Governor Dayton admits Obama care is a flaming goat rodeo.
On its surface, the story is about one of the most left of center governors in America throwing Obamacare under the bus. And that’s all interesting, don’t get me wrong.
But the governor – and depressed it’s been covering for him for six years – is counting on you,or at least the mainstream Minnesota medias audience,forgetting a few things. He overrode the legislatures decision to get out of the Obama care exchanges. Then, he presided over one of the two or three most botched attempts to build an exchange. MNSure’s gestation was protracted, obscenely costly, and a technical nightmare. And for all that, the products that delivers – with soaring prices, ballooning deductibles and lower availability and choice – are worse.
The media coverage of the governors admission that the Minnesota state exchange, and Obamacare itself, has worked out very badly, tends to portray the governor as a kindly but well meeting fellowadmitting that his ministration’s signature product has had some teething problems.
It’s much, much worse than that.
Before Obamacare and MNSure, Minnesota had the best level of health insurance in the United States; between public and private plans, 92% of the states population was covered..
Proponents of the state/federal plans claim that number is up to 96%, today. And that maybe true – but more and more people are hanging onto that insurance – policies much bigger than they need, with higher premiums, and deductibles that in many cases will bankrupt families (What, you could pay her $12,000 a year deductible, along with 20% coinsurance?)
And people wonder why the media obsesses about things Donald Trump said on the TV 11 years ago…
Here’s your October surprise, Minnesota. There is a treasure trove of smarmy quotes from smug Democrat Reps and Sens out there, just waiting to be cut and pasted into ads.
Using reprobate leftists’ own words to beat them to the floor is so easy, even Emery could do it.
Earlier I heard what serves as the neutral observer of politics on the Evil Neighbor, Blois Olson, say that since these increases only affect 5% of the population, it likely won’t have any impact on the elections.
Looking forward to him using that observation regarding the idea that the Government Church is requiring businesses, schools & all other public places to undo millennia of cultural norms, biological science and plumbing code to accommodate ‘trans’ people who represent less than 1/10 of 1% of the population in a state where ‘trans’ people are far over-represented compared to our neighboring states.
I dropped insurance through work four years ago because I couldn’t afford it AND my mortgage. My wife found a better option on the individual market. Next year, we might have to go back to that same employer based plan. 4 years of switching plans to keep our premium increases below 50% and deductibles affordable while having kids is no longer affordable.
When people figure out you don’t need insurance until you get sick, and there’s no barrier to getting it once you are sick, some large fraction of the state population will simply drop it.
I do contract work so buy my own insurance. After a 33% increase last year, I was notified yesterday that for 2017, it is increasing another 40%. And this is for insurance I never use. Cash is very tight right now, so I have to make some decsions.
Maybe related…..latest poll shows Ron Johnson close to Ol’Rusty Feingold in Wisconsin. Johnson is a moderate-conservative with a good track record in business. Feingold is one of the key players in getting Obamacare passed.
Related to the healthcare thing….. Communist Party USA (as they support it)……Mark Ritchie was the keynote speaker at an event of theirs at the Mayday bookstore in Minneapolis, and Al Frankin and Mark Dayton have been chummy with the head of their Minnesota/Dakota division. There is a web site that seems so over the top, that I want to make sure it isn’t a parady site.
To me, it seems no coincidence that Dayton made this announcement a day after Allina and the nurse’s union reached a deal at the Governor’s residence. I’ve suspected the strike was more about the union’s push for a single payer health care system. Given some of the people on Alina’s board, I’ve also suspected Allina was aligned with that position as well. Obamacare isn’t affordable, but I certainly hope Democrats aren’t the ones to further “fix” insurance issues.
Obamacare isn’t affordable, but I certainly hope Democrats aren’t the ones to further “fix” insurance issues.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes expects the GOP to help “fix” it, despite the party-line vote that it passed under: http://twitchy.com/sd-3133/2016/10/04/forget-it-pal-chris-hayes-would-love-to-see-the-gop-do-what-now/ .
All lined up for my prediction that Dayton will resign after the election to atone for his shameful performance. And to allow his Lt. Gov. to run as the incumbent.
Mitch: If you plan to run a longer story on this I am happy to help. You know I am an insider on this particular issue. As I predicted years ago, this is playing out exactly as I explained to people. The goodies are all loaded on the front end. That piece is now coming to an end. The new phase is starting. The press will start villifying the health insurance companies (read Mark Dayton’s full statement). The evil insurance companies will be accused of gouging. Yet as an insider I read their information with a unique knowledge. In many cases these insurance companies are paying out $1.20 in medical costs to doctors, hospitals, chiros, etc. for every premium dollar they are taking in due to the mandates of the ACA. So they are getting out of that market. You can’t sustain that level of loss and stay in business. An insurance company needs a little margin as well. The state mandates 6.6% for admin costs but at the level mentioned above, they sustain a 20 cent loss on every dollar of revenue before they can even pay the 6.6 cents of admin. You can’t stay in business.
Right after passage of the ACA, many people (myself included) said that this was passage of socialized medicine. The “fact checkers” declared such statements to be the biggest lie of the year. Baloney. The analogy that I used was that the ACA was basically a freight train of socialized medicine coming at us. The fact checkers were “correct” that the first years were not the actual freight train. But a freight train needs a solid set of tracks built on a solid roadbed. The first few years were merely the survey teams going out into the wilderness. Todays news is just proof that the surveys are done, the roadbed is being prepared. Somewhere there is an engineer being educated on how to get those diesels running and a steel plant is making long iron rails. It’s a coming folks, the freight train is coming. And you will not believe how expensive free medicine will become.
By the way, Medicaid will be paying for gender reassignment surgery for the first time next year. Whoops. Sorry. It’s been renamed. It is now gender CONFIRMATION surgery. You can’t just be tolerant any more you must be celebratory. I am not making this up. The surgery has been renamed.
Your buddy,
PassOut
My price for a quart of distilled liquor will be 1500 rounds of .223 ammunition, 500 fresh batteries or a case of canned goods.
Just in case anyone was wondering.
At least a flaming goat rodeo would be funny. This is just fucking sad and depressing
Oh, come on, POD, cheer up. You’re a lock to be a member on one of those death panels they assured us wouldn’t happen.
Nuts pulled up very tight in anticipation of what comes next.
“Forget my past failures. I’m only marginally stupid today.” – M. Dayton.
Swiftee: I want the battery concession if HIllary wins and decides to flex our international muscle.