The untouchable subject on TOP: Obamacare
Much like "Government is bad" is an article of faith among the right-wing, "Obamacare is good" is an article of faith with Democrats.
Because both supporters and haters of Obamacare are so strident, it's hard to find unbiased information.
That's why I posted the chart above. It's about as unbiased of source as possible, and it shows that health care spending continues to grow at an unsustainable rate
Even mostly pro-Obamacare articles like this one you have to filter.
The steepest declines in coverage have been in small businesses, which had been steadily dropping coverage before the law. The percentage of small employers offering health benefits decreased from 68 percent in 2010 to 56 percent in 2015, according to the annual Kaiser Family Foundation survey.
They are exiting because health insurance is unaffordable.
Wasn't Obamacare supposed to stop this trend? Wasn't that the point?
About 155 million Americans have employer-based health insurance coverage in 2016, according to an analysis released by the Congressional Budget Office last month. The number will fall to 152 million people in 2019, the C.B.O. estimates, but will remain stable through 2026.
But since the population will be growing, isn't this a bad trend?
It seems like much of the spin is that "Obamacare didn't destroy America like the right-wing claimed, so it's OK then."
Personally I had higher hopes and standards.
Granted, millions of Americans have health care today that wouldn't have had health care without Obamacare. That's without a doubt a good thing and the number is unquestionable.
However, it is almost entirely due to a Medicaid government subsidy that is scheduled to expire soon.
The ACA led to an estimated 8.7 million people gaining health coverage in 2014 through expanded Medicaid programs and from privately-sold health insurance plans, whose sale began through government-run marketplaces that year. That, in turn, led to more people obtaining medical care that year, boosting overall health spending.
Medicaid expenditures jumped by 11 percent last year, up from 5.9 percent growth in 2013. Private health insurance spending grew by 4.4 percent in 2014, markedly higher than the 1.6-percent rate in 2013.
Wouldn't this subsidy have made more sense if we just cut the insurance companies out of the equation?
Now health care price inflation is slightly lower than before Obamacare, but even that comes with a very large caveat.
Moreover, that doesn’t mean your overall rate of medical inflation is 6.5 percent or in the single digits at all. It might well be much higher than that. “Much of the slowing growth can be attributed to cost shifting,” the writeup accompanying the report helpfully announces.
And how does that play out? Higher premiums are one way. Another is high-deductible plans that leave consumers responsible for, say, $6,750 in out-of-pocket costs for individuals or $12,900 for a family before payments kick in.
If you’re wondering, the number of employers only offering high-deductible plans surged this year, from 18 percent in 2014 to 25 percent this year. Altogether use of these plans has grown by almost 300 percent since 2009.
...
True, more than 80 percent of those purchasing insurance on the exchanges are eligible for subsidies for their premiums. But that’s not a solution, in either the short-term or the long-term. First, there are still deductibles, and although subsidies covering parts of the deductible and other approved costs are available to those meeting certain income limits who sign up for particular plans on the exchanges, it’s a complicated, difficult-to-understand process.* Second, subsidies don’t mean freebie. The taxpayer pays the money to the insurance industry, leaving less funding for other priorities. Third, of course, it leaves the people who are not eligible for subsidies feeling like chumps, stuck paying the bill for a health insurance expansion that, no matter how necessary, many of them don’t see as offering them enough in return for their own personal increased costs.
Millions of Americans now have health insurance because of Obamacare, but it wasn't free.
Overall, CBO projected, the cost to the government of those enrolled in Medicaid and in the marketplaces created under the law will be $1.4 trillion over 10 years, which is $136 billion more than the scorekeeper previously expected.
I'd rather spend $1.4 Trillion on health care rather than bombs. But you'd think that spending this kind of money would come with some real cost control measures too.
It's unfortunate that I can't post this on TOP, because a rational discussion of Obamacare is no more likely than it would be on Redstate.
Obamacare is simply not a solution for our broken health care system, and I don't see how anything less than a complete tear-down and rebuild would make it a solution.
Comments
The middleman has got to go.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
This
Anyone (or organization) that inserts themselves into a transaction without adding value is a parasite and needs to be treated as such.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
When did a Republican plan
ever work out well for the middle/lower classes? EVER?
