OBAMA/TRUMPCARE MEGATHREAD

[StrangeSox]

Literally every other civilized country has proven its a successful model.

 

The USA has only proven that privatized for profit healthcare is a failure.

 

Yeah. If you have friends or family in other countries, they'll usually express horror whenever they learn about some detail of our healthcare system. Even of you have pretty good insurance.

 

A Canadian friend recently had a baby. Zero dollars out of pocket. Oh and $10/day daycare starting after their paid maternity and paternity leave ends

 

[bmags]

Delta dental is a huge network, I miss it. But all dental insurance is basically the same. Even out of network it's a difference of 10% on most plans.

[RockRaines]

If you need a new dentist mine went to Northwestern...

 

(edit)

 

I dont believe he is "in network" for any insurance though. Last time I was there I was joking around because my office switched from Metlife to Delta Dental, and I kept saying that it sounded like a second rate insurance company. He claimed that Delta Dental is fine, but I still have my suspicions. I guess at the end of the day its more his problem then mine, because hes gotta get those insurance codes right.

DD is probably larger than Metlife, BUT coverage can vary from plan to plan (DDIL, DDCA etc).

 

we went from UGH/DDCO to full Aetna and nothing has changed from my doctor roster.

[caulfield12]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/04/opinions/hea...nion/index.html

 

Democrats have opportunity to use "Medicare for all" as the litmus test for candidates and a battering ram against GOP in 2018 and 2020...this vote actually brings America the closest it has eer been to a single payer system instead of "trusting" free market insurance and drug companies to reign in costs.

 

Bernie Sanders just got a huge boost again.

[greg775]

Let's face it, the little guy is going to go broke paying for medical costs during retirement. Our country is in deep trouble without free health care for all. The insurance companies are going to pay so little of each major surgery it'll make your head spin. Good luck to all the people out of work getting treated and good luck to those who do have jobs cause their insurance companies will fight SO many charges.

Agree?

We needed Bernie who woulda given us all this stuff for free.

Edited May 5, 2017 by greg775

[caulfield12]

Greg, nothing is for FREE.

 

We'd have to pay higher taxes by 10-15%, but the amount of waste would go WAY down. Insurance companies wouldn't be able to extort 15-35% profit margins, and the government would be able to negotiate drug prices down because how much more leverage can you have than representing the financial interests of hundreds of millions of Americans in one pool?

 

In that sense, the argument could be made that the tax increase would be more than offset by the corresponding benefit in not spending much money at all on healthcare insurance (maybe some would buy supplemental policies), rather than the relatively low co-pays for prescription medicine, for example.

Edited May 5, 2017 by caulfield12

[RockRaines]

Lol Trump just admitted universal healthcare is better than what we have.

 

He's also the worst public speaker ever. "We have a failing health care." That's not even a sentence.

Edited May 5, 2017 by RockRaines

[Soxbadger]

Let's face it, the little guy is going to go broke paying for medical costs during retirement. Our country is in deep trouble without free health care for all. The insurance companies are going to pay so little of each major surgery it'll make your head spin. Good luck to all the people out of work getting treated and good luck to those who do have jobs cause their insurance companies will fight SO many charges.

Agree?

We needed Bernie who woulda given us all this stuff for free.

 

Greg,

 

Nothing is free. The healthcare would have had to be paid by tax increases.

 

Republicans don't want higher taxes, they think people like you should just figure it out. People freaked out about Obamacare over $500 penalty. What do you think would happen if taxes go up more?

 

But don't worry I'm sure the 1% radio hosts you listen to will tell you Trump is da man and how great this is for you. Just don't look behind the curtain and see that they are all about self interest and making more money off of hard working people like you.

 

Tough break man, I really think beneath it all you want what's best for most people, unfortunately you've chosen to listen to snake oil salesman.

 

But it's not too.late, call your senator, call your friends to call your senator, because you and them are going to be footing the bill for 1%ers unless you make a change.

Edited May 5, 2017 by Soxbadger

[caulfield12]

Good luck with that, the Koch Brothers control the entire state...the only choice is to move across the state line to Missouri, lol.

 

That said, Missouri's hardly a liberal bastion, but it's slightly conservative vs. Creationism/Fred Phelps Land outside of Johnson County, Lawrence, Topeka, Manhattan and Wichita.

 

 

 

Almost all of those provisions worry many members in the more moderate upper chamber. Senate Republicans are considering staunching the coverage losses projected under the House by altering the Medicaid repeal, making tax credits more generous and strengthening protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

 

“There will be no artificial deadlines in the Senate. We’ll move with a sense of urgency but we won’t stop until we think we have it right.” said Alexander, who will be a leading figure in the Senate’s overhaul effort.

