“Death Spiral”: Obamacare Premiums May Soar As Much As 91% Next Year

by | May 8, 2018 | Headline News | 55 comments

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    This report was originally published by Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge

    Residents of Maryland and Virginia face double-digit percentage increases in premiums for individual Obamacare plans in 2019, according to rate requests made by insurers.

    The largest hikes are being sought by CareFirst, which is seeking a 64% increase in Virginia, and a whopping 91% increase in Maryland for its PPO. Other insurers are following suit in the two states, with Kaiser requesting hikes of 32% and 37% respectively, followed by CareFirst’s HMO offering.

    In Maryland, CareFirst wants to raise rates by 91 percent on a plan covering 15,000 people, Insurance Commissioner Al Redmer Jr. said. If approved, premiums for a 40-year-old could reach $1,334 a month. –Bloomberg

    That’s over $16,000 per year for an individual plan in a state with an average personal income of $59,524.

    “We have folks in Maryland that are struggling, that are trying to do the right thing, and they’re paying more for their health insurance than they are for their mortgage,” Redmer said on a call with reporters.

    Maryland is seeking permission from the federal government to create a reinsurance program that would use $975 million in state and federal funds over five years to lower rates. That would help only temporarily, Redmer said. –Bloomberg

    “I believe we’ve been in a death spiral for a year or two,” he said, adding that a permanent solution requires Congress to fix the Affordable Care Act.

    Virginia and Maryland are the first two states in which 2019 rate requests – which are subject to regulatory approval and may change – have been made public, however increases are anticipated across the country as insurers adjust to the post-ACA battle. Final premium increases will need to be approved ahead of the November 1 open-enrollment period.

    The hikes are being blamed in part by the expectation that the elimination of the Obamacare stipulation forcing all Americans to have health coverage would leave insurers with a smaller pool of sicker clients.

    Many health plans have stopped selling health coverage through the exchanges created four years ago under Obamacare. The Republican-led attempt to overturn the health law last year caused premiums to surge, as insurers expected that undoing the law’s requirement that all Americans have health insurance would leave them with a smaller and sicker pool of clients. –Bloomberg

    While the repeal of ACA ultimately failed, the Trump administration overturned the provision penalizing uninsured Americans – something last week Trump’s former top health official, Tom Price, warned would raise the cost of health insurance for some Americans.

    “There are many, and I’m one of them, who believes that that actually will harm the pool in the exchange market, because you’ll likely have individuals who are younger and healthier not participating in that market, and consequently that drives up the cost for other folks within that market,” Price said at the World Health Care Conference in Washington.

    Price’s comments are in line with predictions from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which in November projected 13 million fewer Americans would have health insurance by 2027 as a result of the elimination of the individual mandate. The CBO also said average premiums in the exchanges would increase by about 10 percent in most years over the next decade, compared with a scenario in which the mandate had been left in place. –Washington Post

    “Those effects would occur mainly because healthier people would be less likely to obtain insurance and because, especially in the nongroup market, the resulting increases in premiums would cause more people to not purchase insurance,” the CBO said at the time.

    “The individual mandate is one of those things that is actually driving up the cost for the American people in terms of coverage,” said Price on last summer on ABC’s This Week. “So what we’re trying to do is make it so that Obamacare is no longer harming the patients of this land — no longer driving up costs, no longer making it so that they’ve got coverage but no care.”

    In Virginia, the health insurance market is quite sick – with Charlottesville and neighboring counties suffering under some of the most expensive healthcare costs in the nation for people who don’t receive government subsidies.

    A 40-year-old trying to afford a mid-level plan will pay around $1,048 a month.

    “Carol Wise, a former nurse and social worker in Charlottesville who consults for nonprofits, paid about $640 a month last year for an individual plan from Anthem,” repoorts Bloomberg. “When Anthem pulled out of her area, the only plan available, insurer Optima Health Plan, had a premium of $1,800 a month.”

    “I was blown away,” said Wise, 62.

    Wise instead joined a health-care sharing ministry for $280 a month, which offers far fewer protections than traditional coverage.

