Have you wondered why the big health insurance companies have not put up a fight against the federal government takeover of their industry?  By outward appearance it would seem that Obama, Reid and Pelosi are hell-bent on putting the health insurance guys out of business.  Shouldn’t they be screaming bloody murder?

The ObamaCare concept is, at best, a house of cards.  I contend it is a predictable “train wreck,” certain to happen.  It is based on the premise that healthy young people will suddenly trip over themselves running to buy insurance plans that they don’t want, don’t need, don’t understand, and can’t afford, in order to subsidize coverage for the sick and elderly.  The further assumption is that fear of a tiny tax penalty some time in the distant future will scare the youngsters into compliance today – kids who, if they report taxes at all, just hand their W2s to H&R Block once a year, and then turn right back to their Facebook pages.

Early indications are that the young are staying away from ObamaCare in droves.  Many older citizens who had individual insurance have lost or dropped their policies.  Most transactions on the ObamaCare exchanges are actually signups for free Medicaid, not affordable insurance.  And since it didn’t occur to the ObamaCare planners to release hospitals from the requirement to provide emergency care to anybody who shows up at the door, guess what?  The “poor” are still going to the ER, largely because they don’t know any better.

The demographic assumptions that established the viability of ObamaCare have already been blown to smithereens.

It would appear ObamaCare is pushing the insurance companies (and self-insured employers) toward financial armageddon.  They are now loaded with mandates and reporting requirements, forced to assume high-risk clients and pre-existing conditions, faced with the loss of profitable group insurance policies and struggling to react to minute-by-minute rule changes well after the game started.  Why haven’t the insurance guys complained?

Now we know.  The whole thing was a setup.

The CBO had already projected that the federal government will pass $1 trillion of taxpayer funds through to the insurance companies.  But Wait!  Now we learn that buried deep in the 20,000+ pages of the ObamaCare regulations are two little gems that the administration didn’t want to see the light of day:  Section 1341, the “reinsurance fund” and Section 1342, the “risk-corridor provision”.

The reinsurance fund provides the insurance companies a stop-loss at $45,000 on big claims.  80% of any claims above that amount are covered by (you guessed it) the taxpayers.  The risk-corridor provision even further insulates the insurance companies from losses (up to 80%) due to changes in the demographics of ObamaCare enrollees (see above).

Thanks to Charles Krauthamer and Senator Marco Rubio these boondoggles have been revealed (don’t wait for an expose’ on MSNBC) and a push to repeal the provisions is gathering steam.

Not surprisingly, the health insurance executives are freaking out.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

All that pressure got you down
Has your head been spinning all around?
Ah, freak out!  (Le freak, c’est chic)
Freak out!  (Le freak, c’est chic)
Freak out!

Le Freak – Chic – 1977

The gals are still lookin’ mighty freakin’ good in this 2004 Chic concert footage: