Health care system is collapsing again
I knew when I saw this article yesterday that there had to be more not being said.
Thanks to a little-known change made in April by the Trump administration to the exemptions provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), millions of Americans will have the opportunity to escape having to pay the ObamaCare penalty imposed on those who are not enrolled in a “qualifying” health insurance plan.
As it turns out, the rest of the story is as simple as you might have imagined.
About 4 million Americans lost health insurance in the last two years, according to a new survey from the Commonwealth Fund, which attributed the decline to actions taken by the Trump administration.
The uninsured rate was up significantly compared with 2016 among adults with an individual income of about $30,000 and a family income of about $61,000.
Additionally, people who identified as Republican also had significantly higher uninsured rates.
The uninsured rate among Republicans rose from 7.9 percent in 2016 to 13.9 percent in the current survey period, which was conducted between February and March of 2018. The uninsured rate among those who identify as Democrats stood at 9.1 percent, statistically unchanged from 2016.
The Republican efforts at gutting Obamacare is largely responsible, but the effects go far beyond just the uninsured rate.
A top executive at the trade group representing health insurers on Monday warned of premium increases for ObamaCare plans next year, saying the situation is “not a pretty picture right now.”Matt Eyles, senior executive vice president of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), said that insurers “want to make sure people have access to coverage at the most affordable price, but that also has to reflect what the reality is right now and it’s not a pretty picture right now.”
Speaking at an event hosted by The Atlantic, he noted the repeal of the individual mandate in the tax bill in December, which is expected to lead to less healthy people signing up, as well as initiatives from the Trump administration to expand access to cheaper, skimpier plans known as short-term plans, which have also raised fears of siphoning away healthy people and causing an increase in premiums.
Insurers have warned that premiums could increase by nearly 30 percent for ObamaCare plans, although many people receive subsidies that shield them from those increases.
Comments
Trump is trying to kill it
Though to be fair, it was doomed since so many GOP governors refused the Medicaid expansion.
Trump voters are learning that his populism was always a facade. He never had a better plan in mind.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
This is going to be a bigger and bigger issue
At this rate it'll be the biggest political issue in 2020.
Will the Dems be smart enough to embrace MFA?
I suspect the answer is NO
They will not.
A few Bernicrats will, but despite the gloating I've seen online, Sanders is not taking over the party. DCCC and DSCC backed neolibs are still in control, and they want nothing to do with Medicare for all. In 2020, they will pull the same shit they did in 2016 to beat him.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
So...WTF do we do?
I CANNOT TAKE another 4 years of fascism, be it flavored of steak or quinoa.
They're trying to BREAK US. This is an ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP. We need to kick them and their military-industrial masters to the curb for good.
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
Sanders doesn'thave to take over the party.
2016 opened a lot of eyes. It may turn out that, in 2018, a DCCC endorsement will be a negative among rank-and-file Dems.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Exactly. Thing is, there
still is a window
of opportunity for Bernie to win 2020. There's just been zero indication on his part that he has any intentions of taking that opportunity. And the longer he dawdles the quicker that window closes. If it hasn't already. His big opportunity was right after the consolation tour with Tom Perez. He still drew Tons of fans on that tour, and had he said, after completing the thing, "I have finished my obligation to the Dimocratic party, and am announcing today my run for president, as an Independent, in the 2020 general election." Boom. Simple as that. The BernieBros and Berniecrats would have been back, en mass, and 2018 would be a blood bath for Trumpsters and Repubs. Didn't happen and isn't likely to happen and we're all the worse for it.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Why do you suppose that is?
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Oh yes, absolutely they will
There's already talk about the democrats trying to pass MFA. The legislation is coming from the Hillary and Obama camps. Their PACs or whatever they are called.
I wrote about this when it first got coverage. And speaking of coverage, that's exactly what the democrat's MFA is going to be.
The bill, if passed would allow anyone to be able to buy into this and then they would have access to universal coverage. Got it? Universal health coverage, not universal health care.
Yeehaw! Gotta love the new and better democrats.
How many people are going to catch this dawg and pony show?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
@gjohnsit Sorry, but the Dems
Sorry, but the Dems will be silent as "no nothing Americans " blame Obama and the Democratic party for the rate increases. All Trump and the odious GOP will have to do is site the failure of their Obamacare repeal as the cause of the greedy rate increases. In other words it will be business as usual and it will be the American people that gets the shaft.
as usual
As usual.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
the "Affordable" Care Act
punctuation adjusted for format change
To be fair, it was doomed since long before its passage. We never needed RomneyCare. We need to nationalize the healthcare industry, especially payment for healthcare, as all civilized nations do.
First, one must have a mind to keep the better plan in. And a reasonably sound mind at that.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
For what it's worth...
...
ObamaRomneyHeritageCare actually proved INCREDIBLY helpful to my family and I, so it's not like it's a total canard. They were just about to tell us that I'd reached a LIFETIME CAP on coverage for therapist's visits, XXXCare stepped in IN THE NICK OF TIME to say "Nope! Can't do that, patients get to decide how much they need, not you".I realize my story may be the exception to the rule, though (it usually is, after all).
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
canard?
I am gratified that it did you some good.
But it still isn't what we need: a single-payer, publicly owned and operated healthcare payment system like civilized developed nations have.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Another reason Obama was (se)elected
To kill any chance of getting universal health care. This was our best chance of getting it in this country. Then he killed the anti bailout protests and then the anti war movement.
Mission Accomplished
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
I am among those uninsured. Have been all my life.
