A Year Later, Health Care Reform Can't Come Soon Enough
Just in the time for this week's one year anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, a new study by the Commonwealth Fund revealed that the new health care reform law's full implementation can't come soon enough. Since the start of the recession, almost 60% of Americans who lost a job and their health insurance- 9 million people - could not afford to regain coverage. Medical costs pushed four million more into bankruptcy. Mercifully, as the analysis also showed, "When fully implemented in 2014, the Affordable Care Act will bring relief: nearly all of the 52 million working-age adults who were without health insurance for a time in 2010 will be covered."
The Commonwealth Fund report ("Help on the Horizon: How the Recession Has Left Millions of Workers Without Health Insurance, and How Health Reform Will Bring Relief") sums up the bleak present and hopeful future of the American health care system.
Its 2010 Biennial Health Insurance Survey of over 3,000 adults ages 19-64 highlighted the devastating toll of the Bush recession which started in December 2007.
The survey finds that both insured adults--who are facing higher premiums and out-of-pocket costs--and uninsured adults cannot afford adequate health care. Seventy-five million adults did not get needed health care in 2010, skipping doctor visits, prescriptions, specialist care, and recommended tests and treatments because of costs. This represents a 60 percent increase from 2001, when 47 million people reported skipping needed care because of costs. Uninsured adults were the most likely to forgo care because of costs, with 66 percent reporting they did so. However, many insured adults were also less insulated from high health care costs--31 percent of adults who were insured all year went without the health care they needed because of costs, up from 21 percent in 2001.
Likewise, 73 million people reported problems paying their medical bills or were paying off medical debt, up from 58 million in 2005. The survey finds that because of medical bills, an estimated 29 million people spent all of their savings, 17 million incurred credit card debt, 22 million were unable to pay for basic necessities like food, heat, and rent, and 4 million declared bankruptcy.
All told, "Nearly three of 10 (28%) working-age adults, an estimated 52 million people, were uninsured for at least some time during 2010, up from 38 million or 24 percent in 2001." Those with incomes below the Federal Poverty Line (FPL) fared much worse, with 54% going without coverage at some point last year, compared to 13% among families living at twice the poverty level.
But as the Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis explained last week, the new consumer protections, insurance requirements and government subsidies contained in the health care reform law signed by President Obama last March will help ensure that nearly everyone, including the jobless, has access to comprehensive coverage by 2014:
"The silver lining is that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has already begun to bring relief to families," she said. "Once the new law is fully implemented, we can be confident that no future recession will have the power to strip so many Americans of their health security."
As the Fund's analysis showed, thanks to Affordable Care Act the vast majority of the 52 million adults lacking health insurance in 2010 will gain coverage beginning in 2014. Millions more will benefit as their ability to absorb the price of annual premiums and out of pocket costs improves.
But even short of the total Congressional repeal of the 2010 health care bill, Republican states are taking actions that threaten the law's implementation now and into the future. In Pennsylvania, new GOP Governor Tom Corbett is slashing the Keystone State's health funding for low income funding. After just weeks in office in Wisconsin, Republican Governor Scott Walker erased months of progress by his Democratic predecessor by "dissolving the health reform office and replacing it with the Office of Free Market Health Care." Meanwhile, 26 states - virtually all governed by Republicans and most with dismal health care performance - continue to their legal challenge to the PPACA in the Courts.
Which brings us to another finding from the Commonwealth Fund, this one sadly ironic. Its last State Scorecard showed that health care is worst where Republicans poll best. Nine of the top 10 performing states voted for Barack Obama in 2008, four of the bottom five (including Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Louisiana) and 14 of the last 20 backed John McCain. (That at least is an improvement from the 2007 data, in which all 10 cellar dwellers had voted for George W. Bush three years earlier.)
While most of the United States is waiting for the improvements to the nation's health care system that don't come into effect until 2014, in Massachusetts the future is now. In the state whose insurance mandate served as a model for national health care reform, recent polling "found that 84 percent of residents are satisfied with the Massachusetts plan." And with good reason. While 16.7% nationwide - and almost 30% in Texas - lack health insurance, in Mitt Romney's old state the figure is below 5%.
2014 can't come soon enough.
(This piece also appears at Perrspectives.)
We should be asking the GOP why they favor the insurance companies over the people who need care?
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
They favor the peop-le and employers who can pay the insurance companies.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
Correct that.
ask the *GOP AND THE DEMOCRATS* that.