    Breakdown of each insurer’s proposed changes via Bloomberg

    • Group Hospitalization and Medical Services Inc., which operates a CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, wants to raise premiums by 64 percent, on average, compared with 2018 premium levels, according to documents filed with Virginia regulators on May 4. The change would affect more than 4,000 customers.
    • The Kaiser Foundation Health Plan is seeking an average rate increase of 32 percent on about 79,000 members in Virginia, while Cigna asked regulators to approve a 15 percent increase, projected to affect 103,000 members.
    • Optima, which some Virginians have criticized for highest-in-the-nation premiums in some areas, said that on average its rates would decrease by 2 percent, and they would decline as much as 27 percent for some customers.
    • In Maryland, CareFirst’s larger HMO plan covering 123,000 people requested a 19 percent increase. Kaiser is seeking a 37 percent hike. Both would put the new rates for a 45-year-old above $500 a month, Maryland officials said.
    • Anthem Inc., which pulled out of many markets this year, is requesting a 6 percent increase for its HealthKeepers-branded plans in areas of Virginia where it remains.

    “We’re still sky-high, and we still have a lot of concerns about the rates,” said Charlottesville resident Ian Dixon, who has helped organize Virginians to apply pressure on legislators and Optima for lower premiums. Even with a drop around 30%, he said, Optima’s 2019 rates come in at around double what residents were paying in 2017, when Anthem and other insurers were still offering plans.

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      55 Comments

      1. Now who would’ve thought it? That a government-run health insurance program would become so unwieldy that people couldn’t afford it? Go figure, huh? I’ve got a great insurance plan – I get sick, I get sick. I get hurt, I get hurt. About the same as my retirement program. I get old, I get old. A long walk off a short dock. That’s it. Nothing, nada, zilch. I’m thinking of claiming Mexican citizenship and declaring that I just illegally crossed into the US to get all the freebies. Problem is, I don’t speak Spanish.

        • Obamacare is a TOTAL joke.

          I costs about $11,000 a year and has a $5,000 deductible.

          That is $16,000 spent before you ever see one cent in return.

          Cash is king. You wave some cash at the doctor’s office and they gladly help for substantially less than they charge insurance.

          Further, if you have to go to the E.R., tell them your name is Jose and give a fake social security number. You will get free treatment.

          • In my part of the world doctors are forced to sign contracts with insurance companies assuring that they will charge individuals more than the insurance companies are charged. If they don’t the insurance company will drop them.

      2. Enjoy your insurance damn socialists. All insurance is a socialist instrument

        • What I don’t understand is that I had to pay the tax penalty for no insurance this year. It was $2400. I thought Trump vacated that requirement… Guess not?

          • I think maybe the Trump change regarding the penalty becomes effective for this year’s taxes (which you’ll file for in 2019) not last years taxes which you just did the return for.

          • Yes, he did. It takes effect on your 2018 taxes when you file next year.

      3. “Maryland is seeking permission from the federal government to create a reinsurance program that would use $975 million in state and federal funds over five years to lower rates. That would help only temporarily, Redmer said.” -– Bloomberg

        Pay attention. The Bloomberg here is Michael Bloomberg. The same Michael Bloomberg that wants to confiscate your guns. The same Michael Bloomberg with a net worth estimated at $50.8 billion dollars USD. This Michael Bloomberg is the 7th-richest person in the world. So, what does Michael Bloomberg have to say here about ACA?

        Lies. Lies. And more lies.

        Here are the facts.

        First, Barack Obama created the “Affordable Care Act” ACA because Obama saw how the government getting into the health insurance business would make health insurance a revenue stream for the government. Why? The government is broke and bankrupt and desperate for money. They will take it any way they can. Even from your cold dead hands.

        Second, any premium rates paid to the providers, the government gets their share, their take, of it. The whole thing is just one big racket. A PONZI scheme.

        Third, any increases in premiums is just the ACA providers sticking their hands deeper into American pockets. They will do this until there is no money and no pockets left.

