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This new bill will entourage people to do less to help themselves. The mandate to have insurance is going away, and they can still get subsidies, so people are more likely to be more dependent on the government rather than buy their own insurance.
The mandate isn't going away.... only difference is, instead of paying the penalty to the gov't, you're paying it to the insurance company. That's the 30% premium surcharge for people without continuous coverage.
Something that struck me reading through the bill today is that it does not repeal Obamacare at all. The wording is all about strike this and change that. It simply replaces parts of it with ideas and approaches more palatable to its authors. The GOP bill is not a repeal and replace nearly as much as it is a repair/reduce/modify.
This is not new behavior for the American people, however. To act like it is would be disingenuous.
Enact serious tort reform and allow interstate competition and those two things would go a long way to reducing costs for the healthcare consumer.
So then we need to stop rewarding it. I'm sure we will see some unfortunate child, mother, or elderly person trotted out at some point to talk about how "Republicans killed" them and this one case (which is probably not even true) is instantly the reason for continuing to promote bad behavior of both the individual and government. Not saying I don't make bad decisions myself, I just like to think that I deal with the downside when I do. I'd love it if health care was more affordable and most could be self sufficient in terms of providing it for themselves, and we just had catastrophic care and/or other care for the truly destitute and for our veterans....pipe dream though.
The USA is not other countries, so we will necessarily need our own solutions. Of course we can borrow ideas from other countries, but that doesn't ensure success here. Including public and/or private hospitals in a public and/or private HC system.
I have said before that there is not enough difference between basic HC and 'frills'. Unless you want non-standard or unapproved HC treatments or drugs. Or a private vs a double room. Medical standards of care dictate most of our overall HC costs, whether basic or frills. You may buy more convenient HC, but not much in the way of cheaper. Cosmetic, lasik, IVF are a few maybe.
I agree the gulf between basic medical care and private is not huge. if it costs 50k for a new foot, the cost does not change a lot just because the patient has more insurance, at least not for the medical bills.
but the truth is many people are very willing to pay real money for the difference , that money makes the whole thing work, because public hospitals build private floors, wings etc...
Much like airlines making big profits from 1st and 2nd class fares, while 3rd and 4th class pay for the gas.
People do buy the extra insurance, they buy it to ensure they don't have long waits for elective surgery. they buy it to get a private or semi private room. they buy it to get their choice of doctors .
In truth many people never get much real value out of the private plans, but they are buying peace of mind. Much like i buy an umbrella policy i never expect to use. But the few hundred i pay means i know my assets are protected.
And again, it is not a prefect system. when governments under fund it people suffer. Waits can be long when underfunded. Doctors tend to want private patients more than public because they make more money from the private ones. Some countries need to mandate quotas to force docs to take the public patients.
Public healthcare is not great. But it is godlike when compared to the standard we have know.
I'm excited that after eight years of shrieking, this is what Republicans came up with and now those that voted for Republicans get this. It's a beautiful thing. Next...Paul Ryan's vision for Medicare!
As the saying goes, "be careful what you wish for."
LOL, who's getting Medicaid. Do you really think able bodied people insured by Medicaid voted for Trump?
They did in Arkansas.
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