#rsrh QotD: Health Care DOOM edition.

The Washington Examiner’s Chris Stirewalt, on the fallout of Obamacare:

There was no health care bounce. In fact, there has been something of a health care swoon.

Use of ‘fallout’ deliberate, by the way: there was a big explosion that wrecked the immediate landscape, followed by a poisonous rain that will make everything it touches radioactive for the next couple of years – but still can be cleaned up, provided that people are willing to work at getting rid of all the contaminated bits.

One thought on “#rsrh QotD: Health Care DOOM edition.”

  1. MA looks like it’s in nuclear winter from a more localized event. (via Foxt Valley Initiative) A Boston Globe article highlights the mess there.

    The confusion — or market chaos, as one insurance industry official called it — followed the state Division of Insurance’s rejection last week of 235 of 274 premium increases proposed by insurers. The increases were for policies covering what is known as the small group market, which includes more than 800,000 people across Massachusetts.

    Insurance Commissioner Joseph G. Murphy said he has asked insurers to quote rates for new coverage through the state’s Health Connector website by week’s end, and reminded them that they are required by law to do so. The new quotes would use base rates set last year, plus additional factors such as the age and size of a company’s workforce, Murphy said.

    Of course…liberal fantasy-believers say things like

    Insurance industry critics said the inability of new customers to buy insurance, even for a few days, is troubling. “This really is a violation of the fundamental principles of health care reform in Massachusetts, which is the universal availability of insurance,’’ said Brian Rosman, research director at Health Care for All, a Boston consumer advocacy group.

    and the state gets to set the business model..

    Health insurers, however, said they could not calculate new rates until a judge rules on their request for an injunction to prevent the state from continuing to block increases for the coverage period that started April 1. Insurance carriers had proposed premium rate increases averaging 8 to 32 percent, which the state found excessive. The case is expected to go before a Superior Court judge in Boston as early as tomorrow.

    “We’re in limbo until the issue gets resolved,’’ said Lora Pellegrini, president of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, a trade group representing most of the state’s insurance companies. “There are no approved rates in the market right now. You’re seeing the first sign of the kind of market chaos we were worried about.’’

    There’s much more. It seems the state is trying to mandate the insurance compaines into oblivian. And Obama points to this as a model for the federal program. Free radicals are going to lead to lots of collateral damage.

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