Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I read this stuff, I'm a little astounded about how bad the situation must be in other states. Here in the Pacific Northwest, my premiums have actually been going down and the plan offerings are getting better. The provider I was on did go out of business so I had to switch, and I'm now paying less for more services. And, to be totally frank, having had a pre-existing condition that kept me from buying any insur…
Yeah, it's pretty crappy in NC. First year of ACA we only had one company even offering any insurance in my county. And yeah, it's county-based for some reason - if I lived 2 miles in another direction I'd have had multiple options about 10-15% cheaper than what I had available. Second year we had another option in our county which was about 15% higher than BCBS (which had gone up about 25% from the year before). App…
Many See I.R.S. Penalties as More Affordable Than Health Insurance
241–250 of 383 posts
Re: Many See I.R.S. Penalties as More Affordable Than Health Insurance
#242Re: Many See I.R.S. Penalties as More Affordable Than Health Insurance
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
I understand premiums going up annually. I don't understand 30-50% increases year on year.
It's was pretty easy to predict: allowing enrollment after a diagnosis was politically popular but a terrible economic disincentive to not buy insurance (because at that point, it isn't insurance -- it's a subscription plan for your treatments). The young and healthy needed to enroll for the economics to work, but the individual mandate was delayed for years -- because coercion isn't popular politically, and there wa…
You're neglecting the fact that unless you get hit by the proverbial bus, you will eventually have one or more very expensive medical conditions, just like those freeloaders you're being forced to pay for now.
The whole idea of selling "insurance" in a market where you know that everyone is eventually going to file expensive claims is just stupid. No other insurance market works that way, nor could it.
Re: Many See I.R.S. Penalties as More Affordable Than Health Insurance
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
The end result of the "Affordable" "Care" Act for myself and many others is that we pay more for lesser insurance. So we do pay "almost anything," then sudden medical events can, if not bankrupt us, still cost a pretty penny thanks to the high deductibles.
How high is your deductible? I think the highest I've seen is $5k, which is nothing to sneeze at, but also not really in the realm of bankrupting most families.
Re: Many See I.R.S. Penalties as More Affordable Than Health Insurance
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
I understand premiums going up annually. I don't understand 30-50% increases year on year.
It's was pretty easy to predict: allowing enrollment after a diagnosis was politically popular but a terrible economic disincentive to not buy insurance (because at that point, it isn't insurance -- it's a subscription plan for your treatments). The young and healthy needed to enroll for the economics to work, but the individual mandate was delayed for years -- because coercion isn't popular politically, and there wa…
No, it's a consistent argument for those who think beyond themselves; it's good for society as a whole. One doesn't have to believe one personally benefits, that's now how liberals work.
> A good market would be one where you paid your doctor
A good market for healthcare is one where it isn't a market, but a social good provided to everyone, like other civilized countries do. The market is not the correct answer to every question of how to distribute goods and services.
Re: Many See I.R.S. Penalties as More Affordable Than Health Insurance
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
For what it's worth, I have talked to doctors who want single payer just as much as some of us.
I work in health tech and all 12 of the physicians I work with think single payer is the way to go.
Re: Many See I.R.S. Penalties as More Affordable Than Health Insurance
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
When the WHO ranked the world's health care systems in 2000, Italy was actually the second best in the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organization_rank... That was 16 years ago, yes, but the country wasn't run any better than it is now.
Random personal anecdote. When I was a teenager, my family took a trip to Europe. This was summer of 1999, IIRC. Anyways, near the end of the trip, when we were in Italy, my dad came down with a cough and sore throat. Rather than try to gut it out for another week and then have to fly back to the US sick, we decided to try to find a doctor. After consulting with the front desk at our hotel, we were directed to a smal…
And why can't I buy antibiotics without a prescription. Don't I have a right to heal myself?
Re: Many See I.R.S. Penalties as More Affordable Than Health Insurance
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
When a little bit of socialism fails, why is the answer always more socialism?
Because socialism works? Just today: change of health insurance. Need primary care physician. Takes six weeks to be seen. Six weeks, to be scheduled for minor surgery. You might choose to waste an hour on the phone to find a less booked-out physician. In Socialist Britain you are guaranteed to be seen within 48 hours! Here in the US the only thing guaranteed is the waste of time. Seems that is a feature of the plan.…
In the third world country, I had to have a very niche test that could only be done at the largest hospital in the city, a government owned hospital. It was a terrible experience. The corridors were packed with sick people sitting and waiting on the floor, it was hot and the ventilation was poor. I had to wait for hours to be seen while hoping I would not catch some disease while feeling incredibly sad for those around me that who must endure that hell regularly while for me it was just a once off.
In contrast, in the first world, the hospital care was just as good as the USA but without dealing with a billing department(can't remember why I was there, might have just been to see a physician for a cough). But from what I was told by a doctor and nurse I befriended while I was in the country, everything was done on a government budget. You want an MRI? If you don't have insurance, the expense comes out of the physicians allocated budget. What happens if the doc has expended the budget? You wait until the next budgetary cycle. Want a procedure done (that is deemed non-urgent)? Its free, but you need to wait months until there is space for you. Non-urgent includes cancer that won't kill you ... a friend's mother waited 6 months to get her stomach cancer removed. She was uninsured and it was free. Good deal (the surgery was something like 12 hours long with multiple surgeons working in shifts!) but they knew that if probabilities did not work in her favor, the cancer might have spread before they could remove it. They decided it was not worth selling the house and other assets to pay for private surgery. It was a good call in retrospect, but if it were my mother, I would have sold my house.
Another friend had a benign brain tumor. The doc was very reluctant to send him for an MRI. Three months later he got one. They instantly sent him for brain surgery. Removed it (for free!). But had it been malignant and spread, the time it took for the doctor to decide to use the MRI might have killed him.
The doctor friend I mentioned above, would tell me government bureaucrats would fight him on his spending, analyzing each of his patients and second-guessing his expenses. He hated them with a passion.
I remember only reading complaints about the UK system until ACA began to be debated, then suddenly it was the benchmark of great healthcare.
tldr; socialized medicine is great, and I would definitely support it, but don't fool yourself into thinking it's all that great. The upper-half of the middle class would still take private insurance and would still prefer being seen at private hospitals where they get the best care no expense (or bureaucrat) spared.
Re: Many See I.R.S. Penalties as More Affordable Than Health Insurance
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're not alone. In Texas, they cancelled almost all (or maybe all) individual PPO plans (affecting about 367k people), leaving us to choose HMO or EPO plans (the lesser of two evils). And about a 20% increase (per year) in insurance cost for the last 3 years. I at least hope some folks are benefiting from the ACA, I'm certainly not.
In CA, that's not the case. Our insurance went up maybe $50/person, but we got mental health care, acupuncture, and various other benefits we didn't have before. Oh and we have pre-existing conditions that would prevent us from being insured if we didn't have employer-based. And this is all PPO.
Re: Many See I.R.S. Penalties as More Affordable Than Health Insurance
#250You take a non-free market (I get sick, I need help - no choice involved) and apply seemingly free market logic to it. The result is a disaster, tada.
Single payer, all the way, everyday. Add private, optional insurance on top to allow well-off people to get private rooms, etc. But no one should worry about going bankrupt over medical bills, ever.
And yes, Austria is living proof that such a system can exist, with awesome results. Including electronic health records, the e-card etc. - all sci-fi ideas that US super genius companies like Google, MS, a myriad of startups cannot create.