against this - since their elective work would not be covered.

If your salary was being reduced 50%, wouldn't you be pissed and lobby against it? The more money you made, the more likely you would be to spend more and more for this lobby.

Hope that helps explain some of the reasoning for why this effort will fail and will continue to fail. It doesn't mean we shouldn't try, but how do we find a way that doesn't screw 12% of US families out of their livelihoods?

At least my stock investments are up 10% since President Trump got into office. That will help my family pay the 3x higher costs for the Unaffordable Care Act until it gets repealed. That more than offsets those costs, but nobody likes being overcharged for anything, right?

Should my dinner cost 3x more than someone elses for the rest of our lives due to a govt mandate?

As you know, Americans are extremely generous. Look at the records on every major disaster and how much individual Americans (forget the govt) give.

Just cleanse that bloody Obamacare as much as possible, it was sick!! If America is dedicated to be a socialist state...then I have nothing to say. But if the otherwise it must be thrown away as far as possible and make laws that any such idea shall never back to stage again if there is a Democrat President in the future. Mr President you being a successful enterpreneur should advise the people why Obamacare is a bad idea if you want : Make America great again!