What will happen down the road when Obamacare starts running out of money?

[mexigal]

Originally Posted by DC at the Ridge

Actually, the argument that insurance companies are making a killing has considerable merit, based on their record earnings during the past decade. Especially when you consider the runaway costs of healthcare during that same period.

As to the current system being far from perfect, and the best one on the planet, well that's debatable. People who have good insurance coverage may think it's the best, but even people with insurance are afraid of getting sick not because they fear the illness, but because they fear the bills. Most people have co-pays, so just having insurance doesn't insure that you won't go broke if you have to be hospitalized for any period of time. And worse, your insurance carrier can deny claims, or can drop your coverage once they've identified you as a liability risk. And then what are you going to do?

Tort reform gets touted as a way to reduce costs, but when tort reforms have been passed, have insurance premiums in those jurisdictions gone down? Nope, they've risen along with insurance premiums nationwide, sometimes doubling.

The systemic problems with healthcare in the United States are going to be exacerbated by the aging population and baby-boomers who have only begun to retire. The burden on our economy will be insupportable unless we start addressing the problems today. And tort reform and healthcare savings accounts are completely inadequate to the problems.

It's easy to criticize. What's your solution? But, not just vapor, how would you pay for it?

[TKramar]

I think we should put a stop to Medicare and Medicaid payments for people over 65.

[geeoro]

What will happen down the road when Obamacare starts running out of money?
The same as when a new war arises....get it from the taxation. Isn't that what funds Govt programmes like wars and space exploitation....that hasn't run out yet so why should health care be any different? The amount of jobs created in a UHC and new building work to boost the building industry would pay for the UHC twenty times over.

[DC at the Ridge]

Originally Posted by mexigal

It's easy to criticize. What's your solution? But, not just vapor, how would you pay for it?

Well, first of all, I think one of the strategies is to leverage the costs lower. Essentially, when you have a large purchaser of goods and services, that large purchaser is able to negotiate a lowered cost on those goods and services. I think this is one of the strategies that Obama has in mind. Secondly, I think tort reform is a good idea, but it has to be legislated as hand-in-hand bills. For instance, when tort reforms are passed, those reforms must be matched by mandates which force insurance companies to figure in those tort reforms in determining their premiums. We've had tort reform in the past, and we've had state and local government implement tort reform in the past. And the tort reform did not significantly impact the costs of malpractice insurance. Unless you can tie them together, tort reform doesn't benefit the average American citizen, it only benefits insurance companies who can limit their risks while still raising the prices on the insurance they offer. Thirdly, I think that insurance companies should be a complement to the healthcare system in that they have the ability to offer premium healthcare services to people who can afford the best services. I would like a healthcare plan that explores some innovations, as well. Mobil services like MRI's and EKG's that are made available to clinics in poverty areas or in rural areas. Special scales of reimbursement to provide incentives for the top doctors to spend at least a part of their time serving our most impoverished citizens. Flexible plans that will work with rural citizens to devise ways to attract and retain doctors in those locales. If the federal government is acting as an insurer, and profits like other insurers, we should put those profits into research and development of new treatments. The way we're currently structured basically provides incentives to pharmaceuticals to develop treatments for conditions, rather than cures. There is obviously more profit in long-term or even life-long treatments than there is in curing a disease. It's naive to think that that reality hasn't affected the way pharmaceuticals conduct their business. Preventative measures are clearly more cost beneficial, not withstanding the CBO's evaluation this past week. Because I think that current analyses of the cost savings are taking current cost price-points, and that's not realistic. If a hospital conducts 400 prostate exams a year at $1000/per, that doesn't mean that with healthcare reform the hospital will conduct 4000 prostate exams a year at $1000 per, it may be that the hospital will conduct those 4000 exams at $750 per. And if those screenings catch cancer or other conditions earlier in 65 patients, the savings in earlier, more effective and less expensive treatments could offset the extra expense involved with the more numerous screenings. We're talking about $40,000 per patient of that 65. When you consider that just a three-day stay in a hospital can easily cost $40,000, the scenario I've described is not unreasonable. Just addressing the amount of waste in our current system could result in considerable savings. And I'm sure there are numerous other strategies that are more than "just vapor".

[mickey mouse is dead]

Medicare ran out of money because the stupid republicans stole from it. As long as we don't have another republican administration, we will be okay!

[TKramar]

Well, we can start by getting rid of Medicare and Medicaid, then move on to Social Security payments for the retired. You don't work, you don't eat.

[wdavid002]

I have a newsflash..."there is no money to run out of". We are deficit spending at this point with no end in sight...

[TKramar]

^That's true enough...we spent it all on Iraq...and Afghanistan. Instead of defending our own borders, we go and invade theirs.

[wdavid002]

Another newsflash coming across the wires..Bush deficit pales in comparison to BHO. He spends like a drunken sailor, except with someone elses money..hell bent on destroying the Country he hates..

[TKramar]

Obama hasn't had 8 years in which to waste money like Bush. Give him time, and he might. Or he might not. Talk to us again in 2012.