From the P&C Files: Malpractice makes Malperfect?

My favorite EconBlogger, Jason Shafrin, has an interesting post up on the cost of medical malpractice (aka medmal) coverage for various specialties.

Can you guess which one has the highest rates?

Click on over to Jason's place for the answer.

Buyer's Remorse?

Heh:

"According to backers of [The ObamaTax], enrollment faces big obstacles as polls and focus groups suggest a majority of uninsured people aren’t aware of the new coverage options or the availability of subsidies toward the cost of health insurance premium ..."

One wonders if folks are beginning to wake up to the cold, hard facts.

Ah:

"It might seem odd that the law’s supporters should need to convince Americans to purchase a plan, given that those who don’t will be taxed. But the tax will be less expensive than the cost of coverage."

Asked and answered.

We've been saying this for quite a while (although, to be fair, so has everyone else with an IQ above double digits). There are so many ways to game the system - and of course, folks in states with Federally-run Exchanges get no subsidies, making compliance even more expensive - that it's hard to see why any of the PrObamaTax hordes will bother to participate.

Which won't stop them whining, of course, about the unfairness of it all. Oh, bother.

Cavalcade of Risk #177: Call for submissions

Anisha Sekar hosts next week's Cav. Entries are due by Monday (the 18th).

To submit your risk-related post, just click here to email it.

You'll need to provide:

■ Your post's url and title
■ Your blog's url and name
■ Your name and email
■ A (brief) summary of the post

PLEASE remember: ONLY posts that relate to risk (not personal finance tips and the like). And please only submit if you are willing to link back to the carnival if your submission is accepted.

Runs on the ObamaExchange

Tomorrow's the deadline for states which have yet to make their pitch to Secretary Shecantbeserious regarding how they want to handle those Exchanges.

Here's a quick run-down as of this afternoon:

■ Mississippi is sticking with its game of chicken: they've officially turned down Mme Secretary's offer of a Fed-State partnership. Assuming they don't reach some other arrangement, The Magnolia State will default to a Federally-run model.

■ FoIB Patrick P reports that Illinois has been conditionally-approved to set up its State-Fed Partnership type Exchange. Patrick asks, with 16 carriers offering over 260 plans, "think Navigators will be able to handle explaining this?"

Exit question: It's clear that states choosing a Federally-run Exchange forfeit tax-payer subsidies. What's not so clear is what happens if it's a Partnership operation?

■ And FoIB Jeff M, checking in from The Tar Heel State, sends along the news that North Carolina will not be setting up its own Exchange, putting further pressure on Ms Shecatbeserious and her all-star band of technowizards to design and implement yet another Federally-run version.

■ And, finally, via email from UHC, we learn that, nationally, "the deadline for employers to notify employees of the availability of Health Benefit Exchanges has been delayed from March 1, 2013 to late summer or fall of 2013." Oh goody. Because nothing says "success" like pushing back crucial deadlines as the clock ticks down....

And this just in: "The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) hopes to take bids from insurers that want to participate in the federal health insurance exchange programs from March 28 to April 30." Yes, one whole month to submit your bids - you hear that Anthem, UHC and the rest?

It'll be interesting to see which carriers take the bait.

Gorillas in the Mist?

On the one hand, medical technology continues its amazing advance. On the other, the "human interface" continues to be an obstacle to that progress.

Case in point:

"A new psychological study from Brigham and Women's Hospital has demonstrated how 83 percent of radiologists fail to spot the [foreign object] that is in the image below - despite running their eyes over it four times on average."

Do you see it?

If so, then you may have a future as a top-notch radiologist. Sleep tight!

Principles vs Politics in regards to Medicaid Expansion

I read in today's USA Today, only paper at the hotel, that Governors in Wisconsin and Indiana have passed on expanding Medicaid in their State. A rare display of standing on Principle. How are we to end the welfare state and entitlement problem if we continue to expand these programs that reduce and eliminate the need and incentive to work?

The easy math is free money from the Federal Government can't be passed up.

The correct math is there is no such thing as free money. A few thousand dollars in Federal crack to cover someone's Medicaid expenses doesn't begin to cover the cost of someone spending a lifetime working part time or entry level jobs and living off the taxpayor. Compounding the problem is the fact that it doesn't stop when that worker retires: kids raised under that lack of a work ethic are more likely to grow up and also live off the tax payor. Medicaid expansion is just one more step to creating a permanent welfare class. Everyone works 29 hours a week and gets by on Food Stamps, Medicaid, and Section 8 housing.  And then they and the media decry the income gap between these part timers and people working 70 hours a week to support them.

Also of interest is Indiana's request for an exemption; they had a very effective HSA Medicaid model that was being cancelled for not being ideologically consistent with ObamaCare. We'll see what HHS deems more important: a successful and proven program to deliver better benefits at a lower cost, or expansion of the Government Welfare model.

Future of Risk Pools

Most folks assumed state run risk pools and the federal PCIP would go the way of the dinosaur when Obamacare rules prevail on 1/1/2014.

But perhaps not  . . .

More than 300,000 people are now covered through special plans for people with pre-existing conditions — about 100,000 in pools created by the health law and more than 200,000 in older, state-run pools.

The federal plan was designed from the start to be temporary and to shut down as soon as the exchanges open.

But many states had planned on moving their high-risk pool populations into the exchanges slowly to mitigate the shock to the individual market. But now, the state high-risk pools may offload as many people as they can onto the exchanges as soon as they open in 2014 or risk losing a piece of that $20 billion pie.

Politico

Well isn't this exactly why Obamacare was conceived? To prevent big bad health insurance companies from DISCRIMINATING against those with pre-existing conditions?

Did the folks who wrote this law (but never bothered to read it) not anticipate an influx of people with serious medical conditions? Did they fail to realize young people would pay the tax penalty rather than purchase coverage?

Some actuaries say it won’t make much of a difference as millions of people start getting covered; other studies see this population boosting premiums significantly in the individual market. One Indiana study projected premiums would rise by up to 45 percent.

HHS says the reinsurance program will keep premiums on the individual market 10 percent to 15 percent lower than they would be without it. But even some supporters of the law believe the impact will be significant

.
And HHS has never been wrong about anything, right?