The number of U.S. adults without health insurance is up nearly 3.5 million this year, as rising premiums and political turmoil over "Obamacare" undermine coverage gains that drove the nation's uninsured rate to a historic low.
Reported by Denver Post 7 hours ago.
Uninsured rate up to 12.3 percent amid “Obamacare” turmoil
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Board denies health insurance rate hike after subsidy cut
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Health insurers in Vermont will not be allowed to raise previously approved rates for 2018 in the wake of President Donald Trump’s move to block federal subsidies. The board that approves health insurance rates has denied requests from insurers to immediately raise prices for consumers in an effort to recoup the […]
Reported by Seattle Times 6 hours ago.
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Survey: US Uninsured Up 3.5M This Year; Expected To Rise
With premiums rising and political upheaval over the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, the number of U.S. adults without health insurance is up nearly 3½ million this year, The Associated Press reported. The results were part of the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index of a sample of 500 people each day asked whether they have health insurance, the report said. The uninsured rate among adults was 12.3 percent during the period from July 1-Sept. 30, the report said, an increase of 1.4 percentage points since the end of last year. The increase in the number of uninsured is more striking because it comes at a time of economic growth and low unemployment. The annual sign-up season for...
Reported by WorldNews 5 hours ago.
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Obamacare enrollment starts Nov. 1. Here's what you need to know
Choosing the right health insurance plan can be a cumbersome process, and this year’s political back-and-forth over Obamacare has made it seem even more confusing.
For months, executive orders and congressional debates have swirled around the law, officially called the Affordable Care Act. President... Reported by ChicagoTribune 2 hours ago.
For months, executive orders and congressional debates have swirled around the law, officially called the Affordable Care Act. President... Reported by ChicagoTribune 2 hours ago.
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Trump Considers Bringing Both Powell And Taylor To The Fed Together
The farce is now complete.What is the best way to run schizophrenic monetary policy in a schizophrenic country, where the Fed sees "mysterious" deflation everywhere even as most ordinary consumers can't afford to pay their health insurance, resulting in Fed chair candidates ranging from the extremely hawkish end to the dovish one? Simple: if you are Donald Trump, *you bring both of them in*.
· *TRUMP SAYS BRINGING TAYLOR, POWELL TO FED TOGETHER AN OPTION*
Why? Speaking on Fox News Trump "explained" that “*It is in my thinking, and I have a couple of others things in my thinking but I like talent and they’re both very talented people."*
Which is great news, because if just Taylor is bullish, and just Powell is even more bullish, the two together will send the S&P to 3,000 in a few days.
Of course, two may enter, but if the market ever has an even 1% drop, just one - or none - will leave.
TRUMP SAYS BRINGING TAYLOR, POWELL TO FED TOGETHER AN OPTION
only one leaves pic.twitter.com/k0F8JrPxar
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 20, 2017
What about Yellen? Isn't she "very talented" too? Well...
· *TRUMP SAYS HE LIKES JANET YELLEN `A LOT': FOX BUSINESS*
So no... but there is still a chance: if Yellen can get the S&P to close at 2,600 today, she stays.
Odds continue to swing wildly...
Meanwhile, the dollar jump, while Yen and Gold drop.
And while we wait the decision, here is an artist's impression of what the Fed hiring process will look like under Trump. Reported by Zero Hedge 4 hours ago.
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Congress let a health insurance program expire that covers 9M kids
Almost 9 million children were enrolled in the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, for the 2016 fiscal year. Video provided by Newsy
Reported by USATODAY.com 4 hours ago.
Reported by USATODAY.com 4 hours ago.
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I.R.S. Says It Will Reject Tax Returns that Lack Health Insurance Disclosure
The agency says it won’t accept individual tax returns that don’t meet requirements under the Affordable Care Act.
Reported by NYTimes.com 1 hour ago.
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New Executive Order Expected To End Obama Regulation Limiting Short-Term Health Insurance Coverage to 3 Months
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif: The Trump administration issued a new executive order today that laid the foundation to reverse the Obama administration's late 2016 rule restricting short-term health coverage to less than three months.
Reported by newKerala.com 17 hours ago.
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Memo to both parties: Stop foot-dragging on Children's Health Insurance Program
The holdup on CHIP funding is a perfect example of how Washington politicians lose the public’s confidence. We the parents say set this hostage free.
Reported by USATODAY.com 21 hours ago.
Reported by USATODAY.com 21 hours ago.
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I.R.S. Says It Will Reject Tax Returns that Lack Health Insurance Disclosure
The agency says it won’t accept individual tax returns that don’t meet requirements under the Affordable Care Act.
