Health Insurance Bubble, Black Eye Friday, and The Story Told by the Ratings Numbers.

By:  Dale Weckbacher

The Obama Administration touted Obamacare as the miracle cure for all of our ills.  Not only was it going to insure every man woman and child in the United States received health care but it promised it would be affordable.  After all, Obamacare’s official name is the Affordable Care Act.  Obama also continually promised those of us who already had a doctor we liked and insurance we liked could keep them. 

Now that many have discovered their insurance will either cost more or have higher co-pays and deductibles making it unaffordable for many.  Now that many are losing their health insurance or having their doctors retire or fired by their insurance carrier.  We now understand that Obamacare was nothing more than snake oil sold as the latest cure all for people’s ills, only to find out after purchasing it that it was nothing but a sham. 

What has been a mystery to many of us is that the insurance companies who have had their profit margins cut to 15 percent and who now are required to cover people with preexisting conditions are supportive of Obamacare.  This week, however, Marco Rubio provided an answer for us. 

It appears that section 1342 of the legislation, which contains a provision limiting the profits of insurers, also contains a provision limiting their losses.  Even though it is possible to structure risk corridors such as this in a budget-neutral manner, Obamacare did no such thing.  (1)  In other words, the taxpayer will be forced to bail out health insurers should their losses exceed a certain amount.  With insurers now required to function on reduced profit margins along with having to take on additional risk, there is no doubt this will occur at some point in the future. 

If this sounds familiar, it is.  Does anyone remember when the community reinvestment act required mortgage lenders to make risky mortgages?  These mortgage lenders made these risky loans because the government promised it would cover their losses in the event of default through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  However, when Freddie and Fannie ran out of money, the housing bubble burst leading to a recession in 2008.  How long before health insurers go to HHS asking for a bailout, only to discover there is no money.  The only difference when the health insurance bubble bursts will be that instead of bailing out these companies, the government will probably just take over the health care industry and we will have what the liberals have always dreamed of, single payer health care with the government being the single payer. 

Black Friday is not an event in which I normally participate.  In my household, we usually use the day after Thanksgiving to begin decorating our house for Christmas.  Granted I may miss some good deals but I believe it is more important to take that day off work and spend it with my family instead of with a horde of greedy people looking to save a few bucks on a flat screen TV or cell phone. 

The best way to describe this black Friday is black eye Friday.  During a Black Friday frenzy at a New Boston Ohio Walmart, a woman and little girl were trampled and injured.  (2)  Prior to Black Friday in what some are calling Grey Thursday, there were three incidents also at Walmart.  One incident occurred in Rialto California where shoppers got into a fight because shoppers were cutting in line.  Another incident occurred in Claypool Hill West Virginia where a shopper was slashed to the bone after threatening another shopper with a gun in a dispute over a parking spot.  A third incident occurred at a New Jersey Walmart where a shopper was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer after getting into an argument with a store manager over a television set.  (3) 

It appears that Black Friday, the traditional first shopping day for Christmas has turned into Black Eye Friday.  Many believe that a CEO making a multi-million dollar salary that the Board of Directors of the company agreed to pay to them is greedy.  However, it is also greed when people trample someone, get into a fight, stab someone, or assault a manager over attempting to save a few dollars on a Black Friday deal.  It appears that many have forgotten that Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.  Ironically, these incidents all occurred only hours after the celebration of Thanksgiving, a time when we pause to give thanks for what God has given us. 

It appears that many have also lost confidence in the media, especially CNN and MSNBC.  Evidence of this loss of confidence is found in the ratings numbers, which have fallen just like the water falling over Niagara Falls.  The November ratings numbers revealed that CNN remains in last place among cable news networks and has experienced a 59 percent drop in its ratings over the past year.  At the same time Fox News is down by only 21 percent.  (4)  MSNBC has lost 45 percent of its viewers over the same period.  (5)  Even though viewership of cable news is down for all networks, possibly due to more people getting their news over the internet, viewership at the liberal networks of CNN and MSNBC appear to be falling at a faster rate.  I believe this demonstrates that the current exposure of the lies by the administration over Obamacare and the liberal networks covering up of these lies has caused many to turn them off. 

We must stop Obamacare before it escalates into a health insurance bubble similar to the housing bubble that took the country into a recession for a recession caused by a health insurance bubble will have a more far-reaching effect on the economy than the housing bubble.  I also urge everyone to pause during this busy Christmas season and focus on Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.  I also urge everyone to continue rejecting the liberal spin of the liberal media and make an effort to seek out the truth that this current administration is only interested in furthering its liberal statist political agenda and will lie to insure it continues. 

1. Rubio, Marco. EXCLUSIVE–RUBIO: PREVENT BLANK CHECK BAILOUTS UNDER OBAMACARE. www.breitbart.com. [Online] Breitbart News, November 26, 2013. [Cited: November 30, 2013.] http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/11/27/Exclusive-Rubio-Prevent-Blank-Check-Bailouts-Under-Obamacare.

2. Houston, Warner Todd. BLACK FRIDAY: TWO TRAMPLED AT OHIO WALMART, ONE A CHILD. www.breitbart.com. [Online] Breitbart News, November 29, 2013. [Cited: November 30, 2013.] http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/11/29/Two-Trampled-at-Ohio-Walmart-One-a-Child.

3. Nolte, John. THANKSGIVING NIGHT SALE BRINGS VIOLENCE TO THREE WALMARTS. www.breitbart.com. [Online] Breitbart News, November 29, 2013. [Cited: November 30, 2013.] http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/11/29/thanksgiving-nightsale-brings-violence-to-three-walmarts.

4. —. NOVEMBER RATINGS: LAST PLACE CNN LOSES 59% OF DEMO VIEWERS OVER LAST YEAR. www.breitbart.com. [Online] Breitbart News, November 29, 2013. [Cited: November 30, 2013.] http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/11/29/november-ratings-last-place-cnn.

5. —. NOVEMBER RATINGS: MSNBC LOSES 45% OF VIEWERS. www.breitbart.com. [Online] Breitbart News, November 29, 2013. [Cited: November 30, 2013.] http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/11/29/november-ratings-msnbc-loses-45-percent-of-viewers.