Politics Obamacare

Now that is a political question....much like asking if Social Security and Medicare will go away.

Yes, to all three if Republicans have their way.

No, when consumers see the immediate benefits in terms of wider coverage and greater consumer protections so that no one is left uninsured and no one will face bankruptcy as a result of health care. And in the longer term, when consumers see greater efficiencies down the road when ACA investments in technology and new health care delivery systems are in place so that the cost will not continue to rise at 2 or 3 times the rate of inflation.

 

Reasons an employer plan may be expensive even with employer contribution:

A) Depends on the state.
B) Depends on the group the plan is rated with - a group with high cost equates to high premiums - i.e. a male dominated group, over 50 with lots of smokers, let's say like a legacy auto worker plan as compared to a group of young females (unlikely to get pregnant) unattractive librarians - it is just an example there are some hot librarians.
C) Perhaps the company does a poor job of getting the best, most cost effective plan.
D) Perhaps the plan does not meet the needs of the employees, a Cadillac plan when a Chevy plan would do just fine
E) etc.

Even then the alternative would be to purchase an individual plan which may cost more regardless, because we have a system designed to deliver health insurance through employment. We could have simply improved this market. For many, if an employer is subsidizing health insurance, they may be better off getting more in the form of salary and handling their own health insurance, assuming we fix the individual market.

No it is not free. One reason wages stagnate is because other costs go up at a rate significantly faster than inflation, like healthcare insurance. Even-though it is not visible to most employees these employer costs hurt wages.

About 30 years ago in the US it was far more typical for employers who provided health insurance that they subsidized 100% - the trend since has been to shift and share these costs with employees. Now it is rare to see an employer with a 100% subsidized plan for employees. Many employers would simply love to get out of the health insurance issue all together - under Obamacare we will see an acceleration of this - some will pay the fine and be done with it.

 

Ace...once again, you have demonstrated your lack of understanding of the ACA and the free (no copay) preventive services required...which do not include your examples of people with simple sore throats being over treated with strep tests and antibiotics or prostate cancer.

What are my preventive care benefits | HealthCare.gov

 

You have to take the 8 out of the middle to make it work. That should probably tell you something right there.

 

There are only 6 numbers too.

Hopefully, part of this implementation next year will be having people get preventative care and catch problems earlier when they are cheaper to deal with.

Like, have a heart stress test and if they find an artery that is 90% blocked, it would be cheaper and safer to deal with that, then to wait until you have a heart attack and have to be rushed to the ER.

The one thing I blame the Democrats for doing is not creating little movies like that to show how it actually works. A before and after with real life numbers and how the ACA will provide a solution to numerous problems with the old system. Yet, not impact the quality of care that people receive.

 

Thanks for the explanations.

I do get the thing about catching health issues earlier. I fear that, with deductibles, many people will still avoid going to the doctor soon enough, though.

 

I saw this on Upworthy, It seems like a good explanation of the basics for people who have no idea what the ACA is about.


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZkk6ueZt-U

 

no, you only have to take the 1 out which has no letters associated with it on a phone dial pad. it really does say fuckyo
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i'm going to avoid it like the plague like i already do. $100 a month insurance with $1200 deductible going to $287 with 5k deductible. there's no way i'm going to the doctor ever unless i have a horrific accident. even a broken arm from me being active and fit activities will be like 5k out of my pocket on top of what i'm paying a month. the exchange websites aren't even clear on things because to get insurance through them it still says 260-300+ a month with no details of deductible so i guess i'm better off sticking with my insane insurance plan.

 

I'm sorry I meant 1, you have to take 1 out of it because 1 doesn't mean anything letter wise. Even the Daily caller article you post notes that.

 

i know, i said that in my original post.....the point is this is just icing on the cake for people like me who are already against this whole legislation. i mean why shouldn't i be happy with legislation that triples my premium and make my deductible so ridiculous that i will never use healthcare unless it's a life threatening issue.

 

So you find "icing on the cake" that some random number, likely assigned by the phone company can be used to make "f1uckyo?" Seems like rather silly icing.

As for your situation with the increased costs I wouldn't be happy either. This is why I think both sides should be working to get rid of some of the crazy parts of the ACA rather than just focusing on keeping it or getting rid of it. Healthcare costs have been going up for years, sooner or later yours is bound to go up too. fixing the law or just having a reasonable replacement plan ready to go makes a lot more sense to me then just tossing it out completely. Shutting down the Gov. because you lost an election and a vote on a law is rather child like as far as I'm concerned.

 

After Obama gets out of office will they/we try to change it or do away with it?

 

I think there needs to be some changes to the law but I don't see it going away. I guess that could happen but when asked most people like the things the law does, they just don't like Obamacare. Once it gets up and running hopefully they can work the kinks out and it will actually help people. Not having lifetime limits and being able to obtain insurance if your have a pre-existing condition sound like good ideas to me. The situations like Samcool describes needs to be dealt with, people shouldn't see their health care coverage triple. So obviously stuff like that needs to be fixed I'd say.

 

What is samcool?

 

Sorry, Samcol.

 

OK, what is that?

 

The member I'm responding to in post #231.

 

I don't know how much my plan would be under Obamacare, but I do know that my company pays $155//month towards my current plan, I pay $70 and get $60 in an HSA. If I went off on my own and found a plan on the exchange, would I be able to get it for $225/month?

If you want lower premiums, start changing the diets and health habits of Americans.

 

Universal?

But.........