Possible ObamaCare "Solution": Give Insurance Companies A Blank Check On US Treasury

I'm not sure if this was already posted among the blizzard of ObamaCare FAIL stories but this is a stunning notion.

One of the big problems with the "website" is that people can't accurately calculate their tax subsidy. So the insurance companies have a helpful solution...they'll calculate it for customers. Except, there's a catch in their proposal.

According to a Washington Post report that ran over the weekend, one of those options would involve relying on the insurers to handle enrollment directly. Right now, health plans can manage most of the application process on their own. But they can’t complete all the steps, because they can’t connect with the federal government system that determines whether an individual is eligible for government subsidies. Even if they could connect with it directly, it’s not clear that the subsidy calculation system is working reliably enough to be useful.

So the insurers have suggested a temporary measure: Let the insurers estimate the subsidies on their own. Any estimates that are too low would be reimbursable, and any estimates that are too high, the insurers would get to keep. In other words, the federal government, backed by taxpayers, would be on the hook for their bad estimates.

So if the insurance companies estimate the subsidy at the low end the feds will make up the difference. If they over estimate the subsidy the insurance company will keep the difference because....yeah. I don't know.

Remember, Obama is the guy who railed against greedy insurance companies and still is pretending that every individual policy they sold was junk and a ripoff. Now he might have to find a way to bail them out.

Hope and Change!

I want to play poker with these rules. If I win a hand the money is mine but if you win I get to take my bets back. I'm all in on that one!

Now to be clear this is a report of a suggested arrangement but that something this asinine is even being floated shows how screwed up the situation is and how people are getting the sense that Obama will just start throwing your money at his problem.

Something to keep in mind here, stuff like this will get tossed around because the people they are trying to help isn't simply the uninsured, it's the people who had insurance, liked it and couldn't keep it. These innocent bystanders are going to be pissed (and rightly so). It's going to be hard for anyone, including the GOP, to resist doing something to help them. Especially in an an election year.

Related(ish)...Bill Clinton says, gee Obama really needs to find a way to keep that promise he made to people who had insurance. The divergence in Clinton/Obama interests begins.

posted by DrewM. at 10:19 AM

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