The latest incarnation of the Heritage Foundation's plan to force us all to buy private insurance rather than instituting a single payer or socialized medicine system is about the insurance industry, not the people who need care.
We should have drowned *those fuckers* in a bathtub. To hell with the "in case shit" people.
to do the heavy drowning work you feel is required.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
Well, I'm sure sitting around typing furiously in front of our keyboards is going to help inform them.
Some serious activism is required here -- if the word gets out that we've got the least effective form of providing health care, you'd think those "budget hawks" would jump at the chance to decrease cost for everyone! Right?
Here is a tidbit from a Commonwealth Fund Study not covered here today.
"The U.S. health system is the most expensive in the world, but comparative analyses consistently show the United States underperforms relative to other countries on most dimensions of performance. .....
Among the seven nations studied—Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States—the U.S. ranks last overall, as it did in the 2007, 2006, and 2004."
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files...
Be sure and vist Exhibit 1 on Page 2.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
I'm aware of the study. Perhaps if our news media had a bit more spine and not only concerned with fluffing the Beltway residents, they would make it a matter of national concern that most politicians know about this terrible situation and choose to do nothing about it because they'd rather rake in campaign contributions and payoffs than help their constituents.
is owned by the same folks who 'Own ' the Congress, SCOTUS, etc.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
from 2013.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
... we're just going to keep fluffing the stupid 1990s Republican plan to pad the insurance industry's bottom line rather than going for, you know, actual *change*?
I simply refuse to throw support behind an initiative which only achieves some of the goals of "health insurance reform" (insuring more people), rather than attacking outrageous pharma costs, going for a single payer or socialized medicine system to make sure *everyone* has access to decent healthcare without using an Emergency Room or the few providers who will accept the shit-cost bargain basement stuff that is being foisted off on the poor.
The Democrats phoned the fucker in. If they want to differentiate themselves from the Republicans and Baggers, they're going to have to do a better job than that.
This trite Democrat versus Republican duopoly mentality would be hilarious if it weren't so tragic.
The so called Democrats so called 'health care reform' is a misnomer, here and elsewhere. It dealt with health insurance. The 'reform', such as it was, is a huge give away to the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies.
It was a Republican plan originally which was disingenuous at most that the Democrats passed and when either group says reform, one should run.
We should only be concerned with health care for everyone, and not health insurance, which is an oxymoron.
We need socialized medicine, per se. To hell with health insurance and the profiteering predators that deal in it.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
I agree 100% with every word you wrote.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
on Fb who says she can no longer afford the copay on her arthritis medicine:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/davidhorsey/2011/03/17/tsunami-on-the-way/
David Horsey nails it again!
Hey John Perr
Where in the new reform are the cost controls?
Until the Democrats realize they didn't help ANYONE with this bullshit law there should be nothing positive written about it. Especially from LIberal blogs.
My insurance has RISEN $6000 since Obama took office. I'm now up to $15000 per year for a family of 4.
This law sucks. It helps NO ONE except the insurance companies.
That is all that should ever be printed about it.
When Obama loses in 2012 this will be the reason. I campaigned for him in 2010. I did plenty of phone banks for HC reform during the debate. I've got nothing to show for my actions except higher bills.
Lou ...
Where in any of the discussion, much less any of the the proposals or passed laws, has there been serious attention to cost control?
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
Agreed.
The only mention I remember hearing of cost controls were the Republicans railing for Tort Reform. You know, because otherwise everything would be *so* affordable.
Keep in mind that having full time billing staff to deal with the nightmare of insurance companies is expensive. Most private practices have at least one person, who is most likely paid more than the rest of their staff, strictly for dealing with insurance companies. I grew up around doctors -- none of them like private insurance.
But they like Medicare/Medicaid a whole lot less. Many docs won't even see mediC patients.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2...
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
But you'd see hospitals going belly-up everywhere. Until we address the problem of so many people who are uninsured and under-insured, any sort of cost-containment is unrealistic.
Don't miss the "single payer" solution for it, then. Reimplement Medicare cost controls, everyone then uses the same system of price controls. Cost-containment is a great concept, but the primary goal is trying to make sure everyone has access to care without bankrupting them, while at the same time secondarily trying to do it without gouging anyone too badly.
And that's why I'm a big fan of single payer.
why would they go "belly up"? Sounds like a crock of shit to me.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274...
http://www.examiner.com/small-business-manage...
