In part due to Trump sabotage
Obamacare
premiums to soar in 2018
By
Kate Randall
4 November 2017
Open enrollment for 2018 Obamacare plans began November 1 and runs
to December 15, half as much time as in previous years of operation. Cutting
the enrollment time is one of the ways the Trump administration has sought to
sabotage the Affordable Care Act (ACA), despite the numerous failures of the
Republican-controlled Congress to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, a central
Trump campaign pledge.
A new study by Avalere Health finds that premiums for mid-level
silver plans, among the most widely chosen, will increase by 34 percent next
year. The health care consulting firm says the projected increases are due to
changes to the ACA by the Trump administration, lower than expected enrollment,
and further insurer departures from the ACA marketplace.
“Plan are raising premiums in 2018 to account for market
uncertainty and the federal government’s failure to pay for cost-sharing
reductions (CSR),” said Caroline Pearson, Avalere senior vice president, in a
press release. CSR reimbursements to low-income individuals and families, used
to offset some out-of-pocket costs, were canceled October 12 by Trump. The
threat of the CSR cutoff caused private insurers on the ACA exchanges to raise
premiums to cover their potential losses from having to pay out the
reimbursements themselves.
An average additional 3 to 4 percentage points increase in
premiums was charged by insurers to compensate for the prospect that the
administration wouldn’t strictly enforce the individual mandate, which requires
people to purchase insurance or pay a fine. Without the mandate, younger,
healthier people were expected to exit the exchanges, leaving an older, less
healthy customer base, more costly to insure.
The Kaiser Family Fund (KFF) found that among ACA exchanges in
states run by the federal government, gross premiums (before subsidies are
applied) will increase an average 17 percent for the lowest-cost bronze plan
and 35 percent for the lowest-cost silver plan. Many states allowed insurers to
offload the premium increases resulting from the ending of the CSR payments
onto silver plans, which are the benchmark for determining premium subsidies
(which are separate from CSRs).
As an unintended result of Trump axing the CSRs, KFF says,
“enrollees will see much higher premium tax credits,” and gold plans, which are
a step above silver, will actually be more easily attainable, and some bronze
plans may even work out to be free, after the subsidy is supplied.
According to a report on 2018 premiums by the Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS) issued Monday, the average monthly premium for the
silver benchmark plan will increase by 37 percent for a typical 27-year-old, to
$411 a month. However, the average subsidy will increase by 45 percent, to
$555.
It should be remembered, however, that even if the cost to
enrollees is lowered, the higher-premium tax credit subsidies go to the private
insurance companies, whose participation in the Obamacare marketplace is
completely voluntary and based on whether or not they are able to turn a big
profit. Obamacare has never been about reforming health care in the interest of
ordinary Americans, but in cutting costs for corporations and the government
while rationing care and services.
In 2018, the most vulnerable population group will be households
that are ineligible for subsidies, typically because they earn more than 400
percent of the federal poverty level ($98,400 for a family of four this year.)
This segment accounts for about 16 percent of total ACA enrollments, or as many
as 2 million people.
The HHS report shows that insurers are continuing to pull back
from the exchange market, with 132 insurers in 2018 compared with 167 in 2017.
Eight states—Alaska, Delaware, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South
Carolina and Wyoming—will have only one insurer in the individual exchange
market in 2018.
According to the Avalere study, there will be significant
variation across the states in relation to premium increases, with Iowa seeing
the highest jump in average silver premiums, 69 percent over 2017, while Alaska
will see a decrease in premiums of 22 percent.
Consumers are also much less informed about the options available
on the Obamacare marketplace this enrollment period. The Trump administration
has cut advertising for signing people up by 90 percent, and funding for
in-person assistance—or “navigators”—has been slashed by 40 percent. According
to Vox.com, one pro-Obamacare advocate estimates that under the best-case
scenario, 1.1 million fewer people will be enrolled in health coverage through
the ACA next year.
