Stories Causing Atlas to Shrug, July 31st Edition

Medicare took in only $283 Bil. in 2013 but spent $583 Bil. That shortfall was 40% of the federal deficit in 2013.

Under Obamacare so far, the individual market for insurance has grown by 2.2 million subscribers while the employer-based market has declined by 1.7 million for a net gain of only 500,000. The rest is due to the expansion of Medicaid.

California insurance renewals in 2015 will be at or near decade lows for two primary reasons: (1) Insurance companies are horrified to add fuel to Proposition 45 price-control push; and (2) Obamacare bailouts.  

For the Obamacare insurer bailouts funded by the Transitional Reinsurance Fees baked into our healthplans to be "budget neutral", we would need 20% rate hikes.  And politically, that is just not feasible.  So we dig a deeper hole.  (Our government originally promised us that this program would not just be budget neutral, but would reduce the federal debt). 

There have been 42 changes to Obamacare so far - 24 of them by the President. 

Almost no one wants the Obamacare employer mandate now: Here's why.

California lost $27 billion in income from 1999 to 2009 due to interstate migration out of high-tax, high-regulations states.  That is 2nd worst in the U.S.  Only New York "beats it."  

Health-care insurance premiums for individuals in California rose between 22 percent and 88 percent in 2014.  (Another reason they will be a near record lows in 2015).