        Fourth, not only is the federal government broke and bankrupt, but so are the states. Any “reinsurance programs” is just another way for the U.S. government and the states to steal more American taxpayer money.

        Fifth, any money the ACA providers get from the states is taxpayer money. Your money.

        Lastly, there is nothing “temporary” about this “reinsurance plan.” It is permanent. There will be other schemes. Other lies.

        The question here is: Are you tired of being lied to and cheated on by these professional politicians and corporate oligarchs? How much longer are you going to stand by and do nothing?

        • nothing is going to change as long as those elected are so easily re-elected.

          when mconnell is so easily reelected in deep red and trump heavy Kentucky; the apathy of the countrys people is still the biggest threat.

          • Term limits. Mandatory Term Limits. According to the democrats the Russians have stolen US elections and the election process anyway. So, what are you going to do? The Russians have bought the US government. [sarcasm. Or not.]

            Term Limits would be doing the democrats a favor. Instead of every four or six years, the Russians would be kept busy all time running the US Government.

            • The entire US Health Care and FDA is a total Fascist Scam. Poisoning Americans and to make them sick all for profit by drug and insurance companies.

              Article: Over 1,000 Toxic Ingredients Banned in Europe But Not in US? Posted on by danielle

              It’s not much of a stretch to say that Europe is very different than the United States. And the differences don’t just lie in the art, food, or culture. One of the biggest differences (as far as I see it) is in attitude towards toxic ingredients in both food and cosmetics.

              This topic really fascinates me and leaves me really confused. There are over 1300 substances completely banned from use in cosmetics (by the EU Cosmetics Regulation). A more recent set of regulations called REACH puts further regulations on more than 500 of those toxic ingredients.

              By comparison, the FDA has banned 11.

              Nope. I didn’t miss a zero there. The United States banned only 11 of the hundreds of toxic ingredients that have been scientifically proven to be harmful to your health.

              • The doctors in France make house calls. When American Expats talk about doctors making house calls in Paris, their eyes practically roll back into their heads.

                • tax collectors in America make house calls…..

                  • Yep, in vertically through the front door, out horizontally through the back door to be buried in the rose garden.

                  • Nice one.

            • Mister Kruschev saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaid we will bury you… I don’t subscribe to this point of vie…

              Oh wait.

              Actually? Good job bud. Too bad for you… ya had to have yourself a lil ol “accident” after humiliating your countrymen during the Cuban Missile Crisis… but sometimes ya know you can’t make an omelette without killing… yourself.

              Speaking of killing yourself…

              So that’s still going to be “illegal” (oh for fuck’s sake you assholes)… and fuck over your heirs… EVEN WHEN these premiums reach fucking $3600 a month, huh…?

              Spiffy.

              Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassholes…

              Well I suppose you can still have a “spelunking accident”. At 82. Mumble involving gaseous nitrogen WELL YOU KNOW you need nitrogen when you go cliff diving into a cave after all!

              I swear if this whole health care SHIT FEST IS NOT a Russian plan that’s a hold over from the cold war I am going to be sorely disappointed in our own stupidity. I mean this is real fucking Dr. Evil level shit man… think through ALL the implications here.

        • @John Steiner

          Sewers dont work without electricity. In shtf when the power was down idiots continued to flush the toilet until they backflowed into the houses. Block those toilets off any way you can. I vomited many times in shtf. It wasn’t glamourous. Shtf is nothing to look forward to. It’s easier the whiter the population is so you don’t have communities at risk.

          • In our house, as with most houses in America, there is a sewer clean out pipe outside of the house as the main sewer line runs to the street.

            If the main line was backed up, I could open that clean out and the house sewer would flow out onto the ground. The sewer clean out is well below the house lines.

            I would still have to put a stopper in the street side of the clean out to prevent back flow into the clean out.

            Good point, thanks for sharing.

            I guess the government officials did not think to install lift station generators to continue operation.

            • In hurricane Rita in 2005 my town was 4 hours away from no water service.

              They have 11 pump stations and did not think to have generators available for extended power outages. We were without power for 7 days.

