{"id":86,"date":"2010-03-30T20:52:05","date_gmt":"2010-03-31T03:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scotshonor.com\/?p=86"},"modified":"2010-03-30T20:52:05","modified_gmt":"2010-03-31T03:52:05","slug":"the-gathering-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scotshonor.com\/?p=86","title":{"rendered":"The Gathering Storm!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aetna CEO Ronald A. Williams gave an interview on the Charlie Rose show.\u00a0 For those of you interested in reading the entire interview I have provided a link to the BusinessWeek<\/span><\/strong> article.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/magazine\/content\/10_14\/b4172015497854.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Here is what Mr. Williams predicted:<\/p>\n

\u00a0Health insurance premiums will increase dramatically for the following reasons:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. This bill levies significant taxes on the insurance industry that will have to be paid during the first year<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  2. The recent premium increase was the result of a combination of inflation from hospitals, physicians, drugs, devices and technology and a major change in demographics:\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    There are a lot of baby boomers and they are getting older. <\/strong><\/p>\n

    Healthy people are cancelling their insurance, reducing the amount of premium available to pay claims.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Young people are not buying insurance at all. <\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. \u00a0He thinks that there is a significant chance that smaller health insurance companies will go insolvent as a result of this legislation.<\/li>\n
    2. The Obama administration started out talking about health-care reform, but they shifted to focusing solely on health-insurance reform.\u00a0 As a result, nothing was done to change the fundamental factors that are causing the increase in health care premiums.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      If he is right, and I believe he is, then we are going to experience immediate and sustained economic fallout from this legislation.\u00a0 Here are things to watch for in the coming weeks and months:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Large corporations will have to make a significant one-time adjustment to earnings.\u00a0 Certainly, any Fortune 500 company that provides drug insurance benefits to retirees will have to do this.\u00a0 This plan reduces the tax deduction for providing drug benefits for retirees.\u00a0 Since this is a retiree benefit, under ERISA accounting standards the company must book the anticipated costs now.\u00a0 They cannot wait until they occur.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n
      2. Insurance premiums are going to go up rapidly.\u00a0 Some carriers will simply stop accepting new customers at all.\u00a0 This plan requires insurance companies to change underwriting rules by accepting people who are ill, or who have pre-existing conditions.\u00a0 That may be a noble thing to do, but it will result in an increase in costs.\u00a0 In addition, there is already a proposal to cut Medicare fees to doctors and hospitals by an additional 21%.\u00a0 Medicare fees are already inadequate to cover costs.\u00a0 Doctors and hospitals will have to increase charges to insurance companies to cover this shortfall.<\/li>\n
      3. More and more doctors and hospitals will decline to treat Medicare patients.\u00a0 Doctors who treat Medicare patients are already losing income because of inadequate compensation.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n
      4. Companies are not going to be able to absorb the cost of increased heath care premiums.\u00a0 They will cut benefits and increase co-payments.\u00a0 They will increase employee contributions, and they will have to lay off a significant number of workers.\u00a0<\/li>\n
      5. All of the above developments are likely to take a poor performing economy and make it immediately worse.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        The Obama administration will try to fight back by demanding that large employers and insurance companies prove that their costs have really increased.\u00a0 There will be hearings, charges and executive orders to try and prevent companies from taking the actions I have described above.\u00a0 But, these costs are all too real, and companies who fail to make these changes will not be able to survive economically.\u00a0<\/p>\n

        Pelosi, Obama and Reid (\u201cPOR\u201d) now own health care reform.\u00a0 If you think we have \u201cbuyer\u2019s remorse\u201d with regard to putting Democrats back in power, it will be nothing compared to the remorse that will be felt by those politicians foolish enough to hitch their political careers to this turkey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Aetna CEO Ronald A. Williams gave an interview on the Charlie Rose show.\u00a0 For those of you interested in reading the entire interview I have provided a link to the BusinessWeek article.\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/magazine\/content\/10_14\/b4172015497854.htm \u00a0Here is what Mr. Williams predicted: \u00a0Health … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-headlines"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Gathering Storm! - SCOTS HONOR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scotshonor.com\/?p=86\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Gathering Storm! - SCOTS HONOR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Aetna CEO Ronald A. Williams gave an interview on the Charlie Rose show.\u00a0 For those of you interested in reading the entire interview I have provided a link to the BusinessWeek article.\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/magazine\/content\/10_14\/b4172015497854.htm \u00a0Here is what Mr. Williams predicted: \u00a0Health … Continue reading →\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/scotshonor.com\/?p=86\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SCOTS HONOR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-03-31T03:52:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"TDM\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"TDM\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?p=86#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?p=86\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"TDM\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f189003fdcb2b335f3de16a2756e8e24\"},\"headline\":\"The Gathering Storm!\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-03-31T03:52:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?p=86\"},\"wordCount\":593,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Headlines\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?p=86#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?p=86\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?p=86\",\"name\":\"The Gathering Storm! - SCOTS HONOR\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-03-31T03:52:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f189003fdcb2b335f3de16a2756e8e24\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?p=86#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?p=86\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?p=86#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Gathering Storm!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"SCOTS HONOR\",\"description\":\"What is obviously true, is obviously true\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f189003fdcb2b335f3de16a2756e8e24\",\"name\":\"TDM\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4e8ed801b1c503263fb6547c8f9faf3a4cea6964d874cd2797ac10a766c37d0d?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4e8ed801b1c503263fb6547c8f9faf3a4cea6964d874cd2797ac10a766c37d0d?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4e8ed801b1c503263fb6547c8f9faf3a4cea6964d874cd2797ac10a766c37d0d?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"TDM\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scotshonor.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Gathering Storm! - SCOTS HONOR","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/scotshonor.com\/?p=86","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Gathering Storm! - SCOTS HONOR","og_description":"Aetna CEO Ronald A. 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