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Do Republicans even have a plan? And does it matter?
Many of us had doubts about Obamacare from the start, and it appears that those concerns were grounded in reality.
they do have a plan
Its called social Darwinism. Those that can afford to pay will live, while the undesirables and their kin die off.
Gold is the wealth of kings; silver is the wealth of commoners; barter is the wealth of peasants; and debt is the wealth of slaves.
They did. It was called Romneycare
A mandate to buy health insurance, by law, for all. What a stupid idea. Wonder what ever happened to it.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
And according to a certain candidate...
before that it was called Hillarycare. Go figure.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
Romneycare transmogrified into Obamacare
Neither addresses cost control in any serious manor. When single payer and the public option were declared "off the table" any reasonable expectation of effective cost controls flatlined.
No one even reached for the defribulator paddles.
“ …and when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine,and understand who God is, and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.- RFK jr. 8/26/2024
They have a plan...
It was introduced by Bob Dole when Clinton care failed. It was created by The Heritage Foundation. It was Implement in Massachusetts by Mitt Romney. It's now called Obamacare. It sucks.
Democrats, we tried to warn you. How is that guilt and shame working out?
It's better than
what was before. I am for single payer, but article misses the mark on Obamacare in more than a few respects. It isn't close to right about health care spending since Obamacare was passed.
Obamacare was a substantial improvement. Which is why Bernie Sanders voted for it. I absolutely believe we need to move to Single Payer, but this article just misses the boat.
Bottom line - data below:
Costs increases in health care have slowed
More are being covered
Medicare's long term viability has been significantly strengthened.
These are simple facts not subject to dispute. Period. You can argue that these trends will change. You can argue that this is not sustainable - although the author quotes New York Times article - and cuts off the next paragraph. Here is the entire quote:
The data
1. The uninsured rate has declined dramatically
2. A significant problem has been the refusal of redstate Governors to expand Medicaid
In states where medicaid was expanded, the uninsurance rate is 7.2% versus 11.4% in states that did not.
3. It banned junk insurance.
It is worth remembering that the insured rate pre-Obama case counted people with any type of insurance. Some of this insurance was garbage that was outlawed by the ACA
4. Obamacare has helped dramatically slow Medicare Spending
From the liberal Center for American Progress:
"There are several reasons for the falling Medicare projections, including lower estimates for health care cost growth, lower-than-expected costs for the Medicare Part D prescription drug program, and the Affordable Care Act, or ACA. The ACA included substantial cost-saving Medicare reforms, which were reflected in CBO’s official cost estimate for the bill. The implementation of the ACA may also be one of the factors responsible for the broader decline in health care cost growth; it already appears to be reducing the number of patients who need to be readmitted to hospitals."
5. Inflation in medical care slowed
Here is author comes close to flat misrepresenting the data.
This is a big deal. Inflation in health care has slowed dramatically since Obamacare was enacted.
This is not a surprise - one goal of increasing medical insurance was to keep people from using the ER as their Primary Care doctor. This should, and has reduced rates of re-admission to hospitals (noted above) as well.
It really helped me when I needed it
and I needed it badly. However, it was put into place with most Democrats realizing that it should be a first step in managing our idiotic health care payment system, not a final step as so many Hillbots seem to think.
Yes, it is an improvement; given what we had before it was a big improvement, but it has been sabotaged by reich-wing governors and state legislatures to prove that it won't work as intended. Since they have been fairly successful at harming it in terms of cost containment and in terms of more coverage, I think it's time to say (for President Sanders to say actually),
"You are right. Due to your recalcitrance (they'll run for a dictionary) we admit that it is not working as intended and the only way to have actual cost containment is to cut out the middleman. Based on polls, that is what the American people want, so that's what we're going to do."
The counter
attack from the Clinton's was shocking. It's not hard to see how you extend it:
1. Offer a national public option
2. Provide a path for single payer at the state level (to do so, as Vermont showed, requires support from the feds)
But they really descended to scaring people who are on Medicate.
It was beneath contempt.
Obamacare banned junk insurance??
As far as I'm concerned, high deductible plans are junk insurance.
dfarrah
Absolutely.
