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Showing posts with label Controllable/Uncontrollable Costs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Controllable/Uncontrollable Costs. Show all posts
Obamacare exchanges face insurer exodus and enrollment drop as enhanced subsidies expire
Cigna announced in late April that it will abandon the Affordable Care Act exchanges in 2027. CVS' Aetna has already stopped offering plans. And a consulting firm projects marketplace enrollment could fall by as much as 26 percent this year.
Fifteen years after its passage, the signature healthcare law of the Obama era is shedding insurers, enrollees, and any pretense that massive federal subsidies built something durable.
The proximate cause is straightforward: Congress refused to renew the enhanced premium tax credits that had propped up enrollment since the COVID era. Without that extra taxpayer money flowing to insurers, the economics of the exchanges are reverting to a harsher reality, one that major carriers apparently want no part of.
The numbers tell a grim story for defenders of the law. A KFF survey published in March found that 80 percent of returning ACA Marketplace enrollees said their 2026 premiums, deductibles, or cost-sharing are higher than last year.
More than half, 51 percent, said costs are now "a lot higher." The Wakely Consulting Group projects marketplace coverage may plummet by up to 26 percent in 2026 compared to average enrollment in 2025, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported.
The subsidy spigot did more than inflate costs. It attracted fraud on a massive scale. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in October 2025 that 2.3 million marketplace enrollees improperly claimed the premium tax credit by intentionally overstating their income that year.
The Affordable Care Act was sold as a permanent fix. What it delivered was a permanent dependency, on subsidies, on mandates, and on the willingness of taxpayers to keep writing checks for a product that cannot sustain itself.
FDNY proposes steep ambulance fee hikes as EMS workers head for the exits
New Yorkers who dial 911 for an ambulance could soon face a bill nearly a third higher than what they pay today.
The FDNY has proposed raising the cost of a basic life support ambulance ride by 29 percent, from $1,385 to $1,793, and boosting the fee for on-site emergency treatment by 42 percent, from $630 to $896. A public hearing on the plan is set for May 15.
The proposed rule, first reported by the New York Post, would mark the first increase in medical transport fees since May 2023. Advanced life support trips would jump by roughly 30.7 percent. Level 1 rides would climb from $1,680 to $2,196. Level 2 rides would go from $1,692 to $2,012. The per-mile charge for the trip to the hospital, currently $20, would stay the same, and oxygen administration would remain at $66.
The department framed the hike as a matter of fiscal reality. In its proposed rule, the FDNY stated:
"The Fire Department is proposing this rule because of increased costs and to help offset the City's cost of providing these services. The proposed rates reflect increases in personal services costs and other than personal service costs required to provide emergency ambulance services and have been calculated to reduce the portion of such costs that is currently borne by City taxpayers."
Put plainly: the city says it can no longer absorb the gap between what ambulance runs cost and what patients are charged. Somebody has to pay. Under this proposal, that somebody is the person on the stretcher.
'NOW she's concerned?' Ilhan Omar smoked after complaining about Iran war costs
Commenter to congresswoman: 'We can take it out of the Somali Learing Center fraud budget'
A radical member of Congress, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has been embroiled in a long list of scandals in recent months and years.
Charges the Somali immigrant married her brother to give him legal status in the U.S. A sudden surge in her wealth – by millions of dollars. Her promise to advocate for Somalia in the U.S. Congress, the vicious language she uses for political critics, the rampant immigration scofflaw population in her district, the estimated $9 billion in social services fraud in that community.
Oh yes, the $9 billion social services fraud that is suspected in her Somali immigrant-majority Minnesota district. Already, dozens of people have been charged, and convicted.
On social media, she was reminded of that over and over after she complained about the costs of using munitions and American warfighting machinery to make sure Iran doesn't threaten again the world with its agenda for nuclear weapons.
Congress is pushing a last-minute and massive health reform bill
This cuts a deal with pharma to raise drug costs for patients.
It would be a disaster for the country and for President Trump.