              All the water in the water towers was draining down. If the water was 100% gone, then the city water lines would likely get crushed. A lot of our towns water lines are the old concrete type. A worker once told me if the lines stopped being under pressure and were empty they would collapse.

          • Eisen, why did you move to Puerto Rico anyway?

        • (((eric sneiderman))) was a champion of (((Womens rights)))

          Faggot wears eyeliner

          • He who rails against sin the most is often the biggest sinner of all.

            • No argument there.

        • The entire US Health Care and FDA is a total Fascist Scam. Poisoning Americans and to make them sick all for profit by drug and insurance companies.

          Over 1,000 Toxic Ingredients Banned in Europe But Not in US? Posted on by danielle

          It’s not much of a stretch to say that Europe is very different than the United States. And the differences don’t just lie in the art, food, or culture. One of the biggest differences (as far as I see it) is in attitude towards toxic ingredients in both food and cosmetics.

          This topic really fascinates me and leaves me really confused. There are over 1300 substances completely banned from use in cosmetics (by the EU Cosmetics Regulation). A more recent set of regulations called REACH puts further regulations on more than 500 of those toxic ingredients.

          By comparison, the FDA has banned 11.

          Nope. I didn’t miss a zero there. The United States banned only 11 of the hundreds of toxic ingredients that have been scientifically proven to be harmful to your health.

          Article: Coke, Mountain Dew, Pepsi: Poison Liquids Consumed by Americans

          I’m here to share with you that all soda pops drain their damaging contents into your body with terrible health consequences over time.

          Soda pop increases your risk of heart attack. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, published March 2012 in the journal Circulation, found that drinking just one sugary beverage a day was associated with a 20 percent increase in a man’s risk of having a heart attack over a 22-year period.

          Carol Simontacchi, author of, The Crazy Makers: How the Food Industry Is Destroying Our Brains and Harming Our Children, said, “One liter of an aspartame-sweetened beverage can produce about fifty-six milligrams of methanol. When several of these beverages are consumed in a short period of time (one day, perhaps), as much as two hundred fifty milligrams of methanol are dumped into the bloodstream, or thirty-two times the EPA limit.”

          “What may happen, in the face of day-to-day, continuously high levels of sodium in the diet and the bloodstream, is that we experience a type of acute hypernatremia—not enough to kill us or cause the myelin sheath to lose its integrity, but enough to keep our sodium potassium pump slightly dysregulated and throw off the electrical system of the brain…. Americans drink soft drinks that are often loaded with more sodium and which further unbalance the mineral stores.”

          That’s not all. Soda pop in any drink destroys your body’s health balance.

          1. Soda can cause a decline in kidney function.

          In an 11-year-long Harvard Medical School study, including 3,318 women, researchers found that diet cola is linked with a two-fold increased risk for kidney decline. (Source: http://www.FoodRevolution.org)

          2. Soda increases diabetes risk.

          High levels of sugar in soda, places a lot of stress on your pancreas, potentially leaving it unable to keep up with the body’s need for insulin. Drinking one or two sugary drinks per day increases your risk for type 2 diabetes by 25%.

          At this time, diabetes races across the American population like the Kentucky Derby, but it kills our parents and kids.

          More than one quarter of seniors (ages 65 and older) have diabetes (25.9 percent, or 11 million seniors). Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for around $245 billion in medical costs and lost productivity each year.

          3. Caramel coloring in soda is linked to cancer.

          The artificial brown coloring in colas is a chemical process, it is not made from caramelized sugar. It is made by reacting sugars with ammonia and sulfites under high pressure and temperatures. These chemical reactions result in the formation of 2-methylimidazole (2-MI) and 4 methylimidazole (4-MI), which in government-conducted studies caused lung, liver, or thyroid cancer or leukemia in laboratory mice and rats.

          4. Soda increases obesity risk in children.

          Each additional soda or other sugary drink consumed per day increases the likelihood of a child becoming obese by about 60 percent. Sugary drinks are connected to other health problems as well. Have you looked across the American landscape lately? Seven out of ten Americans suffer from obesity to gross obesity. Our kids face a lifetime of ill health, poor self-concept and living with fat.

