Socialism: Companies Lose Money on a Product People Are Mandated to Buy

Wednesday - April 13, 2016

RUSH: From Investor's Business Daily.  "Under ObamaCare, Insurers Are Losing Money On A Product People Must Buy."  How does that happen?  Obamacare forces people to buy insurance.  If you don't, you pay a fine, and later on you might go to jail.  And yet insurance companies are still hemorrhaging money, they're still losing money.  When you have a product the federal government mandates that hundreds of millions of Americans must buy, how do you lose money?  Well, there's Obamacare for you, if anybody can figure it out, Barack Hussein Obama. 

And yet they set themselves up as the experts in virtually every aspect of life.  Obamacare requires people to buy insurance, but United Health Group is losing so much money, it is exiting two states, leaving two states, and eight co-ops, Obamacare co-ops, eight more are on the brink.  Your health care on government.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, one thing, I want to go back to this United Health Care thing.  Because this, folks, is a fundamental question.  Stop and think of this.  If you ran a business, I don't care what it is, and the federal government came along and passed a law requiring every citizen to buy your product, let's say your product was tampons.  Well, the feminists are trying to make a pitch now that we should all buy them their tampons because it's hygiene and we all have interest in this, and they shouldn't have to buy tampons themselves. 

You heard about this, right?  We're on the cutting edge.  I told you about that before anybody else knew about it.  Okay.  Forget tampons.  Let's say you make the iPhone.  Let's say you invented and manufactured the iPhone, and the Obama administration comes along and tells the American people you have to buy an iPhone or you're gonna pay a fine, you're gonna go to jail.  How would you lose money?  How could you possibly? 

You know what your universe is, you know the market. You got the adult population, and you know you have to make at least that many phones, so that is your inventory, because they all have to be bought.  It's a matter of law.  Somebody has to buy these phones.  So you do that and you still lose money and have to start closing Apple stores, how in the world does that happen?  Well, what if at the same time the government is making you give iPhones to some people, like illegal immigrants?  Like refugees?  Like take your pick of, you know, preferred Obama groups who can't afford these new mandates.  What if United Health Care is being forced to give or provide insurance, pay for essentially insurance for people who are not buying it? 

I don't know what else explains this.  You might want to chalk it up to mismanagement, but I can't understand that.  I can't understand how in the world, when you have a product, especially -- here's a typical United Health Care plan.  A guy and his wife, a two-person family, go out and buy one of the health care plans offered.  They choose a plan that is in the lowest priced tier, or close to it.  So they pay a thousand dollars a month for their premiums.  Their deductible is $12,000.  So they never, ever use the deductible unless they have something major catastrophic happen. 

So how in the world is a health insurer -- and you know that the prices they're charging are not cheap.  You know this.  If you're personally buying your own health insurance, then you know what it costs.  So a thousand-dollar premium for two people, $12,000 deductible that never gets used, meaning United Health never has to spring for that because how rare is something gonna happen to you that would require health expenses that are more than $12,000, something outside of catastrophic. 

So what is going on?  How in the world can they be losing money?  Well, let's also factor that not everybody's obeying the law.  This obviously has to be a factor.  There's a lot of people who are saying, "Screw this.  You know what?  I'm not gonna pay it.  And I'm gonna make you find me to fine me.  You're gonna fine me on my tax return?  Fine.  I'm 20 years old.  I don't need it.  I don't want it.  And if I get sick, I'm gonna go to the emergency room.  Screw you! I don't want to go to HealthCare.gov, I don't want to wander around aimlessly in this bureaucratic maze.  I don't want any part of it." 

And they decide they're gonna wait until they get sick or they've got no choice, then they go out and buy Obamacare, and then the system gets overloaded and it becomes an accounting nightmare because United Health Care has to report statistics to Obama and the federal government, everybody's looking over each other's shoulders.  And Obama doesn't care whether United Health Care's solvent or not.  He doesn't care.  'Cause Obama will say the same thing. (imitating Obama) "What do you mean?  I have just passed a law making everybody buy your product and you're losing money?  Don't come complaining to me." 

But strip it all away.  How does it still happen?  Maybe Obama's forcing them -- well, we know.  We know that they're having to insure people that can't pay for it.  Illegal immigrants.  We're talking potentially millions of people here.  It's a total mess.  One thing, this is not how you fix it.  This is not how you reform health care.  It isn't working.  All these co-ops closing, and now the insurance companies, which are the vehicle to health care.  You have to have insurance in order to have health care.  And they're still losing money.  Only in a communist, socialist type arrangement would this possibly happen.