Specifically, Big Pharma is pressuring Congress to ram through a massive pharma bailout that will take more than $50 billion from taxpayers to give to pharma—right before Trump takes office. Big Pharma calls this bailout “delinking” – and it’s pharma’s tool to raise prices on patients.
This bill will be a massive price hike for drugs that patients will blame on President Trump. That’s why pharma is working with Democrats to pass it.
Your premiums would immediately go up if this passes.
This bill undermines President Trump’s commitment to take on Big Pharma – when pharma gets the windfall, Trump will be blamed.
This bill was a top priority of Kamala Harris and Mark Cuban – she campaigned on it and would get a massive consolation prize despite losing. This is the last thing conservatives should do.
In November, Americans voted for President Trump because they think he’ll take on Big Pharma, but instead of that they’ll now see a massive Big Pharma windfall AND hiked health care costs, undoubtedly leaving Americans to think Trump didn’t keep his promise.
The utility companies have thus far had little to say about the alarming cost projections to operate electric vehicles (EVs) or the increased rates that they will be required to charge their customers. It is not just the total amount of electricity required, but the transmission lines and fast charging capacity that must be built at existing filling stations. Neither wind nor solar can support any of it. Electric vehicles will never become the mainstream of transportation!
The problems with electric vehicles (EVs), we showed that they were too expensive, too unreliable, rely on materials mined in China and other unfriendly countries, and require more electricity than the nation can afford. In this second part, we address other factors that will make any sensible reader avoid EVs like the plague. EV Charging Insanity.
In order to match the 2,000 cars that a typical filling station can service in a busy 12 hours, an EV charging station would require 600, 50-watt chargers at an estimated cost of $24 million and a supply of 30 megawatts of power from the grid. That is enough to power 20,000 homes. No one likely thinks about the fact that it can take 30 minutes to 8 hours to recharge a vehicle between empty or just topping off. What are the drivers doing during that time?
ICSC-Canada board member New Zealand-based consulting engineer Bryan Leyland describes why installing electric car charging stations in a city is impractical:
“If you’ve got cars coming into a petrol station, they would stay for an average of five minutes. If you’ve got cars coming into an electric charging station, they would be at least 30 minutes, possibly an hour, but let’s say its 30 minutes. So that’s six times the surface area to park the cars while they’re being charged. So, multiply every petrol station in a city by six. Where are you going to find the place to put them?”
The government of the United Kingdom is already starting to plan for power shortages caused by the charging of thousands of EVs. Starting in June 2022, the government will restrict the time of day you can charge your EV battery. To do this, they will employ smart meters that are programmed to automatically switch off EV charging in peak times to avoid potential blackouts.
In particular, the latest UK chargers will be pre-set to not function during 9-hours of peak loads, from 8 am to 11 am (3-hours), and 4 pm to 10 pm (6-hours). Unbelievably, the UK technology decides when and if an EV can be charged, and even allows EV batteries to be drained into the UK grid if required. Imagine charging your car all night only to discover in the morning that your battery is flat since the state took the power back. Better keep your gas-powered car as a reliable and immediately available backup! While EV charging will be an attractive source of revenue generation for the government, American citizens will be up in arms.
Used Car Market
The average used EV will need a new battery before an owner can sell it, pricing them well above used internal combustion cars. The average age of an American car on the road is 12 years. A 12-year-old EV will be on its third battery. A Tesla battery typically costs $10,000 so there will not be many 12-year-old EVs on the road. Good luck trying to sell your used green fairy tale electric car!
Tuomas Katainen, an enterprising Finish Tesla owner, had an imaginative solution to the battery replacement problem—he blew up his car! New York City-based Insider magazine reported (December 27,2021): “The shop told him the faulty battery needed to be replaced, at a cost of about $22,000. In addition to the hefty fee, the work would need to be authorized by Tesla…
Rather than shell out half the cost of a new Tesla to fix an old one, Katainen decided to do something different… The demolition experts from the YouTube channel Pommijätkät (Bomb Dudes) strapped 66 pounds of high explosives to the car and surrounded the area with slow-motion cameras…the 14 hotdog-shaped charges erupt into a blinding ball of fire, sending a massive shock wave rippling out from the car…The videos of the explosion have a combined 5 million views.
