No More Individual PPO Plans in 2016 (Mart: health insurance, costs, marketplace)

[TXbywayof]

What people fail to understand is WHY insurance rates keep going up. Hospitalizations are the biggest expenses. The bulk of hospital patients are Medicaid and Medicare. I just read somewhere that on average, Medicaid patients make up 58% of hospital patients. Hospitals are not making enough money on these patients to cover expenses. Therefore, insured patients help recover these costs. Now with ACA the Medicaid base is further expanded so hospitals raise pricing on insured patients even more and, of course, that cost is passed on to you.

The way it is now vs. single payer? Pfft, I'm not sure it's even going to matter. They will get you one way or another. If it stays as is now, you will continue paying high premiums with high deductibles. If it goes to single payer, you 25% federal income tax bracket will rise to 35-40% AND we would need a value added tax....and that's just the beginning. You still have the same people who contribute nothing but take a lot.

Naardien, I remembering listening closely to Obama's speech the night he was elected. I distinctly remember this one sentence that stood out...he said, " No more handouts. Everyone has to pull their own weight". The crowd clapped and cheered wildly. I vividly remember at that point that people did not have a clue. Maybe I should dig deeper.

[eqttrdr]

"...you have to pass it to see whats in it..."

[stan4]

Originally Posted by MurphyPl1

I am in Collin County Texas. I have the renewal notice on my desk. NOT impossible.

I am in Collin County, TX.

I see no such choice.

[jerbear30]

The problem with PPO's is real, and it is as a consequence of Obamacare. But Obamacare is a consequence of a market-driven healthcare system and that is where the real problem lies. There will be people who get lower quality healthcare because of Obamacare, but there will also be people who actually get some healthcare, and who would have gotten none had it not been for Obamacare.

If we really want to be serious about healthcare, we'll stop pretending that it should be a "consumer" good. It is not. It should a right and we should have a single-payer system and we should pay into it in higher taxes. That is not rhetorically savvy but it is the truth and lives are being lost while we wait to admit it to ourselves.

[naadarien]

Originally Posted by curbur

naadarien, regardless of whose fault it is, which should have been obvious that it would deduce into that when I originally posted the article, you'd have to agree the current situation is not beneficial to the previous one for a decent number of people that already had good, existing healthcare, right?

Maybe, but most of us (and I am one of those people too) can afford to fix our issues. Maybe not to our entire satisfaction (I certainly disliked going from paying $400/mo to $1200/mo for less coverage) but nothing about government change will give you that.

And I wasn't pointing fingers. Just correcting the repeated attempt to say this was a liberal created issue. The issue is really that Congress is filled with buffoons (who people keep voting for despite their displeasure with this issue) who couldn't create good policy if it landed on them like a house. Paul Ryan seems like he can change that, but who knows.

Originally Posted by curbur

Those same people who had concerns about the law, on the right and left side of the aisle, all were promised that their plans and doctors would be kept even with this new marketplace concept. Whether it was the corporate executives at insurance companies or the government's fault, that no longer seems to be the case.

What's the end game here? ..because it currently looks unsustainable. Is everyone going to eventually be forced into HMO's and then eventually forced into single payer after that? I actually am a moderate/lean left on most social issues, and I generally try not to engage in unnecessary fear-mongering when I don't have to, but that's what my gut is telling me and the writing on the wall looks like.

Personally, I was always ok with a Medicare for all type solution. Medicare isn't as effed up as people think. The government plays fast and loose with that word "fraud." It rather obfuscates the more than passable system Medicare is. Ask any senior covered by it. They would rather have it than anything else. Medicaid OTOH is crap, but that is partly because states are allowed to do what they want to the program because of their partial participation in funding it. In theory, this program should be the better one since it would combine basic federal requirements that all states must follow while allowing each state to tailor the program to the needs of their local citizens. In theory...but state level senators appear to be no less the buffoons of their national level counter parts. Some states are better at managing this program than others (just to be fair).

