Ins CEO: You've Been Duped The Affordable Care Act isn't raising your premiums. Republicans are.

[CousinIT]

As I watch the debate unfold over repeal of the Affordable Care Act, I keep thinking about the Hans Christian Anderson story "The Emperor's New Clothes." In the story, the emperor's weavers convince him that they have made him clothes of special cloth, invisible to those too stupid to appreciate their beauty. The emperor parades through town stark naked, and his subjects are too afraid to state the obvious until one little boy blurts out that the emperor has no clothes. The emperor looks down and realizes the boy is right.

You might guess that President Donald Trump is the emperor in my metaphor, but you'd be wrong. The emperor is the American public, who has been duped into believing that the Affordable Care Act is failing, even as Republicans work behind the scenes to destroy it.

And who is the little boy in this story? I am. I am the former CEO of a health insurance company, and I have been warning publicly what will happen if Trump continues to effectively sabotage the Affordable Care Act. Earlier this month, I lost my job.

When Trump ran for president, he promised reforms to ensure there would be health insurance for everyone and that it would be a "lot less expensive" than under President Barack Obama's health care law. We have yet to see the plan he described during his campaign. Instead, earlier this month, House Republicans passed the American Health Care Act – a bill the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office determined would cause 23 million Americans to lose health insurance coverage.

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https://www.usnews.com/opinion/policy-dose/articles/2017-05-30/republicans-raised-your-health-care-premiums-not-obamacare?src=usn_tw

[progree]

1. Well worth the read - explains the cutting of the risk corridors, and now the cost-sharing reduction

short one too ... most of the below are my -- Progree's -- words

Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, for example, was among the first to land a blow. In 2014, he proudly led a successful effort to cut funding for the "risk corridors" program

((which cut payments to insurance companies that were losing money on ACA market plans when the ACA population turned out to be sicker on average than anticipated))

Then Trump cutting short advertising during the final week of the open enrollment period ((young healthy people tend to sign up at the last minute))

The there's the passage of CaligulaCare by the House, with full support of Caligula. Which of course adds to the uncertainty

And now Trump is threatening not to pay the cost-sharing reduction payments to insurance companies that help pay the out-of-pocket costs of lower income members ((but the insurance companies still have to pay them by law))

J. Mario Molina, M.D., is the former CEO of Molina Healthcare, one of the largest health insurance companies serving Medicaid and Marketplace programs. He has three decades of experience caring for low-income patients.

[spooky3]

2. knr

[Wounded Bear]

3. K & R ......for visibility..nt

[Bradical79]

4. Thanks for posting!

A very enlightening perspective.

[oasis]

5. America's gotta learn NOT to trust Republicans to do the right thing.

wake up dummies.

[Mr. Evil]

7. America's gotta learn NOT to trust republicans with anything.

[Doreen]

6. It must be the repukes he is talking about because I am sure

that all of us here knew it was the repukes and not ACA raising premiums.

[BigmanPigman]

8. I've been going after Congress and repeal of the CA since Nov.

I have learned that the states who are hurting the most as far as the ACA is concerned are governed by GOP representatives. They have set it up to fail on a state by state level....I hate THEM! People believe their BS and I have called every single senator (yes, ALL of them TWICE) literally crying on the phone. Nothing effects these evil, self serving sociopaths. If I had a deadly, contagious disease I would personally meet each one in person and infect them intentionally.

[Dustlawyer]

9. The ones who have or have taken the time to read are aware of the Republican sabotage.

the MSM does a poor job of pointing this out. Frankly, the MSM does a poor job anyway because they are beholden to Special Interests in the form of their advertisers.

They are all playing with fire when they keep tightening the screws on us!

[JudyM]

10. K&R. We need MSM to make this clear to people.