It is patently the case that Obamacare has been specifically designed to INCREASE healthcare profits (which will make it more expensive - pre-subsidy).
It was designed that way by the Heritage Foundation.
Obamacare is turning the Healthcare Insurance market into a de facto monopolistic cartel of a very few suppliers controlling over 80% of the market in each State.
The Healthcare market has now been brought under the control of the Federal government and will now be subject to the corruption which is endemic in Washington DC.
The tricks used by every other monopolistic cartel in every other major industry can now be much more effectively employed by the large Healthcare Insurers and providers.
The politicians will be bought by campaign donations and other bribes and inducements (most of them have already been bought to get the disastrous Obamacare bill through in the first place).
The bought politicians will insert loopholes and get out clauses into bills, to get round any irritating regulations they don't like.
Further measures will be taken to further squeeze out any small players that remain.
Such as new regulations being inserted into future bills, where the cost of conforming is relatively low for large companies but high for small ones.
The bought politicians will ensure the large Corporations don't get prosecuted for any criminal activity or violations of rules and regulations.
(Or they will only get a token small shareholder fine, which is much less than the profits from breaking the law or regulations. This is occasionally done for PR purposes to try and con the American people that the Rule of Law still applies to large Corporations.
No board members will get sent to jail, whatever white collar crimes they choose to commit.)
The large Corporations ensure that their own ex-senior managers are appointed to whichever regulatory body is supposed to oversee government regulations.
The purpose of this is twofold - to go easy on the large Corporations and go hard on any small or new entrants to squeeze them out.
In the specific case of Healthcare :-
The massive cost of changing policies and IT systems to conform to the numerous Obamacare diktats was a prime example of a massive dis-inducement to the large numbers of medium and small insurance players in each State.
Most have already, or intend to, drop out of the market for 2014.
There will be a further shakedown of small players when the business fines come into effect for 2015.
Large insurers and healthcare companies are buying up subsidiaries in low tax foreign countries in order to divert American sourced profits and get round the 80% rule.
Schemes for which the insurers want to put up the prices by more than the limits set out in Obamacare will be cancelled.
New product names will be set up in their place at the higher prices the insurers desire.
Now that Obamacare is making the Health Insurance market far less competitive than it previously was, this will be easier to do.
Lines will be inserted into future bills to render any limits that do cause some irritation in Obamacare toothless.
Much like the bill that is now going through Congress to remove some of the Dodd-Frank regulations so that when the next bank bailout happens, the bank losses will again be socialized and paid for by the American taxpayer.
The insurance and large healthcare companies will ensure that their own ex-senior managers are appointed to whichever regulatory body is supposed to oversee the Obamacare regulations.
The CEO's of the 5 largest Health Insurers have been consistently raising their future profits forecasts as it becomes known just how effective that Obamacare will be in :-
squeezing out competition
allowing the large insurers to increase their prices and profit margins
Obamacare Costs
Using the CBO estimated costs and their assumptions as a base, the estimated costs of Obamacare are $3.5tn+ and 800,000 fewer jobs over 10 years, plus lower GDP growth, higher unemployment and lower tax revenues.
Other people's estimates of the costs will catch up with mine over time.
http://ian56.blogspot.com/2013/10/obamacare-myths-facts-and-unknowns-cost.html
My solutions :-
Healthcare in America costs double what it costs in every other developed country and Obamacare is set to make things even worse.
Make the Health Insurance and Healthcare provision into efficient industries like Motor Insurance already is.
Motor Insurance pays out 100% of premiums in claims and reduces the cost of car repairs through hard ball negotiations with garages and bulk buying.
There is no practical reason why Healthcare Insurance should not be made as efficient as Motor Insurance, if lawmakers had the will to encourage Healthcare to be a competitive free market industry and not turn it into a monopolistic crony cartel with Obamacare.
Healthcare Insurers are not interested in making Healthcare provision more efficient - there are not enough incentives to do so.
They are more interested in signing up as many Healthcare providers as possible to enable a monopolistic position in a particular regional market.