 

For instance, the Senate is likely to increase the transition period for cutting off the Medicaid expansion beyond 2020. A significant bloc of Senate Republicans represent states that expanded, and many have been told by their governors to fight for more Medicaid funding.

 

In March, Senate leaders insisted they could pass a repeal of Obamacare in a week. Now senators say the debate is likely to go into the summer, taking a month or more. Alexander would not say Thursday whether he’ll have public hearings.

 

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/04/h...nate-doa-238000

 

 

 

If they put all the Medicaid funding back, it will wipe out the tax cut for the 1% embedded within the AHCA AND/OR it will block that huge tax reform (redistribution back to the top and corporations) effort that was supposed to come after. Not to mention that the House Freedom Caucus can't possibly vote for a bill with that provision (preserving Medicaid) back in.

 

 

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/04/politics/cap...care/index.html

 

The legislation already included $130 billion in the fund.

 

But the Center for American Progress, a DC-based progressive think tank, said the amendment (adding $8 billion, Upton) would only help cover 76,000 enrollees, a small fraction of the 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions.

 

According to the center's data, a person with metastic cancer would have a surcharge of $140,510 while a person with lung, brain or other severe cancers would have a surcharge of $71,880. An enrollee with breast, kidney or colorectal cancer would have a $28,230 surcharge. The surcharge for a person with diabetes without complications would be $5,510, while someone with major depressive and bipolar disorders would have a $8,370 surcharge.

 

"The AHCA would need to provide a total of $327 billion to offer moderately subsidized high-risk pool coverage for those 1.5 million people," Gee and Spiro wrote. "The current version of the Affordable Health Care Act falls $200 billion short of that, and the $8 billion promised to House Republican moderates would fill in just 4% of the funding gap."

 

 

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/new-trumpcar...-183649801.html

The New Trumpcare Bill is a Self-Made Trap

 

Healthcare costs have been rising far faster than inflation for 30 years, eating more and more of the family budget. That was a problem long before Obamacare, and it will continue to be a problem for a long time to come. This chart spells it out:

 

Source: St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank

 

Many people struggling with soaring premiums, deductibles, co-pays and other onerous costs blame Obamacare for their woes, even though Obamacare, if anything, put a lid on total outlays for newly insured Americans. Obamacare, on its own, did little to push overall costs higher, yet constant demagoguing by critics of the law basically worked: It convinced people that if rising costs and a new law seem to happen at the same time, then the new law must be the cause of their problems.

Edited May 5, 2017 by caulfield12

[greg775]

I've been reading the reaction to today's vote and people are pissed saying the health care world is coming to an end. It said doctors, insurance companies and patients and nurses alike and pharm companies all said the new law will be awful.

 

I try to read the articles and nobody can explain it in real English what's so bad about it.

 

So please answer two scenarios for me.

1.) I do have a job and am covered by Aetna and I need surgery and I will be in the hospital for 7 days and then laid up and need meds, etc. Why is this new health care plan bad for me? Thank u.

 

2.) I have been laid off and have no job. I am on COBRA and need surgery as in example 1. Why is this health care plan bad for me?

 

3.) I have been laid off and have no job. My COBRA is too expensive so I want to buy the old Obamacare plan. Why can't I do that anymore? What would be the scenario with me trying to get insurance?

Explain it in real English please.

[bmags]

I've been reading the reaction to today's vote and people are pissed saying the health care world is coming to an end. It said doctors, insurance companies and patients and nurses alike and pharm companies all said the new law will be awful.

 

I try to read the articles and nobody can explain it in real English what's so bad about it.

 

So please answer two scenarios for me.

1.) I do have a job and am covered by Aetna and I need surgery and I will be in the hospital for 7 days and then laid up and need meds, etc. Why is this new health care plan bad for me? Thank u.

 

2.) I have been laid off and have no job. I am on COBRA and need surgery as in example 1. Why is this health care plan bad for me?

 

3.) I have been laid off and have no job. My COBRA is too expensive so I want to buy the old Obamacare plan. Why can't I do that anymore? What would be the scenario with me trying to get insurance?

Explain it in real English please.

 

They didn't release the bill until late Wednesday and it takes a while to analyze something so complex.

 

But to answer your questions:

1) Realistically this should not affect employer sponsored healthcare. It is possible though, that your employer could instill lifetime caps that could mean that anything over the amount, you are responsible for. The benefit is you'd probably be paying less for monthly premiums, you'd also be getting less protection.

2) This will not affect COBRA, which is allowing you access to your previous employer provided health care. Does not affect

3) It is highly unlikely that your Cobra plan will be more expensive than anything on the market. This bill unwinds community rating protections, if you have a clean health record, you could probably find cheap catastrophe plans. But until the CBO scores we have no idea what a premium for someone like you would look like.

 

[bmags]

Basically Greg this affects you ESPECIALLY if you do not have employer sponsored health care or Medicaid. COBRA I have not seen anything as being affected. That is more like unemployment in my understanding.

