Shutdown Impact on Healthcare Costs

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you're paying attention, which of course you are, being
a member of Kavaby Nation, that they're probably going to
make it official that the shutdown is over. And I
say probably. The House of Representatives still asked to vote,
but all of a analysis and speculation I've heard from
folks inside there say it will happen, so so they'll

(00:22):
get the government fund that again is going to take
a little while for it to ramp up, but be
that as it may. This brought this whole episode brought
front and center the issue of health care, health, insurance, health,
the insurance premiums. That's what the Democrats said, the hill
they were going to die on was and then they

(00:45):
finally came to their senses and the Senate and voted
to move forward. But still it raised a lot relative
to health insurance. And Jim, you have more on this
than Rosie to Genozi today, I believe right at eight fifty.
But it's good to have ourk Jeter back with us,
one of the U and I say this very sincerely,
most well plugged in insurance executives in this country for

(01:08):
many years, and he is our official evil insurance man
here on kfab's Morning News Art, Good morning, Good morning Gary,
Jim was he. It's great to have you back on here.
What what in your view, Art, Because the big, the
big issue is the biggest one, I should say, out
of many I guess, is the increasing premium costs for

(01:34):
almost everybody. What in your experience, in your view has
been the biggest driver of that since the advent of Obamacare.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Incenties. I think that the incentives for the claims payers
for the insurance plans are misguided, and that that statement
alone takes in a tremendous amount of territory. But yeah,
I don't think it's the subsidies, the tax credits. I
think that that's actually beneficial. What's expiring here is not

(02:09):
the ACA subsidies themselves, it's the enhanced subsidies that were
plugged in a couple of years ago.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yes, over COVID, and that's what they were holding their
breath and hamm't on town from about.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
But see the point Art is, and we talked about
this fifteen years ago. That's when you made your debut
as the official evil insurance man of kmpb's Morning News.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
That's a label.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
That's the label to Limbaugh, you know, hung on alas
with people based on what the Obama administration had called
you guys, But we.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Talked about remember you guys said we got to get
one of these evil insurance people.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
There, and we had to emphasize the word evil. But anyway, ah,
we talked about this fifteen years ago. You said at
the time, the math is going to be challenging because
you're basically telling people you're forcing people to buy health insurance,
and the healthy people are the ones that'll be buying

(03:02):
it and not need it. The people who really need it,
it'll be very, very expensive. And all of those forecasts
have come to fruition. Every worry that people had about
the ACA has happened because we have the government has
to support this every year to the tune of thirty
forty fifty billion dollars to support these subsidies, right right.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
What I believe, what I told you sixteen years ago
was this is not a good idea in general, because
New Jersey. New Jersey had the same exact program starting
in nineteen ninety two, and the premiums became so wildly
unaffordable that the ACA actually saved New Jersey's finances because

(03:50):
it was just nuts. And so if we don't learn
from history. We're doomed to repeat it. Yeah, that's not
my quote that somebody will I've heard.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
Why is it that private health insurance is so much
more expensive? The average premium for private health insurance in
this company country in the last sixteen years is up
eighty five percent. Why is that in your view?

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Okay, that takes a that's a lengthy explanation. I try
and and boil it down. They went up dramatically because
over the years, just first you've got inflation. Secondly, you've
got regulatory intrusion that causes higher claims. I'm not saying

(04:35):
that they're necessarily all bad regulatory issues, but still many
of them just basically said, you got to pay these
you got to pay these claims, you got to do
it business this way. And then when the ACA came in,
basically at it didn't fix a lot of things. It

(04:58):
got rid of competition. Remember there were a lot of
insurance companies here in Omaha that sold health insurance. It
was very competitive. And the next year ACA came in
and most of them said, hey, this is a way
for us to ruin our own business, to kill off
our company if we participate in this so many left.

(05:19):
Others thought that they could exist. And I remember meeting
with the president of one of the insurance companies, said,
let's talk about this art. I heard you on the
radio talking to those crazy guys on AFAB and I'd
like you to explain. And I said, well, I think

(05:41):
that the incentives here are basically, you should have the
worst plan at the highest premium. I think that's the
incentive in the ACA to keep you from going broke.
And he said, well, we can operate within that margin
of ten or fifteen percent that the AC allows. You know,
the ACA says if you make more than ten percent,

(06:05):
if you're in a ten percent category, you make eleven percent,
you got to take that other one percent and send
it back to the policyholders in a reput Okay, well,
what kind of incentive is that if you lost money,
how do you recouit?

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Right? I go so, go ahead.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
I don't want to go too far down this rabbit hole.
But uh, it just drove all these companies out of
the health insurance business and competition went away.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Go ahead, just before we have to run here. Just
one thing that that is, as Rosie said, is seldom address.
We talk a lot about health care, health insurance. We
don't talk a whole lot about the cost of health care,
of health care itself, doctors, hospital specialists. Right, what in
your view, and you're not a health care provider, but

(06:51):
what in your view could potentially increase some competition and
bend the cost curve of what we have to pay
when we go to the doctor.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
Would be a big thing because uh, where in what
marketplace do you buy a service and then you find
out after the fact what it costs? Uh? And and
uh people would say, well, aren't people who need a
nap and deck of me? You are not going to
go around searching for the lowest costs. But you know,
uh how to grocery stores chrice coffee. They want to

(07:25):
compete with the stores. They look at that Sunday saber
thing and and say, well, we got to we gotta
beat these guys. So if if I mean, there's many
things that could happen, but price transparency I think where
people disclose or providers to disclose their costs would go
a long way.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Let's get the politicians working on that one. Aren't always
got to talk. Thank you so much for morning, Thank you,
very official evil insurance man okay AB's morning news that's
Art Jeter