In a parallel development, new information shows that the
affordability of employer health plans for low-income families has deteriorated
under Obamacare. Writing in Forbes,
Chris Conover writes that employer-sponsored health insurance premiums have
risen faster than the average income for low-income families under Obamacare.
For families in the bottom fifth of income distribution,
employer-sponsored insurance coverage costs have risen by about 15 percent
since 2010. Obamacare regulations requires that large employers offer more
costly benefits covering essential services. However, unlike those in the ACA
exchanges, low-wage workers at such firms are offered zero assistance in
purchasing this coverage.
Having staved off a “repeal” of Obamacare, congressional Democrats
have no concern for working to improve the health care of ordinary Americans,
instead placing their efforts on investigating alleged Russian meddling in the
2016 elections and holding congressional hearings of “extremist content” on the
Internet in an effort to legitimize censorship and attack free speech.
They are still open to a “compromise” to “fix” Obamacare, which
means shoring up the insurance companies. This has nothing to do with extending
insurance coverage to the 29 million Americans who remain uninsured nearly
eight years after Obamacare was signed into law, and the millions more who
stand to lose coverage and benefits with a repeal of Obamacare and attacks on
funding to Medicaid and Medicare.
Big Democratic donors are more interested in putting their money
into the effort to increase Democratic seats in Congress in the 2018 mid-term
elections and putting a Democrat in the White House in 2020.
OXFAM reported that during Obama’s terms, 95% of the wealth created went to the top 1% of the world’s wealthy.
SOARING POVERTY AND DRUG ADDICTION UNDER OBAMA
SOARING POVERTY AND DRUG ADDICTION UNDER OBAMA
OPIOID ADDICTION IN AMERICA:
BOOK:
THE DEATH GAP: INEQUALITY IS KILLING AMERICA!
CALL IT OBAMA-CLINTONOMICS OR TRUMPERNOMICS FOR THE SUPER RICH!
Global Hunger Index highlights South Asia’s social misery
By Saman Gunadasa
3 November 2017
The 2017 Global Hunger Index (GHI), released last month by the International Food Policy Research Institute, reported that “millions of people” worldwide are “experiencing chronic hunger” and “many places are suffering acute food crises and even famine.”
The report singled out South Asia and African countries south of the Sahara as the regions worst affected. Their overall GHI scores, which measure total undernourishment and stunting, wasting and mortality among children under five years of age, were 30.9 and 29.4 respectively.
A score of 100 indicates complete food insecurity across a population, while zero would show food security. GHI figures above 20 point to “serious” food shortages. Scores of more than 35 indicate an “alarming” food situation, and readings over 50 demonstrate an “extremely alarming” crisis.
The Central African Republic was in the extremely alarming range. Other African countries, including Chad, Liberia, Madagascar, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Zambia, were in the alarming range.
India, which accounts for three quarters of the South Asian population, ranked 100 out of 119 countries for food security. Pakistan was 106, while Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka ranked 107, 88 and 84 respectively.
Child undernutrition in South Asia, measured by child stunting and child wasting, was higher than in the worst-hit areas of Africa.
India’s GHI score was 31.4, at the high end of the serious category. Some 38 percent of Indian children suffered from stunting, where height growth is limited by insufficient caloric intake.
The report cited recent survey findings showing that only 9.6 percent of Indian infants aged 6-23 months receive an adequate diet. Just 42.7 percent of babies are introduced to the complementary food they require after breast feeding. Only 48.4 percent of all households have access to sufficient sanitation facilities.
The figures underscore the poverty-stricken living conditions of the vast majority of the population, comprised of sweatshop workers, low-paid contract employees and the oppressed rural masses. Some 800 million people subsist on less than $2 a day.
Their plight contrasts with the unprecedented riches gorged by the top end of Indian society.
According to Forbes’ 2017 global wealth rankings, there are 100 Indian billionaires. Only the United States, China and Russia are home to a greater number. India’s richest 1 percent own a staggering 58.4 percent of the country’s wealth, according to 2016 figures from the Credit Suisse Research Institute.