Insurance isn't healthcare.
You should read the other comments here
The story isn't as rosy as you, and TOS, present it.
As for your points:
Good grief! Small businesses have gone from 68% to 56% and soon to 49% health coverage and this isn't alarming to you?
That's why I said the article needed a filter, because its a fuckin disaster.
1 & 2) Yes, the number of uninsured have dropped dramatically. I already acknowledged that twice. It's because of the taxpayer. Which is OK, except for "Why are we subsidizing private insurers?"
3) As someone else pointed out, why is it not junk insurance if you can't afford the deductibles?
4) This one you should have been able to figure out yourself.
Medicare spending falls dramatically. Meanwhile, Medicaid spending rises dramatically by a similar amount. Hmmm. I wonder if there is a connection?
5) I said above that health care inflation has dropped slightly. It hasn't dropped dramatically (except for one year, 2013). Plus, much of that drop was from "cost shifting".
See the chart at the top of this essay. It's not "flat misrepresenting the data".
Obamacare IS a Republican plan.
It's Romneycare. Plain and simple.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
As you wrote
Millions of people have health insurance. But how many can actually use it because they have such high deductibles?
$6,000 deductible before the insurance kicks in is basically not having insurance for many people.
And the democrats could have passed a better bill, but they kept letting the GOP water it down hoping they'd vote for it. But they knew they wouldn't, so why let them take out good parts of the bill? Cover. The GOP told us no.
Plus they let Baucus write most of it knowing that Liz fowler from WellPoint was helping him write it.
And I remember candidate Obama promising that he " would sigh no health care bill with out a public option in it".
Kind of reminds me when he promised to filibuster the FISA bill.
Sigh.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Maybe I will post this on GOS anyway
A partial rewrite. A few more links.
And then a drive-by posting, because I don't want to be bothered with all the flames.
Please do
Those yahoos over there need a dose of TRUTH every once in a while just to rattle the sheep.
On this
I think you should read the responses. I don't agree with you at all - and I don't think the data supports you.
kinda reminds me of his "comforable shoes"
that he couldn't find when he needed to go to Wisconsin.
Did they water it down I hopes to get GOP votes?
Or did they plan to make this as insurance friendly as possible all along? We may never know.
Democrats, we tried to warn you. How is that guilt and shame working out?
I've assumed they got exactly what they wanted (ACA)
they're in cahoots with the Republicans. They used the Republicans and Blue Dogs as cover. Obama never intended to get a real health care program going. It was all campaign rhetoric. Then, because he'd promised something, it was easy to pass this Health Insurance Bonus Act.
Exactly...
...Eggszactly! Obama became the master of saying, "I couldn't do it because those bad republicans wouldn't let me." BS! He never wanted to do those things in the first place.
I agree
Nothing less than a complete tear down will work. The problem is that the system is wrong at it's core. Here in Canada, I live under a health care system which is designed to provide health care. In the states, the health care system is designed to make money. Those are vastly different starting goals and they will always lead to vastly different outcomes.
Then, of course, is the moral imperative. A for-profit health care system is barbaric by any reasonable measure.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
The ACA
seems to me to be an acknowledgement that the system is headed for self-destruction, sooo....
we are going to lock things into place in order to save the current system from itself.
That sums it up.
A FOR-PROFIT HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IS BARBARIC BY ANY REASONABLE MEASURE
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Amen. Represent.
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
Almost as barbaric
as a for-profit prison system.
And
For profit wars.
Each more barbaric than the last.
What a country!
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
This "American Exceptionalism"
has always been barbaric and the people have always been brainwashed that it is not so.
It was barbaric to commit genocide on the Native Americans. It was barbaric to transport slaves to North America, to enslave, torture and kill them. It was barbaric to have to have a civil war, which still didn't end the oppression of POC. The never-ending wars of aggression and the invasion of countries such as Iraq were/are barbaric. To torture people for information is barbaric. To kill wedding parties and funerals with drones as a "mistake" or to kill an individual is barbaric. To let people die because they can't afford to go to the doctor is barbaric. To let people freeze in their homes and apartments because they can't keep the heat on is barbaric. The list is endless, I can't go on with this, it's too depressing.