Reported by NYTimes.com 19 hours ago.
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Op-Ed Contributor: The Silver Lining in Trump’s Health Care ‘Sabotage’
By cutting an insurers’ subsidy, the president may accidentally save many Americans money on health insurance.
Reported by NYTimes.com 20 hours ago.
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HEALTH INSURANCE INNOVATIONS SHAREHOLDER ALERT: ClaimsFiler Reminds Investors with Losses in Excess of $100,000 of Lead Plaintiff Deadline in Class Action Lawsuit Against Health Insurance Innovations - (HIIQ)
NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--$HIIQ #HIIQ--ClaimsFiler, a FREE shareholder information service, reminds investors that they have until November 10, 2017 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Health Insurance Innovations, Inc. (NasdaqGM: HIIQ), if they purchased the Company’s securities between March 4, 2016 and September 11, 2017, inclusive (the “Class Period”). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Get Hel
Reported by Business Wire 20 hours ago.
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Disabled SC deputy struggles to find health insurance
LEXINGTON, S.C. (AP) — A former South Carolina sheriff’s deputy injured while stopping a burglary suspect last year says he’s not only struggling with physical pain but also with trying to find health insurance. The State newspaper in Columbia reports former Lexington County Deputy Eddie Richardson is permanently disabled. He’s had three surgeries and a […]
Reported by Seattle Times 7 hours ago.
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Are You Infuriated Yet?
Authored by Chris Martenson via PeakProsperity.com,*More and more, I'm encountering people who are simply infuriated with how our "leaders" are running (or to put it more accurately, ruining) things right now. And I share that fury.*
It’s perfectly normal human response to be infuriated when an outside agent hurts you, especially if the pain seems unnecessary, illogical or random.
Imagine if your neighbor enjoyed setting off loud explosives at all hours of the day and night. Or if he had a habit of tailgating and brake-checking you every time he saw your car on the road. You’d been well within your rights to be infuriated.
Or to use a much more common example from the real world : *When your politicians repeatedly pass laws that hurt you in favor of large corporations -- that, too, is infuriating. Especially if those actions run directly counter to their campaign promises.*
There’s a lot of be infuriated about in the world today, so go ahead and embrace your rage. By doing so, you’ll be in a better mindset to understand things like Brexit, Catalonia, and Trump, each of which is a reflection of the fury of your fellow citizens, who are finally waking up to the fact that they've been victims for too long.
*An easy prediction to make is that this simmering anger of the populace is going to start boiling over more violently in the coming years. Welcome to the Age of Fury.*
**'Over The Top' Dumb**
*Do you ever get the sense that, as a society, we're being dangerously reckless? Perhaps so dumb that we might not recover from the repercussions of our stupidity for many generations, if ever?*
There are economic and financial idiocies in motion that are, by themselves, unsolvable predicaments without a peaceful solution. But when combined with resource depletion and declining net energy, they're positively intractable.
Take for example the hundreds of trillions of dollars-worth of underfunded entitlement and pension promises. Those promises cannot be kept and they cannot be paid. Everybody with a basic comprehension of math can conclude as such.
Yet we continue to operate as if the opposite were true. We comfort ourselves that, somehow, all the promised future payouts will be made in full -- even though the funds are insolvent, their returns are much lower than the actuarial projections require, and payout demand mercilessly rises each year.
*Spoiler alert: This isn’t some future disaster lying in wait. It’s unfolding right now.*
Take these headlines spanning the past several years:
· Congress approves plan to allow pension cuts (Dec 2014)
· 273,000 union workers and retirees brace for pension cuts (May 2, 2016)
· In unprecedented move, pension plan cuts benefits promised to retirees (Jan 27, 2017) -- note the laughable use of "unprecedented" here
· Teamsters face 31 percent pension cut (Mar 7, 2017)
· New York State Teamsters pension fund cuts approved (Sept 13, 2017)
When it comes to broken retirement promises, the future is now. It will be with us for a very long time.
*Why? Because the math simply doesn’t work. It’s broken, it’s been broken for a long time. You can't put too little in the piggy bank at the start, then raid it over time, and still expect to have enough at the end.*
And yet we, as a society, have preferred to pretend as if that weren’t the case. Which, it turns out, was a terrible “strategy.”
But if you think that's bad, you’re going to positively hate this chart:
The pension liabilities now blowing up are contained within the thin green smear in the middle of this chart. Think on the nation's inability to handle that single crisis, and now reflect on how overwhelmed it's going to be by the far larger predicaments that lie elsewhere on the chart.
