ObamaCare: Capitalism At Its Best?

That's what MrGrassroots thinks over at allvoices.  He's talking about ObamaCare.

Health care stocks are even outperforming all the gold indexes. Gold is considered a safe "hedge" against bad economic times but this year, the "S&P Gold -Equity Spread Index," is down as much as 46.23 percent. That compared to a 42.42 percent rise in the "S&P 500 Health Care Index."

The end of the rally for the Dow and other major stock market indexes is not in sight, according to stock market history. Another bullish sign, Reuters notes, is that December is traditionally the best month for both the Dow and the S&P and has been since 1950.

Perhaps the Fox News crowd, the mouthpiece for the right, will have to find another label for Obamacare. It certainly isn't "socialized medicine."

Perhaps it is "capitalism at its best."

It's more like crony capitalism at its worst.  

Take a quick glance at ObamaCare’s busted multimillion-dollar website and the 3.5 million health insurance cancelation notices hitting American mailboxes and you might be tempted to dub the whole thing a disaster. But it’s not -- at least not for the politically-connected crony companies and big money Obama fundraisers poaching your tax dollars to fix the debacle they helped create.

As CNBC recently put it: “Thanks to ObamaCare, the health-care industry is going to get a big makeover during the coming years and venture capitalists have wasted no time looking for ways to cash in.” Put simply, ObamaCare’s complexity and catastrophic rollout create rivers of cash for Obama’s cronies.

Big insurance put its bet on ObamaCare and hit the trifecta:  massive profits all but guaranteed by an individual mandate and healthcare law subsidies for insurers who might suffer a loss, a made to order exit from the risky individual market, and protection against the forces of competition.  ObamaCare makes theirs a captive market sending profits through the roof.  What's not to like?

But cracking open the champagne may be a bit premature.  The race is on for 2014 is still on because ObamaCare's backend payment system is not operational.  

Press leaks suggest that the White House goal is for four of five people who want to sign up for insurance to be able to do so, including via a call center or paper application. Yet even that 20% error rate may be overpromising. Health and Human Services deputy Henry Chao told a House hearing this week that about 30% to 40% of the information technology that supports enrollment—such as the "back end" systems that send out monthly subsidies—still needs to be built.

Ah, those monthly subsidies, There lies the holy grail.  Once that critical mass of comfortably subsidized insurees is achieved, so is Bill Clinton's vision as presented to the Netroots in 2009.

PITTSBURGH - Former President Bill Clinton told an audience of liberal online activists Thursday evening that the nation has “entered a new era of progressive politics” that could last for decades if Democrats can pass ambitious measures such as health care reform and climate change.

Here's how the era of progressive politics is sustained. Step one:    

For those on the left who thought that ObamaCare would mean large health insurance companies might get their comeuppance, they might want to look at UnitedHealth. Wall Street analysts expect the giant to see its stock price rise 40 percent over the next two years, thanks to expanding profit margins. The company has also won big contracts to help implement the rollout. Quality Software Services, Inc., a major contractor for Healthcare.gov, is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth. One of President Obama’s most reliable fundraisers in both 2008 and 2012 was Anthony Welters, executive vice president of UnitedHealth. He raised more than $500,000 for the 2012 election, according to opensecrets.org

Another big ObamaCare winner is tech giant Qualcomm. In 2011, the company created a subsidiary called Qualcomm Life specifically designed to profit off ObamaCare changes. The company offers products to securely transfer data between wireless health care devices. Thanks to ObamaCare, company executives believe that “wireless solutions are going to be looked at more prominently.”Former Qualcomm Chairman Irwin Jacobs raised more than $500,000 for Obama’s re-election in 2012.

Lest we think it is all carrot and no stick for insurers, let's harken back to an earlier day in the healthcare industry takeover when Humana took it upon itself to notify policy holders of the potential impacts of ObamaCare.

Earlier this month, Humana sent a one-page letter to its customers enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans, which offer private options to Medicare beneficiaries. Humana noted that, because of spending cuts proposed by Democrats, "millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many of the important benefits and services that make Medicare Advantage health plans so valuable." The Kentucky-based company also urged its customers to contact their Representatives. Pretty tame stuff, as these things go.