I know it's a bit earlier, but Berkeley did a study regarding closures of hospitals a while back:
http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2001/...
Funny enough, the majority were "for profit" facilities, rather than public hospital. Fucking people in the name of overhead, and all. I have some great stories I've heard from the medical guys at our local FQHC about how the local for-profit hospitals have been turfing their low-income patients out of the ER...
It's not "Obamacare". It's greed. The profit motive and healthcare don't mix.
Another, more recent article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28394340/ns/healt...
It states that most of the closings post-2007 were due to investment losses, bad economy, and people being unable to pay their hospital bills. Sure doesn't sound like it's a "cost controls" issue -- more of the old disease in their patients ... "lackobuckus".
Out of pocket expenses at the ER, etc, can kill a hospital pretty easily if the vast majority stop paying them.
have your CT scan at 3:30 AM? If I need one I am. When I drive through the states I see some amazing things that would seem out of place in my country. Billboards for one. We don't have those on highways. What's on the billboards is also surprising. I see lots and lots of ads for hospitals all offering their state of the art facilities and low wait times. For most things like CT and other advanced imaging technologies the US has a huge oversupply of capacity as various for profit health centers compete for clients. This costs a fortune and it is a giant waste. Costs are high precisely because there is so much of this expensive underutilized equipment that must be paid for and upgraded frequently just so hospitals can maintain their competitive edge. This is but one on the consequences of a for profit medical system. There are other equally expensive problems that could be addressed on the cost side of the equation.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Medicare consistently pays. Every doc I've talked to liked Medicare. You don't have to fight them, you just send them the bill, they cut you a check. Private insurance refuses things even with extensive documentation -- they're *paid* to refuse reimbursement to doctors.
Medicaid and SAGA should not be confused with Medicare. They pay squat (or a fraction thereof) and often don't cover costs, which is why most docs dislike them. It's like Title 19 patients -- most docs don't like seeing them either, since they also only pay a fraction of the Medicaid rates.
Planned changes to Medicare (see ICD9) are going to make reimbursement without documentation much more difficult. Docs are being forced to upgrade systems and document electronically. I don't believe they're too fond of this..
What the hell does ICD9 have to do with this? Medicare (HHS) is transitioning to using ICD-10 for diagnoses as they move to the X12 5010 standard for medical billing, so ICD-9 really has *nothing* to do with it.
Also, that thing about "docs being forced to upgrade" is crap. They get a financial incentive to implement an EMR system, if not, they can outsource the billing to any of the professional billing firms out there and still live in the luddite world of paper notes. You know, assuming they don't want the reimbursement for "meaningful use" software. (Sadly, even that is "rigged". The standards for "meaningful use" are set by a cabal of for-profit software companies ...)
with Meaningful Use, the days of "just send them a bill and they cut you a check" are over. Right now, it may largely just be specialists refusing to see medicare patients but MU is going to make it worse. Incentives for implementation (of an EMR for example) simply won't be enough to change a lot of docs minds.
You don't think that commercial insurance reimbursement is tied to Medicare rates? Well, I hate to break this to you ...
Their criteria for reimbursement is also tied to Medicare's criteria (as is their specification for electronic billing, etc...), so if Medicare has to be billed that way, you can bet your ass that everyone else is going to require it as well. So, it's not going to be easier to use Dewey Rapem and Howe Private Insurance -- just more expensive and more time consuming for your physicians' office.
That is my point entirely.
After Obama caved on the Public Option, NO ONE on either side was seriously talking about controlling costs.
Any reform without serious cost control is useless to the average American.
Assuming you could eliminate the entire overhead and profit of private health insurance
you would still only take 4-5% of the cost out of the system.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
According to http://www.pnhp.org/facts/single-payer-faq#in... :
I agree, things like prescription drug costs are insane (thanks Dubya and Obama for fucking us on that one), but it's more than just a few percent of the cost being eaten up by Ye Olde Profit Motive.
Mine come from taking the percentage of overhead and profit for private insurers out of the overall per capita expenditures, which include expenditures in existing single payer systems like Medicaid and Medicare.
My point is that eliminating the unneccessary cut private insurance takes will not do
much to control skyrocketing costs. And all the rants you hear on these threads about the insurance scam ignore that fact.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/state...
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
There are jobs for 2 1/2 doctors at the county health clinic in this hardscrabble southern Colorado town.
