Well, the same big-profit insurance CEO who threatened Americans with layoffs and suffering a month ago in a temper tantrum over the so-called fiscal cliff is now threatening America's individuals and small businesses with 100% increases in their health insurance premiums:
Health insurance premiums may as much as double for some small businesses and individual buyers in the U.S. when the Affordable Care Act’s major provisions start in 2014, Aetna Inc. (AET)’s chief executive officer said.This guy is a major dick scaring Americans, especially considering that the Congressional Budget Office -- a mouthpiece with far more gravitas than the mind of this overpaid CEO -- predicts that ObamaCare will actually save Americans money on their health insurance:While subsidies in the law will shield some people, other consumers who make too much for assistance are in for “premium rate shock,” Mark Bertolini, who runs the third-biggest U.S. health-insurance company, told analysts yesterday at a conference in New York. The prospect has spurred discussion of having Congress delay or phase in parts of the law, he said.
“We’ve shared it all with the people in Washington and I think it’s a big concern,” the CEO said. “We’re going to see some markets go up as much as as 100 percent.”
Bertolini’s prediction is at odds with Congressional Budget Office estimates that the law will have little effect on small and large-employer plans and the Obama administration’s projections that middle-class families will actually save money. The 2010 law is expected to extend health care to about 30 million people who otherwise couldn’t get insurance, paid for by new taxes and fees on companies and wealthier individuals.Of course, as is often the case with insurance company CEO vitriol, Bertolini is stunningly transparent as to the motive behind his fear mongering -- he doesn't want his cash cow corporation to pay more in tax:
Those taxes will make coverage more expensive for insurers, as will other provisions such as a ban on discriminating against people with pre-existing medical conditions, Bertolini said. Premiums are likely to increase 25 percent to 50 percent on average in the small-group and individual markets, he said, citing projections by his Hartford, Connecticut-based company.Well, if Bertolini is so concerned about premiums going up because of the taxes levied on his corporation, I'm sure regulators would be happy to figure out a way to block him from passing on the impact of those tax increases to Aetna customers.
But, when you listen to individuals who actually know stuff about health care -- rather than just making money -- like the folks at the respected Kaiser Family Foundation, you can see this is all just hot air:
“That just seems silly,” said Gary Claxton, a vice president at Kaiser Family Foundation, a Menlo Park, California- based nonprofit that studies health issues.“I can’t imagine anything going on in the small-group market that would change the average premium that much. On the individual market, there’s arguments for things changing, but those magnitudes seem high.”Bertolini's fuzzy math also neglects to consider the role of subsidies, which will lower bills by 60% for many Americans:
The CBO estimated in 2009 that the law will increase premiums 10 percent to 13 percent for individuals and have little effect on small and large-employer plans. After the subsidies are factored in, individual bills will go down by about 60 percent, the agency predicted.Nevertheless, if Bertolini really feels that big-profit Aetna can't deliver an affordable product without terrorizing -- through rhetoric and rate increases -- customers, maybe Medicare could do his job for him?
It's so cute how insurance CEOs live in an alternative universe where single-payer programs and public options don't exist to replace them -- and so they can threaten their customers and governments -- but we know the truth.
Whatever, I'm sure Joe will get things sorted once he gets settled in his new office.