re: #715 Obdicut

You don’t seem to be grasping my argument at all, then. If you accept rates will rise no matter what, then why are you bringing up rates rising? It seems rather irrelevant.

I also agree that health insurance companies will continue to rent-seek in the new regulatory environment. I do think the new regulations makes it harder for them to rent-seek and forces them to actually deliver insurance in better ways. It’s still very far from perfect.

Can you explain the mechanism by which insurance companies will extort the money out of policy holders, given the new caps and regulations?

You were the one who mentioned rates were already going up this year, and that’s right. Anthem, IIRC, jumped the rates almost 30%. By adding 30 million uninsured and not allowing limits on claims or coverage the insurance companies are already planning another hike. There’s nothing in this bill that stops rate increases only a rule saying how much profit percentage they’re allowed to make. The profit percentage rate may drop, although there’s no evidence of that yet, but the total dollar amount they’re bringing in is going higher. All that means is they’ll be bringing in more profit than ever.