That data also indicated that 80 percent of adults in India and Africa are in the bottom half of global wealth distribution. The poorest half of the world’s population owns less than 1 percent of total wealth, compared to the top 10 percent, which controls 89 percent.
The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) fiscal affairs director, Victor Gaspar, told reporters last month: “If we look at inequality country by country, we realise that most people around the world live in countries where inequality has increased. It is important to emphasise that inequality has increased in the largest countries in the world: China, India and the United States.”
The Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is imposing a deeply-unpopular program that is exacerbating the wealth divide. Its demonetisation scheme, introduced at the end of last year, has driven down the incomes of workers and the poor. A new Goods and Services Tax is further eroding the wages of the most exploited workers.
Sri Lanka’s score in the global hunger index increased from 24.2 in 2008 to 25.5 this year. Undernourishment, child stunting and child mortality registered minimal declines. Child wasting, however, where physical weight is limited by insufficient food intake, soared from 13.3 percent in 2006-2010, to 21.4 percent in 2012-2016.
According to the latest 2016 statistics, poverty has increased sharply in the war-ravaged northern and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. The percentage of the population living in poverty in Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Mullaithivu and Kilinochchi districts was 10, 11.3, 12.7 and 18.2 percent respectively.
The Sri Lankan government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is imposing IMF demands for the privatisation of state-owned enterprises, a dramatic reduction in government spending and stepped-up attacks on the working class.
Pakistan registered the second-highest GHI figure in South Asia, at 32.6, while the figure for Afghanistan, devastated by a 16-year US military occupation, was 33.3. Figures for child stunting in Pakistan have risen by 5 percent since 2010, to 45 percent in total. One-fifth of the entire population is undernourished.
Elsewhere in the region, the food situation in Bangladesh is “serious,” with a GHI reading of 26.4.
In Nepal, 8.1 percent of the population is undernourished. Some 37.4 percent of children under five are stunted. The mortality rate for children in that age group is 3.6 percent.
While the vast majority of South Asia’s people are suffering malnutrition or food insecurity, governments throughout the region are allocating billions of dollars to their armed forces. This is in preparation to suppress social opposition and participate in mounting geo-political conflicts.
India, which is playing a central role in the US-led plans for war against China, increased its military spending by 10 percent this year, to an annual total of 2.74 trillion Indian rupees ($US42 billion). Pakistan’s 2017-18 military budget is 7 percent higher than the previous year, at 920.2 billion Pakistan rupees ($US8.7 billion).
According to the World Bank, India spends 2.5 percent of its gross domestic product on the military, Pakistan 3.6 percent and Sri Lanka 2.4 percent. In other words, the region’s governments can find money for war, but have no solution to the social misery afflicting the masses.
OPERATION OBOMB:
DESTABALIZE AMERICA TO LAY GROUNDS FOR A MUSLIM-STYLE DICTATORSHIP
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/08/seth-barron-obama-and-building-of.html
“Obama’s new home in Washington has been described as the “nerve center” of the anti-Trump opposition. Former attorney general Eric Holder has said that Obama is “ready to roll” and has aligned himself with the “resistance.” Former high-level Obama campaign staffers now work with a variety of groups organizing direct action against Trump’s initiatives. “Resistance School,” for example, features lectures by former campaign executive Sara El-Amine, author of the Obama Organizing .”
OBAMA’S CRONY BANKSTERISM destroyed a TRILLION DOLLARS in home equity… and they’re still plundering us!
Barack Obama created more debt for the middle class than any president in US
history, and also had the only huge QE programs: $4.2 Trillion.
OXFAM reported that during Obama’s terms, 95% of the wealth created went to the top 1% of the world’s wealthy.
TRUMP OFFERS VICTIMS OF HARVEY AND IRMA $15 BILLION or about HALF of what California hands their Mexican welfare state!
IS IT YET TIME TO REBUILD AMERICAN AND END THE BUILDING AND REBUILDING OF MUSLIM DICTATORSHIPS OVER THERE?
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