1. Welcome! Please take a few seconds to create your free account to post threads, make some friends, remove a few ads while surfing and much more. ClutchFans has been bringing fans together to talk Houston Sports since 1996. Join us!

[Obamacare] Blue Cross to pull PPO Product from marketplace

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by justtxyank, Jul 23, 2015.

Tags:
  1. Nook

    Nook Member

    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2008
    Messages:
    60,282
    Likes Received:
    134,484
    Not sure why there is sarcasm.

    Justyank didn't say that he had a perfect solution and is sharing information that he didn't need to.

    Why is there this thin skin, protective attitude on this issue?

    The whole point is to get it right....
     
  2. Newlin

    Newlin Member

    Joined:
    May 22, 2015
    Messages:
    8,861
    Likes Received:
    11,318
    I don't understand anything about health insurance. I thought the health insurance companies would like obamacare. More people on health insurance. And my rates went up by about 50% when obamacare started. Somebody somewhere must be making some money in the healthcare industry.
     
  3. Air Langhi

    Air Langhi Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2000
    Messages:
    21,948
    Likes Received:
    6,702
    Why is single player system bad? Other than losing your job. The problem with healthcare is costs. If it works in every other 1st world country why do you think it won't work here?

    Insurance is not complicated despite what you think. It is basic statistics. You have a large enough pool x% will become sick in any given time period. You take that cost and you divide it by total number of people. If you make it single payer you make the pool larger. It screws healthy people, but we all have to give up something for society.
     
  4. Dubious

    Dubious Member

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2001
    Messages:
    18,318
    Likes Received:
    5,090
  5. pirc1

    pirc1 Member

    Joined:
    Dec 9, 2002
    Messages:
    14,138
    Likes Received:
    1,882
    Or we could ask the doctors to take less money and ask the drug makers to sell the drugs for cheaper price. It all sounds great unless we are the ones that will have to give up the money.

    However, we will eventually have to have a more efficient system, which means someone will be making less, medical professionals, drug manufacturers, insurance companies, hospitals and clinics will have to figure out how to do more with less spending. Would be funny to have a GDP of 30% health care and 30% defense spending, that is where we are currently heading.
     
  6. justtxyank

    justtxyank Member

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2005
    Messages:
    42,944
    Likes Received:
    39,958
    Two clarifications

    1) never said single payer is bad, said it isn't a silver bullet
    2) I won't lose my job.
     
  7. AroundTheWorld

    Joined:
    Feb 3, 2000
    Messages:
    83,288
    Likes Received:
    62,283
    Single payer came out pretty high in this ranking:

    [​IMG]

    But I have heard some complaints from the patient side as well.
     
  8. Steve_Francis_rules

    Joined:
    Dec 11, 1999
    Messages:
    8,467
    Likes Received:
    300
    Here's an article from early last year explaining some of the reasons why single payer would be unlikely to reduce costs in the US to the levels seen in Europe:
    http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-04-30/single-payer-would-make-health-care-worse

    Some of the highlights:
    I really recommend reading the entire article.
     
  9. lost_elephant

    lost_elephant Member

    Joined:
    Mar 7, 2003
    Messages:
    3,182
    Likes Received:
    138
    Is this the notice OP was talking about?

    http://www.bcbstx.com/company-info/alerts-announcements/alerts-announcements?lid=icadpkzd

    WHAT TO EXPECT FOR OPEN ENROLLMENT FOR 2016 PLANS

    Jul. 23, 2015
    ...
    What will be different for individual plans in 2016?

    There are some changes in the plans we intend to offer in the individual market in 2016. We won't be offering PPO insurance plans in the individual, retail market. However, we intend to continue to offer HMO plans. This change does not affect our employer group customers or the grandfathered PPO individual plan members.

    Why is Blue Choice PPO going away?

    BCBSTX was the only insurer to offer an individual PPO insurance plan across the state to individuals in 2014 and 2015. Since the Affordable Care Act began, the market has changed. We found that the individual PPO plan was no longer sustainable at the cost it was being offered. Because we want to make sure that our plans are affordable, we decided to not offer individual PPO plans in 2016.
     
  10. SamFisher

    SamFisher Member

    Joined:
    Apr 14, 2003
    Messages:
    62,032
    Likes Received:
    41,643
    Here's an Op-Ed by a right wing blogger without any particular expertise in health care.

    I really recommend using an accurate descriptor.

    Single payer may or may not be a good idea but this pile of standard right wing talking points has **** all to do with it and is about as illuminating as a flaming turd bag.
     
  11. larsv8

    larsv8 Member

    Joined:
    Nov 11, 2007
    Messages:
    21,663
    Likes Received:
    13,916
    Will do!
     
