Debate Magazine
Risk Corridors Are NOT Bail Outs; Reinsurance is Not a Subsidy Or a Give-away to the Insurance Industry; Radical Right Wingers Are Hypocrites and Liars -- AGAIN, Manipulating and Deceiving Their Base
Posted on the 05 February 2014 by DoggoneLying is for losers; when you have to lie to try to win, you're in a failed position, and facts and truth are not on your side. Old crazy-eyes Michele is lying, again, grossly misrepresenting the provision of the ACA, and failing to represent the benefits to the government and to the insureds -- to US, we the people, the every day ordinary people.
We aren't subsidizing insurance companies, we aren't losing jobs either. What Michele is objecting to is that employers are losing a little of their leverage; Bachmann is ever the handmaiden to special corporate interests that stick it to the everyday average American.
We should be wondering who is paying off the radical right to lie, above and beyond their commitment to oppose anything and everything from Obama, regardless of merit. Michele talks about the insurance industry coming up with a better mousetrap - when did you last see that happen that benefits the consumer of insurance products? And Michele further leaves out that there are already such 'corridors' in other government / insurance contexts, the Medicare part D legislation passed by Republicans in Congress, signed by George Bush -- including Michele Bachmann's predecessor who voted for it. In a quick but I think fairly thorough search, I can find ZERO instances where Michele ever complained about Medicare part D, much less the risk corridor provision of it. Michele Bachmann, the poster girl for crazy hypocrisy!
Those risk corridors in the Medicare D legislation, aka 'bail outs' as Bachmann now selectively and inaccurately terms them, are permanent, not temporary and transitional; and those REPUBLICAN corridors ONLY benefit the insurance industry, not the government or the insureds.
As noted here, back in 2012, Michele Bachmann had no problem whatsoever in a big subsidy/give-away, not even a bailout, to big Pharma with Medicare part D. Bachmann only bitches about it when it is 1. temporary/short term; 2. a much smaller amount; and 3. benefits the consumer instead of big business special interests; and 4. when it gives her an opportunity to deceive her base and to lie about Democrats.
What the corridors do is to provide a safety cushion, not a bail out, to allow insurance companies to keep insurance premiums as low as possible. It is not a bailout it is a kind of reinsurance. For those who don't understand what reinsurance is, it is an entire sector of the insurance industry that helps spread risk among other entities. Lloyd's of London is an example of one of the biggest and most well-recognized organization of reinsurers in the world.
There is a need for reinsurance in the case of the ACA, not because of an unreasonably high level of danger, but because of the difficulty in the early years of the ACA implementation with adequate risk assessment through adequate data for actuarial analysis. The function of these corridors (NOT bailouts) is to provide a solution to the transition period as that data becomes available in practice with so many new people being insured.
What you WON'T find Bachmann telling her audience of mouth breathing right wing radicals, none of whom have, in my experience both read and understood the ACA legislation, is that this actually works to BENEFIT the government, not cost it money. Michele would choke to death, if she had to utter honest words about the full benefits of the ACA.
I could outline here in my own words how the corridors (NOT BAIL OUT for INSURANCE COMPANIES) works, but this is a more entertaining and very clear explanation for how it functions:
Remember, lying is a form of losing. On the right, the facts are not their friends.