Breaking down the ObamaCare scam: Guaranteed Issue

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello. Dr. Keith Smith with you – Surgery Center of Oklahoma. Thank you for joining me in this video blog series.

Another part of the ObamaCare scam many of you all may not be aware of is Guaranteed Issue. But if you have insurance and you’re looking at your renewal amounts, this will help explain it.

A local insurance carrier here in Oklahoma announced the other day that they are seeking an almost 50% increase in rates for next year. This is not to single this one particular carrier out because all the insurance companies are asking for these wild increases in rates. Part of this is that they just want that money. Part of this is that much of what they collect – and I’m not defending the insurance carriers at all – but much of what they collect they have to send to D.C…. they have to send to Washington D.C. Because after all, ObamaCare basically was a tax. And the insurance companies are the go-between. And they, of course, keep a good amount of this money.

The main reason, though, that these huge increases in premiums are occurring is something called Guaranteed Issue. Because the insurance companies cannot deny insurance to anyone. Now that sounds great, doesn’t it? Let’s regulate these insurance companies and make them issue insurance. The problem is that the very concept of insurance deals with uncertainty. And what we’re buying now, as my friend Fatima Jaffrey has said many times, what we’re buying is not insurance; what we’re buying is prepaid care.

We’re not buying a policy to protect against our home catching on fire, which is very unlikely, but if it happens, it’s devastating. What people are buying in health insurance is basically prepaid care. To tell an insurance company they must issue a policy to someone who already has liver failure, that doesn’t allow for any uncertainty to benefit them at all. To say that an insurance company has to issue a policy is no different than telling a homeowner’s policy carrier that they have to issue the policy after they know the house is on fire.

This forces them to raise rates substantially to all of those whose homes are not on fire. So even though your home is not on fire, even though you’re healthy, your insurance rates are going to go through the roof because of this concept called Guaranteed Issue.

The focus on coverage, getting everyone insurance coverage is, after all, the distraction. The real issue should be why does healthcare cost so much? We’ve dealt with that in previous blogs, but I wanted to go over Guaranteed Issue with you as one component of ObamaCare and let you know that’s the primary reason premiums have gone through the roof.

Thank you for joining us in this series. We’ll see you next time.

http://www.surgerycenterok.com/blog/breaking-down-the-obamacare-scam-guaranteed-issue/

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/06/22/editor-apologizes-on-air-to-republican-sources-who-warned-him-of-obamacare-lie-they-were-right/

http://hotair.com/archives/2015/06/22/wsj-gruber-worked-far-more-closely-with-white-house-than-previously-acknowledged/?utm_source=hafbp&utm_medium=fbpage&utm_campaign=haupdate