Getting health insurance companies to pay those doctors takes 9.6 file clerks.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17655436
A study by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Public Citizen to be published in Fridays International Journal of Health Services finds that health care bureaucracy last year cost the United States $399.4 billion. The study estimates that national health insurance (NHI) could save at least $286 billion annually on paperwork, enough to cover all of the uninsured and to provide full prescription drug coverage for everyone in the United States.
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2004/january/nationa...
i wonder if politifact considered these costs when they supported AHIP's claim?
But Politifact article is pretty clear what sources they used and it is pretty easily verified. There are clearly costs which providers and employers who deal with the insurance companies bear which are not reflected in the AHIP figures. But Medicaid and Medicare costs are between 25% to 50% of those of the insuance industry.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
Further down in your Denver Post article:
"Last year, the Spanish Peaks Regional Health Center sent bills to 193 commercial health insurance plans.
That would seem to make Medicare and Medicaid a piece of cake for finding the rest of the clinic's revenue. Except that with veterans, federal employees, military personnel and others, Spanish Peaks also had to bill 22 separate governmental insurance plans.
......
• When a private nursing home failed in Walsenburg, the health board wanted to reopen it as a public service. But when board chief executive Todd Oberheu's housekeeping allowance from Medicare was diluted out across the additional square footage, Spanish Peaks would have been losing nearly $200,000 a year on the idea.
The nursing home stayed shuttered, pending future battles. Most of the residents went to Pueblo or Trinidad, dozens of miles farther from family.
"Now, that's a government program for you," shrugged Oberheu."
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
"22 separate governmental insurance plans"???
jesus... wtf.... that sure doesn't help
Apparently they couldn't keep the nursing home open and clean based on theri allowable expenses under Medicare.
Of course, this is jounalism we are dealing with. 9.5 clerks for
2.5 docs? My family practice doc is about 2.166 clerks short of an
efficient operation.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
on the PNHP study cited earlier by Hackenbush. It was done in 2003 and their purported savings back then exceed by three times the amount private insurance takes in for administrative overhead and profit today according to U.S. government data. Something was out of whack.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
Except, that with a single payer system, greed has no escape.
Look at other countries for a demonstration of this fact.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Even with single payer billing scams are a frequent occurrence and audits must be undertaken from time to time.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Medicare and Medicaid fraud is less than 700% of the total amount of profit of the five largest insurance companies last year. $70 billion in fraud versus $11.7 billion in insurance company profit.
http://schealthcarevoices.org/2011/03/04/anal...
(Thanks for the link, fiver!)
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
And while we're delving into horseshit statistics ...
If you haven't been sick, and I mean *really* sick, you have no idea whether your health insurance is satisfactory or not. Wait until you see that 1000$+ "deductable" you have to meet (simply to satisfy some conservative tripe about a "moral obligation") when you're crunched by other bills. Yeah, it's going to seem a lot less "satisfactory" when it starts screwing you.
But let's all join in to the
Heritiage-Foundation-CareRomneycareObamacare circle jerk. I mean, the pointless "Republican Lite" party just pinned their reelection hopes on that particular turd, while they were letting the Republicans dictate policy for both houses of Congress and the Presidency *when they had a minority*. Seriously. I'm sick of voting for people because the guys they're running against are way the fuck more whackadoodle than they are.People who are convinced that expectations about or the outcome of the health care debate is what determined the results of any recent election.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
I was referring to the idea that Obama and company are planning on using that (along with the latest lack-of-regulation financial regulation bill) as examples of all the good they've been doing. The "health care debate" (which, incidentally, has gornicht to do with actual health care, but rather with insurance) had nothing to do with the last two elections -- but will be what the democrats run on in the next cycle.
etc... shut off any number of times. But if I'm late on my car insurance - WHAM (in nanoseconds) - a notice goes to the DMV and they suspend your license - at least there's no monetary penalty. I can't wait to see what happens when I'm forced to pay for health insurance, which I want, but can't afford.
..that this Washington takeover of our healthcare system must be repealed. Whether it actually helps anyone is irrelevant.
Two things are going to happen before 2014:
Obama will lose the election and the Republican President & Congress will torpedo any healthcare reform.
Obama will win the election and the Republican Congress will torpedo any healthcare reform.
Dems win, still powerless.
You can't explain that.
the tides.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
recent polling "found that 84 percent of residents are satisfied with the Massachusetts plan."
just one masshole talking here but I could not be less satisfied.
when you're dealing with guy's like Bam and Deval, it's a good idea to nail everything to the fucking floor so they can't give it to their masters.
