Obama Admin to Bailout Insurance Companies for Obamacare Losses up to $1 Trillion

There is much that isn’t discussed about Obamacare. The fact of the matter is that the law is simply too large and complicated for any one person to read, understand and apply. The towering monument to bureaucratic dysfunction, Obamacare’s rules and regulations has a wide variety of crooked deals within the tome and, according to a new report by the Weekly Standard, the law is offsetting the staggering losses felt by insurance companies at taxpayer expense. 

Then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi once famously asserted that our supposed leaders needed to pass Obamacare “to see what is in it.” Never, perhaps, had anything so backwardly stupid been uttered by an elected official and yet, here we are, saddled with both Obamacare and Pelosi as minority leader in the House. 

According to the report, insurers are not sweating as Obamacare’s consequences are being realized since they are promised to be reimbursed by taxpayers to the tune of $1 trillion dollars. 

The Obama Administration is trying desperately to coerce Americans into buying the products of insurers; however, the federal government is prepared to bailout companies for losses. The Weekly Standard reports:

Robert Laszewski—a prominent consultant to health insurance companies—recently wrote in a remarkably candid blog post that, while Obamacare is almost certain to cause insurance costs to skyrocket even higher than it already has, “insurers won’t be losing a lot of sleep over it.”  How can this be?  Because insurance companies won’t bear the cost of their own losses—at least not more than about a quarter of them.  The other three-quarters will be borne by American taxpayers.

For some reason, President Obama hasn’t talked about this particular feature of his signature legislation.  Indeed, it’s bad enough that Obamacare is projected by the Congressional Budget Office to funnel $1,071,000,000,000.00 (that’s $1.071 trillion) over the next decade (2014 to 2023) from American taxpayers,through Washington, to health insurance companies.  It’s even worse that Obamacare is trying to coerce Americans into buying those same insurers’ product (although there are escape routes).  It’s almost unbelievable that it will also subsidize those same insurers’ losses. 

But that’s exactly what it will do—unless Republicans take action.  As Laszewski explains, Obamacare contains a “Reinsurance Program that caps big claim costs for insurers (individual plans only).”  He writes that “in 2014, 80% of individual costs between $45,000 and $250,000 are paid by the government [read: by taxpayers], for example.” 

In other words, insurance purchased through Obamacare’s government-run exchanges isn’t even full-fledged private insurance; rather, it’s a sort of private-public hybrid.  Private insurance companies pay for costs below $45,000, then taxpayers generously pick up the tab—a tab that their president hasn’t ever bothered to tell them he has opened up on their behalf—for four-fifths of the next $200,000-plus worth of costs.  In this way, and so many others, Obamacare takes a major step toward the government monopoly over American medicine (“single payer”) that liberals drool about in their sleep.

Laszewski adds, “The reinsurance program has done and will continue to do what it was intended to do; help attract and keep more carriers in Obamacare than might have otherwise come.”  Thus, Obamacare is being aided by having taxpayers subsidize big insurance companies’ business expenses. 

The federal government is offering subsidies to those who can’t or won’t pay for their health insurance. They’re paying money on the other end of the deal by dealing money to the insurance companies. Meanwhile, lawmakers who swore that Obamacare was a good thing for the American public have noticeably exempted themselves from the disastrous healthcare overhaul.

Obamacare is a bad deal for the American people, it is a bad deal for insurers and it is certainly a bad deal for taxpayers. Still Democrats continue their refusal to admit what Americans are (too) slowly realizing- that Obamacare is a sinking ship of financial unsustainability and unethical backroom deals. 

About Greg Campbell

A former contributor for The Oregon Commentator, a conservative journal of opinion, Greg is the Chief Political Analyst and Correspondent for The Tea Party News Network and a regular contributor for RightWing News. Greg is an unapologetic defender of Constitutional principles and the free-market system. His area of expertise is firearm and Second Amendment-related issues. He lives in Nevada with his wife, Heather, and enjoys writing, marksmanship and the outdoors.

• Tay

  As if we all didn’t know well in advance that Obama would bail out the insurance companies with our worthless money. How is your marriage going Obama? I see Michelle has even given up on you. Moved her stuff out of your bedroom at the white house and stayed in Hawaii after your last trip there. Time for the republicans to man up and get rid of the community organizer/communist now.

  • glwood

    I see that she is thinking of divorce, but I don’t think that will happen because she won’t be the first lady, not that she is anyway

• Pat Alexander

  Another “BIG MISTAKE” for voting stupid!

