Watching Greece teeter on the verge on economic collapse may feel like they are staring into the future. After all, the debt crisis was precipitated by the left wing Greek government promising its citizens outlandish benefits without cost or consequences. Now those false promises are colliding with reality.
Here in Arizona, we are just a few years removed from the President proclaiming that his health care plan would save families $2500 a year, and that if you liked your health care plan, you could keep it. Democrats even boldly named the law the “Affordable Care Act.” Unfortunately, reality is starting to set in.
Arizonans and small businesses will now see rate hikes as high as 27% next year. And we’re the lucky ones. Oregon’s Insurance Commissioner just approved rate hikes as high as 38% a few days ago, while residents of Minnesota and New Mexico could see their rates jump by over 50%. And this is just the beginning. With underwriting essentially a thing of the past, and costs of health care continuing to skyrocket, double digit rate increases are the only certainty surrounding Obamacare in the years to come.
Health insurance companies know this all too well. That’s why you are seeing so many mergers take place across the industry. Not just blockbuster mergers like Aetna and Humana, but also countless smaller insurers, as Jake Novak points out, in order to better absorb the staggering costs. Also, with less competition, and fewer choices for consumers, rate hikes become easier to push year after year – especially as the IRS “penalty” for being uninsured becomes more and more draconian.
This is also pushing more people onto Medicaid at a staggering rate, more than any state government can either afford or manage in the near future.
This is government run health care. This is our future if we don’t fight to change it. Massive taxes, staggering amounts of debt, and skyrocketing health care costs and premiums on a middle class that is further pushed to the brink.
Just ask the Greeks.
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