Balyeat: Obamacare a 'bad deal'

When people could purchase insurance on the open market, they could rest assured that for a fair price they would get reasonable protection if they got sick or injured.

“It was a square deal,”said Joe Balyeat, a former Montana lawmaker, a Republican from Bozeman and now with Americans for Prosperity-Montana.

Today, under Obamacare, people are offered “a bad deal,” he said. Most people will get less coverage for more money.

Balyeat spoke Friday before the Hill County Pachyderm Club.

Under Obamacare, he said, people cannot be turned down or be required to pay extra because they have preexisting conditions. The result, he said, is that healthy people will be paying higher insurance rates in order to subsidize sick people.

In effect, Balyeat told the club members, insurance is attempting to be a social welfare program.

In fact, he said, under questioning from State Rep. Kris Hansen, R-Havre, Obamacare is not technically insurance any more.

Obamacare is too expensive and too bureaucratic and will eventually fail of its own weight, he said.

Balyeat said that young people will be subsidizing older people.

Obamacare does allow higher rates for older people, but only three times what young people are charged.

But, he said, anyone in the insurance business will point out that the cost of insuring older people is six or seven times that of insuring young people.

He asked audience member Andrew Brekke, chair of the Hill County Republican Party, who is in the insurance business. Brekke nodded in agreement.

So once again, he said, young people will be paying more than their fair share.

As a result, he said, many young people or healthy older people will opt out of their insurance plans and go uninsured.

Under the law, he said, these people can be fined.

During this, the first year of Obamacare, they will pay 1 percent of their income as a fine.

“A lot of people are going to be surprised when they file their taxes. The rate will increase to 2 percent and later 2.5 percent."

Even then, many people will pay the fine rather than pay for inurance, said Balyeat, an accountant.

Some people will find it less expensive to forgo insurance.

Obamacare can only work if lots of young people sign up, and so far they are not, he said.

And if they do get sick, he said, they will still be able to sign up for Obamacare, though they can sign up only at certain times of the year.

Customers will have no choice what they want to be covered for, he said.

A 60-year-old man will have to pay for insurance for pregnancy coverage, “even though its very unlikely he will become pregnant,” Balyeat said.

“The Sisters of Charity will have to pay for abortion coverage,” he said.

People can avoid signing up for Obamacare, he said, if they qualify for 27 exemptions, he said.

Some of the exemption are rather bizarre, he said.

If you have received a utility cutoff notice, been evicted from your apartment or home, been the victim of domestic abuse or if you are an illegal immigrant you can be exempt from Obamacare mandates, he said.

The biggest problem, he said, is the massive cost of the bureaucracy that will run the program.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, he said, estimates Obamacare will cost $1.8 trillion. Much of that, he said, is for the massive bureaucracy whose job will be to understand and enforce the thousands of pages of complex regulations.

Balyeat was especially upset about the proposed expansion of Medicaid that Democrats and some Republicans are proposing for Montana.

Many states have adopted the plan, which extend subsidies to people who now aren’t eligible for Medicaid.

He had petitions which club members signed opposing the plan.

The proposal would just more people to the failed system, he said, and would be very expensive for Montana, especially after the state is responsible for more of the cost.,

Balyeat said he was getting closer to the age group that is supposed to benefit from Obamacare, and he has had some health issues himself.

But is he ready to sign up? No thanks, he said.