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Thought I'd post this as a separate thread. This is what is happening in Mass. since they enacted their healthcare reform.
This is what we will see happening on a national scale once Obamacare kicks in full in 2014. There is nothing in Obamacare to prevent this from happening on a national scale...skyrocketing costs and people gaming the system only getting insurance when they need it and dropping right after treatment.
Here's some articles. This is on a state level..just imagine when this happens on a national level.
Short-term customers boosting health costs - The Boston Globe
Thousands of consumers are gaming Massachusetts’ 2006 health insurance law by buying insurance when they need to cover pricey medical care, such as fertility treatments and knee surgery, and then swiftly dropping coverage, a practice that insurance executives say is driving up costs for other people and small businesses.
..
“These consumers come in and get their service, and then they leave because current regulations allow them to do it,’’ said Todd Bailey, vice president of underwriting at Fallon Community Health Plan, the state’s fourth-largest insurer.
BHI Study: Massachusetts Health Care Reform drives up insurance costs both public and private 6/27/2011
The landmark Massachusetts Health Care Reform law is responsible for a dramatic increase in health care spending over the period since it was enacted. The law did not bring about a promised reduction in health care expenditures. Rather, it permitted the state legislature and governor to expand health insurance coverage to almost all residents, while imposing more than $8 billion in new health care costs to the federal government and on state residents and businesses.
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* State health care expenditures have risen by $414 million over the period;
* Private health insurance costs have risen by $4.311 billion over the period;
* The federal government has spent an additional $2.418 billion on Medicaid for Massachusetts;
* Over this period, Medicare expenditures increased by $1.426 billion.
Thousands of consumers are gaming Massachusetts’ 2006 health insurance law by buying insurance when they need to cover pricey medical care, such as fertility treatments and knee surgery, and then swiftly dropping coverage, a practice that insurance executives say is driving up costs for other people and small businesses.
That's exactly why the ACA has an individual mandate. Everyone must pay in or else you encourage this kind of gaming.
That's exactly why the ACA has an individual mandate. Everyone must pay in or else you encourage this kind of gaming.
Thanks for making a case for the ACA.
What ? Do you know that the fine for not having insurance will only be $95 ? And it maxes out at $695 in like 2017.
Thank Pelosi for that..she said the fine had to be "affordable".
Everyone does NOT have to pay. You can do exactly what is happening in Mass. get healthcare when you need it and pay the fine otherwise.
There is no more pre-existing conditions to have insurance refuse you.
Tell me where I can get insurance cheaper than $95/year ?
And if I need to have surgery then I just get on insurance and have my surgery and then drop it. Tell me where in ACA that I CANNOT do that ?
Funny, Hawaii has had a near universal health care coverage by law since 1974 and still remains on the lower end of the spectrum with regards to health care spending per capita:
There's a reason you can't get auto insurance AFTER you have an accident and there's a reason you can't get health insurance AFTER you get sick and expect the companies to cover you and pay for it.
Funny, Hawaii has had a near universal health care coverage by law since 1974 and still remains on the lower end of the spectrum with regards to health care spending per capita:
In fact, Hawaii and North Dakota routinely bounce back and forth for lowest overall health care premiums in the country.
Hawaii also had something for kids and had to drop it because the costs blew up on them. And that was after 7 months after they announced it.
Mass healthcare is what Obamacare is modeled after.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/...lth-care_N.htm
A state official said families were dropping private coverage so their children would be eligible for the subsidized plan. "People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free," said Dr. Kenny Fink, the administrator for Med-QUEST at the Department of Human Services. "I don't believe that was the intent of the program."
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