[naadarien]

Originally Posted by Johnhw2

If your smart enough to wasn't true why wasn't Obama.? Don't promise something unequivocally if you can't make it happen. It's a lie and worse uf he knee it was not possible when he said itt PERIid, I agree so why did he say something he knew was a lie or something he could not make happen? Remember no one had access to this super secret corrupt process passed bill. So your choice either he lied or was too stupid to know the insurance companies could change these guaranteed facts from his lips many times. The end dies not justify the means

It was passed by liberals they get all the credit and blame you. Can't handle it? Then don't pass it.

The policies have such high deductibles they are inferior as much as the policies they killed as inferior.

Liberals saying untrue things over and over doesn't make true. Facts do and are inconvient as in AGW too.

He didn't promise unequivocally. He left the unequivocal part out. That was my point.

All politicians lie/obfuscate. Big surprise there. Liberals aren't any different than conservatives in this regard. Don't fool yourself.

[naadarien]

Originally Posted by curbur

Actually, I'd argue the way we had it before the ACA was better, but I guess that doesn't matter now. Most of the western world doesn't have a country that has nearly the same size or population, nor are their countries leading researchers in new medicine and treatments the way that the U.S. does. I'm not saying that we couldn't learn a thing or two and make some changes based on what we see in other countries, but to imply that the healthcare system of the US is comparable to Denmark or Sweden or Germany is apples to oranges.

No. It was untenable. That was clear by every study done on the system since the 80's.

You may have liked what you had, but plenty of other people had nothing.

The "Let them eat cake" version of healthcare wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway. Promise. Dozens of cracks everywhere in the system. There really weren't many more fingers we could put in that dyke.

[naadarien]

Originally Posted by TXbywayof

Naardien, I remembering listening closely to Obama's speech the night he was elected. I distinctly remember this one sentence that stood out...he said, " No more handouts. Everyone has to pull their own weight". The crowd clapped and cheered wildly. I vividly remember at that point that people did not have a clue. Maybe I should dig deeper.

Obvious propaganda on Obama's part. He knew ACA wouldn't solve all problems, but hey they all get up there and make flowery speeches like their shat don't stink. Big surprise.

I am a centrist and independent. Obama and I don't see eye to eye on a lot of things (so I couldn't care less about insults meant for him), but ACA was still the right step since no one wanted universal healthcare. It opened a door that no one was able to open since Eisenhower. I am good with that.

[nana053]

Originally Posted by smuggy_mba

One thing I'd like to understand about Obamacare. Why would a president spend most of his two term energy in promoting a plan that doesn't help anyone at all. Is it good for most and bad for some? I'm almost un-affected as I get insurance through my employer. It has to be working for some

If 100% of people say Obamacare is bad, why doesn't he get it. There has to more to this.

Despite what people here are saying, the Affordable Care Act has actually been a success story.

The Good News About Obamacare - The New Yorker

Actually, the health-care reform is turning out to be a success story. Despite the technical issues with the online exchanges after they launched, and some enduring issues related to the price of individual plans in some areas of the country, the system is working pretty much as planned. In some aspects, such as its over-all cost to taxpayers, it appears to be turning out rather better than expected.

ObamaCare: Pros and Cons of ObamaCare

5 good things the Affordable Care Act imposed on healthcare

74 percent of Republicans are happy with their new ObamaCare plans

Seventy-four percent of newly insured Republicans liked their plans. Even 77 percent of people who had insurance before — including members of the much-publicized group whose plans got canceled last year — were happy with their new coverage.

The Commonwealth Fund study also found that the percentage of uninsured has dropped dramatically, from 20 percent down to 15 percent, with an additional 9.5 million fewer people now uninsured.

Texas, of course, made this harder by rejecting expansion of Medicaid.

[houstmom]

Originally Posted by MurphyPl1

I am in Collin County Texas. I have the renewal notice on my desk. NOT impossible.

You must have been grandfathered in. "Grandfathered individual plans are plans that existed on March 23, 2010"

Can you please confirm this.