  12. Air Langhi

    Air Langhi Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2000
    Messages:
    21,948
    Likes Received:
    6,702
    Well her whole argument is that we started at a higher base so there is nothing we can do about it. Eventually all bubbles burst us can't be spending twice what every other country is spending.
     
  13. DaDakota

    DaDakota Balance wins
    Supporting Member

    Joined:
    Mar 14, 1999
    Messages:
    129,659
    Likes Received:
    40,216
    Just nationalize healthcare and be done with it.

    DD
     
    1 person likes this.
  14. Steve_Francis_rules

    Joined:
    Dec 11, 1999
    Messages:
    8,467
    Likes Received:
    300
    If it's going to take a bubble bursting for our health care spending to come back down in line with that of other countries, why do we need single payer? If the bursting of the bubble is as inevitable as you're now claiming, single payer isn't necessary to get there.

    In your earlier post, you act as if the only problem is that our pools aren't large enough. You even called it nothing more than "simple statistics." Well, as pointed out in the Op-Ed I posted, many of largest insurance pools in this country are already comparable in size to some of the countries we're comparing to.
     
  15. Steve_Francis_rules

    Joined:
    Dec 11, 1999
    Messages:
    8,467
    Likes Received:
    300
    Megan McArdle is hardly right wing, and given the time she's put into researching and writing about health care policy over the past 6+ years, she probably has more expertise than most of the people posting here. She certainly has more than I do. I would bet she knows more about health care than you, too (if you can even begin to wrap your mind around the idea that someone, somewhere in the world might know more about some topic than you do).

    So do you have anything substantive to say about this particular Op-Ed, or are we going to have to settle for just the ad hominem?

    Also, I don't read your posts often enough to get a good sense of this, but do you also go around policing every article from left-wing sources that get posted here as well, or are those by definition considered authoritative in your view?
     
  16. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 1999
    Messages:
    65,475
    Likes Received:
    33,164
    Just for the sake of Clarity
    400 Million loss . . . .is that in profit. . . or loss completely

    i.e. They made 1 billion in 2013 and only made 600 million in 2014
    or
    they made 200 million on 2013 and made -400 million in 2014

    Rocket River
     
  17. justtxyank

    justtxyank Member

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2005
    Messages:
    42,944
    Likes Received:
    39,958
    It is a true loss.

    On just their individual PPO contracts alone, they spent $400 million more in claims than they took in through premiums.
     
  18. Dubious

    Dubious Member

    Joined:
    Jun 18, 2001
    Messages:
    18,318
    Likes Received:
    5,090
  19. Air Langhi

    Air Langhi Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2000
    Messages:
    21,948
    Likes Received:
    6,702
    The problem isn't just the pool it is mostly the prices. There is no incentive for anyone in the healthcare industry to lower prices. If insurance companies are limited from only making x% profits then the easiest way for they to increase profits is just increase overall revenue.

    The other issue medicine is highly regulated so there is only so many med schools etc. When people people with 3.8 gpa and 30 mcats are getting wait listed there is a problem with the whole medical system. Do you think people like this can't be doctors? Also I think it should be easier for people with medical degrees in other countries to immigrate here. We bring engineers, developers, etc. in.

    We need to get our healthcare costs inline with other 1st world countries. I don't think leaving the current system as is will allow that.
     
    1 person likes this.
  20. SamFisher

    SamFisher Member

    Joined:
    Apr 14, 2003
    Messages:
    62,032
    Likes Received:
    41,643
    "Hardly right wing"? So somebody who came up through the standard right wing DC establishment and spent her time at the usual collection of Koch-brother owned & controlled mags & think tanks is "hardly right wing"?

    That's a complete joke. I'd be embarrassed to even make that argument in a serious way. It's like saying somebody who worked for moveon.org and now is a host of Democracy Now! on NPR is "hardly left wing" - of course they are. It's a fact.

    So therefore of course somebody who was trained/broke in with right wing think tanks and then uses her platforms to espouse right wing political ideas talking points for cash is properly characterizable as right wing.

    I don't think anybody should read her "article" (which, at least now you deem an Op-Ed) and pretend liek it opens and closes the door on single payer, as you deem it worthy of doing without knowing this fact going in.

    if you want to actually understand the economics of health care, I've posted it dozens of times on this board, but you start with Kenneth Arrow's work which is decades old at this point.

    If you don't get that/don't read it, then you shouldn't really comment. It's foundational for discussing any of this.

    If you want modern takes on single payer and it's applicability in the US, you should probably read Uwe Reinhardt's work.
     

Share This Page