          5. Soda contains high amounts of sugar

          The average 20-ounce can of Coca Cola, Mountain Dew and Pepsi carry the equivalent of 17 teaspoons of sugar, it’s not hard to see that soda can be bad for your teeth and your overall health.

          6. Drinking more than one soda daily increases your risk for heart disease and metabolic syndrome.

          According to Ravi Dhingra, M.D., lead author of the study and an instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School states “If you are drinking one or more soft drinks a day, you may be increasing your risk of developing metabolic risk factors for heart disease.”

          The Framingham study included nearly 9,000 individuals, over a four-year period. Researchers found that individuals consuming one or more sodas a day had a 48 percent increased risk of metabolic syndrome compared to those consuming less than one soft drink daily.

          7. Diet soda does not help you lose weight.

          A University of Texas Health Science Center study found that the more diet sodas a person drank, the greater their risk of becoming overweight. Consuming two or more cans a day increased waistlines by 500 percent greater than those who do not consume diet soda.

          8. Diet sodas contain mold inhibitors.

          They go by the names sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate, and they’re used in nearly all diet sodas.

          “These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it – they knock it out altogether,” Peter Piper, a professor of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Sheffield in the U.K., told a British newspaper. The preservative has also been linked to hives, asthma, and other allergic conditions, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

          Note: Some companies have phased out sodium benzoate. Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi have replaced it with another preservative, potassium benzoate. Both sodium and potassium benzoate were classified by the Food Commission in the UK as mild irritants to the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes.

          9. Sodas containing ascorbic acid and potassium benzoate can form benzene, a known carcinogen. – CANCER CAUSING.

          Benzene can form in beverages and foods that contain both ascorbic acid and potassium benzoate. According to the FDA, when benzoate is exposed to light and heat in the presence of vitamin C, it can be converted into benzene. According to the American Cancer Society, benzene is considered a carcinogen.

          In my research, I discovered another 10 deleterious aspects of Coke, Mountain Dew and Pepsi consumption. When you drink it, you poison your body. When you drink it over time, you poison yourself into multiple health consequences. What really makes me sick, mothers put Coke in the baby bottles.

          When you add the Diet Pop moniker to soda pop, you’re adding deadly aspartame, sucralose and other synthetic sugars. All of them cause horrible consequences to your body over time.

          What’s a good drink to consume all your life? Answer: cool, clear, clean and delicious WATER!

          ## CONNECTING THE DOTS
          05-07-2018 by: Frosty Wooldridge – ht tp://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Opinion/239705-2018-05-07-coke-mountain-dew-pepsi-poison-liquids-consumed-by-americans.htm?From=News

          • Coke, Mountain Dew, Pepsi: Poison Liquids Consumed by Americans

            I’m here to share with you that all soda pops drain their damaging contents into your body with terrible health consequences over time.

            Soda pop increases your risk of heart attack. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, published March 2012 in the journal Circulation, found that drinking just one sugary beverage a day was associated with a 20 percent increase in a man’s risk of having a heart attack over a 22-year period.

            Carol Simontacchi, author of, The Crazy Makers: How the Food Industry Is Destroying Our Brains and Harming Our Children, said, “One liter of an aspartame-sweetened beverage can produce about fifty-six milligrams of methanol. When several of these beverages are consumed in a short period of time (one day, perhaps), as much as two hundred fifty milligrams of methanol are dumped into the bloodstream, or thirty-two times the EPA limit.”

            “What may happen, in the face of day-to-day, continuously high levels of sodium in the diet and the bloodstream, is that we experience a type of acute hypernatremia—not enough to kill us or cause the myelin sheath to lose its integrity, but enough to keep our sodium potassium pump slightly dysregulated and throw off the electrical system of the brain…. Americans drink soft drinks that are often loaded with more sodium and which further unbalance the mineral stores.”

            That’s not all. Soda pop in any drink destroys your body’s health balance.

