Posted on 07/05/2015 1:25:31 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
Let me start by saying this is not a political screed against Obamacare; I’m thrilled that some 18 million Americans now have health insurance who didn’t before the law took effect, lowering the percentage of uninsured adults from 18% in 2013 to 11.9% today.
But I’m growing concerned that for some people — especially older, middle- and lower-income adults — the Affordable Care Act is becoming The Unaffordable Care Act.
A Growing Problem: The Underinsured
Several recent studies suggest to me that due to a combination of Obamacare’s incentives to reduce premiums; the rise of so-called “consumer-driven” and high-deductible health plans and employers’ moves to combat the Affordable Care Act’s coming “Cadillac tax” on certain health plans, rising numbers of Americans are now not uninsured, but underinsured.
What’s underinsured? The Commonwealth Fund, a nonpartisan health research group, defines the underinsured as insured people whose out-of-pocket costs — excluding premiums — equal 10% or more of household income (5% or more for the low-income) or whose deductibles equal 5% or more of household income.) Commonwealth says 23% of insured people between age 19 and 64 are underinsured, double when it looked in 2003.
In other words, these people are finding themselves facing enormous out-of-pocket health expenses — sometimes leading them to deplete their savings and rack up serious medical debt. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
My ex sister in law taught in Spain for Military and her daughter lives in Sweden. ex Sis just came back from Sweden after visiting her daughter. ex Sis is diabetic and had a foot sore. She went to the DR twice and they charged her 35.00 a visit. He had lowered his price from 45.00 as he said folks were having hard times. Imagine that, office visit that would cost 125-150 in USA vs. 35.00 in Sweden.
She also said they provide electric scooters for those that medically need them for free. If you are obese they give you stomach surgery for free.
My ex sister in law taught in Spain for Military and her daughter lives in Sweden. ex Sis just came back from Sweden after visiting her daughter. ex Sis is diabetic and had a foot sore. She went to the DR twice and they charged her 35.00 a visit. He had lowered his price from 45.00 as he said folks were having hard times. Imagine that, office visit that would cost 125-150 in USA vs. 35.00 in Sweden.
She also said they provide electric scooters for those that medically need them for free. If you are obese they give you stomach surgery for free.
. . . “ what moron decided that they wanted their healthcare administered by politicians?” followed by rounds of hysterical laughter
...
Nobody decided that. It was the politicians and their Big Business backers who decided what the people were going to get.
Productive, law abiding, tax paying citizens have very little say about what happens in America anymore.
Check out the monthly sharing amounts. They’re about half of what comparable insurance is. The catch: no guarantee your costs will be accepted. But there isn’t with insurance, either.
The strategy I would play is to use these if you’re relatively healthy and don’t have good insurance through an employer. If you have a serious illness come up, bite the bullet that year and go on obiecare. Otherwise skip it and pocket the savings.
Personally, I think I’d rather have a very high deductable coverage. If you’re young, the premium is very low.
It sure ain’t happening in my world.
It's that they are badly outnumbered and so independent that they cannot act in unison.
Even if this were true, the vast majority were thrown into Medicare, not private insurance. Wow, that's something to be "thrilled" about.
I agree.
Several months ago I watched a lecture on C-Span by a health care economist from Princeton. He confirmed something I wrote here at FR years ago. We could have provided free Medicaid insurance for ALL uninsured Americans for $200 billion a year. That's 5% of the 2015 federal budget!
Instead, as you pointed out, we destroyed the best health care system in the history of the world!
I blame Republicans.
When the health care debate started in earnest in 2008, we had no serious alternative plan, we had no national political strategy, we had no leadership, and we had no passion.
Absolutely nothing has changed in 2015, when, allegedly, we were going to repeal ObamaCare.
IIRC, the Republicans offered many alternatives and proposed many alternative bills and amendments. The Democrats used congressional rules to prevent the bills and amendments from seeing the light of day. The media saw to it that those alternatives were never seen by the public.
Meanwhile, we have all forgotten the "Louisiana Purchase" and the "Cornhusker Kickback" and the corruption that occurred as Obamacare was forced through without Republican support.
My point was that “uninsured Americans” was the core constituency, and the core political issue, pursued by Democrats.
If the GOP had simply committed to a $200 billion Medicaid expansion in 2008, political support for ObamaCare would have significantly dropped.
Instead, in 2009, we got a $200 billion expansion of Medicaid - PLUS - ObamaCare!
Re: “The media saw to it that those alternatives were never seen by the public.”
OK - I'll agree to that, too.
But, seriously, when was the last election the media gave a fair hearing to the Conservative message? Maybe during the centrist Eisenhower administration 60 years ago? Shouldn't the GOP professionals be expecting that?
The reason the media rolled over us is because we had no national media strategy, no national political strategy, no leadership, and no political passion to save a health care system that 80% of American voters with health insurance thought was adequate.
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