 

However, it undoes regulations that would now allow employer sponsored health insurance to instill lifetime caps and pre existing conditions clauses. It is pretty difficult to know how many people that affects, as most companies preferred to have better benefits instead of paying out higher wages. I would imagine that the most vulnerable will be the groups like retail workers that saw coverage expanded due to regulation from ACA, this may be a place for the companies to cut costs on those plans.

[Iwritecode]

Someone with pre-existing conditions that could possibly die if the new heathcare bill passes.

 

A good example

[Brian]

Anyone have an estimation on how much more a year it would cost per person in taxes for universal healthcare? Curious.

[StrangeSox]

Someone with pre-existing conditions that could possibly die if the new heathcare bill passes.

 

A good example

 

In that case, it's not just the pre-existing conditions, it's also the lifetime caps that will come back.

 

This is what the insurance industry in America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, looked like prior to the ACA being enacted.

[bmags]

Anyone have an estimation on how much more a year it would cost per person in taxes for universal healthcare? Curious.

 

Depends on what rates we think would pass with providers. At current spending we're talking a 15% payroll tax.

[LittleHurt05]

Basically Greg this affects you ESPECIALLY if you do not have employer sponsored health care or Medicaid. COBRA I have not seen anything as being affected. That is more like unemployment in my understanding.

 

However, it undoes regulations that would now allow employer sponsored health insurance to instill lifetime caps and pre existing conditions clauses. It is pretty difficult to know how many people that affects, as most companies preferred to have better benefits instead of paying out higher wages. I would imagine that the most vulnerable will be the groups like retail workers that saw coverage expanded due to regulation from ACA, this may be a place for the companies to cut costs on those plans.

 

Both Republican and Democrat plans just stick it to the small business owners and employees.

 

Life lesson: Only work for large corporations. Until they downsize and let you go so their CEO can get a raise. 'Merica!

[Jenksismyhero]

While I don't agree with the repeal (or at least the replace part of the repeal), especially in regards to pre-existing coverage, I chuckle a little at the hysterics here. Reminds me a lot of the "death panel" nonsense Palin, et al. used to spew.

[StrangeSox]

I think a key difference is death panels were a bunch of fake nonsense whereas tens of millions of people losing their health insurance is the actual result of this bill. Seems like an important distinction to me.

[bmags]

Both Republican and Democrat plans just stick it to the small business owners and employees.

 

Life lesson: Only work for large corporations. Until they downsize and let you go so their CEO can get a raise. 'Merica!

 

I assumed this bill would ease restrictions on requirements of businesses to offer health care. Have you seen that it keeps these regulations in place?

[RockRaines]

They didn't release the bill until late Wednesday and it takes a while to analyze something so complex.

 

But to answer your questions:

1) Realistically this should not affect employer sponsored healthcare. It is possible though, that your employer could instill lifetime caps that could mean that anything over the amount, you are responsible for. The benefit is you'd probably be paying less for monthly premiums, you'd also be getting less protection.

2) This will not affect COBRA, which is allowing you access to your previous employer provided health care. Does not affect

3) It is highly unlikely that your Cobra plan will be more expensive than anything on the market. This bill unwinds community rating protections, if you have a clean health record, you could probably find cheap catastrophe plans. But until the CBO scores we have no idea what a premium for someone like you would look like.

Employee sponsored HC could be drastically changed if companies are allowed to cap your benefit amount to save themselves money. So you not only have a deductible, but you also have a maximum coverage amount.

[mmmmmbeeer]

Anyone have an estimation on how much more a year it would cost per person in taxes for universal healthcare? Curious.

 

I don't have any data to back this up but, if they did it right with drug pricing, etc., I believe most Americans would come out ahead being any increase in taxes would be immediately offset by the elimination of insurance premiums and deductibles.

[Jenksismyhero]

I'm curious why one of the giant insurers wouldn't go ahead and maintain the plans as they are now as a huge marketing ploy, or market to the unemployed people seeking insurance for same. They'll up the rates, obviously, but at least you'll look like the one good insurance company out there. The new House bill doesn't force insurance companies to remove these protections, it just takes away the mandates.

[StrangeSox]

I'm curious why one of the giant insurers wouldn't go ahead and maintain the plans as they are now as a huge marketing ploy, or market to the unemployed people seeking insurance for same. They'll up the rates, obviously, but at least you'll look like the one good insurance company out there. The new House bill doesn't force insurance companies to remove these protections, it just takes away the mandates.

 

Adverse selection. They'll get undercut on pricing, lose market share, and either have to change or will be driven out.

 

 

 

 

[StrangeSox]

 

trump at least recognizes that every other country's health care system is better than ours, too bad he got behind this disastrous bill rather than pushing for any of those types of systems.