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Yes, this is exactly what Obama was banking on - and it's a play straight out of the Alinsky playbook.
If you can't get what you want (single-payer), intentionally devise a plan that will fail. The death spiral was discussed before the passage of Obamacare - meaning they knew it would flop - yet they went ahead with it. The Dems' thinking, arrogant as they are, was the Hillary would win at the same time Obamacare was going into the toilet, causing middle-income people to have no affordable options, and then....then!...they could push for single-payer.
I've said this before and I'll say it again: Obamacare went overboard in providing free or ridiculously subsidized insurance to moderate earners while forcing middle-income earners to fork over $1000 a month for plans that pay squat. In what world is it fair for someone earning $38,000 (the moderate) to pay only $100 a month, and a person earning $48,000 (the middle) to pay $1000?
Once I was in a specialist's office and not only did I have to pay $1100 for the treatment (it was a laser thing to correct a clouded-over lens in my eye), I also had to pay $700 for the "out-patient" surgery center. This was on top of the $900 I had just paid the previous week for my health "insurance". Almost $3,000 out in a single month. When I complained to the person waiting next to me about the $700 facility charge, she told me Obamacare covered hers! Then the half-dozen or so of us in the waiting room started comparing notes, and guess what? I was apparently the only middle-income person in the room, and NOBODY paid for either the facility or the laser treatment.
I HATE OBAMACARE.
"You must spread some reputation around before giving some to Rachel976"
Where did I Say the CA was wonderful? I did not. What it did do was stem the rampant rise of health insurance. Now under Trump we are back to the rampant rise in cost that we had before the ACA. Trumps policies are bad for small business. It is factual and obvious.
Other than making people buy it the ACA appears to be intact. As President Trump failed to get it repealed,only succeeding in getting rid of the mandate it would seem the ACA is not viable unless you force other people to pay for it. Sounds like BO shouldn't have promised it would cost no more than a cell phone plan.
Obamacare was set up to fail so that we would be forced to go with a complete federal government takeover of healthcare
Obamacare did nothing to bring down costs -- just like we conservatives told you people 9 years ago. Only the free market will do a darn thing to fix the system. And -- how about this one.... people taking responsibility for their own health. You want to eat McDonalds and smoke a pack a day? Good luck.
It would appear there are additional problems with people taking responsibility. vacoder is miffed that the withdrawal of the IRS mandate has made it impossible for his employees and their families to have their healthcare for free. At the risk of sounding selfish, since when has it been my responsibility to provide the employees and family members of vacoders business free/low-cost healthcare?
I agree .... the ACA was designed to fail, and people were warned it would do nothing to bring down cost.
Like I said it was not perfect. It was an improvement on what we had but was bad for certain people. What we have now sucks. Health insurance is going in the wrong direction and the GOP is doing nothing. It is soon going to be a crisis.
A law that helps some people afford health insurance while making previously affordable insurance unaffordable for others is NOT an improvement.
The question we should be asking....why does congress get better healthcare than the people in this country.
For once, Natalie and I agree. I think that Congress, along with all federal employees, should have been made to go on Obamacare. It NEVER would have passed in its current iteration if lawmakers were forced to suffer along with the rest of us.
An analogy: It's like a chef preparing food at his restaurant, requiring that citizens eat there, and then he and his staff go next door for a decent meal.
For once, Natalie and I agree. I think that Congress, along with all federal employees, should have been made to go on Obamacare. It NEVER would have passed in its current iteration if lawmakers were forced to suffer along with the rest of us.
An analogy: It's like a chef preparing food at his restaurant, requiring that citizens eat there, and then he and his staff go next door for a decent meal.
Federal employees don't have the same healthcare as congress.
It puzzles me why people think health insurance is relevant. I have a friend who is poor. She was ecstatic when she got health insurance under the government program.
"Can you go to the doctor now?"
"No. the deductible is too high, but at least i have insurance."
She does not get 100% subsidy, so she now has to pay for health insurance but still cannot afford to go to the doctor. What good did the health insurance do for her?
What is needed is lower cost health care. Health insurance is completely irrelevant. It does not and cannot provide lower cost health care. As always,. our government and the media are obsessing over a symptom wile ignoring the problem and the public is following them right along like a heard of sheep.
Yep
The costs are the problem because they can charge whatever they please.
Politicians will do nothing about it either since they are on the take.
The amount charged is not as much a problem is the insane levels of caution employed to avoid liability.
I went to the podiatrist for Plantar Fascietis.
They took my blood pressure, my weight, temperature, height, etc. They had someone interview me about medications and allergies. All of that information is in my file, absolutely none of it is relevant to Plantar Fascietis. they have to do it because if I was having some other problem and they missed it, they might get sued.
Only a few days prior, I went to urgent care for a nasty spider bite. All I needed was some antibiotics to control the infection. they also took blood pressure, weight interview, etc. All of this information was in my file, They also made me write it all on a form before they came in to weigh and interview me. Some of that had some justification in this case, but none was really necessary. the doctor did not consider any of it. She looked at the bite and said it looked really ad. Asked me if I had a fever, asked me again about allergies (third time) and prescribed antibiotics to prevent/fight infection.
A month before, I went to a knee doctor. They took the same information. None of which is relevant to my knee. Dr. talked to me for three minutes and told me to go get a MRI. They tried to get me to get an MRI at their connected hospital (cost $2800 plus) I went and got one at a specialty place (cost $320). However the specialty place did not take blood pressure, temperature, weight etc. Maybe the hospital would have.
When someone has a baby, every time the nurse touched the baby there has to be two or three other medical professionals in the room observing her. why? Liability.
We are so crazed with avoiding risks we have priced medical care out of reason.
They need to streamline the system, improve communications, stop re-taking information that is already in your file and already written down by you when you come in.
Yes, your regular doctor should check your weight and blood pressure a few times a year. It makes sense if there is some reason for it. But the insane redundancy, excessive caution, and complete disregard for costs is out of hand.
Yes, the charges are often ridiculous as well, especially from hospitals. That needs to be controlled. If a specialty service can do an MRI for 1/10th the cost of the hospital, then the hospital can reduce their charges, or get out of the MRI business. they also may need to gt out of the providing diapers ($300 each) Advil ($40 per dose) and other commonly available items. Why is it all so expensive? In large part because you have layers and layers and layers of liability coverage included. Are the diapers at the hospital better than the diapers available at Walgreens? No, they are not. they are the same.
Insurance these insane charges is not a solution. If the insurance company pays them, the money does not magically appear. It gets charged back to the consumer one way or another.
Then you get to prescription drugs. First, if you use a service like Good RX you will find the price for the same prescription will vary by hundreds of dollars from one pharmacy to another. Sometimes the variance is several hundred percent. There is not much consistency by location. Walmart may be lower than CVS for three of the prescriptions you have and higher for the other two. Then if you go to Mexico or Canada, the same prescription costs 1/5 the lowest price you can find here. Sometimes it is more like 1/100th.
However no one is talking about controlling prices and cost. We are being robbed and whether we pay through the robbery through insurance of directly is not really relevant. It all comes out of our pocket one way or another. Stop the robbery and the waste and insurance will become affordable. Companies can pay their employees more, or stop charging them for a portion of their coverage.
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