Commissioner Christopher McVoy has been asking significant questions regarding costs that will be borne by the City of Lake Worth regarding the Gulfstream Hotel and our local paper ridicules him for doing his job.
The City's & CRA's projected costs:
Click to read--
In addition, the City and County property tax increment will be rebated for the new construction portion of the project from 2025 through 2031 (after which the CRA sunsets) – a value of nearly $3.95 million.
Federal judge questions $1.5M Capitol riot restitution cap
Congress last month passed a $2.1 billion Capitol security bill to help cover the costs incurred during the protest.
"This included $70.7 million for the Capitol Police response to the attack and $521 million to reimburse the National Guard for deploying guards to help with security efforts on Jan. 6 and after.
“Lake Worth took a huge step forward tonight. The city matured. The people of Lake Worth expressed their commitment to safety and security. I have no words.”
~ Omari Hardy
Mr. Hardy is 27 years old but he told us that our city matured (when he won the election). Our city is over 100 years old. And those of us who live here are mature enough to know that we have tremendous crime problems. We spend untold millions on public safety. Our budget for Public Safety-Police Services for 2016/2017 is $15,619,780 (page 53 of the Budget) or 47% of our overall operating budget. Throw in fire and we don't have that much money left to operate our city.
Mr. Hardy suggested during the campaign that we hire 15 more deputies to help with our crime problem. He kept saying that over and over. Each deputy costs us over $123k a year according to the city. The city residents also know we don't have nor can we afford to pay more for public safety. From the city's Budget: For FY 2017, "the contract amount of $12,465,420 included a 2% contract increase from FY 2016. Additionally, in our efforts to drastically reduce and maintain low crime rates in our community, we also budgeted in FY 2017 for five (5) additional sworn officers at $123,400 each for a total cost of $617,000, of which $246,800 is funded from the general fund."
Three things happened yesterday--the Pope arrived in the United States, Lake Worth had its Second Public Hearing to pass the millage and the 2016 Budget of $179,420,309 and the public finally got to speak to it. Of course, it had already been decided in the First Public Hearing so very few residents were in the chamber.
The above graph's figures have changed slightly to 33.60% Controllable or $10.4 million and 66.40% Non-Controllable or $20.6 million. It's a "living document" we have been told.
I can well understand why some Lake Worth government employees are unhappy if what they claim is true--no raise in eight years. But what we do know is, pay and benefits have become extremely costly and Unions have a lot to say as to what an employee in a specific job will make. All these employees who are unhappy with their pay should be contacting their Union Rep to understand the contract or discuss with their supervisor or the Human Resources Director who could explain it.
A pay raise of 4% was passed last night.
PEU/PMSA/IBEW employees, the 4% increase will be effective on the date of the new contracts without retro pay.
For all non-bargaining employees, the 4% increase will be effective on October 1, 2015
The mayor, Commission, and the city manager are excluded from receiving this salary increase.
High-performing workers, no
matter how hard they work, cannot earn more than what the seniority
system permits. The complaint from some of the employees is that good workers are leaving. Many leave and take jobs at
non-union companies or get hired with a different job description in order to make more.
Sen.
Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind., recently
re-introduced the Rewarding Achievement and Incentivizing Successful
Employees Act which essentially amends the National Labor Relations Act to declare that neither its
prohibition against interference by an employer with employees' right to
bargain collectively, nor the terms of a collective bargaining
agreement entered into between employees and an employer after enactment
of this Act, shall prohibit an employer from paying an employee higher
wages, pay, or other compensation than the agreement provides for.
The two graphics used on this blog have slightly different figures as these were drafts prior to the budget being finally set last night. The figure is a little higher than when this was first passed out but it is given as an example of what little money we have to run our city after paying UNCONTROLLABLE COSTS. Payroll and benefits take the biggest part of the pie.
