Sandra Fluke. Remember her? She’ll be a prime-time speaker at the Democratic National Convention. Just to remind you about her, she was the liberal activist who got into Georgetown Law School – a Catholic institution – just so she could sue them. As a Georgetown law school graduate, if she’s just AVERAGE, she’ll earn $165,000 a year her very first year out of school. But she expects you to pay for her birth control, the cost of which she lied about (falsely claiming what cost $9 a month would cost $3,000 – unless you consider condoms which she could have got for free).
The Democrat Party is the party of elitists, liars and entitlements. So why not have lying elitist future 1 percenter Sandra Fluke come to the Democrat Convention to talk about more entitlements?
Obama and the Democrat Party love to pretend they’re Santa Clause and give away lots of “free” stuff. By “free stuff” I mean they like to force private companies to give things away that actually cost them a lot of money.
And pathologically stupid people, a.k.a. Democrats, just LOVE the free stuff. Because they don’t have to pay for it and frankly since they don’t have to pay for it they really don’t care who DOES pay for it.
Now, increasingly, of course, Democrats are freeloading slackers who don’t have jobs. The Democrat Party today is the Party of the Occupy Movement. But it turns out that the money to pay for all of this “free stuff” that Obama has given away to try to get reelected is coming right out of businesses that do most of the hiring in this country. And more to the point, it is coming out of employees who work at those companies.
Just remember, dishonest Democrats and their Liar-in-Chief swore up and down that their ObamaCare would bring costs DOWN. They lied, because at their cockroach cores they are lying liars:
Rising insurance costs crimping companies’ plans
By Jonathan D. Epstein
Updated: August 26, 2012, 6:52 PMWestern New York’s three big health insurers are again seeking to jack up rates by significant amounts in some cases – and some employers are taking desperate measures as a result.
BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York is asking for double-digit hikes for most plans, while Independent Health Association and Univera Healthcare are seeking increases of mostly less than 10 percent.
The price hikes, detailed in the carriers’ filings with the state Department of Financial Services, mark another year in which premiums are rising much faster than the rate of inflation or household income.
That adds to the burden on households and businesses already straining from past increases. And it shows that, at least so far, the efforts by insurers, employers and medical providers to control the spiraling costs are having limited effect.
“The train wreck continues. It’s unfortunate, but it seems that whatever products the carriers develop, whatever wellness programs they put together, it just doesn’t seem like they can get a lot of answers that people are looking for,” said Gregory D. Leifer, director of life and employee benefits at brokerage firm Scott Danahy Naylon.
“It’s pretty much the same old story from year to year,” said Howard N. Silverstein, CEO of Choice Employee Benefits Group LLC in Williamsville. “The community-based products just are obviously a burden to many of the employers.”
That’s forcing many to make tough decisions, such as dropping or reducing coverage, or shifting entirely to newer plans with high deductibles and cost-sharing that puts much more of the burden on employees. Traditional HMOs or similar plans, with low co-pays, are becoming dinosaurs.
Some companies are slowing or delaying hiring to control health care costs.
“If they’re really looking to reduce their expenses, they’re going into these plans where there’s unfortunately more of an out-of-pocket cost to the employee or consumer,” said Nick Siradas, account manager for small groups at Lawley Insurance.
The new rates are not final yet. Under state law, the insurers’ rate requests are still subject to review by the state, which can approve them, reduce them or reject them. Last year, the state trimmed many rate hike requests across the state, though not so much for Western New York’s three carriers.
Consumers and business owners are writing to regulators to protest what they see as unreasonable hikes, and demand the state block them:
“I know of no one that is receiving these kinds of rate increases in their pay,” wrote one consumer. “I strongly encourage [you] to not consider any rate increase at this time.”
“This is ridiculous and is creating such a hardship not only on me but my employees and my payroll,” another wrote. “New York State cannot allow this … This is unconscionable.”
Meanwhile, carriers, businesses and consumers await the promised benefits of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act. While some provisions have taken effect – such as expanded benefits for dependents until age 26 – they are more likely to drive up health care costs, not lower them, because they expand coverage.
The health insurance exchanges are supposed to help with expenses by bringing an estimated 32 million uninsured Americans into the system, so costs can be spread over a larger base with more competition.
But those provisions don’t kick in until 2014, and the details remain vague. So businesses are guessing about the impact, and many are skeptical the exchanges will yield desired results.
“They’re really not optimistic,” Silverstein said. “They’re in fear of these exchanges.”
“A lot of my clients are taking a wait-and-see attitude,” Siradas said. “Until the exchanges are in place, we won’t know what they’re going to do.”
Ron Alsheimer learned the rates for his company’s BlueCross BlueShield plans could go up 12 percent, after a similar hike this year. The premium for family coverage for Traditional Blue is now $3,700 a month.
Already, that’s crimped any plans for growing his company, Buffalo-based commercial real estate developer Plaza Group, which has 11 employees. Between health and workers compensation insurance, the costs of adding staff are prohibitive. “I wouldn’t consider hiring anybody else now, anybody who would need health insurance. It just isn’t worth it,” he said.
He turned to Buffalo-based HR Benefit Advisors to find a less expensive provider for the half-dozen employees that get coverage. “I’ve had enough. It’s just lunacy,” he said. “I want him to look into something that’s going to put a cap on this nonsense.”
[…]
Absolutely everything this wicked president promised has been a total lie.
We’ve ALL paid for Obama’s “free stuff.” The median household income under Obama has been so godawful that Obama has actually cost the average family nearly DOUBLE than the “Great Recession” did. During the recession, which officially lasted from June 2007 to June 2009, household incomes fell by 2.6%. But since then, under Obama’s “recovery,” household incomes have plummeted 4.8%.
We need a president who will quit making bogus promises and start delivering results. And history has proven that that president is definitely NOT Barack Obama.
Tags: birth control, costs, forced to provide, healthcare costs, insurance, insurance companies, Obamacare, Sandra Fluke
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