With the ACA passing it's CBO projection of 6 Million Private Insurance Signups, Republicans are left with few avenues to finally prove that it's the "Disaster" that they've been predicting for the last 4 years. So naturally, since the Website is fixed, they have to go on the attack against the uninsured to prove of course, that they are worthy of being offered insurance since they don't have the integrity or common decency to PAY THEIR PREMIUMS.
Clearly these "people" don't deserve what they're getting from ObamaCare.
In an interview on Meet the Press, guest host Chuck Todd asked the possible 2016 candidate if he “felt vindicated” for attacking President Barack Obama’s health reform law during his 2012 presidential run.
“When I ran my ’94 election, it was on health care against the sponsor of HillaryCare,” Santorum insisted. “You look at what Obamacare is really doing, it’s driving up costs right now.,”
While admitting that 15 million people were expected to be covered under the law, he argued that many of those people already had insurance.
“And you look at these number of 6 million people [signing up], I talked to insurance companies, you’re looking at anywhere from 20 to 50 percent of those who haven’t made a premium payment yet,” Santorum opined. “Many of them are uninsured and probably won’t make a premium payment.”
Yeah, because you know you can't trust those
Uninsured People, they're a
shifty and scurrilous lot.
Here we have yet another case where a prominent Republican goes on the TeeVee and gets the facts of the matter completely upside down and backwards, again...
As has been repeated explained by our own Brainwrap, it's not really the case the 20-50% haven't "Paid" yet, the fact of the matter is 20-50% haven't received their BILL yet.
People who enrolled between 2/16 and 3/15 don't even start coverage until April 1st, while anyone who enrolls between 3/16 - 3/31 won't start coverage until May 1st. In many cases, their first month's premium won't even be due until up to 6 weeks or more after they enroll. Considering how many people wait until the last minute to pay their bills, it's silly to write these people off as deadbeats. The vast majority of these will eventually be paid up, it's just that we won't have confirmation of many of them until well into MAY.
...
A full 1/3 of all exchange QHPs won't even have their first payment due until after 3/31.
How about the 6.2 million that I'm projecting at the moment?
Out of 6.2M total, over 19% won't start until 4/01 and another 21% won't start until May 1st. That's 40% of the total whose payments aren't due yet.
So basically what Rick Santorum is saying is that he somehow magically expects the ~40% (which is clearly be 20%-50%) of persons who've signed up for the ACA so far to
Pay their insurance Bill Before they RECEIVE IT, which we all know his absolutely
Knucking Futz - because apparently with Conservatives, the
Completion Backwards Principle is simply always in effect.
On other point of whether the ACA is "driving up costs" - well, I just let the first response i got from Google on "Rate of Medical inflation" search - which happens to be the Wall Street Journal - answer that.
Medical-Price Inflation Is at Slowest Pace in 50 Years
Medical prices are rising at their slowest pace in a half century, a shift in the health-care industry that could provide relief to government and businesses' budgets while also signaling consumers are being left with a larger share of the bill.
Enlarge Image
Prices of some medical procedures, such as hip and knee replacements, vary greatly. Shown, patients recovering from such surgeries in Delaware. The News Journa/Associated Press
The prices paid for medical care in July rose just 1% from a year earlier, the slowest annual rate of growth since the early 1960s<, according to Commerce Department data. Health-care increases now trail overall inflation, which itself has been historically slow in recent years
But why stop at just that report, I mean it was technically from 2013 - so what's the more recent information say?
CNBC:Health-Care Cost Inflation on Track to Slow in 2014:
Already sluggish health-care inflation is expected to slow down even more in 2014 as consumers, employers and the federal government continue looking to cut medical costs, a new report said Tuesday.
And the rate of health-care inflation—as distinct from total medical spending—could drop further in future years as the Affordable Care Act rolls out and employers and consumers pay greater attention to costs, suggests the report by the professional services firm PwC.
In 2014, the health-care inflation rate is projected to slow to 6.5 percent, according to the "Medical Cost Trend: Behind the Numbers" report by PwC's Health Research Institute. That's 1 percent less than the 7.5 percent inflation rate for 2013 that HRI projected last year.
So that's
Oh-for-Two, and neither of those sources are exactly "Democrat Friendly".
Let me make one final point on "Rick Santorum:Health Care Champion". in 2012 when Santorum was running for President in a nomination race that Mitt Romney eventually won, he argued that the reason he could only give 1.7% of his income to charity - as revealed on his tax returns and contrasted with President Obama's 14%, or Romney's 13% of charitable giving - was because of the high medical cost he and his family incur because of the severe genetic disorder suffered by his youngest daughter, Bella.
The fact is that pre-existing conditions like Bella's, are covered under the Affordable Care Act, and also that people with chronic conditions like her's now have a yearly cap of ~$5000-$6000 per person on their out-of-pocket expenses specifically to prevent them from the risk of going into bankruptcy. In Santorum's case, his costs - particularly his deductible - should have been dramatically decreased under the ACA. And since Santorum is now - thanks to FoxNews - a Millionaire, perhaps he could now give more than just 1.7% of his expendable income to charities that support the ability of the poor to buy healthcare.
Specifically, he could do the decent, Christian, Jesus-Like thing and give more charity to the previously uninsured, since as he claims - they can't or in his fevered mind won't - pay for healthcare insurance themselves.
Or, he could remain the clueless, narcissistic, hypocrite that he is, and NOT.
Vyan