b' Wordw w w. w m i m u t u a l . c o mThe More Things Change, the More They STAY the SameBy David Leo,President ofWMI MutualInsurance Company In my nearly three decades at WMI,2024 Thoughts:& WMI TPAI figure Ive written more than 100 articles forAccording to a June the WPMA magazine. Needless to say, in the2024 report, the Congres-mundane health insurance world, theres not asional Budget Office whole lot of exciting news for me to write about.(CBO) has determined Im sure my articles, captivating as they maythat 26 million people be, have come to bore my three or four monthly(7.7% of the U.S. popula-readers, so in an effort to bump my readership totion) are now uninsured. six or seven, Ive decided to try something a littleThis is quite an accomplish-more fun and unique. ment considering the uninsured Every year around this time, I write an articlerate in the U.S. had held steady at 15% for nearly about the state of health insurance in the Unitedtwo decades prior to the passage of Obamacare States. The article examines the benefits offered byin 2010. In that light, I figure its fair to credit employers against the backdrop of the annual KFFObamacare with the reduction of the uninsured rate health benefits survey; and inevitably, we find thatby about 26 million people. That said, according to across the country, prices are rising and employersa different CBO report from 2023, the cost to the are curtailing benefits. This year, Ive decided itU.S. government for Obamacare subsidies (only) would be fun to dig back into the old treasure chestfor people under age 65 is about $72 billion per and compare an article I wrote back in 2005 withyear! This cost is simply the cost of the Obamacare the information presented in the most recently subsidies and not the various other related costs that published KFF survey. If you are interested ex- have been borne by insured Americans as part of ploring the full KFF article, you can find it in itsthe socialization and subsidization of the Obam-entirety at kff.org. acare program (e.g., premium increases, deductible increases, higher coinsurance and out-of-pocket 2005 Article: amounts, tighter provider networks, etc.). If we According to 2004assume the historic 15% uninsured rate would have United States Cen- held in 2024, that would have put the number of sus Bureau surveys,uninsured Americans at nearly 52 million. Im no the total number ofmathematician, but using some back-of-the-enve-Americans who arelope math and dividing the cost of the Obamacare uninsured is approxi- subsidies by the number of Americans who are mately 46 million.now insured because of the law, I figure the cost of This is more than 15%insurance per person is about $2,770. While at first of the entire U.S. population. Put another way, theblush that may sound like a hell of a bargain, that total number of Americans without health insurancecost ignores the concealed but very real significant is more than twice the combined population of thecosts mentioned above because in the end, its a states of Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada,zero-sum game.New Mexico, Utah and Washington!50 www.wpma.com / Fall 2024'