• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Petty moves from a petty man.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

He really is that stupid.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

We will not go back.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Mobile Menu

  • 4 Directions VA 2025 Raffle
  • 2025 Activism
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Anderson On Health Insurance / Let’s get cynical with CSR and the midterms

Let’s get cynical with CSR and the midterms

by David Anderson|  June 5, 20176:33 am| 3 Comments

This post is in: Anderson On Health Insurance, IOKIYAR

FacebookTweetEmail

I spent too much of my weekend on a highway so I had time to get cynical about Cost Sharing Reduction (CSR) subsidies and rate filings.

Charles Gaba at ACA Signups notes the increasing attribution of increased individual market premiums due to policy uncertainty.

And finally, you have this press release from the Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner, which applies to all 5 carriers collectively: 8.8% increase if not for Trump/GOP sabotage, up to 36.3% with it added. That means that the worst-case scenario would mean a “Trump Tax” of 27.5%…or 3/4 of the overall rate increases.

I noted in March that all of the incentives were set up for high rate filings.

So how do the incentives align?
Filing actuaries hate being wrong. They hate being wrong the most when it costs their employers money and them their jobs. They have every reason to file high. The reviewing actuaries don’t want to be wrong but they have a public trust component to their job where they need to make sure that the filing entity will be an ongoing viable business while not taking too much advantage of the public.
Republicans want high rates to be filed. It gives them a good headline when they’ll need one to keep their base in line. Insurance company executives won’t mind giving them a good headline as it is a low cost favor…
State insurance commissioners of either party won’t mind high filings. They will be able to issue press releases and have interviews where they can clearly, cleanly and honestly state that due to their work, the initial rates came down by 50% before Open Enrollment.
The players with the ability to influence rates all have a shared incentive to have initially hideous numbers filed in June and then see hideous shaved down to merely bad for the first day of Open Enrollment in November.

I was not thinking the scenario through far enough.

With the assumption that the 2019 individual market will be an exchange based market of some sort, what are the headlines in October 2018 if there is a bill that fully funds CSR subsidies that is signed in March 2018?

“What a great deal, insurance premiums go down 8%”

There is a strong incentive for CSR to be funded with 100% certainty before the 2019 rate filing process is even started at the carriers that may be offering plans on any exchanges. The absence of a potential demolition charge will drop rates significantly. And since those rates will drop a week before the election, the incentive is for Republicans, who are worried about their seats, to pass a bill that will give them a great headline as everyone gets ready to go to the polls.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Monday Morning Open Thread: So Much… Winning?
Next Post: 4 CSR Filing Scenarios »

Reader Interactions

3Comments

  1. 1.

    satby

    June 5, 2017 at 7:01 am

    All this chaos is doing is making everybody, especially the red state anti-government types, hate insurance companies. No one trusts them, no one likes them, and even if someone has decent insurance, they figure it’s a fluke. Or that’s what I see at my doctor’s office.

  2. 2.

    Weaselone

    June 5, 2017 at 7:21 am

    They’d need to be able to pass the bill. Senate would be easy. They’d almost certainly need Democrats in the House.

  3. 3.

    Cowboy Diva

    June 5, 2017 at 8:43 am

    Will the Republican party be able to figure that out, or just shoot themselves in the foot again while spouting well-worn phrases about fiscal responsibility?

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - Albatrossity - Serengeti Day 3, Round 2 5
Image by Albatrossity (7/19/25)
Donate

Recent Comments

  • mrmoshpotato on Squirrel! (Open Thread) (Jul 20, 2025 @ 6:10am)
  • mrmoshpotato on Squirrel! (Open Thread) (Jul 20, 2025 @ 6:07am)
  • Princess on Saturday Night Open Thread (Jul 20, 2025 @ 6:06am)
  • Betty Cracker on Squirrel! (Open Thread) (Jul 20, 2025 @ 6:05am)
  • mrmoshpotato on Squirrel! (Open Thread) (Jul 20, 2025 @ 6:01am)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!