            1. Soda can cause a decline in kidney function.

            In an 11-year-long Harvard Medical School study, including 3,318 women, researchers found that diet cola is linked with a two-fold increased risk for kidney decline. (Source: www .FoodRevolution .org)

            2. Soda increases diabetes risk.

            High levels of sugar in soda, places a lot of stress on your pancreas, potentially leaving it unable to keep up with the body’s need for insulin. Drinking one or two sugary drinks per day increases your risk for type 2 diabetes by 25%.

            At this time, diabetes races across the American population like the Kentucky Derby, but it kills our parents and kids.

            More than one quarter of seniors (ages 65 and older) have diabetes (25.9 percent, or 11 million seniors). Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for around $245 billion in medical costs and lost productivity each year.

            3. Caramel coloring in soda is linked to cancer.

            The artificial brown coloring in colas is a chemical process, it is not made from caramelized sugar. It is made by reacting sugars with ammonia and sulfites under high pressure and temperatures. These chemical reactions result in the formation of 2-methylimidazole (2-MI) and 4 methylimidazole (4-MI), which in government-conducted studies caused lung, liver, or thyroid cancer or leukemia in laboratory mice and rats.

            4. Soda increases obesity risk in children.

            Each additional soda or other sugary drink consumed per day increases the likelihood of a child becoming obese by about 60 percent. Sugary drinks are connected to other health problems as well. Have you looked across the American landscape lately? Seven out of ten Americans suffer from obesity to gross obesity. Our kids face a lifetime of ill health, poor self-concept and living with fat.

            5. Soda contains high amounts of sugar

            The average 20-ounce can of Coca Cola, Mountain Dew and Pepsi carry the equivalent of 17 teaspoons of sugar, it’s not hard to see that soda can be bad for your teeth and your overall health.

            6. Drinking more than one soda daily increases your risk for heart disease and metabolic syndrome.

            According to Ravi Dhingra, M.D., lead author of the study and an instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School states “If you are drinking one or more soft drinks a day, you may be increasing your risk of developing metabolic risk factors for heart disease.”

            The Framingham study included nearly 9,000 individuals, over a four-year period. Researchers found that individuals consuming one or more sodas a day had a 48 percent increased risk of metabolic syndrome compared to those consuming less than one soft drink daily.

            7. Diet soda does not help you lose weight.

            A University of Texas Health Science Center study found that the more diet sodas a person drank, the greater their risk of becoming overweight. Consuming two or more cans a day increased waistlines by 500 percent greater than those who do not consume diet soda.

            8. Diet sodas contain mold inhibitors.

            They go by the names sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate, and they’re used in nearly all diet sodas.

            “These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it – they knock it out altogether,” Peter Piper, a professor of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of Sheffield in the U.K., told a British newspaper. The preservative has also been linked to hives, asthma, and other allergic conditions, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

            Note: Some companies have phased out sodium benzoate. Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi have replaced it with another preservative, potassium benzoate. Both sodium and potassium benzoate were classified by the Food Commission in the UK as mild irritants to the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes.

            9. Sodas containing ascorbic acid and potassium benzoate can form benzene, a known carcinogen. – CANCER CAUSING.

            Benzene can form in beverages and foods that contain both ascorbic acid and potassium benzoate. According to the FDA, when benzoate is exposed to light and heat in the presence of vitamin C, it can be converted into benzene. According to the American Cancer Society, benzene is considered a carcinogen.

            In my research, I discovered another 10 deleterious aspects of Coke, Mountain Dew and Pepsi consumption. When you drink it, you poison your body. When you drink it over time, you poison yourself into multiple health consequences. What really makes me sick, mothers put Coke in the baby bottles.

            When you add the Diet Pop moniker to soda pop, you’re adding deadly aspartame, sucralose and other synthetic sugars. All of them cause horrible consequences to your body over time.

            What’s a good drink to consume all your life? Answer: cool, clear, clean and delicious WATER!

