Are We Letting Our Politics Cloud Our Judgement?

[kahlestyle]

a few gin's in, i'll play devils's advocate, so bear with me...

this forum is riddled with the opinion that ACA is an idiotic, cumbersome, meant to fail, beurocratic govt takeover, cut the agent out facilitator, cynically wait to the last minute to announce commish rates that piss us off, filled with unintended consequences, too expensive, driving dr's to retire, natl debt crushing, nation dividing, blaab of 1500 pages stuffed through our 8 yr old noses in the middle of the night with bribes and lies by what roger waters had in mind with his mother character in pink floyd's the wall

if we believe most of, some of,or all of the above, then

why wont this thing implode before we are put out of business?

or, as the title suggests, are we letting our politcs cloud our judgement and this thing actually work?

 

[Ann H]

a few gin's in, i'll play devils's advocate, so bear with me...

this forum is riddled with the opinion that ACA is an idiotic, cumbersome, meant to fail, beurocratic govt takeover, cut the agent out facilitator, cynically wait to the last minute to announce commish rates that piss us off, filled with unintended consequences, too expensive, driving dr's to retire, natl debt crushing, nation dividing, blaab of 1500 pages stuffed through our 8 yr old noses in the middle of the night with bribes and lies by what roger waters had in mind with his mother character in pink floyd's the wall

if we believe most of, some of,or all of the above, then

why wont this thing implode before we are put out of business?

or, as the title suggests, are we letting our politcs cloud our judgement and this thing actually work?

We can win either way. If it implodes on the launchpad, we've spent an awful lot of time & capital preparing for a market campaign that never happened. But people still need health insurance. A lot of agents have left the field, and there are many prospects ready to buy. If it works, there are more prospects ready to buy. Some of it has worked already (like children insured to age 26), and some of it imploded (like PCIP). Well, I guess you could say PCIP both worked (by insuring the unhealthy) and also imploded!

 

[Josh]

The real answer is that this "healthcare reform" is just "health insurance regulation adjustments". It doesn't address the root issues of the cost of care and the ineffectiveness of our healthcare delivery model.

Guaranteed issue doesn't work. We already know this. We can look to states where we've done this already and see the results. New York for example, rates are astronomical, folks just don't buy individual coverage.

I'm saying all of this as an agent that has never sold group or individual health. Insurance agents and health insurance companies are really just the folks financing the cost of healthcare, not really the ones impacting it's costs. That said, if you take a look at the kaiser model (I have kaiser), they're lightyears ahead of where our system is today.

 

[Yagents]

It all implodes when the chinese stop lending us money, or the fed stops printing funny money. It will go through, it will be modified in future years, and it will be the reason why unemployment will stay at elevated levels.

 

[Justin Bilyj]

Soon it will be like Australia, crippled with debt, the children have to pay taxes on the benefits they receive, waiting months to see a doctor or hear back from them for a test.

 

[xrac]

Soon it will be like Australia, crippled with debt, the children have to pay taxes on the benefits they receive, waiting months to see a doctor or hear back from them for a test.

This is where we are headed and no one will be better off. In trying to fix things they will destroy instead.

 

[Yagents]

Past client of mine response to an email I sent to him. Representative of the real world affects of O'care, and the mindset to just pay the penalty, and get insurance after they get sick:

Obamacare has already hit us. My wife found a job and her hours were cut from 39 hrs/week to 25 in 2013 so that she would not be considered a full time employee under Obamacare and thus incurring more penalties for the company.

Obamacare will again hit us in 2014 since we are both healthy and have been fine without any health care for a couple of decades, we will then be forced to pay a penalty to continue to not buy a product we feel we probably don't
need.

On the positive side, if we incur an expensive condition, we will be able to jump into the health care market without being excluded for a pre-existing condition. So we'll most likely wait for health coverage until then.

 

[Ann H]

Let's hope they don't get that expensive condition on February 1st.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

I would imagine most states will follow MAs lead and establish open enrollment periods. So sitting out then grabbing a plan when you need it won't work out too well.

 

[taterpeeler]

I would imagine most states will follow MAs lead and establish open enrollment periods. So sitting out then grabbing a plan when you need it won't work out too well.

john, the process was decided months ago... there is an AEP and in some cases an SEP...... choosing to stay out is NOT an SEP