We need to rebuild this country from the ground up, whether the powers that exist like it or not.
barbarism
We "Exceptional Americans" have this insane pride in having rejected socialism in favor of its alternative.
Rosa Luxemburg had it right:
My sole objection is always the same: it's not just in this hour, but in every hour that this is the case.....
(attribution: http://socialismartnature.tumblr.com/post/57790432719/rosa-luxemburg)
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Personl anecdotes
about how it is great, or awful, does not reach the goal the Heritage Foundation basically pre-determined what we may have.
Our health insurance availability is life saving. Our mandatory purchase is also life saving.
What got lost is the costs.
That is "lost" to the people who need health care the most..
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
"Insurance" is not life-saving if you can't afford to use it
Health insurance is not health CARE. It is nowhere near "affordable" for many people. Median income is around $30K, pretax. Take out $6K for required insurance and another $6K in deductibles before you get any benefits from that "insurance," and you're probably going hungry or camping out in the woods. And that's if your "insurance" even covers what you need: they can change their "benefits" and you're still stuck with them for a whole year.
And then Obama gets all pompous about people needing to have "skin in the game." Lots of skin. Nice game.
It was my hope that the ACA might reprogram Americans
…to accept — as the rest of the world does — that health care is a human right.
Yes, every country in the world except the poorest and most destitute, offers national health care to its citizens. Even Afghanistan and Iraq.
And, citizens of the poorest and most destitute nations in the world receive nationally-funded health care through a network of neighborhood clinics and hospitals.
Only in the US is death by medical neglect institutionalized as an accepted part of the American social gestalt.
So, I figured once Americans experienced a human right (the only one they have so far) there would be no going back. I think the Republicans thought that was the case, as well, which is why they resisted it, publicly. In truth, Wall Street loved the PPACA. The insurance companies are part of the Finance Sector, and all those premium pools are gambled everyday in the markets and used to jack it up or down and suppress the value of commodities, like gold or oil (when necessary).
One thing that insurance companies do not account for (in their "losses" and other bullshit accounting) is that they all make billions yearly playing the markets. Those profits are accounted in a different way. It's a money pump.
I've evolved since then.
I've come to agree with the American people: They do not deserve human rights.
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
Mom and Pop businesses got screwed
The percentage of small employers offering health benefits decreased from 68 percent in 2010 to 56 percent in 2015, according to the annual Kaiser Family Foundation survey.
ACA disqualified owner operated companies with no employees from obtaining health insurance, so spouses running businesses together were all summarily dumped from their existing company plans onto the individual market cesspool. Of course the insurance was worse and the price higher, but at least they were able to cover more people - or something.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
No kidding
A drop from 68% to 56% in just five years is huge!
That's millions of people.
Sure, if you are destitute or have a pre-existing condition you now have health insurance. That's big.
But there's been a big trade-off, and that's not a win in my book.
Small business...
Has been totally screwed by Obama. Be it Obamacare or Dodd/Frank.
Democrats, we tried to warn you. How is that guilt and shame working out?
You seem to be forgetting
that Wall Street is all that matters here in the good old U.S. of A.
The Save Health Insurance Today (SHIT) Act?
It has the long term viability of a gerbil.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
I was so looking forward to the public option
And the insurance companies said "But but but... When Americans see what a better deal that is, that will drive us out of business!"
And I thought:
"Exactly."
“We may not be able to change the system, but we can make the system irrelevant in our lives and in the lives of those around us.”—John Beckett
I'm sorry..
Obamacare sucks. (Warning - Some privilege coming atcha). When Obamacare was being written and passed, I said it has fatal flaws: it preserves profit as a motive; it doesn't do much to bend the cost curve; it treats sick people like 'informed consumers' that are supposed to look for the 'best price'; and, most damning, it establishes a baseline of crappy high deductible 'insurance' as the minimum to comply with the law. Guess what? My 'progressive' company, who did a lot of 'in kind' donations to Obama went from offering decent affordable PPO to high deductible insurance with employee contribution 'Health Savings Accounts'. Which is pretty much what John McCain proposed in 2008. I'm now paying more for healthcare now than in 2008.
Democrats, we tried to warn you. How is that guilt and shame working out?