            ## CONNECTING THE DOTS 05-07-2018
            by: Frosty Wooldridge – ht tp://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Opinion/239705-2018-05-07-coke-mountain-dew-pepsi-poison-liquids-consumed-by-americans.htm?From=News

            • Next ……

      4. I’ll drop coverage if my premium goes up. Let them bring on whatever penalty. I don’t care. Can’t even use the insurance if I had to because it doesn’t cover even half of what it used to BEFORE Obamanation came along.

        • It truly is a waste, unless you get cancer, but then half the cancer meds are not covered.

      5. I do not know at what point all these great govt programs finally start a real collapse; but it is coming and trump has just helped speed it up signing the budget.

        Looks like the country is going to need another tax cut !

        • Lena,
          What Trump signed was a spending bill, not a budget. Interesting difference. Trump with a spending bill has a lot of latitude to spend money as he sees fit, or not spend it at all.

          Trump very legally can declare the border a national security issue and use the US military and military earmarked big money to build the wall.

          He can also choke out pork programs the bill calls out money for and just not spend it at all.

          Dollar for dollar, month by month, Trump has already substantially cut federal spending when compared with Obama spending for the same time frame since inauguration.

          Don’t be too quick to turn on Trump without checking the real numbers. Just because the MSN won’t tell you the truth, doesn’t mean the truth isn’t out there.

          Trump is draining the swamp. Believe me there have been more arrests for pediphilia, and human trafficking in the last year than there have been during the 8 years of Obama. The NY AG going down was no coincidence or accident. As Trump cleans house in high places, then certain agencies will start to work the way they were intended. Only then can the real cabal be taken down, otherwise these creeps like Hillary and Obama will just skate.

          I can tell you, the hundreds of arrests already made from NY to Hollywood would never have happened if Hillary had won. Harvey Weinstein would still be assaulting women on his casting couch, NY AG Schneiderman would still be assaulting and raping women, and America would be oblivious.

          There are well over 12,000 sealed Federal indictments on record by case number that we don’t know about, waiting for cases and evidence to be organized and perpetrators to be arrested, the few hundred you’ll find if you google the subject is just the tip of the iceberg. (In a normal year under Obama DOJ would produce perhaps a thousand indictments, under Trump in the same timeframe, over 10,000. This is big.).

        • They don’t collapse, they just go semi dormant.

      6. I’m a VA priority 5 for medical.
        My wifes medical insurance is about $14,000 per year.
        We get a subsidy for her.
        VA is trying to move me to priority 8
        due to some paperwork problems.
        They are really assholes!
        We are pretty healthy! Where is all that
        money going?
        Lawyers!

        • Re the VA,
          Interesting story, that Dr that Trump appointed to run the VA that was forced to withdraw would have also become Trumps Doctor. The doctor that wrote the hit piece that destroyed Trumps choice was Mike Pence’s Doctor, who was a woman.

          Forcing Trumps choice out, left her next in line to become Trumps personal Doctor. Now the story gets crazy, this woman Doctor turns out to be a member of that California sex cult in the news that was branding women. The same cult with the Smallville actress in the news, who was indicted for human sex trafficking of children.

          This nutty woman, who just days ago resigned, would have had close and intimate contact with POTUS. She potentially could have reported/leaked untrue damaging information, or just used her access in an assassination plot, or just rip her cloths off and run screaming out of the room, claiming Trump tried to rape her.

          I’m sorry for US Vets that Trumps qualified choice was taken out by a conspiracy between this nutty woman Doctor and a Trump hating congressman who runs VA oversight. These deep state creeps just don’t want things fixed, and in this case, we may have avoided an assassination attempt, or yet another fake news impeachment frame job.

          There are too many skimming money off the VA, and are drunk on the power they get by not providing proper care for vets. I suspect the bad VA care for vets is another way the deep state grooms and creates operatives for their false flag attacks and violent operations.

          This is yet another story that the MSM will never report.

        • I think the VA medical system should be abandoned.

          Give all our veterans Medicare, pay it at 100%, and let them go to any doctor they want to see.

          I had a 84 year old WWII veteran friend who went to the VA clinic once a month and got a vitamin B shot.

