By failing to identify private insurers as wicked the WH does a disservice

[cthulu2016]

re: The phenomenon of cancellation letters announcing large price increases mandated by Obamacare

The real biggest problem with the Obamcare roll-out is not some web-site, it is the failure to "demonize" private insurers because such "demonization" is key to protecting the public.

This is not just about Obamacare, of course. We have a long, long tradition of government not bad-mouthing business, and it sucks.

Everyone should have been informed up front that private insurers would attempt certain swindles. (That's what the are) There should be ads on TV telling people that they may receive a letter from their insurer saying X, but that the letter may well b an attempt to swindle them.

It was surely a known thing that insurers would set up automatic default moves (if the insured did nothing) into crazy-expensive plans for canceled coverages.

So how the hell did we, the nation, experience this whole cancellation letter, my plan went up 100% thing???

Where are the PSAs warning the nation in advance that insurers would try to tell people that Obamacare had doubled their premiums? Of course insurers would LIKE to double your premiums and has no interest in you getting cheaper insurance through an exchange... it is hardly an unforeseeable move.

OF COURSE they will try to charge more. That is why a letter from a private insurer cannot be the only communication on the topic. It cannot be left to private insurers to explain the wonders of Obamacare.


But for the government to aid the public in defense against predictable predation would be communism, I guess.

[djean111]

1. The government aids those whot pay the government.

That would be corporations, like insurance companies.

[former9thward]

2. The ACA was created with and backed by the insurance companies.

So if the WH were to say private insurers are wicked would invite the question --then why did you work with them?

[madville]

3. The ACA set minimum standards

The ACA set minimum standards for plan offerings, the insurance companies can no longer offer the stripped down plans.

I'm not clear on exactly how they are "swindling" people. The law prohibits them from offering those cheaper plans. A plan to replace it is of course going to cost more since it offers many more services.

I'm amazed that people are shocked by plans being cancelled and prices going up in some cases, many people predicted those exact things and were dismissed.

[enlightenment]

4. From the government's point of view,

that would be a bad idea, wouldn't it? The ACA puts private insurers front and center in the grand plan to make health insurance affordable, going so far as to make buying said insurance from said insurers mandatory.

If the government goes on the TV and start demonizing the private insurers - pointing out how conscienceless they really are and that they will do the things you mention - wouldn't that feed over into peoples' perception of the (very same) companies that they are required to deal with through the ACA?

Wouldn't it make sense that those people who are happily (dutifully, etc) signing up for coverage through the exchanges might start to look askance at the companies that they will be insuring with through the ACA? Wondering, perhaps, if those companies will be as predatory toward them, the eager participants in the ACA, as they are toward to the hapless victims stuck with employer health coverage?

When you provide sheepskins for wolves, you can't tell one flock that the ugly sheep in their midst is a predator and expect the other flocks' to buy that the equally ugly sheep in their midst are just ugly sheep.

[gopiscrap]

6. welcome to DU

[gopiscrap]

7. I agree with you!

[alc]

8. they can't without a public option

The government needs insurers more than insurers need the government. There's a big danger in attacking them unless you think the republicans will go along with getting a public option up and running in a few days.

Insurers can make the ACA work as well or poorly as they want at this point and they will do what they think is their best long-term interest. And the MLR which so many people love (80% premiums go to med costs) can be flipped around. The ONLY way to increase profit on ACA policies is to increase medical costs and premiums. If regulators complain about premium increases they will counter with a list of items that they want to pay for but can't because the "death panels" won't allow. We have a long way to go before everything settles down, and insurers are in the driver's seat since their dropping out of the exchanges or significantly reducing their provider lists will kill the ACA (unless there is a public option).

[loyalsister]

9. Is it possible

that health insurance isn't their only gig? If so, would be a bad idea for the administration to put people out of business and eliminate jobs.

[Blue_Tires]

10. I'd said from the start that the overlooked key was legislating out

the profit motive from insurers once and for all...