  • masmpg

    When was the last time there was a “smart” vote? Almost not in my lifetime and I am no newbie. 100% of campaign promises are lies and have been from both sides since. . . .HMMMMM!!! Can’t remember the last time a campaign promise was actually kept! So how would you explain “smart” voting? Demican? republicrat? how about repubertypendademoconstitugreen? Voting party across the board has ruined this country! Actually voting for politicians has ruined the world! The two party monopoly has pitted family members against each other for far too long.

    • james

      Last time was when these fools couldn’t make a career out of politics and had to have an actual job.

      • masmpg

        I have a great idea. . .Lets exile ALL politicians in the world to Australia and let them legislate themselves into non existence. I know that would happen. Lying hypocrite politicians couldn’t go a day with ordering someone around or writing a new law.
        I heard Tony Blair wrote 1.5 million new laws when he was PM of UK.
        Ever read “common sense government” by algore? He explains in great detail how him a kkklinton deleted hundreds of thousands of pages of legislative and judicial laws and regs, and his explanation was that there are laws and regs for everything down to and including what size grapes to sell at grocery stores. These were the kind of regs he “said” that they deleted, but you know politicians.
        The most exciting part of the book explains how they wrote hundreds of thousands of new executive actions and laws and regs. As I think of that now I am amazed that he would be so bold as to write about it. Very interesting read!

        • james

          Good point except Australia wouldn’t let them in … You know have to dec1are all fruits and such… I say send them to the middle East where they claim terrorism only happens due to “anti-muslim” movies. See how it works for them there without our troops to have their backs…

    • AlanfromNY

      The last time there was a smart vote was the presidential election of 1984.

      • masmpg

        Kind of sort of. Reagan was one of the only non establishment presidents, but his main campaign promise was decriminalize pot, and the reality was that after he was elected he began the prequel to the war on drugs and spent gobs of money to eradicate it instead. He had his issues, but he probably was the greatest POTUS of modern times.

• CQ

  Such a “bailout” would constitute a tax instituted without legislation – another presidential violation of the Constitution.

  • Bay0Wulf

    See my response to Steve above. It was passed in its entirety when Pelosi said “We Have to Pass It to See What’s In It” …

  • james

    Obamas supreme court upheld it… Don’t y’all remember?

    • TotlKaos

      The ruling was for the mandate. not the other pieces of legislation in the bill.. unreal don’t you do any research or read?

      • james

        Ok yes we read. Other than core parts being argued over birth control by religious based businesses, still being considered as of december 2013 by justice stolomyer( think that’show you spell her name)it was passed with violation or noncompliance being imposed with a tax penalty per individual (rate varies) and businesses at a rate of up to $2000 per employee for small businesses with more than Ithink 30 or 50 eemployees. Until justice stolomyer became involved the obama admin was gonna hammer the catholic church $100 a day per person! That is in black and white, no pun intended. And no I’mnot ccatholic.

        • TotlKaos

          Sorry James.. meant as sarcasm for other people here.. I agree with you fully.

        • james

          It cool… I’m in agreement with you too.. So many spout off with no idea of the facts or to just soapbox some other agenda. Which is also one of the reasons this problem exists.

        • james

          Its cool… I’m in agreement with you also… So many run off on a tangent… I lost my daughter’s insurance to obama care… Paid premium… Next month it tripled…. Next month cancel, we no longer carry insurance for individuals under the age of 18…. Now I have a HSA with a $12000 minimum… $12,000!!! Its not about color or whatever its all about what we don’t know what is in that massive ddocument.

      • james

        The primary source of funding came from future pay in to medicare and s.s. among other sources. So when you or you grandchildren are ready to retire then what…. And if you are a veteran like Iam which by the way they have now ccut my benefits, go ask that illegal worker down the street to get you your morning cereal since that’s where our benefits went to…ironic huh?!? Serve your country get screwed, sneak in illegally ( not like the thousands trying g to do it right way mind you) and the u.s. is your oyster….

• Steve Harper

  How is obama going to bail out anyone unless the house gives up the money?

  • Bay0Wulf

    The “House” agreed to fund it when the TAX/LAW passed the Democrat controlled House and Senate. The new House has no real option the deal is actually “done” in terms of funding.

• Peggy

  Ok, What WE THE PEOPLE need to do is vote all of these idiots out of office this year sheeple. Starting with the head idiot Pelosi–who never bothered to read the law that was being passed. WE need to take back our government and kick out the rubbish now. WE also need to let obama know that this is another inexcusable lie on his part–and somebody needs to grow a pair and bring up charges for impeachment.