Mr. Baucus took it as a declaration of war. He complained to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal health-care agency, which on Friday duly ordered Humana to cease and desist. CMS claimed the mailer was "misleading and confusing" and told the company it has opened an official probe as to whether the mailer violated laws about how the insurers that manage Advantage plans are allowed to communicate with their customers, as well as other federal statutes.

"Please be advised that we take this matter very seriously and, based upon the findings our investigation, will pursue compliance and enforcement actions," CMS concluded, ominously. Humana could be fined or booted from Medicare Advantage altogether.

Obama has harnessed the health insurance industry's biggest players to the Democratic Party wagon, legislatively and regulatorily conferring huge profits on those willing to play along, and promising bankruptcy and ruin on those who refuse.  So the campaign contributions roll in, a half million dollars at a time.

But will that be enough in the face of such ObamaCare driven discontent among the voters?  That's where the subsidies come in.  Subsidies are the carrot for the unsuspecting.  You may recall Obama's persuasive argument in his budget negotiations last summer.

President Obama on Tuesday said he cannot guarantee that retirees will receive their Social Security checks August 3 if Democrats and Republicans in Washington do not reach an agreement on reducing the deficit in the coming weeks.

"I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it," Mr. Obama said in an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, according to excerpts released by CBS News.

Pretty persuasive, I'd say.  And we have little doubt who the bad guys are in such negotiations.  It's that other party.  Why, Obama is even blaming Republicans for the disastrous rollout of his own law.  So here's what to expect in the next budget negotiation should Republicans try to cut into the astronomical deficits run up by Obama:  Your healthcare is at risk!  Republican obstuctionism is going to cost lives!  Children will die!  There will be no way for Obama (or a future president of Obama's philisophical bent) to guarantee that subsidies can be paid.  Voters will be duly outraged over Republican callousness.

That's the goal.  Democrats standing as gatekeepers between voters and their healthcare services, villifying Republicans for supporting a healthcare system where there are no such gatekeepers.  

Let's step back for a moment and consider all the money in healthcare.  Naturally doctors, nurses, hospitals, and the rest of the people and organizations that actually provide healthcare have to get paid.  But look at all the other players cashing in.

It begins with insurance which began as a protection against the unanticipated expenses of catastrophic illness and injury.  It has since morphed into a system of paying for routine care.  But consider that insurance companies make a big profit on healthcare.  That profit is a slice of the healthcare dollar that you pay your doctor.

Then there is the lawsuit industry, which is enabled by the insurance industry.  There are huge profits in suing doctors, hospitals, and any other deep pocketed bystander for somebody's illness.  Malpractice insurance gives some protection for healthcare providers, but who pays the premiums which have become huge?  We do, when we pay the doctors in whatever way we pay them.

And look at all the campaign contributions and the half million dollar bundlers contributing to both parties in hope of having some impact on legislation or regulation of their industry.  Where does that money ultimately come from?

Add to all these players the Democratic Party which stands to hit the healthcare jackpot if only ObamaCare can be made to hang in there for just a little while longer.  Just enough time for the subsidy checks to start rolling out, and then it really will be time for Democrats to break out the champagne.

And to think that this is somebody's idea of capitalism at its best.

Comments

[Ziad K Abdelnour]

Obamacare critics fearful of the federal government controlling one-sixth of the nation's economy and the resulting loss of freedom have missed both the most serious threat to freedom and its likeliest victims. Obamacare stands to turn millions of our neighbors into criminals. That's because seeking a subsidy in order to obey the mandate of -- never mind afford -- the Affordable Care Act ("ACA," but referred universally as Obamacare)1 can easily put our most economically and educationally vulnerable fellow citizens on a path to jail. If this be compassion, it is true only in the same sense that euthanasia fulfills the definition.

[Tom Bowler]

And that would be in keeping with the typical progressive approach of seeking to criminalize just about everything we do.