Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Obamacare has a lot of problems, but it's also been actively sabotaged by Republicans as part of their ongoing effort to kill it, as opposed to investing further to improve it. And if you think healthcare costs would have been lower without it or will be lower once Republicans do kill it, you're kidding yourself.
The government stuck their hands in healthcare long before the ACA. The ACA just sped up the increases.
Insuring preexisting conditions has a cost.
That 75% of us are overweight/ obese makes us more vulnerable to disease and deterioration. Diabetes 2 is an epidemic. It cost an average of almost $10,000 a year to treat Diabetes 2 and serious complications. Nearly 1/3 of us have diagnosed, undiagnosed or pre Diabetes.
Yep, how DARE he fight back unlike previous R's who were gentlemanly and allowed the Dems and media to walk all over them.
I hold our president to a higher standard. We have over three hundred million Americans. Not everyone is going to agree with him. He needs to get a backbone and deal with it like his predecessors
Status:
"everybody getting reported now.."
(set 25 days ago)
Location: Pine Grove,AL
29,561 posts, read 16,552,753 times
Reputation: 6043
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rachel976
I got the news today, and it was a good thing I was sitting down when I opened the envelope.
The premium for the "budget" plan I have (otherwise known as the bronze plan) will be $977 a month. That's nearly $1,000 a month for the cheapest plan available, which carries a deductible of nearly $7,000. That means that I, with a straight middle-class income, will be on the hook for almost $20,000 in medical costs (if my year is bad). Boy, do I long for the pre-Obamacare days just a few years ago when I paid a few hundred a month at most for a real plan that covered medical expenses!
Basically, as has been discussed before, Obama "arranged" for middle earners to pay exorbitant premiums for what is essentially a catastrophic plan in order to have insurance companies provide the costs for every sneeze and cough for low(er) earners.
So, has anyone else received their envelope?
Your analysis of what Obamacare was supposed to be is flawed. Republicans gutted it basically removing all the things that brought costs down, and now tell you that you should be mad at Democrats because costs are going up.
Im cool with people like you complaining, but you are blaming the wrong person.
Ted Kennedy's HMO Act of 1973 set this inflationary use-health-care-for-just-everything idea into motion. The employers would pay for it, effectively hiding most of its real costs from the users.
Trendy, monumental hospital architecture, generous salaries, candlelit hospital corporation functions, service union thugs, prescription pills on TV, privatization of former charity systems, consolidation, you're faithfully, dutifully paying increases for it all.
I haven't seen my personal premiums for 2020. The insurer states they are expecting a 16% decrease. Also, a new insurer is entering the market for my county.
Unless they finally have the guts to go after the original sin (employer based health insurance) of the US health insurance system, don't expect any change. The other ways to decrease cost include increasing importance of adherence, decrease use of specialists, decrease use of hospitals, strict use of outcomes based therapy and pharmacoeconomics, small drug fomularies and so on.
Premiums for the same plan vary state to state and within state. People in some regions, in some states are paying twice as much in premiums for the same plan, without any subsidy.
The number and type of claims made by people in your geo rated area matters.
Your age matters.
Competition amongst insurers matters
# healthcare providers: local population matters
# hospital beds : local population matters.
The ACA did not change how insurers rate risk. That insurers can no longer deny or charge different premiums to those with preexisting conditions matters.
Your analysis of what Obamacare was supposed to be is flawed. Republicans gutted it basically removing all the things that brought costs down, and now tell you that you should be mad at Democrats because costs are going up.
Im cool with people like you complaining, but you are blaming the wrong person.
This.
We don't have Obamacare, but we have Private insurance, every year the price seems to sky rocket up, and has
every year for the last decade or so. OP Have you looked into private insurance outside of Obamacare?
I just saw a doctor last month for five minutes. Her bill to me was $600. That was on top of the $800+ I paid for the "insurance." (And yes, she was in network. It means nothing.)
What kind of MD charges $600 for 5 minutes?
Have you received a Statement of Benefits from your insurer for this claim? It will typically reduce the fee to MD’s bill to the contractual PPO reimbursement amount and apply it to your deductible. You are on the hook for the PPO adjusted rate.
If your MD charged you say $1 million while agreeing to accept $75 as part of the PPO arrangement, your out of pocket is $75 and it will count towards your annual deductible.
I am often stunned by reimbursement rates MD contractually agree to. No one is getting rich off $15 for a pap smear and breast exam
Republicans have had years to come up with a plan, controlled the house, senate, the presidency and they did nothing. There would probably be civil unrest if people thought they were losing their heath care. Once you go down this road, almost impossible to turn back, like trying to do away with social security.
Like it or not, it was Trump who conjoined repeal and replace simultaneously. He did so on 60 Minutes with his family present.
Subsequent, he either did not recall or lied that he never intended repeal and replace to be simultaneous.
Congress twice attempted to pass unscored alternatives and failed. Just as well because it was more costly than the ACA.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