  • Bay0Wulf

    Ummm we have to rely on … California … to vote out Pelosi … do you see that happening? We have to rely on Nevada to vote out Reid … that can MAYBE happen … someday. We need to get enough conservative (non-RINO) representation into the Senate to even consider starting impeachment processes because Reid won’t allow it to happen and the Dem/RINO’s won’t try to force the issue.

    • james

      There is a way to get pelosi out…. I’m just saying….and Reid too….

  • Shelle Iles

    You got that right girl.

  • PK

    So what are YOU going to do about it besides tell people THEY need to? Do you go to court houses with signs? Do you actually do anything yourself? If not, then stop telling everyone they need to. They’re stuck in the same boat as most people are, where as they can’t just leave their jobs and family to go protest. So just shut up if you’re not already somewhere protesting.

• Bay0Wulf

  I SAID IT WAS A BAILOUT!!!!

  Several months ago in several of these forums I said it was definitely going to be a “Bailout” in several parts …

  The few people who read my post and responded basically scoffed at what I had written …

  1. It was going to be a bailout because … all the insurance companies who had all these long term customers were going to be able to somehow get them off of those policies because now that they are older, the insurance companies don’t want to cover them anymore. Looking beyond the alligator tears … HOW MANY people have surprisingly “lost” their insurance … how many more are likely to?

  2. It was going to be a bailout because … all the BIG insurance companies would consolodate and all the little companies would just disappear. Government assistance in eliminating the competition. How many companies do you have to choose from if you try to enroll in OBummerCare?

  3. It was going to be a bailout because … Somehow the Government was going to make “everything all right” for the BIG insurance companies remaining. How many zeros are there in “Trillion”?

  So … item number 3 actually has an “idea” what the taxpayers are going to pay out. Items 1 and 2 are very difficult to calculate.

  Then, when you get done trying to grasp that, consider how many NEW people have been added to Medicaid and Medicare, which will also be funded by the taxpayer … and then there are several other “little” aspects …

  An idiot could have figured this out with a tiny bit of logic and yet people scoffed …

• Chief47

  Isn’t it wonderful how this j*ck*ss that we have for a president is throwing everyone else’s money around like it was confetti. And I can believe how many morons we have in congress that just go along with it. It’s time they got the courage to impeach him and send him on a slow boat back to Kenya.

  • glwood

    They either get payed or threatened

• georgemachock

  Buy offs. This guy is a amazing. He castigated the perks oil companies get he chastises Wall Street Fat Cats and then he saddles every American w/ the guarantee for the Insurance companies he calls crooks out the other side of his mouth from his pulpit. He’s a phony crook.

• Glitch Girl

  They’ve probably impounded Pelosi so she wouldn’t again say in an interview “We just wanted a really big number”.

• Luvmuscle

  Who is making out on this? Insurance companies! Wow! How stupid are the people who voted for Obama. Shame on congress for shoving this up the corn hole of all of us. What a croc of crap Obama sold us. He is in bed with the insurance companies.

• hangman57

  Obama is a evil man .

  • CVG

    an*

• masmpg

  This is absolutely sickening!!!!!!!!! Why doesn’t he bail out the american people!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The crooked banksters he is so eager to dump all our hard earned money on are in charge of the insurance companies too!!!!!!!!!!! Hey america lets dump another trillion, well, last time it was what? 600 billion of our money given to crooked lying banksters who want nothing more than to destroy the constitution and this country!!!!!!!!!!!! Why? WHY?? WHY??????? Are we that giullible that this lying hypocrite can walk all over US again????? Enough is enough! Give or money back because you obviously do not know what to do with it mr. oboy!

• james

  I remember when obama and biden came to Danville Virginia it was stated that Romney was gonna bailout the big banks and insurance company. That he was gonna unchain them and put us all back in chains. From where I’m sitting that seems to be exactly what they (obama administration)have done.

• LIBERTYUNITER

  I say lets see what happens when they only get 10 million sign ups out of the 600 million US population AND we REFUSE to pay Obamas Asinine Fine. If they are going to throw hard balls, lets make sure we use the appropriate bat and fight fire WITH FIRE! Don’t sign up and Don’t pay the Penalty!

  • Cindy Adams

    Uh, then you won’t have insurance.

