At this point since entitlements are going nowhere we would be best off eliminating Medicaid since its only getting bigger and I think for many reasons "free" insurance with no skin in the game is a bad idea. Just go ahead and enroll everyone on a Medicare for all single payer where the co-pay is a sliding scale and people who are well off will actually go to a now robust and truly free market to buy private insurance
I really agree with this. Throw in the VA too. Private insurance should be a supplement, not a primary.
Got it, dumb question: without Medicaid, how will many of those using Medicaid pay for the single payer? Super low requirements on the sliding scale? Target Medicaid users per healthcare.gov: "low-income people, families and children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people with disabilities." How does Medicare play into all of this? What are the hindrances or objections to a single payer system (combined with the supplemental private insurance market you and SpaceGhost are referring to)?
What do you mean by throwing in the VA? What would be the change? Your second statement sounds good. This is only for the healthcare markets, right?
Making ACA work... http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/insurers-can-make-obamacare-work-but-they-need-help-from-congress/
It is always sort of horrifying to have healthy young men with whom the "libertarian"-"free market" propaganda is strong spout off about health care. Aside from the their brain washed opinions they have no personal experience with major health problems while being unisured. It leads to stupid beliefs like there would be no problems if people improved their diet, exercised more, prayed more and had more personal responsibility etc.
Say what? There would still be problems but a lot less of them. Moderate exercise and a proper diet are still the best treatment in many cases. I have no idea why you would think otherwise.
It is true that people have more medical problems as they age. However a LOT of the medical issues would be resolved or be far less common if there were not so many lazy, fat, entitled, diabetes riddled Americans. Obesity is a serious issue all around .... and these same ignorant people believe medicine can solve everything.... Well until they are in a walker at 50, diabetic, with heart disease and are on medical leave/disability because they ate crappy quality food and sat on their sofa until they couldn't waddle to the door anymore. There are some people that are destined to be fat or diabetic or have heart disease.... But not the vast majority.
That's what Ms. Obama has been saying for 8 years while being ridiculed by the GOP for political effect.
No argument that worsening lifestyles are leading to increased medical costs (for everyone). I see it all every day in my hospital. I too catch myself criticizing parents from a far for having obese children. That being said, it's an entirely different thing to notice the facts (people are getting fatter, the American lifestyle is sedentary, etc...) than to ascribe intent to them. I'm probably not being fair to those people. None of them want to be fat. None of them come to the hospital/clinic saying "i'm sure glad these diabetes pills exist so i can continue to eat like an ******* and not exercise". Medicine is coming up against decades of changing sociological factors that have put an emphasis on easier living. The net result of those changes is a significantly more sedentary lifestyle and worsening health care. -Many American's sit 8+ hours a day at work. -Many American, particuarly in Texas, commute 30-45 min EACH WAY every day to the suburbs. This is usually in the name of comfort (more real estate per dollar) and better schools. -If said worker works 10 hours a day and commutes another 2 hours, that leaves little time or energy to cook a healthy, nutritious meal for himself and family. So unhealthy takeout or heated frozen food becomes the option for food. also unhealthy. -Add up all the prior time and it doesn't leave a ton of time for exercising either. -Or sleeping, which several studies have linked to worse healthcare outcomes. Most Americans are just trying to do what they need to get to the next day and do right by their kids. Sloth and laziness aren't anyone's intent, although the gross outcome makes it seem so. It's like Bush said "Too often we judge other groups by their worst examples while judging ourselves by our best intentions".
I don't understand how Ms. Obama gets ridiculed for trying to reverse decades of sociological change that lead to poorer healthcare. IMO that's exactly the way to do it. Identify and tackle as many of the small contributors as possible: health eating in schools, the "let's move" campaign, etc.. If anything she should be applauded for NOT doing what many of the recent posts were, which were straight up fat-shaming.
Fatties and smokers actually cost less on a net basis than methuselahs because they tend to keel over sooner. It's mainly EOL care that's driving up healthcarecosts to ridiculously unnecessary levels. Something that freakonomics link Dubious posted would be designed to reduce and make easier for everyone. Now if we're talking about promoting and enabling living a healthier and happier life...that's nanny state socializans.
For those who haven't followed the fine print in the news, Humana has become the first major carrier to officially end offering individual products. Not restricted to leaving the exchanges, in June or July this year Humana will shut down operations on their individual medical brand (humanaone) and leave the national market all together for individual medical. They see no viable way forward for individual medical plans based on the failing ACA markets and the lack of a viable plan from Congress.
You mean, this Humana? http://www.healthcaredive.com/news/...s-lost-billions-over-blocked-humana-m/435016/
You actually only posted information about Aetna in that post so no, not "this Humana." I do believe that Aetna tried to leverage a ruling in their merger (which thankfully was killed) but that has nothing to do with the fact that the individual marketplace is in fact not profitable and was getting worse and the Republican plans would destabilize even further.
Sorry, my bad. My anger with the insurance industry is such that I think there is a special place in hell for insurance company execs who are purposely aggravating any problem that exists with ACA. And folks want to further privatize health insurance so your health care is subject to people like those described above?