(yes I know they're both black and how I sound.)
Boy, I'd really love to see the way those questions were framed.
Because I lived in Mass. a year ago and got involved with many doctors, nurses and residents of the Western Mass. area and NONE of them like the Mass Plan.
The Mass Plan is currently being SUED by at least 3 major medical centers. My understanding is that many people have discovered that they cannot actually afford the premium the magic "connector" tells them they CAN afford (based on the previous years tax records) and instead are opting to just pay the more affordable PENALTY and go on without coverage.
You see that magic "connector" doesn't factor in an individual's "expenses" when they tell you what you can "afford" to pay. For some it may come down to making a car payment, fixing a car, not being able to pay for the heating oil etc. or paying their MANDATED PREMIUM.
Read Trudy Lieberman's exposes on The Mass Plan at the Columbia Journalism Review if you want the straight skivvy on how horrible The Mass Plan really is.
I can't wait to see Romney squirm during the debates.
I just hope and pray we have some brave American who will be willing to tell the TRUTH to the American people and will PRIMARY OBAMA or run as a third party candidate.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
Up to this point I've managed any number of ways to hold onto my home. That means coming up with a mortgage payment every month. Never mind most everything gets shut off on a regular basis and their often isn't food in the house or gas in the car.
Just wait till they say I can afford another $700 a month - or whatever. I'll be penalized and still be without insurance.
Can't wait.
Rich H
Dude, sorry to hear about your food troubles.
I'm in the same boat as well and it sucks.
Beer-i.e., God's Sweet Nectar- is a magic drink that makes you smarter, stronger, and more sexy.
-S. Colbert
I just have a hard time imagining having to come up with another 10k or so a year for health insurance - and then having to pay a penalty because I can't afford it.
I'm sorry if your in the same boat as me - or if your close enough to even see it from shore.
Tough times for sure, hopefully they'll get better.
looked into the exemptions or supplements based on your income?
If I have enough to cover my mortgage that automatically puts me well above the poverty line. Also, the contributions by the gov.'t are based on percentages so theoretically (or quite possibly) I'll still be on the hook for several hundred dollars more a month.
I was just informed that the request by my health insurance provider to increase their premiums was passed through NYS Department of Insurance so my $898. a month premium is going to $1,001. a month in June. OUTSTANDING!!!!!! This is great news because I have to pay 100% of the premium! WTF?? These insurers are still in control and I'm willing to bet that with the GOP tightening down the States Mandate lawsuits (as well as their defunding attempts and abortion riders), this healthcare act will be watered down to nothing. They pay for elections and they control these people who make the laws.
Healthcare will be a luxury only the wealthy will be able to afford. Better yet, a large employer can pay next to nothing while holding healthcare benefits over your head now... win win for the wealthy, again.
Only $1,001?!
My insurance premium was set to increase to $1600 in February. I canceled it in January.
my employer gave it to me as part of my benefits package.
After I left that job (Maxicare actually went belly up) I made a conscious choice to never give any rotten for-profit health insurance corporation any money.
Just four more years until I can receive Medicare.
In the meantime I exercise, eat a healthy diet and drive carefully. If I need to see a doctor I tap into my savings and pay out of pocket.
If I have a massive heart attack or for what ever reason find that I (or my family) am facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills to save my life, I've already decided that I would rather DIE than pay a penny to Blue Cross/Blue Shield or any other health insurance CORPORATION.
Once the MANDATE goes into effect, I will pay the penalty and wait until Medicare kicks in for me.
This is how much I personally LOATHE any of these corporations that Barack Obama was so eager to cater to.
I'd rather be DEAD than give them one red cent.
Screw them AND their "stockholders".
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
I remember hearing that insurance companies were doing "cost/benefit" analyses a few years back regarding which treatments they should reimburse. Of course, they had no way of measuring benefits (other than a simple cures / does not cure), so they always went for the cheaper chicken.
Their rate structure, however, steadily went up.
The moral is, don't let the wolves run the fucking hen house. If these guys are allowed to decide how much they'll charge and how much they'll pay, one will continue upward and the other downward, especially as most markets in the US are virtually competition-free.
SnorgTee chick with the unzipped pants?
What a stupid banner ad.
Before enlightenment - chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment - chop wood, carry water.
but I'm not telling.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
Snorg a ginger day.
Cue the Kabuki....
STILL Can't Come Soon Enough!
Really....? two fluff pieces on this POS health INSURANCE scam?
regurgitate da message!
Cue the Kabuki....
Eliminate the private heath insurance industry entirely fron the scam. Replace it with single payer.
How much cost have you taken out of the system?
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
Based on the study cited by PNHP, probably between 12-31% of the cost. But most likely more than that.
Go read it again. That 31% is an estimate of the percentage of total administrative costs of health care in the US. The 12% is based on the overhead and profit of private insurer's premium income. Private insurers cover less than half of the health care costs in the US.
I think it would be safe to say nobody has an exact figure. The best estimate I have seen if 4-5% is the cost and profit share of private insurance. Would there also be a reduction in administrative expenses of employers and providers. Yes. But it would not get the total up to the 12% you cite.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
..it might not be a large percentage. But you would then be in a position to standardize pricing in a workable way because every claim would be paid and everyone is covered. Furthermore, you would be in a much better place to reduce excessive testing & procedures because you could standardize care (it will take both a stick and a carrot). Bottom line: you could take a helluva lot of the cost out of the system with single payer. I use just about any other developed country as proof.
eliminate the *FOR PROFIT* private health insurance industry etc etc.
if you want POS insurance scam thats it right there. filling coffers of insurance industry while making sure as few as possible are actually covered (cos it'll cost too much to add those 52m sick and uninsured people to the rolls, y'know. /s).
If peoples health werent being held over for the almighty dollar you'd be in a much better place. and no its not hard - many nations spend ~half or less than you do per capita on healthcare; and rank higher on multiple indicators. oh and frequently do so using either universal healthcare or what essentially amounts to public option, or a mix of both. taken as a national whole, you will remove much cost from your system if you can enact anything within a bullsroar of those mechanisms.
Then, eliminate the perpetual war machine and spend OUR tax dollars on OUR own health and 'general welfare'
“The laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised. They [Congress] are not to lay taxes ad libitum for any purpose they please; but only to pay the debts or provide for the welfare of the Union." -Jefferson
Hey! Tomahawk missiles are pricey...better fire some teachers quik!....AUSTERITY!
Cue the Kabuki....
When I was working in a union job as a clerk in a major supermarket, I had an insurance policy that still cost me $2,000/year for premiums, deductible and co-payments. I had to quit my job to take care of my mother who has been hospitalized and nearly bed-fast. I had one illness (a urinary infection) a year ago, and I have not yet paid off the doctor (GP and Urologist) and lab bills from that episode.
Rather than spend money for a useless and unaffordable mandatory insurance policy, I plan to just let the IRS take the fine and go barefoot. All I can really hope for is a heart attack and that nobody finds me until its all over.
I feel your angst - really.
...yes, for the insurance companies
and, question, you write that "As the Fund's analysis showed, thanks to Affordable Care Act the vast majority of the 52 million adults lacking health insurance in 2010 will gain coverage beginning in 2014. Millions more will benefit as their ability to absorb the price of annual premiums and out of pocket costs improves."
how will people's "ability to absorb the price of annual premiums and out of pocket costs" improve? think i missed that part. if it doesn't, how does that change your view on the legislation's efficacy?
To me this is criminal. How can we call ourselves the greatest country in the world when we force our citizens into bankruptcy, erasing everything they've earned in their lifetime, just because they got sick.
Everybody get's sick, so eventually, if you're poor or middle-class, you're going to go bankrupt.
Yippee!
Great plan. Seriously. Because it's main objective was accomplished in spectacular fashion.
Analysis Shows Insurance Giants Pocketing Huge Profits, Despite Weak Economy
But things will get better . . . starting years from now. Just wait, and trust.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
HOPE is da dope that will set us free....
Cue the Kabuki....
Barack Obama and his HOPE-A-DOPE…
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
The five largest Wall Street-run health insurance companies parlayed the economic meltdown of 2008 and the nation’s subsequent fragile recovery into huge profits in 2010, the last year before market reforms in the AffordableCare Act (ACA) take full effect,
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
maybe, but the cost will come out of other working peoples hides, cause it damn sure won't come out of insurcos profits, bho made sure of that. is any of this starting to sink in?
What a crock. Most will not just "gain" coverage; they will be required to buy it. Sure, there is supposed to be an expansion of Medicaid - from the federal side, but we are watching Medicaid implode right now as state after state makes cut after cut. There will also be "subsidies" after insurance companies and the
crony capitalistsNew Democrats decide how much more they can squeeze from the dwindling middle class.Why no mention of The Heritage Foundation in this post? Why no mention that the Affordable Care Act is essentially the plan that the insurance industry itself outlined? Why no mention of Liz Fowler's and Max Baucus's connections to the insurance industry?
Mr. Perr certainly is aware of such things, but chooses to ignore them.
This is New Democrat/DLC/Third Way propaganda that takes a conservative, industry friendly, industry written plan and puts a pretty blue bow on it.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
Hope-a-dope…
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Ali used the Rope-a-Dope as basically a lie in which he pretended to be weak and get his butt kicked always planning to wear out his opponent for a stunning victory before the end of the fight.
These DLC/Third Way/New Democratic frauds appear to be pretending to be weak and get their butt kicked only so they can throw the fight and cash in with the bookie after it's over.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
replacing the current American health care system with a system totally run by the government and financed by taxes.
Then everything will be better because the cost will go down and the quality of care will go up.
Everyone will be happy.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
Two of the most misleading claims (almost always by people who know better) are that it has eliminated the "pre-existing condition" denial for children, and that it has implemented a requirement that insurers must spend a minimum amount on health benefits.
Yes, children with pre-existing conditions have been accepted by carriers - but only the carriers that wished to do so. The ones that didn't want to simply stopped writing new policies for all children or got permission to jack up the fees on children with pre-existing conditions. In other words, sure you can get it, if the insurance company wants to sell it to you and you're willing and able to pay what they want to charge. Same as it ever was.
Next is the bs notion that insurers are now required to provide minimum benefits. Yes. They are . . . . unless they apply for a waiver. So far The Department of Health and Human Services has approved over 1,000 waivers - 94% of them.
What the Right Hand of Obamacare giveth, the Left Hand taketh away. Perhaps that's why Analysis Shows Insurance Giants Pocketing Huge Profits, Despite Weak Economy.
But things will change in 2014. Just wait. And hope. And trust.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
what he keeps leaving this out from his last link....
"The five largest Wall Street-run health insurance companies parlayed the economic meltdown of 2008 and the nation’s subsequent fragile recovery into huge profits in 2010, the last year before market reforms in the AffordableCare Act (ACA) take full effect, "
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
. . . screaming: "Look at me! Look at me! I have something! It's important!" you know that's it's best to keep ignoring him, but every once in a while your curiosity gets the better of you and you turn your head to find out what he has - even though you know it's counterproductive to give him the attention he so desperately craves.
And you turn your head only to find it's the same old nonsense.
Such as the implied claim that "market reforms" will address the insurance carriers' profits. A claim which is made immediately following a comment that demonstrates just how easily insurance carriers have gotten around these supposed reforms.
Go run and play, little boy. As usual you've got nothing. Back on "Ignore User" you go.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
...was he right or wrong? You seem to be avoiding the point of the comment.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
It was the very point of my initial comment above. But if repetition is required, that's easy enough to do. Supposed reforms in the Affordable Care Act are replete with loop-holes such as the "requirement" of minimum benefits - which would appear, on it's face, to limit profits.
Except it doesn't. Here's an official HHS list of 733 corporations that have been granted one or more waivers of these minimum "requirements."
That's no surprise. Why would the insurance industry write a law that limits its profit without making sure that they can easily avoid such "restrictions"? They wouldn't, and they didn't.
Gotta run for now. Peace.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
...only applies to mini-med plads, right?
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
High premium/low benefit rip-offs. Literally, the WalMart of health insurance coverage. One of the exact type of health insurance scams Obamacare claimed it would prevent . . .
. . . unless the rip-off artist asks for a waiver. Then it's just the same old same old.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
...employers, not insurance plans.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
soon enough.
And why is it that it will take 3 more years for the full bill to kick in? Oh, that's right. The insurance, big Pharma and other corporations that run health care needed some time to make obscene profits before that might be ratcheted back. Thanks Obomba and spineless Dems.
moved.
"Folks, this is not your father's Republican Party."
Joe Biden
Simply strip all elected officials, representatives, etc. of their taxpayer-funded health insurance. Make them buy their coverage on the open market. Perhaps then they will understand what the problem is and why there needs to be a sea-change in healthcare in this country.
For good measure, make them all work for the average US income, too. Let them see how far a paycheck goes when you have to make insurance payments.
Comments are closed on this entry