    • TotlKaos

      Then you sign up the minute you need it Cindy.. don’t understand the law huh? Since you have to pay a fine.. and then pre-existing conditions are covered.. you can just wait and get it when you need it..

  • Bryan Cooper

    I think you mean 315 Million Population LIBERTYUNITER.

    • glwood

      He’s probably counting the illegals too

• blogengeezer

  Where many see gloom, the most astute see happy days. The Insurance company heavy Investors and top CEO’s are going to be Oligarchs of world class. Peter Lewis has his ‘Progressive’ Insurance, that’s right Flo’s boss. Peter Lewis is considered a tax-exempt ‘Philanthropist’ due to the fact he matches George Soros tax-exempt ‘Philanthropy’, dollar for dollar… in supporting the DNC.

  I see winners of unimaginable wealth in this national pipeline to dwarf the Keystone. Invest Invest Invest. Join George and Peter, climb aboard the biggest Gravy Train of this century. When the government Demands that everyone buy a certain Product, you had better be in on the market. Politicians (themselves Entrepreneurs) of both parties saw it coming, as they passed govt ‘forced buying’ into law. Most of the lower ranking (outer circle) have become millionaires on their insider knowledge alone. Enjoy, This midway ride is going to get wild. One note of “A Voting Democracy, the Voters get the leadership they Vote for….and Deserve”…

• tsigili

  Yes, and that’s on TOP of the trillion plus, he is ALREADY adding to the deficit.

• Ih8Barry

  Obama is a bad bad man!

• LIBERTYUNITER

  Lets see what happens when we ALL REFUSE TO SIGN UP AND PAY A PENALTY/FINE! There is NOTHING THEY CAN DO ABOUT IT. Its called “Take your laws and shove it” …..back in their face. We are NOT gonna take it any more! They may attempt to make an example of a 100 families, but that will not play well for them. We are at least 500 million strong! DO NOT SIGN UP AND DO NOT PAY FINES!

  • Cindy Adams

    500 million? Are you a complete idiot? We’re only 319 million in the United States and this has nothing to do with people who have insurance thru their jobs.

    • LIBERTYUNITER

      Who gives a rip about the number, ( I was thinking of something else) The point here is if the vast majority do not sign up, we will have put an end to a dozen or more of their goals and objectives to enslave Americans while destroying our Constitution and America.

      • Cindy Adams

        You might literally be crazy. People are already signing up, it’s the law. Destroy Constitution and America? Really?

        • marylou

          You have very bad manners!!

          You are allowed to ‘NOT’ sign up and pay the penalty! You forgot that part!!
          But I won’t call YOU crazy…or an idiot…or stupid!!

          You can just pay the penalty until you get sick, or find out you need surgery or have an accident!!.

          Then you can quickly sign up for insurance and get your surgery/RX paid for, since they NOW cover ALL PRE-EXISTENT conditions …..that’s the way it works…and it is ALL LEGAL!!!

          Do try to be civil…especially….. when you are spewing totally erroneous information!!

        • danapointdad

          it’s the law, eh? but only some of us are subject to it, and obama decides on his own to hand out exemptions… what kind of law is that? I am not playing… they can only take the fine/tax from your tax refund, I am set up to not have a refund owed me.

        • danapointdad

          you can pay for healthcare as you need it you know… I have a friend who had a heart attack and it ended up costing him about 40K, he’s making payments to the hospital… insurance is NOT something everyone needs, especially this lousy high deductible nonsense… most people will still be unable to pay for healthcare while working through their deductible… it’s a fraud being perpetrated on the american people by obama and pelosi and the insurance racketeers.

      • marylou

        You were counting the ILLEGALS that your tax dollars will pay for!!!….

        Obama is not bailing out the Insurance Companies, because he has NO MONEY except what he will pick out of every taxpayers pocket…to bail out the insurance companies!

        • glwood

          Then he will be in charge of them like he is GM, but he forgets it’s our money so we own it not him

        • CVG

          The government sold the last of it’s GM shares in 2013. It no longer has any ownership of GM. But you forget it’s about facts rather than spouting what you believe to be true. Remember that beliefs do not equal facts.

    • les

      people who have insurance through their jobs will feel the impact in 2015, when the employer mandate takes effect. watch how many lose their coverage then.

  • glwood

    Maybe we the people need to go on strike. IT’s our money that they use to pay for stuff, because the government has no money

• cc0623

  No bailouts! The insurance companies got in bed with him they can pay for the cost of treating their own disease!

• Dan Voegeli

  Chief Roberts, I hope you’re happy.

