Politics Obamacare

I've always heard it's "A fool and his money are soon partying."

 

it's humorous to see the argument shift from 'if you like your plan, then you can keep you plan', to 'well your plan was garbage anyway so we fixed that for you'. even once they get this garbage website working, people are going to get a huge sticker shock when they realize how much this crap is going to cost.

 

The health insurance market (outside of the group/employer based market) has been built on a foundation of attracting young healthy people with cheap plans with little comprehensive coverage, or more expensive plans for those older and with a health history and canceling those plans midstream when a person is diagnosed with a serious illness, and, finally, denying coverage outright to millions of people with a pre-existing condition.

In other words, a broken and dysfunctional system that accomplishes one goal...to maximize insurance company profits at the expense of consumers health. Only to be matched by the shortsighted selfishness of those young healthy folks who could be the ones facing a serious illness or accident tomorrow and find they are not covered and facing huge medical bills and the tables are suddenly turned.
--- merged: Nov 13, 2013 at 3:28 PM ---
Its a strange world when reigning in the years of documented highly questionable insurance company practices and replacing it with consumer protections and coverage for all (and subsidies for millions) for the first time is "crap."

 

the thing is baraka and redux, nothing about obamacare has worked as intended yet. you keep falling back to junk plans and carrying the uninsured, but it isn't happening. the program is enrolling a laughable amount. 27k have signed up on federal website. this bill so far remains a fairy tell. currently, we have no reason to believe anything about this bill because nothing works and one of the biggest promises was a total lie.

just keep talking big game and about improvements. i will believe it when i see it.
--- merged: Nov 13, 2013 at 5:14 PM ---
nothing has worked, why should we believe these other things will work?

 

Nothing has worked as intended?

3-4 million young adults able to stay on parents health plans?
children w/pre-existing conditions have been covered for two years now?
$3-4 billion in premium rebates to consumers and/or employers for insurance companies charging higher premiums than the 80-20 medical loss ratio allows?
6 million seniors saving over $7 billion on Medicare prescription drugs from closing the donut hole?
No more insurance company recissions (cancellling policies) when someone is diagnosed with a serious (expensive) illness/disease?
Numerous new consumer protections?

I could go on.
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Sam..what would you tell the millions w/ pre-existing conditions who cant get insurance? Or those who had their insurance cancelled when they were diagnosed with lung cancer because they may have been a one-time smoker 25 years ago? What would you tell those 2 million families facing financial hardship/bankruptcy because they didnt have the coverage they were told?

In other words, how would you fix the broken system?

 

yeah but those things haven't been realized yet is my point.

there's not way 3-4 billion in rebates have been handed out when only like 1ook have signed up.

no more insurance cancellations? except just 50 million right off the bat... the so called 'junk plans'.

there are just more supposed things that were to happen like keeping your plan, what about when obama said premiums will go down $2500? that definetly is not happening.

i don't know how to fix the system. to me a bill sold on lies that wasn't even read can't be considered a fix. sure some will benefit, but the way it's looking many will get the short end of the stick. we are already facing disastrously low enrollment, who's going to pick up that tab? those who are already enrolled with higher premiums yet?

 

The premium rebates were distributed in 2011 and 2012 to those in group plans.

50 million are not having their insurance cancelled...more like 15 million, half of whom will be eligible for subsidies.

Frankly, I have much more sympathy for the millions with pre-existing conditions who have no access to insurance than I do for those having their policies cancelled, but numerous other alternatives available (some cheaper, some more expensive)
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Correction on the premium rebates. It was not just those in large group ()employer) plans; it applies to individual and small group plans as well and my numbers were off by a billion or so (who's counting)


In 2011 (checks went out in 2012), 12 million people (or employers) received $1.1 billion in rebates (see table at bottom)

In 2012 (checks went out in 2013), 8 million people (or employers) received $504 million

As insurers come into compliance with the ACA medical loss ratios (80-20 for individual plans/85-15 large group plans - 80% (85%) of premium must be applied to patient care; 20% (15%) to admin costs and profit)

The fact that it is trending down is a sign that more insurance companies are coming into compliance....another positive benefit of the ACA.

More on the savings from ACA medical loss ratios from Kaiser Family Foundation

If insurers’ preliminary estimates hold true, this year’s rebates (at a total of $571 million across all markets) are expected to be about half the amount of last year’s $1.1 billion in insurer rebates. Smaller rebates, however, are not an indication that consumers are now saving less money as a result of the MLR provision, but rather that insurers are coming closer to meeting the ACA’s MLR requirements and that this provision is having its intended effect of consumers getting more value for the money they spend on premiums. In fact, in the individual market, the $241 million consumers are expected to receive in rebates for 2012 represents roughly one tenth of our estimate of the overall savings from the provision in that year. Perhaps ironically, when the MLR provision is working as intended and insurers set premiums to meet the thresholds, consumers save money but are less likely to get a check in the mail as tangible demonstration of those savings.​

 

My issue is where are these 47 million people without insurance, and why did only 1 million of them register on the website so far? Sure, the website has had some problems, but is this one of those things people will get around to like their income taxes?

Then again, maybe those 46 million people liked gaming the system and getting 'free' healthcare at the ER and making the rest of us pay for it.

And where is the vision for how healthcare should work or could work in this country. Something much cheaper and easier than the mess we had and anything else proposed...

 

Half of those uninsured will be Medicaid eligible for the first time...up to 137% of poverty (except in red states where the Medicaid expansion is being denied) and wont be signing up through the Exchange website.
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The 65% with group (employer insurance) will benefit with new patient protections for the first time.

The 15% on Medicare will benefit with signifcant savings on prescriptions by closing the donut hole.

The 15% who are currently low income uninsured will benefit by becoming Medicaid eligible for the first time (except in red states)
and
5% who buy on the individual market may see the current policy canceled, but half will now be eligible for subsidies.

Some will benefit? How about 97+% of the country.

Should they be denied in favor of the 2.% who "get the short end of the stick" and may pay higher premiums (and, btw, get more comprehensive coverage and patient protections)?

 

if the individual mandate is already off to a horrible start, how well is the employer mandate going to go over? it's already not looking promising.

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You silly Americans... there are easier ways to do this.

 

Single payer....I'm all for it!

Now if we could only convince the conservatives/libertarians that a single payer system is not a socialist plot to take over their lives.

 

Single payer really is the way to go.

 

they already royally botched this law up, how hard of a sell is single payer going to be now? there's no reason for the america people to trust the government setting up our healthcare, especially now

 

They outsourced a website that messed up. But the rest of the law is good. It is just the powerful try to find loopholes and are scum for cutting hours to get around it. If the Democrats had control of the House, a simple change to the law would fix that problem quick.