Firebaggers
Not sure if people recall the online uproar over the various disappointments of the Obama plan in 2009/2010, but that was my first exit from GOS because there was a concerted effort to ostracize anyone who disagreed with the way the ACA developed. It turned out exactly the way I thought it would, and now I have a number of friends who are victims of the present plan. They're very poor healthcare workers, and they will never be able to pay off the deductibles they've been charged. The insurance and drug companies are fine, though, and that's what really counts, right?
I have agreed with you on this...
...since the start of Obamacare. I opposed this plan from the moment they emerged from the closed door meetings without the Single Payer option.
Passing this Obamacare plan meant we would be stuck with an unfair, unequal health care plan for much longer than if it had not been put into effect at all.
As someone getting reimbursement
from the health insurance industry, I felt the same way. They are deliberately obstructive by their very nature. Unless you are a highly paid specialist, you are probably either working your ass off to keep up with the costs of a practice or you you've gone to work for corporate medicine. Why do so many people have 12 minutes with the doctor and more than 12 minutes waiting for the doctor? The system as it is has got to be scrapped. This only keeps it going longer, and since the insurance companies see that coming, they are using this to their greatest advantage. Do we prosecute white-collar crime?
FYI, I published two diaries at TOS
to share insights about the great Wendell Potter. I'm bummed that I haven't seen him make an endorsement, many people would listen to him closely.
Wendell Potter:"Elimination of ‘Public Option’ Threw Consumers to the Insurance Wolves"
Wendell Potter: "Insurers backed Obamacare, then undermined it. Now they're profiting from it"
~OaWN
Obamacare is definitely better than what we had!!
Just getting rid of pre-existing conditions made it possible for millions of people to get much needed medical care. Plus, the Medicaid expansion... that is BIG!! With that said, here in S. Cal, ins is still cost prohibitive. Neither of my kids, nor my hubby buys ins because they can't afford it. Cost of living here is sky high, there is nothing left over for health ins, and yet they all make too much money to be eligible for subsidies. My poor neighbor who is a nurse and works full-time is living paycheck to paycheck, like so many of us. She clearly has some sort of hormonal disorder.... she's getting fatter, face redder, she's trashed exhausted all the time, etc, etc.... She needs to see a top notch Endo, but can't afford to go to the doc as her ins has a 6000.00 deductible. So she essentially is uninsured and can't afford to seek adequate medical care despite having BC/BS coverage!!! That's absolutely NOT OK in this rich country! I on the other hand have Medicare/Disability as I had a rare brain tumor that I'm still recovering from. I also have a Blue Cross PPO plan that my mother pays for. Because of my illness I'm insured to the hilt. My private, non-Exchange BC plan costs 928.00/mo, with a 1500.00 deductible, and a 30% co-pay!!!! CRAZY!!! I've had the Medicare for 2 years now and it's wonderful. I can see all the same docs as with my BC policy, I get chiropractic coverage, I can see doctors/hospitals/clinics/labs anywhere in the country. The only things that Medicare hasn't paid for is a huge genetic testing panel I needed, and the orthotics for my shoes. We vitally need a Single Payer healthcare option in the U.S. It's the human thing to do. Having experience with both socialized and private ins, I can say with certainty that we need both options on the table for American's to chose from. I should think that the single biggest way to force competition into the private ins market in this country would be to have a Single Payer option. Those private fuckers will have to straighten-up, lower their prices and knock-off the shenanigans or go out of business!!
Obamacare is definitely better than what we had!!
Just getting rid of pre-existing conditions made it possible for millions of people to get much needed medical care. Plus, the Medicaid expansion... that is BIG!! With that said, here in S. Cal, ins is still cost prohibitive. Neither of my kids, nor my hubby buys ins because they can't afford it. Cost of living here is sky high, there is nothing left over for health ins, and yet they all make too much money to be eligible for subsidies. My poor neighbor who is a nurse and works full-time is living paycheck to paycheck, like so many of us. She clearly has some sort of hormonal disorder.... she's getting fatter, face redder, she's trashed exhausted all the time, etc, etc.... She needs to see a top notch Endo, but can't afford to go to the doc as her ins has a 6000.00 deductible. So she essentially is uninsured and can't afford to seek adequate medical care despite having BC/BS coverage!!! That's absolutely NOT OK in this rich country! I on the other hand have Medicare/Disability as I had a rare brain tumor that I'm still recovering from. I also have a Blue Cross PPO plan that my mother pays for. Because of my illness I'm insured to the hilt. My private, non-Exchange BC plan costs 928.00/mo, with a 1500.00 deductible, and a 30% co-pay!!!! CRAZY!!! I've had the Medicare for 2 years now and it's wonderful. I can see all the same docs as with my BC policy, I get chiropractic coverage, I can see doctors/hospitals/clinics/labs anywhere in the country. The only things that Medicare hasn't paid for is a huge genetic testing panel I needed, and the orthotics for my shoes. We vitally need a Single Payer healthcare option in the U.S. It's the human thing to do. Having experience with both socialized and private ins, I can say with certainty that we need both options on the table for American's to chose from. I should think that the single biggest way to force competition into the private ins market in this country would be to have a Single Payer option. Those private fuckers will have to straighten-up, lower their prices and knock-off the shenanigans or go out of business!!
I want an *end* to employer-based health insurance
At this moment, I am very fortunate to have relatively good BCBS insurance through my employer for myself and my husband for a reasonable price out of my paycheck. I try to avoid using it or going to doctors, but at least it's there for emergencies. Like when my husband had to have emergency gall bladder surgery -- we got through it all for only a few thousand dollars out-of-pocket. It would have broken us without the insurance. BUT I don't have any security at my job, it is day-to-day at this point, and I am still a decade away from being eligible for Medicare. Being dependent on my job for our health insurance sucks. It also gives them license to intervene in my personal life, with their "wellness programs" that allow them to ask for your bodily fluids, weight, BMI, and other *personal* health information, because they are paying for your insurance, it gives them license to be totally in your personal life, and makes you dependent on a company that doesn't give a shit about you, for your well-being and health care.
Employer-based health care is bullshit. We need single payer, non-profit, universal health CARE, not insurance, and get employers OUT of the loop. I do not want my health care to be tied to my job. I hate that it is. I don't participate in the "wellness program" that wants my blood and personal information. That could cost me the job and lose my insurance... oh well, then at least I can buy coverage through Obamacare, or pay the extra taxes to go uninsured again.
We could do better. The push for single payer, universal health CARE with access for everyone, is one of the main reasons I support Bernie Sanders campaign. The status quo sucks, even for those of us in relatively good circumstances for the moment -- because it's just that, for as long as you can hang on to it, and put up with corporate meddling in your personal life, and they don't fire you for having a health condition that costs them money.
Affordable, my ass.
The ACA subsidizes insurance companies, then a lot of people are on the hook to pay back part of their subsidies. How does that make any sense?!
Having said that, there are decent plans and crappy plans on the Marketplace exchange. I'd take a decent exchange plan over the shitty one my work offers now. My work offers an HSA plan or a traditional "high deductible" (I think $1500 so there's that) plan, which doesn't cover one of the insulins I use, and they want 50% copays for the insulins they do cover. I can't afford (read: refuse to pay) $400 to get my insulin refilled. So I'll go to Walmart (I know) to get cheap insulin. I ended up getting glucose test strips through Amazon because the idiots couldn't do their job and refill them. And I have to change doctors every time my insurance changes because they're all on different networks. It's insanity!! It just cannot go on like this.
This shit is bananas.
A giveaway to the insurance companies of epic proportions
costs increasing, lack of coverage, color me not surprised
The Orwellian beauty of the scheme was adding
criminal penalties to the mix.
Can't afford to buy insurance? That's OK we'll fine you for not being able to afford insurance.
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keep this kind of analysis coming
the only real metric for ACA success has been, in my analysis, enrollment numbers. not actual access to care that is affordable and easily accessible . . . and the right standard of care.
having more people insured doesn't mean much if the same roadblocks to care exist.
“There are moments which are not calculable, and cannot be assessed in words; they live on in the solution of memory… ”
― Lawrence Durrell, "Justine"
I was/am a big supporter of the ACA
because it was so very much better in the Patient Protection part. I have personally helped many family members get insurance that they haven't had in many many years.
