Millions lose their beloved private health insurance (pay, work, bill)

[GreggT]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

Anybody who wants to buy private healthcare insurance can do so, and they don't even have to go to the ACA web site.

If they lost their coverage through work, there's Cobra, or the coverages (and supplementary financial assistance if they qualitfy) provided by ACA, or they can call private insurors directly, or through brokers.

What's the big issue?

"What's the Big issue"?
Try cost!

[Hesychios]

Originally Posted by No_Recess

Thanks FDR for tying insurance to employment!

Thread fail

You are going to have to explain that, with references.

[Hesychios]

Originally Posted by andywire

... FDR was a rabid socialist. ...

No he wasn't.

[Hesychios]

Originally Posted by jcp123

No reason to think it would get cheaper just because we adopted UHC. ...

Yes there is. It has been demonstrated to work over and over again in dozens of countries. Many of these countries had been our allies throughout the Cold War, and during that time they adopted National Health care programs, because it made economic and humanitarian sense.

Even Israel, the darling of conservatives all over the USA, has a national health care system.

[beach43ofus]

Originally Posted by GreggT

"What's the Big issue"?
Try cost!

Cost can't be an issue, we have the AFFORDABLE Healthcare Act..right? Oh, that's right, healthcare coverage has increased 40% since ACA was passed. Plus, we didnt get to keep are Doctors, or exisitng coverage either. What a crock of lies the Dems shoved down America's throats. I hope American's remember this come November.

~40% of American's live paycheck to paycheck, so if they had coverage through their jobs, & they lose their jobs, they lose coverage. They will not be able to afford any alternatives. I get that. Even with the ACA subsidies, those folks are s.o.l.. All they have left are the E.R.'s.

[Tylerrose]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

Anybody who wants to buy private healthcare insurance can do so, and they don't even have to go to the ACA web site.

If they lost their coverage through work, there's Cobra, or the coverages (and supplementary financial assistance if they qualitfy) provided by ACA, or they can call private insurors directly, or through brokers.

What's the big issue?

OMG, have you ever bothered to do that yourself?

Because if you actually had, you would find that buying health insurance as an
individual straight from insurance companies costs an absolute fortune that
is financially impossible for almost anyone? I am going to have to assume
you do not understand why the ACA was accepted by the health insurance
lobby in the first place.

Health insurance companies, in order to agree to accept pre existing conditions
or to agree to sell insurance to people they cannot cherry pick for acceptance,
are receiving a huge amount of money ( a legal bribe) from the US government
in order to sell and provide insurance policies. Before the ACA was passed,
if you called your local Blue Cross Blue Shield like I did, were told this:

Do you have any pre existing conditions like pregnancy or cancer? Me: No.
Okay, have you EVER sought mental health counseling for any reason? Are
you seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist or have you requested an emergency
mental health screening? Me: No, why do you ask? They told me that would
be grounds for them to not accept me, and to not sell me a policy. They told
me that before they accepted me as a client, they were going to do a backround
check that took about a week. They had to double check themselves to ensure
that I had no mental health issues going on. Mind you, this was in order to
sell me catastrophic health insurance, since their normal health insurance
plan was prohibitively expensive and I was not someone who saw a doctor
regularly. The catastrophic insurance plan I bought from Blue Cross Blue
Shield had a 6 thousand dollar deductible and I cannot remember how much
per month they charged, but it was extreme. In the year that I had it, they
raised the price once and were getting ready to raise it again before I dropped
it.

Now, since they have to take pre existing conditions and cannot cherry pick
their clients, insurers charge a premium plus they receive a comfortable,
guaranteed government check every year to do so. The issue for health
insurance companies is to pay their investors. Health insurance is secondary.
Health insurance is for profit. That is their bottom line. That is a problem.

[beach43ofus]

Tylerrose, yes we have bought coverage w/o ever going to the ACA web site, and are happy with what we have. We have a very high deductible to keep monthly costs down. We have a very high balance in our HSA, so those funds would cover the deductibles even if all 3 of us had serious illnesses at the same time.

We have no issues at all since Trump blew up some of the ACA restrictions. We're all good

[SanyBelle]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

Anybody who wants to buy private healthcare insurance can do so, and they don't even have to go to the ACA web site.

If they lost their coverage through work, there's Cobra, or the coverages (and supplementary financial assistance if they qualitfy) provided by ACA, or they can call private insurors directly, or through brokers.

What's the big issue?

Originally Posted by cw30000

You are making too much sense. Just read the title like most of the people: Affordable Care Act.

But it's not affordable! I am middle class, probably upper middle class, was 63 years old when I looked into
healthcare dot gov and a decent plan for me as a single ranged anywhere from $900-2500 a month. I bought a non-ACA compliant plan for $700 a month. Hopefully medicare that I've paid into since 1973 still exists next year for me.

btw, non-ACA means no prescriptions, no mental health. I had to give them my health history, height/weight for my plan. I'm healthy and not overweight.

[petch751]

Originally Posted by Angry-Koala

You mean, "Thanks GOP for refusing to allow insurance for all!"

As I said, before Ocare, I had insurance for 20+ years. After Ocare, I lost it because I couldn't afford it. Ocare made insurance unaffordable for a lot of people. What part don't you get?

Nah, I don't want any more solutions from the left, people always get left out and costing us a lot more money.

[Tylerrose]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

Tylerrose, yes we have bought coverage w/o ever going to the ACA web site, and are happy with what we have. We have a very high deductible to keep monthly costs down. We have a very high balance in our HSA, so those funds would cover the deductibles even if all 3 of us had serious illnesses at the same time.

We have no issues at all since Trump blew up some of the ACA restrictions. We're all good

Thank you very much for your thoughtful, insightful reply. I really appreciate your
insight. And I am being sincere.

I also do not wish to see a Medicare for all or government controlled medical system.
In my case, I am now covered fully by the VA and I love it. But it is not perfect at
all, just free in my case and I only have to see a doctor for medical emergencies
since I enjoy great health.

I think the real, underlying issue is how health insurance is administered in the US.
In the US, health insurers call the shots. They set payouts and decide procedures
covered. In other countries, health insurers have to provide the services first and
then apply to receive payment. I think another issue in the US is lobbying.
Insurance and big pharma is the largest lobby. They in turn set protocol by
influencing our elected representatives to vote in favor of their lobby agenda.
This is grossly unfair and rigged. This is not the original constitutional intent
of lobby. Lobbyists have rigged the system to become legalized bribery for
influence and favor.

I think another issue is the sheer explosion of population of people living in the
US. A one size fits all approach is too ineffective for the general population.
Different people have different needs. Cable television sellers saw their sales
drop when they stopped offering different packages for different tastes. They
raised their prices too much and stopped caring about customer service and
satisfaction. Now what has occurred, US internet cable providers have sold their
companies to a foreign based model that over paid the heavy top tier executives
and fired most of the local based in office personnel. So, basically the lower
half of the US internet is now controlled and billed by India interests. By
employing a bare bones US based skeleton crew, they get to call themselves
a US company and have investors. Investors demand to be paid first. I believe
Capitalism has morphed into top heavy, investor owned and operated mega
corporations that thumb their nose at the IRS while unfairly rigging needed
systems like health care insurance and internet. Lobbying has become a
mode for top tier investors to demand constant cash cow enterprise and
customer service is not important because the customer cannot go elsewhere.

Government is no help because lobbying makes that impossible. Lobbying
treats the government like an investor owned company.