• 4MeNoRinos

  What a misleading headline by the Media, it should read Taxayer’s bailing out the Insurance companies for a trillion, whether they want to or not.

• Kansas55

  You’re actually believing this stuff? …from a blog by a reported insurance consultant and taking it as unverified facts? Let’s not slash our wrists just yet.

• JOE

  With taxpayer money damned if you accept it damned to pay for it anyway if you dont ! Glad this doesnt make anyone a bit upset.

• sclars

  Sounds like if you are exempt you only pay for your insurance (through your income taxes), but all others either pay twice (non-eligible for rebate) or once plus the cost of your responsibility. The fine will end up being the cost of a healthy young person’s insurance and being put on the death squad list.

• Rob

  I don’t see how such a thing is legal … But that never stops Obama. Why doesn’t this country send him packing?

  • Cindy Adams

    You don’t see how law is legal?

    • TotlKaos

      Keep arguing troll.. huf po is missing a villager..

    • Rob

      I was referring to the bailout he’s granting e.g. the subject of the article.

• http://luvsiesous.com/ el_guero2000

  Wow!

  I was told I was evil for mentioning Obama’s first Trillion dollar deficit.

  Obama deficits, the gifts that keep on giving tax dollars away ….

  Wayne
  Luvsiesous.com

• danapointdad

  obscene… simply reprehensible and obscene.

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002839359789 William Mdcannold Jr.

  For a long time I have thought the so-called ACA was designed from the get-go to self destruct………destroying the insurance industry as it went. The private industry will be compensated for their ‘losses’ and the non-favored vast majority of the population will be left without health insurance and desperate………..desperate enough to sign in with the Marxist system whether they like it or not. What will/would Congress do about it (the Senate in particular)? Well, there’s head whore Ried. Then there is the trump card held by the insurance industry as they hold their ‘contributions’ as threatened blackmail over untold numbers among Congress. The entire thing is dirty beyond any honest person’s imagination. You ready yet?

• Skeptik

  He was making sense until he contradicted himself in the last paragraph.

• Chris Taylor

  Obama is just like the rest in the capital abunch of lyers and no goods.Nixon was better than Obama.that what people get putting a black man in charge of this country.

• Dave

  This was his plan all along. Another means he conscripted to weaken the American Economy. He knew all along that the so-called Affordable Care Act would be anything But Affordable. Everything he has done is aimed at destroying the United States. He is Thee Manchurian Candidate!

• Big RRRRR

  Does anyone else find it amazing when Oblamer demonizes someone or something, they end up being the benefactor of his policies?

  Those darn insurance companies who always screw the people with those substandard policies = $1T+ OR Those darn rich people, 1%ers = keep getting richer OR Those darn people on wall street = record setting stock prices.

  When you have to watch out is when he says he’s going to help you… then you’re F’d. (Detroit, Health Insurance, Alternative Energy Companies, etc etc)

• Barbara

  This is so ridiculous! I’m amazed that the most basic point of this entire issue seems to be completely forgotten or overlooked by everyone. Except for the fact that that’s exactly what this administration counts on for every issue/scandal that occurs. Complicate things so much and cover everything with smoke and mirrors so that people will find so many things to dispute that they don’t even know what happened in the very beginning. If the original problem was that not everyone had insurance the solution should have been to come up with a plan to provide insurance to those who didn’t have it. Instead, we have an overreaching government who decided that they needed to be in charge of EVERYONE’S insurance and tell us all what we have to have in our insurance coverage. Something is VERY wrong with that. 83%+ of the population was insured and most probably content with the insurance they had. They should have dealt with the 16%+ only and left everyone else alone. It seems to me that providing for the health care costs of the 16%+ only when they need it (and always when they need it) would be much more cost effective than requiring everyone in the country to have the exact same health coverage even though everyone’s needs are different. Don’t force me to pay for coverage for things that I have no need – which is what I have now. We’re perfectly capable of deciding which plans fit our individual or family needs. We don’t need the government telling us what we do or do not need. Something is wrong when a policy that is supposed to provide coverage to those without it causes so many who had coverage to lose it or have their rates increased. Baffled! Why is no one else furious about that. A policy designed to help should NEVER harm anyone else. Leave the 83%+ alone because they’re fine. Deal with the 16%+. Me thinks there is much more to this than just helping the 16%+.

www.tpnn.com/2014/01/14/obama-admin-to-reimburse-insurance-companies-for-obamacare-losses-up-to-1-trillion/