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That means 68% of Seniors DON'T have heart conditions. That means 80% of Seniors DON'T
have Cancer.
In the past 15 years my medical expenses were $3,000 for treatment for food posioning. Is that SENIOR related?
I just turned 65 and had no insurance for the past three years. I don't go to doctors or take meds. I also don't want a voucher to BUY insurance. I only have Part A and B, no drug coverage (don't take meds), and certainly not Medicare Advantage (what Medicare doesn't pay????) from a insurance company. I don't like for profit insurance companies.
Plus, think of it this way. We 68% and 80% of Seniors are SUBSIDIZING all those other Seniors, including my husband with that heart condition. Medicare didn't pay that because it was before he turned 65. PRIVATE insurance (job) paid it.
Good luck with that plan. My husband hadn't been on Medicare for a year when he had surgery for an unexpected cancerous tumor of the small intestine (was not detected by colonoscopy). Good thing we had other insurance to cover. So far, we haven't paid out more than a few hundred dollars.
How dreadful and proves the two parties are only slightly different.
There should be no government health care plan exept to exit from the market.
How is that different from what we already had, which was becoming unwieldy and unaffordable?
What we should do is get rid of the middlemen profiteer insurance companies and go to a single payer system like the rest of the civilized world. Everyone would be better off if insurance was not tied to employment.
Before the GOP opposed the ACA and spread hysterics, everyone knew the system we had was not working.
I have to praise him for at least coming up with something. "Repeal Obamacare" is not a healthcare plan, and now that 7 million people have signed up for it it is probably not possible.
Definitely agree with your first sentence. I'm not sure if I agree with Jindal's plan or not, but people should at least be glad that there are some ideas coming from the conservative side of the aisle instead of the usual rhetoric.
I have to praise him for at least coming up with something. "Repeal Obamacare" is not a healthcare plan, and now that 7 million people have signed up for it it is probably not possible.
I do, too.
I read the proposal this morning. Most of the plan rhetoric is devoted to slamming Obamacare. It's straight from the CATO Institute play book. It's no accident that one of the least likely to receive the GOP nomination was chosen to make the CATO pitch.
The Medicare thing is a non starter.
It eliminates the individual and employer mandate. It eliminates a common base for healthcare, allows insurers to discriminate, eliminates caps on out of pocket costs and lifetime caps.
It intends to give each state 1/ 50 of $10 billion a year to help pay for high risk pools and Medicare subsidies. It's not clear if each state would get the same amount or if it would be weighted by population or some other factors.
It disallows employees to pay for premiums with pre tax $. Instead, everyone would get a standard deduction.
It seeks to expand high deductible / HSA plans which is good stuff.
Restores DSH payments to hospitals to pre ACA levels to help offset ER losses associated with uninsured/ underinsured ER stabilization.
It calls for the ability to write insurance across state lines and does so even though there is no federal legislation to prevent cross state underwriting. It does not go into the vast differences between state laws and the conflicts this would present.
It calls for more transparency in hospital pricing. While this is good, it does not address the "what does it matter" if your plan limits the policy holder to certain hospitals/ MDs, as all plans did and do. It also does not wade into the connection between MDs and hospitals. If you want your MD/ surgeon you get the MD/ surgeon's hospital.
It calls for common sense tort reform but does not address how this violates the constitutions of most states.
Like all alternative talking points, it seeks to repeal ACA immediately without replacing it with something else.
The bottom line is that instead of one common baseline, it falls back to 50 politically appointed state insurance commissions independently reinventing the wheel and the restoration of junk policies to consumers who think all insurance is alike. In other words, there is a lack of common consumer protection.
Boomers won't let anyone touch their Medicare and politicians won't get elected without boomer support.
The overwhelming number of people on Medicare right now are from the Greatest generation". The oldest of the boom began to turn 65 in 2011. Combined, these two generations do indeed represent a force to be reckoned with.
The baby boom is the only generation to have paid into Medicare their entire working lives. These payroll taxes were used to pay the benefits of their parent's generation and it was not enough. Payroll taxes should have been pegged to healthcare inflation, all along. As it stands, payroll taxes have remained unchanged for going on 30 years. Running on a platform of increasing payroll taxes to instill integrity in the system would not be popular with voters.
So instead, what does a political party who wants to be reflected do? They created Medicare part D for prescription meds, a swell benefit no one paid a dime for and did so 5 years before the oldest boomers began to turn 65 and kicked a bigger deficit can into the future.
Oh what a web we weave, when political donations and reelection is on the line.
Good luck with that plan. My husband hadn't been on Medicare for a year when he had surgery for an unexpected cancerous tumor of the small intestine (was not detected by colonoscopy). Good thing we had other insurance to cover. So far, we haven't paid out more than a few hundred dollars.
Don't plan on any colonoscopy. Refused the free ones when I was working, plus all the other free "wellness" stuff. I don't believe in it.
It calls for the ability to write insurance across state lines and does so even though there is no federal legislation to prevent cross state underwriting. It does not go into the vast differences between state laws and the conflicts this would present.
This across-state-lines thing is something no one on the right every really addresses. The fact is that if an insurance company doesn't already have the huge infrastructure it will need to deliver insurance already in place in State A, it will cost the company billions to set it up, and it's unclear if the companies would find it profitable in the long run.
In other words, it's more likely that nothing would change in State A, than that this often-repeated con idea would actually improve anything there.
But no one on the right ever bothers to address this.
They signed up for policies that fit the Obamacare mandates. These are still private insurance company policies and subject to change EVERY YEAR just like regular insurance policies. Signing up once does not mean you will be able to afford the monthly premiums. I would like to see the monthly defaults for all those who signed up going forward.
Premiums increased 100% between 2000-2010, pre ACA.
Don't plan on any colonoscopy. Refused the free ones when I was working, plus all the other free "wellness" stuff. I don't believe in it.
I'm glad you're healthy. But of course you know that not everyone is, and that your personal -- very lucky -- experience does not equal good healthcare for all American citizens.
And I do find it amusing that you don't believe in "wellness." That's just so cute. Until you're unwell.
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