Tweet
Obamacare: Sicker Than We Thought
American Thinker
William J. Tate
4/25/2014
Excerpt:
For far too long, opponents of the Affordable Care Act focused on a malfunctioning website, which is akin to complaining that a guillotine's blade isn't sharp enough. The process doesn't really matter, if folks end up with their heads on platters.
Even as Barack Obama does a NASCAR-like victory lap, claiming 8 million enrollees (Full disclosure: the author is one of the folks who have health insurance through the exchange. Or maybe he's six people, having had to fill out an application several times to get through the enrollment process.), there are ominous portents for his multi-trillion-dollar "signature" program. Mr. Obama might want to check the lug nuts before he spins another donut.
Early reports show that folks signing up for health insurance through ACA exchanges are less healthy than expected, and that the high cost of medications they'll need will put additional strains on the ACA's unrealistically optimistic budget.
Consensus has been that, for the exchanges to work, not only young, but young and healthy folks would have to sign up in hefty numbers, paying for the needs of the less healthy. That apparently isn't happening.
Recent numbers from the Gallup Organization show that only 37% of folks signing up for new insurance on the exchanges reported that they were in excellent or very good health, compared to 50% of the general public.
Gallup's numbers are backed up by a report in the Inside Health Exchanges industry newsletter. "Based on preliminary pharmacy data from two large pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), exchange enrollees appear to be less healthy than are people covered by individual policies sold outside of the exchanges. And that could translate to more costs for carriers once those members reach their out-of-pocket maximums."
The Inside Health Exchanges (HEX) report continued:
Or, as Gallup notes:
Thus, early indications are that the health of, and subsequent costs for, exchange enrollees are worse than anticipated.
..........................................
View the complete article at:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/...e_thought.html
American Thinker
William J. Tate
4/25/2014
Excerpt:
For far too long, opponents of the Affordable Care Act focused on a malfunctioning website, which is akin to complaining that a guillotine's blade isn't sharp enough. The process doesn't really matter, if folks end up with their heads on platters.
Even as Barack Obama does a NASCAR-like victory lap, claiming 8 million enrollees (Full disclosure: the author is one of the folks who have health insurance through the exchange. Or maybe he's six people, having had to fill out an application several times to get through the enrollment process.), there are ominous portents for his multi-trillion-dollar "signature" program. Mr. Obama might want to check the lug nuts before he spins another donut.
Early reports show that folks signing up for health insurance through ACA exchanges are less healthy than expected, and that the high cost of medications they'll need will put additional strains on the ACA's unrealistically optimistic budget.
Consensus has been that, for the exchanges to work, not only young, but young and healthy folks would have to sign up in hefty numbers, paying for the needs of the less healthy. That apparently isn't happening.
Recent numbers from the Gallup Organization show that only 37% of folks signing up for new insurance on the exchanges reported that they were in excellent or very good health, compared to 50% of the general public.
Gallup's numbers are backed up by a report in the Inside Health Exchanges industry newsletter. "Based on preliminary pharmacy data from two large pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), exchange enrollees appear to be less healthy than are people covered by individual policies sold outside of the exchanges. And that could translate to more costs for carriers once those members reach their out-of-pocket maximums."
The Inside Health Exchanges (HEX) report continued:
During the first two months of 2014, exchange enrollees were more likely to use costly specialty drugs when compared to those with coverage outside of the exchanges, according to preliminary claims data released April 9 by Express Scripts. The analysis evaluated 650,000 pharmacy claims for public exchange enrollees and other commercial members from Jan. 1 through Feb. 28. According to the early data, six of the 10 costliest medications used by exchange enrollees were specialty drugs versus four of the top 10 used by commercial health plan enrollees….
...Prime Therapeutics has seen similar results. Compared to its commercial book of business through February, the PBM says new individual enrollees had twice as many 90-day prescriptions as would be expected in an average commercial book of business…
...While people with chronic and complex conditions were expected to enroll in coverage through the exchanges, (Express Scripts vice president of healthcare) Julie Huppert tells HEX the early prescription drug usage was higher than anticipated.
...Prime Therapeutics has seen similar results. Compared to its commercial book of business through February, the PBM says new individual enrollees had twice as many 90-day prescriptions as would be expected in an average commercial book of business…
...While people with chronic and complex conditions were expected to enroll in coverage through the exchanges, (Express Scripts vice president of healthcare) Julie Huppert tells HEX the early prescription drug usage was higher than anticipated.
Or, as Gallup notes:
The intent of the individual mandate, broadly speaking, was to bring healthy people -- with their lower probability of needing to use their insurance -- into the healthcare system. A strong skew among the newly insured toward healthier Americans has apparently not yet materialized.
Thus, early indications are that the health of, and subsequent costs for, exchange enrollees are worse than anticipated.
..........................................
View the complete article at:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/...e_thought.html