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In times of trouble and crisis, one can find solace and stability in first principles. Example: “The Affordable Care Act is working just fine. No need to worry — ever.”
Jim P,
As I have said before, the Obama Administration is unmatched in its employment of the most advanced new lying technologies. Nobody lies as well as they do.
Perhaps if Obama is gone and little Ceasar in a pantsuit goes down the drain, we might actually be allowed to say what the h#ll is going on. Even report a major train wreck. Until then it’s Olympic Pinocchios for the Obamite team.
Regards,
Jim
When my husband switched jobs and we had to find new insurance, we could not afford the premiums and made too much to qualify for subsidies – our only choice was a catastrophic bridge insurance until the “exchange” re-opened Nov. 1. It’s still double to what we were paying and not affordable – we found some private insurance with United Healthcare that was still reasonable.
Small businesses in our area are suffering under the weight of this new system and paying penalties and hiring part time instead to make ends meet.
FSC,
This has been going on since the beginning. Also, I wouldn’t just accept as a given that this giant Rube Goldberg is actually helping the poorest. Wait times at emergency rooms are up all over. That means whatever way the idiots are calculating things it isn’t solving the problem.
This whole thing stinks from the bottom to the top. As of yet I haven’t talked to a physician who likes this inane law. Most of the physicians I talk to voted for the bas@#rd and a few twice. Yet, they don’t have a single thing good to say about the ACA.
Regards,
Jim
If this is the case now, and if it was the OCare authors’ intent all along to put forth a plan that would fail in order to get the public to accept single-payer, imagine the wait times that would result from that fiasco. Except it wouldn’t be just the emergency rooms. It would be every doctor’s office throughout the land.
Here now, it’s not all doom and gloom out there. Thanks to Obamacare, we’ve found out the real cost of a doctor visit. Our doctor gives a 50% discount for cash. 50%!
Oh, and when my son (well, both of them) were going through concussion treatment, we paid cash. That doctor gave a 30% discount.
Other than very short term “non-compliant” catastrophic insurance to cover the past two high school football seasons, we’ve been without health insurance. Last year we flipped Obama the bird, and are doing the same this year. Why? Because we can’t (non-CoC compliant expletive) afford it, and it’s cheaper for us to pay cash, pay the penalty and carry a true catastrophic plan.
Unless your doctor does not participate with any government insurance programs, (s)he is breaking the law by not charging you the standard fee. I mention this just in case you are under the misapprehension there are any market forces whatsoever allowed in the regulated practice of medicine in the United States (formerly the land of the free).
UHC and the other major health insurers always anticipated that the short-fall in enrollment of the young and healthy would probably fall short of the numbers needed to make the plans profitable. That was what the “risk corridors” were all about. Ultimately Obamacare exchanges were supposed to be a cost-plus government contract with a guaranteed profit.
The Republican majorities in House and Senate are blocking (so far) these hidden subsidies. We will see if the Republicans are serious about letting Obamacare collapse of its own weight or whether they are just shaking down the health insurance industry for that sweet, sweet cash.
Bailout of Obamacare Insurers
The ACA was a ruse to arrive ultimately to single payer. It’s failure is right on schedule.
Gasp! You aren’t suggesting that the Republicans who “represent” us would sell us out for filthy lucre?! Naturally they’ll stick to principle and would never throw their constituents under a bus at the drop of a (lobbyist’s) dime.
The failure is right on schedule in more ways than one – healthcare, military, race relations, law enforcement, relations with allies, Common Core, the national debt, trade relations that benefit the U.S., we could keep going…….
I have little doubt that many Obama supporters and administration figures think breaking even is fine. Why should any corporation make money on someone else’s illnesses? And why should any non-for-profit do better than break even ever!
Under no circumstances am I going to support a bailout of these insurance companies. I just hope a Republican wins the white house next year, because we need to end Obamacare and get real healthcare reform. It should be in his top three priorities.
At this point single-payer is dream compared to the British NHS system that is coming our way. Large healthcare groups are gobbling up independent practices and consolidating. In 5 years there will be maybe 100 healthcare groups around the country. It will be a very short step to just nationalize those 100 healthcare groups and then your family practitioner will be a civil servant.
Henry Ford hospital’s webpage for the uninsured or those who’s insurance does not cover MRIs or Xrays states the price is based on Medicare payment schedules. The highest MRI is just over $700 with the dr. price included. So there are two prices. I have often thought that private health insurance subsidized Medicare/Medicaid.
http://www.henryford.com/body.cfm?id=47782