Replies to post #259309 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Trump: Obamacare health care premiums 'going up 35, 45, 55 percent'

By Linda Qiu on Sunday, October 25th, 2015 at 6:17 p.m.

[...]

On average, premiums have risen by about 5.8 percent a year since Obama took office, compared to 13.2 percent
in the nine years before Obama. Is it true that we’ll see insurance plans jacked up 35 to 55 percent in 2016?

We reached out to the Trump campaign but didn’t hear back. Experts we talked to and the data
show that while there are examples of premium increases that large, they’re not the norm.

[...]

Just 7 percent of all plans in the federal exchange had a proposed rate hike of 30 percent or higher, estimates Agile Health Insurance,
which bills itself as "an affordable alternative to Obamacare." That translates to average increases at far lower levels than what Trump said.

[...]

All the experts we spoke to warned us that there’s significant variation from plan to plan, from region
to region, and from insuree to insuree. That’s why neither Trump’s claim nor averages tell the whole story.

The disparity in rate increases are more likely adjustments insurers are making, rather than evidence that Obamacare is a "disaster," as Trump says.

After all, 2016 is the first year that insurers are looking at actual claims data instead of "essentially guessing at what their costs were,"
said Levitt of the Kaiser Foundation. "Some insurers guessed better than others, which leads to variations in premium changes."

[...]

Our ruling

Trump said, "People’s premiums … are going up 35, 45, 55 percent."

Some insurance plans in the federal exchange will see price hikes at the levels that Trump is suggesting. But he’s cherry-picking the high end
of premium changes to come. Estimates for the national average are far below Trump’s figures, ranging from 4.4 percent to 13 percent.

Trump’s claim is partially accurate but takes things out of context. We rate it Half True.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/oct/25/donald-trump/trump-obamacare-health-care-premiums-going-35-45-5/

[SilverSurfer]

fuagf, health care is a tricky subject since,,, it,,,has been transformed into a "right" in the minds of most affluent nations, including the USA. My main career was as a health insurance agent for 30 years and when the AFA hit the internet my father in law and I spent a day reading it. He was also in health care with a co. that provided software to state medicaids and hospitals. He read half and I read half ,, and we discussed. My first impression was the act was designed to fail. It would not work for very long and I expected the writers had a motivation for Obamacare to be a step stone to universal single payer coverage. I was right. So, we probably will go to some kind of U-Care. There is little resistance to the Federal Government here. The majority of repbubs are in the tank for BIG GOV... > follow the money. The press has completely laid like a ho for BIG GOV... and the people are either brain washed or money motivated to suck on BIG GOV.

As far as what I would do with health care or any other transaction. Hard to say at this point. If I could go back and re construct history, hey,, the world would be much better off, hahahahahaha,,,,see Bruce Almighty... but since that option is OUT,,, I will just agree with you and say -- WOW,,, can't wait for that Aussie Care to get here to the good'ol USA !!!!!! Especially since I don't go to doctor or take meds anyway... I just ask docs questions at dinner or in social situations.