*The Infuriating Plunder-fest That Is Health Care*
The Medicare liabilities (the orange and largest band on the above chart) are immense, and will only become more so as our largest demographic, the baby boomers, further ages. But they become especially infuriating when seen in the larger context of the racketeering that drives the health care system in the United States.
Instead of doing anything constructive about the high number of IOUs building up within Medicare, Washington DC politicians are sidestepping the most obvious elements that contribute the most to the problem. Enormously wasteful, the “healthcare” system is entirely out of control and spiraling deeper into an abyss that threatens to literally destroy the most productive segment of the US social structure: the middle and upper middle classes.
*That should be a topic of serious discussion in the halls of power. But none is being had.*
Literally each day brings worse news on the skyrocketing costs of healthcare. But, as with most topics, the media mostly focuses on the symptoms (prices) rather than the causes of the issue.
The real culprits here are the insurance cartel and a hospital system that has the most unfair, incomprehensible, and inhumane billing process ever devised. One easy to grasp feature of both the insurance companies and conspire to pay the executives far more than they actually deserve or are truly worth.
*Health care premiums for 2018 set to go up by as much as 50 percent*
Oct 5, 2017
Several states have announced rates for health insurance premiums on the Obamacare exchanges for 2018. Topping the list is *Georgia, with rates that are 57 percent higher than last year, while Florida said some premiums will be 45 percent higher.*
*Among the reasons for these increases is the uncertainty about the future of the Affordable Care Act. *President Donald Trump has vowed to repeal and replace the health care law, which was passed under his predecessor President Barack Obama.
*Insurers are raising premiums in the face of repeated threats from President Trump to stop funding so-called cost-sharing reductions, payments to insurers that cover out-of-pocket costs for some low-income consumers. *Trump previously referred to these payments as “bailouts” for insurance companies and threatened to stop making the payments so as to “let Obamacare implode”.
(Source)
That’s the story the health insurers are going with: they have to raise rates because they're uncertain whether they will get AS MUCH LOOT under the new rules being considered as they did under the utterly disastrous Obamacare provisions.
*How much loot are we talking about?* Look at this chart of the stock price of United Healthcare (UNH) since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare):
If this chart showing massive near-4x gains in just 5 years, coupled with your steep annual premium increases, doesn’t infuriate you, you are just not getting it.
*Even if your employer pays for your health care (somewhat obscuring the true impact of premium increases), the cost to you is fewer and lower pay increases, as well as steady yearly reductions in covered services along with higher co-pays and deductible amounts.*
*Still not infuriated?* Ok, maybe this will do the trick. Here how much executive compensation at the major insurers was last year:
(Source)
The average family health care insurance premium in 2016 was $18,764, meaning that Mark Bertolini from Aetna alone required 100% of the premiums from more than 2,200 families just to pay him in 2016. Of course, the “C-suite” of these health care insurers are loaded with other high-paid parasites who are just as busy gouging the young and old alike.
This is a complete travesty and joke. Congress and the Senate, sitting on their deservedly low approval ratings, pretend they cannot do anything about it. Too complicated they say. Bullshit I say. Go after the obscene pay packages and profits of the insurance industry as a first matter of business. Then make it a crime for hospitals to bill people differently for the exact same services.
*That’s a no-brainer. Can you imagine if your mechanic had a secret pricing formula for every customer that was, literally, based on their maximum ability to pay? Nobody would stand for it, it’s disgusting that we tolerate this when it comes to something as vital and necessary as our health and even lives.*
Fury, not tolerance, is what's needed now.
*Conclusion (to Part 1)*
*The future has arrived. The pension losses are here and just getting started and the future will have a lot more of those sorts of broken promises.*
The health care insurance crisis has been with us for 20 years or so now and Obamacare just put some extra accelerant on that fire, which is now consuming middle class households by the tens of thousands.
Both the pension and health care crises are infuriating and self-inflicted wounds. We could have avoided them by making wiser choices in the past. We didn't. We could limit their damage by making better choices today. We almost assuredly won't.
Current conversations and proposals are thinly disguised sleight-of-hand movements whose purpose is to deflect attention from the thefts underway. Anybody who studies the system and its math comes to the same conclusion: the corporations have all the power and they are misusing it for private gain.
*Why there aren’t more politicians willing to call a spade a spade and actually protect their constituents is a real mystery. But the next wave of populist candidates certainly won’t be. People are sick and tired of being asked to give more and more while corporations and wealthy elites keep taking more and more.*
It’s simply infuriating.
