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This so called "leftist" heath policy, the ACA, has preserved the for profit health insurance market.
To quote from the article you linked:
By contrast, Marinan R. Williams, chief executive of the Scott & White Health Plan in Texas, which is seeking a 32 percent rate increase, said the requests showed that “there was a real need for the Affordable Care Act. People are getting services they needed for a very long time,” Ms. Williams said. “There was a pent-up demand. Over the next three years, I hope, rates will start to stabilize.”
They wont.. The subsidies are expected to increase 60% over the next decade
" far from certain how many rate increases will hold up on review or how much they might change.
A study by Kaiser found consumers would see relatively modest increases in premiums if they were willing to switch plans"
Rates for healthcare insurance vary across the U.S., no different than auto, liability, home, renter and commercial insurance. The competitiveness or lack thereof, of the local healthcare market matters.
Premiums are a reflection of the cost of healthcare in any given market and the health of the people in that market. Most states allowed insurers to charge smokers a higher premium well before Obamacare and did so because it is a controllable healthcare risk.
70% of adults are overweight/ obese which increases the likelihood for Diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and some cancers. We are the fattest people on earth and the cost of US healthcare reflects this.
No reason why normal weight people with fewer controllable healthcare risks should pay the same premiums as someone with greater controllable healthcare risks. In other words, you are free to smoke and/ or carry extra weight and pay higher premiums or take responsibility for your self.
The majority of people do not smoke and have no issue with smokers paying a higher premium. There's no reason the 70% who are overweight/ obese should not pay a higher premium because they control this risk. Waist size is a better indicater than pounds or BMI because as we all know, " it's all muscle".
I don't smoke and I have an issue with binary rating. (Tobacco Y/N; Obese Y/N).
It's nuts to charge a social cigar smoker (say 2 per week) the same as a four-pack daily smoker, or to charge someone 1 pound above some weight threshold the same as someone 100 pounds over the same threshold.
Unless there is good evidence that the 1-pound-over person poses the same claim risk as the morbidly obese.
When one side screws up it's always "well the other side is no better". Quit thinking only two sides. Quit defending something that is wrong, period.
Yes, the (D)'s did something but they did something that in no way fixes any problems we have. Could the (R)'s help make it better now? Yes, they could and no they won't because in part it would take doing things neither party is interested in doing.
So you want OBAMA to Fix prices? Forget about Free Market? I thought Repubs want less Government intervention?
It's about what Obama said he was going to do. Lower prices. Lower costs. Make health care more affordable. He did none of that. I'm not interesting in what Republicans think. I'm interested in doing the things Obama said he would but didn't.
Sounds like it is working the way it was designed to work.
They're coming for Social Security next and gifting it to the Bankers.
My read on this you are about 75% right - it is working as designed and SS is next - but not for the bankers.
Once the ACA completely destroys the health insurance market (which, according to ACA architect Zeke Emanual, is what is was designed to do) the government will have to step in and create a federal health service. This new program will wrap Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security all together.
There is already a term for it in the back hallways of congressional office buildings: "Medicare-like."
Watch for that term over the next four or five years to be used more frequently, and more publicly.
My plan already went up in January 2015, and dropped most of the coverage! It's cheaper for me to get most of my meds by paying cash instead of using my insurance. They'll probably go up, and drop even more coverage.
While we're at it we can start charging people that do not live in a bubble and engage in any dangerous activity, hell why not use DNA testing to charge people more who are genetically predisposed to disease.
Some people's DNA most certainly will affect their weight. There is some controlling of this but it's not something everyone can completely control.
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