          He should have been going to his regular doctor for that.

      7. I had Liberty Health a Christain ministry. It cost $200 a month and covered everything I needed. I was very pleased with it. It doesn’t cover existing conditions. I’m on Medicare now. It’s important that people watch out for their health. Eat healthy exercise don’t smoke use as little medication as possible and use common sense.

        • 50% of your life time medical expenses happen in the last 6 months of your life.

      8. One of the medical cost sharing organizations is the way to go! We love ours!

      9. Tonsillectomy? Appendectomy? The only operation that is certain is a money-ectomy where they clean out your wallet and bank account.

        • My wife had her gall bladder removed. It cost $1800 with no insurance.

          If I had insurance, it would have still cost me $1800 because of the deductible.

      10. With premiums sky high and deductibles even higher, the only reason to keep this ponzi scheme insurance is because of the fear of living without it. Let go the fear…..

        • The only reason to keep it is cancer and the treatment will cost a million dollars.

          Other than that, it is a total waste of money.

      11. The good news is that obama’s DNC will pay the difference between the higher cost and $2500 less than what you used to pay!

        • only if you promise to vote Democrat in the next election…… at least five times.

      12. Fear is the ally of big government.

        Hell is coming soon .

      13. Give them an inch they’ll take your balls. Thanks capitulator in chief Obama.

        Never saw this coming (sarc).

        As an aside, no one cares if you go fucking die in the US. I would have thought the abortion rate would have made that shit crystal clear by now.

        Mind your own preventative health care accordingly, like I haven’t been… 9__9

        • They are only aborting black babies, so nobody cares about that.

      14. If you like your doctor you can suck my balls.

        Gimme your money healthy kids…

      15. One way to get sick and weak is to remove tonsils. Another filter is the appendix.

        Calcification, stones, and arthritis can be caused by a deficiency of boron.

        Mental illness can be caused by a deficiency of B-Vitamins, not enough healthy fats, too much sugar, not enough Iodine and selenium, not enough magnisum and calcium.

        Sunshine for at least 30 minutes per day is required to keep blood pressure normal. Sunshine does much more than just give us Vitamin-D. Lack of sunshine and lack of exercise causes depression, constipation, and obesity.

        The human body is designed to heal itself.

        Doctors are over rated. Take care of yourself. Educate yourself.

        Teach your children and send them to medical school or to some type of medical training. When you’re old, it is nice to have kids who are able to help you stay fit as a fiddle.

        _

      16. Todays Medical Doctors are nothing but licensed Drug Pushers paid off by Big Pharma. Skilled surgeons have a place. Primary care is a pill popping factory.

        Take responsibility for your own heath. Lifting weights does nothing but make your muscles larger. You need a few hours daily of real aerobic exercise getting your body warmed up and your heart working hard up to 200 beats a minute. Body building is a waste of time. Its body sculpture for looks and many cheat and start taking steroids to bulk up but is really destroying your inner body organs. Fotget lifting weights, go for a run or bikeride. The heart is the most important muscle to exercise.

        Tell a body builder to go for a run. The idiot will trip over his own feet. Body building is a false fitness. Unless you lift smaller weights but with faster repetitions. I was a competitive swimmer. Body builders who tried to swim was funny watching. They sunk to the bottom of the pool and had no flexibility.

        Swimmers got all the hot chicks. Just saying.. lol..

      17. My rate will go by 0%

      18. Never bought any health insurance. never will buy any. I turned down Medicare part B. They wouldn’t let me turn down Part A? stated it was free? then I get a letter informing me I am no longer a criminal because I have part A?

      19. We need to rid ourselves of unnecessary middlemen{Health Insurance companies)

        • What a stupid comment. Let me help you out a bit. It is the government that is unnecessary and the root of the problem.

      20. “Obamacare Premiums May Soar As Much As 91% Next Year”

        WONDERFUL!
        Give Americans what they wanted and give it to them good and hard. Hopefully premiums will rise double digits every single year. The faster this turd implodes the better.

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