*But that’s not the worst of it. The mistakes we are making right now in terms of energy policy and ecological destruction are far more dangerous to your personal health, liberty and future prospects than a simple market crash.*
In Part 2: It's Time For Action, we uncover the hidden downside risks in today's financial markets and explain how, as destructive as a coming market crash will be, the longer-term damage to society and risks to your well-being are rooted in the potential breakdown of the systems we depend on to live. As with pensions and health care, we are pursuing similar dangerously misguided policies in our farming & food systems, extraction of industrial resources, and ecological management -- to name just a few. There's an appropriate time for fury. And that time is now -- provided we use the anger to spur us into constructive action. Get your fury on. Click here to read Part 2 of this report (free executive summary, enrollment required for full access)
Reported by Zero Hedge 6 hours ago.
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Kaine proposes public option for health care
As attention on Capitol Hill began slowly to shift from battles over ending or saving the Affordable Care Act to ideas about fixing it, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine began wondering if there was a simple way to use resources already in place to make sure all Americans have access to health insurance.
Now... Reported by dailypress.com 15 minutes ago.
Now... Reported by dailypress.com 15 minutes ago.
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THE INSURANCE AND THE IoT REPORT: How insurers are using connected devices to cut costs and more accurately price policies
This is a preview of a research report from BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about BI Intelligence, click here.Insurance companies have long based their pricing models and strategies on assumptions about the demographics of their customers. Auto insurers, for example, have traditionally charged higher premiums for parents of teenage drivers based on the assumption that members of this demographic are more likely to get into an accident.
But those assumptions are inherently flawed, since they often aren't based on the actual behaviors and characteristics of individual customers. As new IoT technologies increasingly move into the mainstream, insurers are able to collect and analyze data to more accurately price premiums, helping them to protect the assets they insure and enabling more efficient assessment of damages to conserve resources.
A new report from BI Intelligence explains how companies in the auto, health, and home insurance markets are using the data produced by IoT solutions to augment their existing policy pricing models and grow their customer bases. In addition, it examines areas where IoT devices have the potential to open up new insurance segments.
Here are some of the key takeaways:
· The world's largest auto insurers now offer usage-based policies, which price premiums based on vehicle usage data collected directly from the car.
· Large home and commercial property insurers are using drones to inspect damaged properties, which can improve workflow efficiency and reduce their reliance on human labor.
· Health and life insurance firms are offering customers fitness trackers to encourage healthy behavior, and discounts for meeting certain goals.
· Home insurers are offering discounts on smart home devices to current customers, and in some cases, free devices to entice new customers.
In full, the report:
· Forecasts the number of Americans who will have tried usage-based auto insurance by 2021.
· Explains why narrowly tailored wearables could be what's next for the health insurance industry.
· Analyzes the market for potential future insurance products on IoT devices.
· Discusses and analyzes the barriers to consumers opting in to policies that collect their data.
To get your copy of this invaluable guide to the IoT, choose one of these options:
1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> *START A MEMBERSHIP*
2. Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> *BUY THE REPORT*
The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of insurance and the IoT.
Join the conversation about this story » Reported by Business Insider 21 hours ago.
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2018 open enrollment increases will average 4.3%, study shows
For many companies, health insurance open enrollment season is approaching, and for 2018 they can expect higher premiums. A 4.3 percent increase is projected, even after firms make plan changes such as raising deductibles or switching carriers, according to early responses from a national survey of employer plans done by Mercer, national HR consultants.
Reported by Newsday 13 hours ago.
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Despite Washington, Connecticut health exchange soldiers on
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — It’s still business as usual for Connecticut’s health insurance marketplace, despite failed congressional efforts to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s health care law and President Donald Trump’s proposal to stop federal payments to insurers. Access Health CT is continuing to gear up for this year’s shortened open enrollment period, […]
Reported by Seattle Times 8 hours ago.
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Schumer says Senate votes are there for health care deal
All 48 Democrats in the Senate would vote in favor of the bipartisan health care proposal to calm the health insurance markets, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Sunday.
Reported by FOXNews.com 17 hours ago.
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Insurance companies propose rate hikes after subsidies cut
BALTIMORE (AP) — The Maryland Insurance Administration is going to consider new premium rate hikes proposed by health insurance companies. The Baltimore Sun reports the agency will hold a public hearing on Monday to discuss the matter. The insurance companies are asking to raise rates following President Donald Trump’s decision to eliminate Affordable Care Act […]
Reported by Seattle Times 15 hours ago.
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