“If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor … If you like your coverage, you can keep your coverage.” Barack Obama repeatedly offered these promises to audiences across the US in campaigning for ObamaCare, but Ron Williams, CEO of Aetna, begs to differ
Will insurance premiums go up?
The answer is yes, and some of the things that will drive those premiums are significant additional taxes the industry will ultimately have to pay in the first year.
The President said that this bill would not have any impact on people who already had coverage, that it was about the uninsured, that there would be no change. Will this legislation change the coverage of people who are already paying for it?
My perception is, yes, things will change. You might not have a plan that includes the exact same doctors. You might have plans that have richer benefits, and therefore you’re going to pay more for benefits you may or may not want. It would have been a better message to say, we’re going to make certain you maintain your eligibility.
Williams also expressed disappointment in the demonization of insurers during the ObamaCare debate. Aetna employs over 35,000 people in that industry, and they certainly don’t see themselves as villains. Although he doesn’t mention it, Williams had to have found himself a bit nonplussed over all the hyperbole about industry profiteering, too, with the health-insurance industry’s average of two to six points of annual margin.
That brings us to Williams’ assessment of the industry after ObamaCare. One reason that people may have fewer choices in health insurance — and why they may lose their doctor or plan — is because smaller insurers won’t survive. The new mandates and the expenses incurred by insurers that didn’t plan for them will swamp them in a sea of red ink. Williams sees these insurers with their boutique plans as endangered species, who will either get swallowed whole by larger companies and their plans discontinued, or will succumb to bankruptcy and fail outright.
As Jim Geraghty
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/03/29/aetna-ceo-warns-expect-price-hikes-bankruptcies-and-policy-changes/
Comment: Of course rates will go up-we are not explaining why and this is precisely what Obama expects to happen. They are going to go up because of the additional insurance requirements placed upon companies-for example, they have to absorb the 30 million new uninsured; they have to accept those who cost significantly more, those with already pre-existing conditions. It is one thing to say how caring it is to finally offer insurance to these folks, it is another thing to understand the cost involved. People love to make companies out to be evil, they love to demonstrate how empathetic and sensitive they are to the plight of others and they never tell us how to pay for it. They think there is an endless pot of money available to pay for this-folks, there is not money tree qnd it is time to grow up. There is a much saner way to fix what is broken with health care. It is not with Obama's plan!
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