ACA Renewals

The VA is not a complete joke. Stop getting facts only from Fox and Friends.

The ACA is not a complete disaster. It is a godsend for some folks and not that great for others as they are still subject to the whims of prior money making insurance companies only concerned with making profits, thus jacking up their rates. It still leaves many uninsured. In Texas thanks to Republicans in Austin it still leaves hundreds of thousands uninsured.

 

The failures of Obamacare are due to its origin in conservative thinks tanks. As we see with many public policies the Congress is bought off by corporate money so the desire for national health care is stalled.

 

States that were already dominated by insurance monopolies that had driven their citizens into HMO and clinic model healthcare systems that have implemented the ACA fully are not feeling any pain.

I'd be surprised if their was a state someone could point to where the ACA has increased competition and expanded network access for individuals looking to purchase medical plans.

Even the co-ops that popped up after the first year have been failing.

 

Yeah, it is living in a fantasy land to support a national health care plan that works for hundreds of millions of Europeans and Canadians and for folks in the US who have Medicare. Such a left wing fantasy.

Such a fantasy to think that insurance company execs might try to sabotage the ACA if they make more money in the short run. As a daytrader, do you always believe what you hear from company spokes persons on CNBC?

 

How would you know?

 

As a doctor who has worked at county hospitals, private hospitals and the VA, I can say the VA is very successful given its constraints. I have zero belief the vulnerable veteran population would get better healthcare without it. Those vet's are very happy with the quality of care. Maybe not the wait-times but certainly the access to care.

 

The cheapest plan on the NY exchange (there is no NYC exchange) is about $350 for a person of my age and anyone with an income that is required to pay the ridiculous rent in nyc. It comes with a $3500 deductible.

5 years ago I had a 0 deductible plan and payed $450/mo for health insurance. That covered things like getting sick, getting an MRI when I broke a bone in my foot and so forth. This year I switched from an employer plan with a deductible of $2k (which i was able to pay through an FSA account) but when I left my job I got all my tests and health care needs done prior to losing that plan (my doctor wanted an EKG done for example). I signed up for a plan on the exchange but because of the very high deductible I avoid going to the doctor. For example I am suppose to get check-ups and monitor a condition I have but that would cost me a few grand so I am trying to deal with it on my own until 2016 when the deductible resets. I am not better off in this system and definitely am going to end up paying more for health care in 2016 than in any other year of my life.

They dropped initially but have gone up a lot since then. It's not working. Doctors are not taking health insurance now. Everything is becoming out of network. The system is under more strain than before and quality healthcare is more in the domain of the privileged and wealthy than ever before in NYC.

 

Being a daytrader factors nothing into my thinking. I don't really watch CNBC. I don't know how old you are Glynch or how many doctors you have been thru in your life, but I've been thru far too many relative to the injuries I have had. I could talk about this **** for hours. The ACA did NOTHING to fix the costs of medical procedures and treatment methods have not changed. I'm 35 years old and my insurance bill is $500/mo (which is ****ing insane...maybe I should get on cheaper insurance and only pay $400/mo...equally insane). I haven't had any major medical procedures in a few years. I recently wanted to get physical therapy for a groin strain and I couldn't do it. I couldn't go to the orthopedic group I had gone to before for my last knee surgery because they were specialists. I had to go to a general orthopedist to get a prescription to go to the physical therapy place to get treatment. Long story short I didn't go to the recommended doctor because he was down in south Austin which was about a 40 minute drive for a one time visit just to get a prescription to see someone that I shouldn't need a prescription for. I really just wanted to pay cash. #rant Luckily, the physical therapist was kind enough to give me free advice that has been helpful.

And yes you live in a fantasy world if you think nationalized medicine will magically deflate the cost of treatment. Do you think doctors and hospitals are simply going to accept getting paid significantly less? If you think they are then I'd really like to hear your explanation of why.

 

The ACA, like all legislation, was a b*stard compromise. People with pre-existing conditions needed access to healthcare, the poor needed subsidies to afford coverage and the private insurance industry wanted a captive market. A program required by law and run by private enterprise for profit is a recipe for gouging.

What I don't understand is how/why the non-profit companies that should provide the best cost/coverage ratios are folding their coverages rather than setting prices on the break even mark, while sitting on stockpiles of cash.

 

I gotta agree. For as much as I beyatch about the frozen hell, this year semi-frozen hell, that is MN reading threads like these make me glad I'm living here with actually affordable health care that covers preventive care.

 

I full agree the ACA has had many problems but people seem to forget that there were many problems prior to the ACA. Health care costs and insurance rates were going up prior to 2014 along with more and more uninsured. The situation prior to ACA was unsustainable. While ACA certainly isn't the panacea at the minimum it did get health care reform going as compared to just pretending that things prior were fine.

 

Because, despite what Glynch foolishly believes, insurance companies are not allowed to do whatever they want with pricing.

Here in Texas, Blue Cross attempted to keep their individual PPO available to all consumers but their pricing was rejected and they were told they could only offer something like a 5% increase on rates. The increase wouldn't cover the loss ratio from the prior year and 2016 would only be worse, so they felt they had no real option but to discontinue the plan.

On top of that, the risk corridor that is supposed to reimburse some of the losses for the first few years is severely underfunded and will only reimburse about 10% of the loss it was supposed to reimburse.

This is also true. I've always said I blame Republicans for the ACA. Sit on your thumbs for a decade and refuse to work towards fixing a broken system and then you get stuck with someone else's solution.

 

The poor already had Medicaid. Raise the threshold for what is considered "poor". Pre-exisiting could have been wrapped up to be included in Medicaid. Adding 1 or 2 points on our taxes would have covered this. This small incremental change would have done wonders. Why did we have to revamp the system into something completely convoluted? Ah yes, certain leaders at the time had to make their mark.

You dont say? Opponents of Obamacare understood the dangers of giving complete control over to private companies and forcing people to buy into their products. Private companies fiduciary responsibility are first to the stockholders. They may not be able to manipulate the prices and price gouge, but they certainly can turn their product into something near useless... or worse, take their ball and go home.

 

Where we these solutions before ACA? There were no solutions to the pre-existing conditions problem (and as someone whose daughter was born with a significant heart defect, I was oh so aware of the problem with pre-existing conditions not being covered). And Medicaid? A good portion of republicans are still trying to cut spending to support Medicaid.

If anything, those that have thrown roadblocks to the compromised approach of ACA have strengthened the argument for single payer solutions.

 

Anyone who compares the inefficiency of the VA relative to what a single player option would look like is an idiot. The consumers of the VA healthcare system do not represent the needs of the general public in the slightest unless 300 million Americans suddenly suffer TBI, lost limbs and PTSD from experiencing two wars in the past decade and a half.

 

The single largest problem with 'free market healthcare' is a large portion of healthcare demand is inelastic.

 

EXPAND MEDICAID????

John Kasich can't win the Republican nomination almost exclusively because he's considered a liberal for expanding medicaid in his state WITHOUT raising taxes.

 

This. I'm no fan of the ACA, but to think that conservatives (in general) have any political will to cover the uninsured is quite a pollyannaish view of what they're trying to do.

 

Yep nothing better than the ACA would have ever passed and the ACA only passed because it had the backing of the in$urance lobby. It's Romneycare but Mr. Obama was a pragmatist who wanted to get the best he could actually get.
In the USA, the money writes the legislation.

 

Except health care costs less in every country that has nationalized medicine, so aside from your anecdotal speculation any data?

Or just content with simplistic speculation about what hospitals and doctors would prefer?