Impose the Rule of Law with deterrent penalties on large Corporations.
That includes sending CEO's to jail for law breaking or monopolistic racketeering.
When was the last time a CEO of a large company went to jail?
Martha Stewart did, but that was only because she inadvertantly helped expose the massive and endemic insider trading that goes on in the stock market and stepped on Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan's patches.
Martha Stewart wasn't that large a company to be able to afford to pay out millions of dollars in bribes to DC politicians.
Stop the protectionist and racketeering laws that increase the profits of the large drugs companies at the expense of the American consumer.
Make the drugs companies charge the same prices that they currently charge in Mexico.
It would cut the prices by at least 50%.
Congress is forever passing laws that make drugs even more expensive, e.g. by extending the length of patent protection on specific drugs.
Stop the over prescription and over treatment which is endemic in American "Healthcare".
Stop the over charging for common routine procedures, by making hospital services a competitive industry.
Stop the endemic Medicare fraud.
Stop the bribing of doctors by the large drugs companies.
Part of the solution to make Healthcare provision and insurance a more competitive industry is to make it a competitive national industry, across State and regional boundaries.
The least competitive markets are now those in relatively small States or regions with low population densities.
But even in highly populated cities like New York, costs vary wildly between different hospitals in the same precinct for the same treatment.
Inefficient hospitals with high charges should be allowed to go out of business - they would in a free market.
The high costs associated with IT development and maintenance make providing Healthcare Insurance to low volumes of customers an impractical and inefficient proposition.
Reducing the number of government rules and regulations would also make the provision of Healthcare Insurance less burdensome and encourage new entrants.
The government does not mandate numerous rules as to how Motor insurance should be provided.
The free market decides the best way of providing Motor Insurance, not the government.
The free market also decides the best way of delivering car repair services to the insurers because car insurance is a highly competitive market and car insurers are always looking for ways to reduce their costs.
There is no reason why an insurer could not mandate a claimant for non emergency treatment to travel to an efficient low cost hospital for treatment.
Just like they make car accident claimants travel to an insurer approved car repairer in order to keep car repair costs down.
Garages are well known for trying to rip off consumers with excessive charges - but car insurers don't let them get away with it.
N.B. The government only mandates that each car and driver be insured to protect others from the harm that you might do to them (by crashing into them and injuring their persons or property).
House insurance isn't mandatory.
It is easy to see many other ways to make Healthcare provision in America far more efficient.
American Healthcare costs at least double what it costs in every other developed country.
Stop making doctors spend half their time on filling out insurance paperwork.
Reduce the cost of malpractice insurance and the reduce the payouts for mistreatment.
Both of these are multiple times the cost incurred in other countries.
(This is a symptom of the lawyer disease, ambulance chasing and lack of personal responsibility that infects America today. There are over 1 million lawyers practicing in America - many times higher the number of lawyers per head that there are in other countries. Drastically cut the number of lawyers that it is economic to employ in America.)
Get a group of experienced Healthcare professionals (front line doctors and nurses) together, that do not derive income from drugs companies, and see what they can come up with.
I'm sure they will have loads of good ideas.
Stop buying loads of unnecessary expensive medical equipment like MRI scanners.
The hospitals make large profits for charging for the use of this equipment so encourage their use (compare the charges made for similar testing in other countries).
The managers of hospitals (and senior doctors) are bribed by the medical equipment manufacturers to buy their equipment.
The number of tests using expensive equipment like MRI scanners, far outweighs their efficacy in preventing or treating medical conditions.
The overuse and over purchasing of expensive medical equipment is another symptom of an inefficient healthcare market.
There are a great many ways of making Healthcare in America more affordable and broadening coverage.
Obamacare goes in the EXACT OPPOSITE direction and makes Healthcare provision even less efficient and affordable.
Nobody in any country calls for Motor Insurance to be run by the government.
The Free Market in the Motor Insurance industry provides a much better product to consumers than any government ever would or could.
Monday, 18 November 2013
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