Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
That's great, if you can afford to pay the ever skyrocketing premiums.
Your coverage for pre-existing conditions won't mean much if you can't afford to pay for it.
You have no way of knowing, of course, and I don't mean to get up in your grill. But frankly, I would have paid every cent I had to to address the medical issues in my family. We were thankful for the waiver of pre-existing coverage we were able to obtain in our state's high-risk pool, though at jaw-dropping cost. Then when the ACA came along, with better coverage, lower deductible, and a lower premium, we were overjoyed. I have a suspicion you would be, too, in a similar circumstance.
As I mentioned above, my family has come through our medical issues satisfactorily, though it has been financially very difficult, as you noted. The point to me is that there ought to be a way for everyone to have access to the care they need without bankrupting them or turning them into lifelong debtors.
The existing system is a ticking time-bomb, financially. We cannot continue with spiralling costs snd premium increases. We have got to get rid of the insurance industry's interference as it stands between sick people and caregivers. What does insurance have to do with medicine, anyway? Getting cancer is not an accident. Alzheimers is not an accident. These are just two of the many infirmities that strike people as part of their life's journey.
We need to focus on the need to provide healthcare for all Americans at a cost they can afford. It won't be easy to accomplish this. Neither was going to the moon, building the interstate highway system, defeatng Hitler, or any of the other obstacles our country has overcome.
Ah, but the government will have to power to say "This is how much you can charge for x, y, and z. Now deal with it." That's the way it's done in nearly every other country in the world.
Example: I recently spent three years in Japan. Their hospitals are given a list each year by the government which specifies the cost of every medication, procedure, and allied expense. Their hospitals have learned to function within these reasonable constraints. So can ours.
And what on Earth would give you any confidence that the US government would do that? Absolutely nothing in their history shows government involvement making anything cheaper.
And what on Earth would give you any confidence that the US government would do that? Absolutely nothing in their history shows government involvement making anything cheaper.
Maybe availability is more important than cost. That's the way we think about things like stealth bombers. Why not people's health?
And what on Earth would give you any confidence that the US government would do that? Absolutely nothing in their history shows government involvement making anything cheaper.
The US is famous for having the world's most expensive healthcare.
ie: Americans pay at least twice as much than Canadians who have single payer.
I've been saying for 9 years now, you have to solve the underlying problem.
The healthcare system in the US is a broken system, created by your own government's policies, so rescinding or repealing those policies is critical to fixing the system.
The first step is for each State to repeal its anti-Trust legislation, and to simultaneously start attacking hospitals for price-gouging.
As you know, the American Hospital Association and its state affiliates, lobby federal and state legislators to protect their best interests. On a federal level lobbying expenditures are in the $20 million range.
And then there's the lobbying efforts of the state healthcare insurers and associated national umbrella groups.
Back in 1994 the BCBS ( Siamese twin of the AHA eventually separated) umbrella corporation began to allow licensees to be for - profit corporations and the affiliated licensees exceeded expectations.
Fast forward to 2010 when the ACA became law. This law limited the profits of healthcare insurers. Insurers of individual and small group plans were required to spend at least 80% of premiums on claims with the remaining 20% to cover admin and profit. Large group plan insurers are required to spend at least 85% of premiums on claims with the remaining 15% covering admin and profit.
Beginning in 2011, insurers were required to rebate $1.1 billion to 12.7 plan holders.
Insurers who sold junk plans in the majority of states that allowed such plans to be sold to consumers who perceived all insurance alike were suddenly forced out of business because those plans did not meet the minimum basic requirements of the ACA. Oh boo- hoo.
Every year healthcare insurers attempt to justify lavish hikes in premiums which tends to get a lot of sensational media coverage. Reality is that overall premiums have declined. Individual experiences can and do vary.
There are no federal laws that preclude selling insurance across state lines. As you say it's a state thing.
What gets lost in the wash is that each state has its own governor appointed insurance commission which recommends what the state should and should not insure and regulation of insurers. These are the state appointed government bodies that previously allowed insurers to discriminate against pre- existing conditions in most states. These are the state appointed bodies that decide which medications the state requires to be included/ excluded in healthcare plans. These are the the state appointed bodies that divide their own states into regions based on the healthcare competition or lack thereof in a region. Those that live in highly competitive regions pay lower premiums than those in less competitive markets. Premiums can and do vary by $ hundreds each month within a state for the same healthcare plan.
In other words, these state appointed bodies don't normalize premiums within state. There is no realistic way for consumers to evaluate healthcare plans sold across state lines unless there is a common, likely federal baseline and even then........
No worries. The front running candidate for 2016 promises to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something wonderful that will take care of everyone and the government will pay for it.
Single Payer: It's a topic that I'm torn on. On the one hand, it'd surely be nice to just go to the doctor or dentist or optometrist, get done what needs done and not be confronted with a giant medical bill.
But we can't afford it!
It's things like that which make the single-payer system a terrible idea right now.
Because hospitals are doing that sort of thing -- all because "the insurance company or the government will pay for it, so who cares?" -- they make single-payer impossible. And when the most expensive RX's range in cost between $80,300 and $29,800 per month, we can't afford to do a single-payer. (And I thought paying $400 a month out of pocket for Invokana was outrageous!) This was Obama's big blunder. Before doing anything like the ACA, you need to address these problems.
We can't afford single-payer for many reasons, but the single biggest one: Healthcare costs are artificially inflated to such ridiculous levels that we just can't afford it.
Insurance companies don't pay for all of it. They only pay a portion and make the hospital or insured liable for the rest. Part of the issue is that U.S. drugs are astronomically expensive and we still have a large portion of uninsured people that simply go to the Hospital and don't pay.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
