Aetna has announced that it is no longer issuing policies with a 12 month rate guarantee.  I want to be perfectly clear here.  This means that you will not know from month to month what your health insurance premium will be if you are enrolled in one of their plans.  Guess when this takes effect?  If you guessed January 15, 2014, you go to the head of the class, as this coincides with the date of the full Obamacare implementation. 

As Ralph Weber, founder of Medibid said in his email to me:  “..this is about to get ugly.”  People in this country are about to discover how Orwellian the name “Affordable Care Act” really is.  What? You don’t think that Aetna made this move so they could lower their charge for premiums each and every month, did you?! 

To not know the future cost of insurance is to not know within limits the risk/benefit of the decision to buy insurance, or what type of insurance to buy.  This move will introduce the chaos so anticipated and desired by the central planners itching for a single payer plan.  I hate to tell you I told you so…but I did.  This health care bill was meant to fail from the beginning, was meant to drive costs and care completely through the roof, meant to bring its victims to beg the government (which has caused all of this) for the sequel:  single payer.  This will  allow the government to better line the pockets of those who bribed their way to the table, those who helped craft this bill.

This move by Aetna is soon, no doubt to be followed by others.  I think, however, the statists will be frustrated in their attempts to completely take over by some “out of the box” thinking entrepreneurs, ourselves included.  More and more companies will pursue “self-funding” options, reject the old cartel’s “PPO” model (which has done nothing but drive even more money to the cartel) and seek direct contracts and relationships with physicians and facilities that are willing to be transparent in their practices and pricing. 

As lines form for individuals seeking health care (even those with “coverage”) more will begin to seek affordable ways to obtain healthcare and a new market will boom, one that paradoxically will thrive in spite of the best efforts of the statists and their cronies in health care.  This is already happening!  Check out Medibid, Pokitdok and Snaphealth to name just a few. 

G. Keith Smith, M.D.