That being said, it was my first, and possibly biggest disappointment in Obama. Not the bill itself because as bad as it was, it is better, and not even for his poor negotiation skills, BUT because it was his broken promise.
He PROMISED that the whole committee meetings would first have everyone at the table and second it would be open and on CSpan. IF that would have happened we would have ended up with something closer to Medicare for all. But it was behind closed doors, with insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies.
A painful subject for me
I'm currently cancelling appointments with my neurologist. He's out of state, so insurance doesn't cover visits. Insurance also doesn't cover much in the way of dental. So, if dental emergencies come up, I can't see my neurologist. Both my daughter and her father have costly dental work needed. We realized last week, that we've run out of funds. I will not be seeing my doctor for the rest of this year.
So, fuck the ACA and the whole "single payer is off the system" launchpad for "the negotiations." This is one of those topics that makes me seethe at Obama and the Democrats and our owner-based society.
by the way, I live in Massachusetts. The "out of state" doctor is as close as some places in the state. So, what the hell with insurance and these borders?
It's hard to gripe about the ACA ...
... knowing that if it wasn't for this legislation I would not have insurance today. I'm self-employed, and have had some fairly serious pre-existing conditions for many years now. Honest ... I am grateful. I try not to complain.
In other words, I try to overlook the flaws that drive me and so many others crazy. But the longer things go on, the angrier I get. I am fortunate in that I only have one more year to go, paying over $1200/month (+ $70.00 copays for every specialist I see), before I qualify for Medicare. One more year. But what about people like a commenter above who have years to go yet. How do they hold out?? Damned if I know.
Do you want to know why I pay so much for my health insurance? It's because I'm buying it directly from a health insurer instead of going through the ACA. I started out with the ACA ... but then I discovered that it is truly a crapshoot when it comes to which doctors are in-network and which are not. Had I stayed, I would have had to have changed insurance every single year in an attempt to retain as many of my 8 doctors as I possibly could. Now I pay through the nose, but at least the plan is stable from year to year (so far ... knock on wood) and all 8 doctors are always in network. I pay to avoid the aggravation of the ACA.
Can't tell you how many times I'll be sitting in a doctor's waiting room when I'll hear the receptionist say to someone on the phone, "Oh, we don't accept that ACA policy." I hear it over and over again. Believe me, I feel for the folks on the other end of the line.
"Long term: first the rich get mean, then the poor get mean, and the rest is history." My brother Rob.
Exactly me!
We paid unbelievable premiums prior, for crappy insurance. I'm talking over $25,0000 a year. In 2010 our insurance was bumped to over &48,000. Of course we had to drop it and did without until marketplace came online. That was for 2 people, over 50 non smokers.
Oh my goodness!
Same exact thing happened to me! In 2010, my health insurance premium ... for just ME, mind you, hit $25,000 a year. NO WAY I could pay that. I was forced to drop it. And, of course, since I had pre-existing conditions, there was no replacement possible. I became uninsured.
Fortunately, the ACA came along that year with a special program for those of us who were uninsured because of pre-existing conditions, and who couldn't be without insurance until the ACA actually started in 2014: the PCIP (Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Program). In order to qualify, I had to go 6 months without insurance. But it sure was worth it. It turned out to be the best little insurance program I'd ever had! The premiums were reasonable, as were the co-pays, and all of my doctors/hospitals accepted it. Best of all, it was entirely government administered. In fact, it was such a great program for me that I was determined to go only with a government run choice when the ACA began signing up folks in 2013. Imagine my disappointment to discover later that a government run option was eventually nixed in favor of all private insurers. Had they kept that option on the table, I'd have been the first in line to enroll in it.
"Long term: first the rich get mean, then the poor get mean, and the rest is history." My brother Rob.
Exact same thing!
We were on Obamacare before it was available. Although with pre existing we were concerned with those 6 months of nothing. And as it happened my husband actually had been fighting a misdiagnosis of a heart condition. He let the misdiagnosis stand.
Deductibles make Obamacare all but useless
Junk insurance
Almost the entirety
of McJoan's output at TOP depends upon people not understanding the difference between health insurance and healthcare.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire