Hi Yo Silver, and Other Tales of Obamacare Iniquity

So the other day I posted a laundry list of nefarious things I'd discovered on the healthcare.gov website, including the berserk premiums, out of control Deductibles and Co-pays and the mind-numbing complexity of a plan that reveals that what the Democrats have concocted really is the worst of all worlds.  I was going to just take little slices of it and give it a closer look, but, damn, we really need to fast forward to the important stuff, and then work our way back.  Y'all are just going to have to trust me on some of the particulars or visit the website yourself.

So today's meditation is on what I consider to be THE key element of the plan to make Obamacare a wealth-transfer system that enslaves citizens to the Democrat Party, as so many have accused: the Silver Plan.  As you probably know, the insurance plans on the "Exchanges" are Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.  At the Bronze end they are low deductible/high premium.  At the Platinum end, the reverse.  The Silver Plan, contrarily, is bizarre in that it is high premium AND high Deductible.

That was not an accident.

The Silver Plan is key to understanding the intent of the Obamacare strategy, which is to steal trillions from taxpayers, and transfer this money to Democrats, the insurance companies and the health care cartels.  First, take a look at the Silver Plan reality:



Plan Comparison For Family of Three

 

There's little difference between Gold and Platinum, so I left Gold out.  Still, the Bronze, Gold and Platinum plans all make sense: the higher you go up the Plan ladder, the higher the premiums and the lower the Out Of Pocket.  The plans also progress with the Bronze being the most expensive in terms of total Yearly Expense (because of the humungous OOP), and Platinum the least expensive.  And yet, there, like a gigantic carbuncle on the backside of Obamacare is the Silver Plan: high premiums, high OOP, and significantly higher total Yearly Expense than all other plans.

 

As I mentioned earlier, this is no accident.  As stated on the Kaiser Foundation website, subscribers can qualify for taxpayer-funded subsidies on premiums for all plans, but for OOP (Out Of Pocket) subsidies, it is mandatory that they use the Silver Plan, and only the Silver Plan.  That forces virtually all of the 41 Million uninsured Americans onto the Silver Plan, since they are by definition lower income and thus will qualify for the subsidies.  It will also be the default option for the likely 100 Million lower and middle class working Americans with employer insurance that will be purged from the employer-insured roles once the Obamacare mandates invalidate the vast majority of private employer plans.  If they are not purged, they will go willingly to the Exchanges, since taxpayer subsidies will substantially pay for their OOP as well as premiums.

 

And needless to say, their employers will be more than willing to let them go. 

If you stop and consider that Obamacare was designed primarily as a means to gift the insurance companies, the higher premiums and sky high OOP compared to private plans - along with taxpayer subsidies for both - suddenly make sense.  Insurance carriers will pay nothing until OOP thresholds are met, with OOP ranging from $8,000 for Singles and $7,000 per family member across the broad spectrum of policies from Bronze to Platinum. 

Critical to this entire venture is whether health care providers can be brought on board, instead of fighting the insurance companies for every penny, which was the status quo ante.  Unless there is a pot big enough for everybody to benefit, the whole thing falls apart, and the key is whether taxpayers are on the hook for OOP as well as premiums.  Through the OOP subsidies, they are.  So the particulars of this scam are:

1) Insurance company's premiums under Obamacare that start out at least 50% higher than policies on the private market;

2) The humungous OOP elements of all plans protect insurance company profits by forcing everybody to pay for 90% of their actual health care expenses before insurance payments kick in.

2) The vast majority of private sector plans covering 250 million people are not compliant with Obamacare, which will allow the insurance companies to throw out the vast majority of those, as they did the 15 million people covered by private policies last month.  The result will be insurance company premiums comparable to the inflated Exchange policies;

3) All of those formerly on private plans will then automatically qualify for premium and OOP subsidies;

4) Without any meaningful cost controls on the consumption of health care services, poor people will flood the market with demand, vastly expanding the quantity of services delivered, which will bring the health care Cartels on board to support the program.

The end result can not help but be a $1 Trillion yearly gift to the insurance companies and the Cartels.

So in conclusion, and contrary to Obamite public statements, the Exchange insurance plans are heavily skewed towards not just preserving the profits of insurance companies, but expanding them.

Obamacare does not just enfranchise the already insanely overpriced private insurance plans, it drives them higher.