Can't even get medicaid for fuck's sake. What little I can get I get through sliding scale clinics and Voc Rehab. And since employment doesn't exist beyond ableist McJobs where I live, I'm screwed if an emergency happens.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
If I hadn't had health insurance when I had my accident
I would have been screwed.
It would have bankrupted me, and it would have happened in a matter of seconds.
I don't want to imagine how much two surgeries and 4 days in emergency would have cost.
Fortunately my work insurance is pretty good. My out-of-pocket expenses have been very modest.
No one should have to live in fear of a single moment of bad luck.
And no one should have to create a Go Fund Me account!
That there is a website that is full of people asking for help for so many reasons is a stain on this country! People having to beg strangers for money so they can live! Shame!
Hope your recovery is going well.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
I'm also a special case, but less than you think
I am an extreme hypertensive diabetic, and until I advanced from metforminand and glyburide (total $15 a month) to trulicity ($1000 a month) my total out of pocket costs - including doctor bills and drugs - all 14 prescriptions - cost me less in a year than 3 months of insurance premiums. (with Obamacare subsidies still less than 9 months) The simple fact is that unless you're ssomeone like gjohnsit or moonbat even Obamacare is a disasterously bad deal. Period. If Obamacare had passed in 1993 I would not have saved enough to buy my condo. In fact, in 2001 I would have been evicted from my rental and would have died of exposure under a bridge somwhere in 2002.
That is a slightly exaggerated example of reality, but less exaggerated than you think. The plain and simple is that there is a reason that Republicans are more uninsured than Democrats - they do not live in such fear of disasters that hit one in a thousand that they sacrifice any hope of a future.
This argument does not apply to MFA/single payer. If health care comes out of taxes those costs are included in your pay scale. If health insurance comes out of your take home pay it's "your problem".
On to Biden since 1973
@doh1304 A friend of mine was also
A friend of mine was also a diabetic with other problems Her insulin and other meds became so expensive that she was cutting her pills and sometimes doing without. She passed away last Spring.
She was a good person and worker who contributed to the welfare of the country with her taxes, but when she needed help TPTB said " I got mine, but I don't give a damn about you'.
Insurance is not healthcare. Let it collapse why not.
I stopped conflating the two. "Insurance" is an expensive financial scam that never covers everyone equally. Health care is something else, I wouldn't know because I can't afford to use my "insurance" called Medicare already. Let the whole damn fraudulent plan collapse and start over from scratch, that's what I say.
Nobody needs the ACA, everyone needs a doctor or nurse on occasion, sometimes a hospital. Why is everything so goddamned expensive? Why? Administrative bullshit that's why. Bureaucracy is great, until it starts working against you, for its own profit. Fuck that shit, collapse can't come soon enough. Stop trying to "fix" it and just give everyone the same as Congress. 28th Amendment! lol
thanks
"Shareholders" come first.
That's why.
Well, that's one of the reasons.
People ("shareholders") profiting from our pain and suffering.
What a concept!
Sumpthin' almost nobody would have thought of in a million years.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
That was pretty harsh but you know what I mean
thanks for the kind words in return for my harsh rant upon "the system". You know I love all you all, right? It's the friggin' system I am resisting! It becomes more useless to me every day and I am completely dependent upon it. Not good, I am becoming front-line granny material. woo lets go
My neighbor is deep in to alternatives, maybe I'll take her up on a physic journey to see where that goes... um, nope not right now. Too scary. lol
peace
Just giving my take
on your question,
"Why is everything so goddamned expensive?"
That's all.
It totally sucks that we're all dependent upon a "System" that takes care of "shareholders" first, while denying patients everything that can be denied. ACA or whatever, we're all in the same sinking ship. Anytime there's a third party (insurance company) involved we're gonna get what "They" tell us we can get. And not a penny more.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
death panels
These are the real "death panels"!
edit: put a real subject line in.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
healthcare
.... and no American really has it, not even Congresscritters.
Mustn't disrupt Corporate Profits, you know.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
It is messed up ... that's for sure
I have the cheapest ACA policy. Primary care physicians don't want you. So I go to an urgent care place 60 miles away. Copay is $75, but they don't charge extra for x-rays and blood tests. My deductible is $6000. This is actually better than Texas teacher retirement Aetna has become. My husband pays $400/month for no copays and a $3000 deductible. Every trip to the doc is about $100. One monthly med is between $230 and $266. Went to CVS to pick up a medium size tube of complection creme. They wanted $1000 for it. Nope. Found it online for $45. How does that work?!?
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
capitalism overcomes the public good everytime
When ever health care, education, prison systems, and so on operate on a profit motive, the people are not well served. Life and death for a green piece of paper.
And the BS around the idea that corporations are more efficient than the government is commonly accepted. Caught like rats in a maze we each have to try to navigate the medical system.
I wish you all good health and the good fortune to avoid the doctor/drug/hospital/insurance cartel.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
If I wasn't on Medicare
there's no friggin'
way I could afford ACA or anything else.
Or, if it came down to that: ACA or "real insurance" I'd be joining many others in one "Tent City" or another around the country.
And That's how close Many of us are to boosting Tent City populations.
But, hey! MAGA will save us!
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Maybe last week, an article appeared on my
phone among the news Google thinks I would find interesting. (They have a 1 in 20 success rate.) I can't remember if it was from CNN or whomever, but it described the disastrous investment effect "one shot cures" have on pharmaceutical investments.
Seems when the effective one shot treatment for Hep C worked, it shrank the pool of sick patients, shrank the demand for the medicine, so investors were harmed severely. The better investment is long term treatment, just no money in a cure.
I read it aloud to my assistant, and we started discussing how to just get out of this damn country.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Packing...
Please! Take me with you once you get it figured out!