Wait what?
Kid Dynamite had some great (dare I say dynamite) posts a few weeks back about how much more he would have to pay because of Obamacare. Basically, if you pay for your own health insurance in his state (no medicaid/company plan), then you get lumped in with the people with pre-existing conditions. Because he was lumped in with a small number of really expensive patients, people like him have to cover the costs.
I’m really tired of Obama. If prices went down for the sickest 10% people, and up for the other 90%, he would proclaim proudly the same thing.
There are overwhelming reports of families losing existing plans they were on because insurance companies jacked up the prices, and companies dumping people off employer plans, etc etc…
I caught a bit of the press conference today in the airport… Can 2016 please hurry up and get here?
on a side note, I’m just happy that my insurance rates aren’t going up for next year.
He is already a lameduck president with 3 years left to his presidency.
President Obama:“Health insurance prices must come down.”
Numi:“No sh!t, sherlock!”
I think people are too hard on our elected officials.
I think our elected officials are too hard on our people.
I think our elected officials should have their fancy healthcare plan thrown out and forced to join the public exchanges to buy their own healthcare.
Typical government… do as we say, not as we do.
Starting in 2014, members of Congress will be required to purchase health insurance from exchanges. Before this, they were covered by federal worker health insurance plans.
Anyway, it’s just weird to me how everyone is focused on making insurance rates more “competitive”, while more or less ignoring the underlying problem: the high cost of healthcare in the US. These costs drive high insurance premiums and made healthcare unaffordable in the first place. Insurance is a side show as long as hospitals in the US are charging $150 for aspirin.
I’ve been saying this since the law was passed. It doesn’t address any of the source issues and in will begin to add more costs like the Cadillac Plan tax, the medical device excise tax (was this one repealed recently?), etc.
One thing I do like about this plan is that it forces everybody into the system. That is good, because it forces the actual costs of healthcare to be realized for everyone. You’re a healthy person and your insurance premiums just went up 200%? Well, maybe that’ll motivate you to push for actual health care reform. It’s going to become a bigger issue in the coming elections.
^ Agree with that. However, I do think EVERYONE should be required to purchase health insurance. Sadly hostpitals can’t turn deadbeats away which offloads their FREE care onto everyone anyway. Could you imagine a world where at the scene of a traffic accident the EMT was fishing around in BWYF’s wallet for either their insurance card or proof of ability to pay cash? If he had neither, they shrug their shoulders and let him die on the street?
It’s not fair to hospitals that deadbeats be admitted despite their inability to pay. Hence, universal insurance works in this regard. Risk pools probably need some adjustment.
Well, it’s also a huge problem because people get admitted to emergency rooms, then get billed for $150,000. The $150,000 itself is ridiculous. The cost should be much lower, like that of other countries. Not only will this lower health insurance premiums for everyone, but the deadbeats without insurance might actually be able to pay.
Well another part of the problem is an imbalance in the system. Overall hospital margins are about low-single digits. They have to offset the super low medicare / medicaid reimbursements (which are so low they basically lose money) with people that have no insurance to fight for them, and so their bills are astronomical.
The theory was that now since you forced everyone into a healthcare plan, everyone gets some muscle (insurance carrier) fighting the astronomical bills to lower the price, and freeloaders will start paying. But on top of that, our govt started all these new requirements like cannot turn down pre-existing conditions, leeching off parents healthcare etc… and the insurance carriers are jacking up rates 2x or 3x. People are starting to realize they can’t afford insurance at all anymore.
If these healthy people drop, while the sickest join, and insurance companies have to continue to squeeze the people who can hang in there. The whole system can crash and die really hard.
It’s really just a step towards socialism. you had a system that was determined to save lives no matter the cost, no one could be turned away (sounds like socialism yes?). This meant someone had to eat that cost. And now you are expanding the socialism to include more people (including the sickest of the sickest), and you have no choice but to raise prices on the current insured.
It pretends to force everyone into the system, but it really doesn’t. If you don’t have employer provided coverage and fail to sign up for coverage through the exchange, your penalty is a whopping $95 or 1% of your AGI. Let’s assume you’re a healthy 27 year old making $45,000 per year but your employer doesn’t provide insurance for whatever reason. If you go without insurance, you’ll pay a fine of $450. If you sign up for insurance, you’ll pay at least $115 per month and have a $5,000 deductible and only 60% coverage after that. Are you really going to sign up for that plan? I wouldn’t. I realize the fine gets larger in the coming years, but it doesn’t get anywhere high enough to force as many healthy people into the system as needed to cover the subsidies for all the poor and sick people who will sign up in droves.
Note: I’m making up the premium and deductible, but I think they’re in the ballpark from what I can recall.
My wife’s hospital stay after our first born was 45k, about 6k for actual health care the rest was for the hospital room (4 nights).
Is there a TL:DR version of these healthcare topics that people litter my newsfeed with? I have not followed Obamacare, and don’t have a clue what’s going on…
Itera paints a gloomy picture.
I’m going to retain a Medical Tourism Travel Agent and venture overseas when I need medical care. I figure if I’m going to get open heart surgery at a steep cost (30% of what the US would charge), I should at least enjoy an exotic vacation before I get sliced open.
Before you naysayers start throwing “Quality of Care and Practicioners” at me realize that places like Inda have the smartest sampling of people in the world as proven by standardized exam scores, CFA pass rate, etc. Can’t have none of this hacksaw mediocre US crap.