October 28, 2016
Oct 28 01:23 MNsure's lost opportunity costs Oct 28 02:39 Indiana's part-time senator Oct 28 03:14 Throw the bums (Democrats) out! Oct 28 08:55 Obamacare's death spiral? Oct 28 13:55 FBI re-opens Hillary investigation Oct 28 16:03 Dayton, Nolan aren't leading on ACA
Prior Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
MNsure's lost opportunity costs
If anyone knows the definition of opportunity costs , it's economists and accountants. Opportunity costs are defined as "the money or other benefits lost when pursuing a particular course of action instead of a mutually-exclusive alternative." The opportunity costs of MNsure and the ACA, aka Obamacare, are staggering compared with what we could've had had Democrats not shut Republicans out of the process.
Whether we're talking about MNsure's skyrocketing health insurance premiums or the ACA's unaffordable deductibles or the shrinking networks of MNsure and the ACA, the opportunity costs are disgusting when compared with the system Minnesotans established years ago. The federal government should've moved in Minnesota's direction. Minnesota shouldn't have moved in President Obama's direction. The truth is that Minnesota's system wasn't broken. DFL politicians like Gov. Dayton, Sen. Franken, Sen. Klobuchar, then-House Speaker Thissen, State Sen. Bakk and Sen. Lourey treated it like it was dysfunctional.
Too often, the system currently in place is expensive. Prior to the ACA, and directly thanks to Minnesota's high-risk pool, known as MCHA, aka the Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association, 93% of Minnesotans were insured. Further, Minnesota's premiums were some of the lowest premiums in the nation. Finally, it's noteworthy that half of the people who weren't insured were eligible for taxpayer-subsidized health insurance. Had those people bought insurance, Minnesota's uninsured rate would've been 3.6% in 2007.
Instead, Gov. Dayton and the DFL became cheerleaders for the ACA, implementing it in 2013. Since then, health insurance premiums have skyrocketed, deductibles have went from being a little high to being prohibitively expensive. At this point, these deductibles make insurance too expensive to use. The system created by President Obama, Gov. Dayton, Sen. Klobuchar, Sen. Franken, State Sen. Bakk and Rep. Thissen is nearing a financial meltdown. Because of this crisis, Gov. Dayton has issued a proposal that's designed to win votes, not solve the health care crisis he helped create. Here's part of his fact sheet:
Why Provide Rebates for Healthcare Premiums?
- Any Minnesotan purchasing coverage on the individual market should first go to MNsure to confirm whether they are eligible for federal tax credits
- There are 123,000 Minnesotans expected to purchase health coverage on the individual market in 2017, who are not eligible for federal tax credits because of their income
- These individuals and families are unfairly shouldering the burden of the health insurers' 50 percent to 66 percent premium increases in 2017
That's insulting. These individuals are unfairly shouldering the burden that politicians created. The politicians created a system that was unsustainable. Republicans frequently predicted this outcome. Democrats frequently insisted that Republicans didn't know what they were talking about. In this instance, reality won. The Republicans' predictions were right.
What idiot couldn't predict that young healthy people making modest incomes wouldn't purchase expensive health insurance policies? It's the cost-effective decision to make. What idiot couldn't predict that people with pre-existing conditions wouldn't be the first to buy health insurance?
Another statement on Gov. Dayton's fact sheet says "Overall, the Governor's rebate reduces the 2017 rate increases from an average 55 percent increase to a 16 percent increase." Later in the fact sheet, it says "he one-time 25 percent health insurance premium rebate would be financed with the approximately $313 million which is scheduled to be added to the existing $1.9 billion Budget Reserves this December." In other words, President Obama, Gov. Dayton, Sen. Franken, Sen. Klobuchar, State Sen. Bakk and Rep. Thissen demolished a health care system that was working but Minnesotans are paying high taxes to pay for the DFL's disaster.
What's worse is that Gov. Dayton's plan doesn't fix anything. It's a stop-gap measure that won't fix all the things that are wrong with the ACA. Only Chairman Davids' plan does that.
The DFL doesn't fix problems. It only creates them, then complains when Republicans don't help them fix the messes the DFL created. A vote for a DFL legislator is a vote for more problems. A vote for a Republican legislator is a vote for solving problems or a vote for getting it right the first time. The choice is simple.
Posted Friday, October 28, 2016 1:23 AM
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Indiana's part-time senator
Democrats thought they had a sure thing when Sen. Evan Bayh decided to run for the Senate in Indiana. Guy Benson's Tip Sheet shows why politicians shouldn't count their victories before the votes confirm it. The truth is that Sen. Bayh cares more about being a fat-cat lobbyist than he cares about doing the work of a real senator.
Benson highlights how unserious Sen. Bayh was about his most important responsibilities. Bayh has only himself to blame for his difficulties. In his tip sheet, Benson highlights the fact that "Although initially seen as a likely pickup, his campaign in recent weeks has been dogged by questions about his seriousness after leaked copies of his schedule as a senator appear to show he spent more time fundraising, traveling at taxpayer expense and potentially job hunting than being focused on his job in the Senate...the ambitious senator rarely showed up to hearings of the committee, particularly in the run up to the March 20, 2003, invasion of Iraq. According to attendance data on the committee's website, Bayh only attended five of the 24 hearings Armed Services held between Jan. 1, 2003, and April 9, 2003 , the day Hussein's statue was toppled in Baghdad."
Bayh 'retired' in 2010 rather than getting defeated. He was headed for defeat because he'd voted for the ACA. He's still got that problem. Unfortunately for him, he's now got this new problem to deal with. It's one thing to miss a handful of meetings. Scheduling conflicts happen. It's another thing to miss that many important meetings in that short of a period of time.
After seeing how many meetings of the Senate Armed Services Committee he missed, I won't hesitate in questioning Sen. Bayh's patriotism. Patriotism's definition is " devoted love , support, and defense of one's country; national loyalty." It's difficult to argue that Bayh displayed "devoted love" when he missed that many important meetings of the Armed Services Committee.
Why shouldn't Hoosier voters question whether he'll take his job seriously this time? The better option is to just elect Todd Young.
Posted Friday, October 28, 2016 2:39 AM
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Throw the bums (Democrats) out!
After reading Mary Katherine Ham's article , I'm more furious than ever that there's a politician left that voted for the so-called Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. It's nothing of the sort. The people that inflicted this torture on Americans are in-American. They aren't patriots.
For those like me, take your blood pressure medication before reading this. You'll thank me later.
Mary Katherine writes "Like many other Americans, I got a letter last week. This letter is becoming an annual tradition, arriving on my doorstep in October to inform me of my Obamacare insurance premium hike. Last year, the letter said my Bronze plan, purchased on the marketplace formed by the, ahem, Affordable Care Act, would increase by almost 60 percent. This year, my premium is going up 96 percent. Ninety-six percent. My monthly payment, which was the amount of a decent car payment, is now the size of a moderate mortgage. The president refers to these for thousands of citizens as "a few bugs" when to us it feels like a flameout."
Frankly, I'm more than a little disgusted with politicians that care more about preserving their legacy than they are with doing the right thing for the American people. People that spin the facts to preserve their legacy are disgusting people. They aren't patriots. But I digress. Unfortunately, that's before finding this out:
For this astronomical payment, I get a plan with an astronomical deductible that my healthy family of three will likely never hit except in the most catastrophic of circumstances.
President Obama, how can a moral person justify their support for legislation that hurts middle class families like Mary Katherine's? Answer: They can't if they've got a conscience. Apparently, you don't have a conscience. Then again, that isn't really news to anyone who's paid attention to President Obama.
This is both infuriating and heartbreaking:
My individual deductible is more than two times the high deductible on my old "junk" plan. My family's deductible is ten times what the IRS defines as a high deductible. I now pay a high premium for a high-deductible plan, while also paying co-pays and out-of-pocket costs, meaning my plan is both junkier and more expensive.
This isn't a time for tinkering around the edges of this God-forsaken legislation. This isn't a time to spin this legislation as having some problems but lots of positive things. In totality, it's the worst legislation enacted into law. It's immoral, too.
Mary Katherine's pre-Obamacare plan fit her families' needs perfectly. She did the right thing for her family. Once the ACA was signed into law, though, the Obama administration eliminated her options and raised Mary Katherine's prices. There's nothing justifiable about that.
Posted Friday, October 28, 2016 3:14 AM
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Obamacare's death spiral?
Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute is recognized as a health care industry expert. Tanner's latest article on the ACA delivers a detailed explanation of why the ACA is collapsing. Tanner's article starts by saying "Listen closely. That's the sound of a health-care plan dying. With the announcement this week of massive premium hikes for health insurance purchased through exchanges, it has become impossible to pretend that the Affordable Care Act is itself healthy."
Here in Minnesota, Gov. Dayton punctured that image by admitting that "the Affordable Care Act isn't for increasing numbers of Minnesotans." Then he apologized for making that statement. The bad news for the DFL is that he apologized to DFL politicians for making their lives a living hell. The minute people heard about the big premium increases, they started peppering DFL legislative candidates with questions about MNsure. But I digress.
According to Tanner, the crisis is already manifesting itself in troubling ways. Further into the article, Tanner wrote "The average deductible for a family with a Silver plan now exceeds $6,400. Total out-of-pocket costs can exceed $12,000. This is on top of rapidly shrinking provider networks that make it increasingly difficult to keep your doctor. As Bill Clinton famously said, 'People are paying twice as much and getting half the coverage.'"
Then Tanner tauntingly says "But at least the ACA is doing away with that whole pesky choosing-your-insurer headache. Increasingly, insurance companies are dropping out of the exchanges altogether. Fully one-third of US counties now have just one insurer participating." Actually, it's worse than that. The county I live in is one of 5 counties in Central Minnesota where Blue Plus is only available for government-run programs. Blue Plus is the only insurance company that isn't capped this year.
What happens when the other major health insurance companies reach their caps? Experts are predicting that they'll do that fairly quickly once open enrollment starts. What are the families in those counties supposed to do when that happens? The Dayton administration has admitted that they don't have an answer to that situation.
This is coming true:
All of this was entirely predictable. The ACA prohibits insurers from denying coverage to people who are already, or likely to become, sick. Nor can insurers charge those sick people more.
The 'cure' for this should've been establishing a high-risk pool. That's what Minnesota did ... in the 1970s. That kept the healthy patients' prices fairly stable. People with pre-existing conditions using the high-risk pool get a subsidized health insurance policy. Because young healthy people aren't getting charged high premiums, they're more apt to buy health insurance. Also, the ability to pick out a plan that they like makes them most likely to buy insurance.
The White House's only option is to lie about the rate increases:
Posted Friday, October 28, 2016 8:55 AM
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FBI re-opens Hillary investigation
James Comey has notified the appropriate committees that he's re-opening his investigation into Hillary Clinton . According to the article, "FBI Director James Comey wrote in a letter to top members of Congress Friday that the bureau has 'learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation.'"
The letter was sent to Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, as well as ranking members of those committees. Rep. Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Robert Goodlatte, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and Sen. Charles Grassley, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also were sent this letter.
The key part of Director Comey's letter is the second paragraph, which says "In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation. I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday and I agreed that the FBI should take proper investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether these emails contain classified information, as well as assess their importance to our investigation."
Here's the text of Director Comey's letter:
As much as I'd like to see the FBI recommend Hillary for prosecution, I'm still skeptical that's what will happen. First, it's virtually impossible for me to picture the FBI doing the right thing. Let's be honest, too. There's verified proof that Hillary sent classified information via her private server. Regardless of what happens with the investigation, this will have an impact on down-ticket races. Here's a copy of the letter Marco Rubio just sent Patrick Murphy, his challenger:
Posted Friday, October 28, 2016 1:55 PM
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Dayton, Nolan aren't leading on ACA
Based on this MinnPost article , it's safe to say that Rick Nolan isn't providing any leadership in fixing the MNsure/ACA disaster. In a statement to MinnPost, Nolan said "Overturning the Affordable Care Act without ensuring that children can stay on their parents' insurance until the age of 26, without guaranteeing that those without preexisting conditions will have access to care, or without ensuring that women do not pay more for health insurance than men would be a step backward for the American people."
Here's a few things worth noting. First, 26-year-olds aren't children. They're adults. They shouldn't be treated like irresponsible children even if that's what they act like. Next, Minnesota's re-insurance plan was functioning smoothly in insuring people with pre-existing conditions. Eliminating that statute was a setback for Minnesotans. Rather than experimenting with another untested scheme, Democrats should return to a plan that was functioning smoothly. That would be a step in the right direction.
This is typical DFL spin:
Nolan is typically a reliable defender of Obamacare, and supports an expanded federal government role in increasing access to health care. He was quoted on Wednesday, however, by Tom Coombe of the Ely Echo saying that while the ACA did a lot of good things, "what it didn't do was get costs and premiums under control."
Saying that the ACA did lots of good things but that "what it didn't do was get costs and premiums under control" is foolish. The ACA was allegedly written because health care costs were rising. If it failed to accomplish its primary goal, then it's a failure.
This article is infuriating:
Dayton admitted the ACA needs tweaking , but outlined some of its success stories in an email to media Thursday. He went on to decry politicians who he said are using the health care issue to gain a political advantage less than two weeks before Election Day.
That's chutzpah. Shame on Gov. Dayton for saying something so dishonest. It isn't that the ACA "needs tweaking." It's that it needs a major overhaul. Prices are skyrocketing. Access is limited. Choices are dwindling. Deductibles are unaffordable for most people. What part of that sounds like the ACA needs tweaking?
Gov. Dayton supposedly decried "politicians who he said are using the health care issue to gain a political advantage." Saying that a full-blown crisis needs tweaking sounds like a politician trying to limit the political damage the ACA might have on the DFL this election. It's shameful that Gov. Dayton is criticizing others for making political hay because Gov. Dayton and the DFL made a major mistake in passing the MNsure legislation.
That's the price politicians should pay for passing such terrible legislation. Bad policies frequently make for bad election results. The DFL passed the legislation. Now it's time to pay the price for that decision.
Posted Friday, October 28, 2016 5:03 PM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 28-Oct-16 04:55 PM
Obviously Nolan has and had no idea how good MN insurance was until the democrats destroyed it and replaced it with Obamacare.
Also, if women (you can add smokers, the obese to this too) aren't supposed to pay more for insurance even though they use more of it and are higher risks, I'd like Mr. Nolan to get a bill into congress to outlaw males paying more for car, life, and a whole host of other insurance where we are rated as higher risks. I won't hold my breath.
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 28-Oct-16 05:25 PM
You're wise in not holding your breath. If talk was money and action was nothing, Nolan would be the one-percenter & Mills would be penniless.
