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ACA Running Thread

Destroying ACA makes no sense (it's based on a Republican think tank healthcare plan), will leave millions without any healthcare insurance (which is why it was created in the first place), and will almost certainly hurt the GOP going forward, as they have nothing to replace it (and don't want anything to replace it - if you can't afford health insurance, too bad for you). As others have pointed out, this is nothing more than an attempt to destroy one of Obama's signature accomplishments, so that right-wingers can gloat. It's clearly what Trump is after. If millions lose their healthcare along the way, who cares? They've owned the libs yet again!
 
Fairly sure saving businesses money is the primary motivation. Not owning libs. That’s just a perk.
 
CHDeac said:
The tax law undid the individual mandate which was deemed a legal tax by SCOTUS. This ultimately upheld the law (Congress can tax). So no IM, tax cover goes away, whole thing collapses.
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Well said.
 
Go ahead and crater the whole thing and hand Democrats a 2 year run on campaigning on medicare for all while millions of people have their insurance stripped away. See how that plays at the polls in 2020.
 
A combination of the evil tax bill and if the Supreme Court upholds this decision could well lead to universal health care. Maybe we could rid ourselves of wasting hundreds of billions of dollars each year paying the greedy, grim reapers of the insurance industry who only add cost not benefits to our outrageous healthcare costs.

It's also time to stand up to the prescription drug companies and hold them accountable for their usury pricing. It's totally immoral for them to charge Americans dramatically more for the same drugs as they do from other countries. If we truly live in a market based economy, the customers who buy the most would get the lowest prices.
 
Liquid Karma said:
Go ahead and crater the whole thing and hand Democrats a 2 year run on campaigning on medicare for all while millions of people have their insurance stripped away. See how that plays at the polls in 2020.
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Rubes won't care. They'll blame it on the dems.
 
Highland Deac said:
As others have pointed out, this is nothing more than an attempt to destroy one of Obama's signature accomplishments, so that right-wingers can gloat.
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One of Obama's signature "accomplishments"???

Care to provide a link to the long and distinguished list of his signature accomplishments?
 
Colonel Angus said:
One of Obama's signature "accomplishments"???

Care to provide a link to the long and distinguished list of his signature accomplishments?
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ACA - created coverage for nearly 25 million Americans
Ended the biggest recession since the Great Depression
Turned a -5% GDP into +2.5% growth
Cut unemployment from 10% to 4.1%
Saved the US Auto industry
Stopped Iran from having nukes
Killed OBL
Organized and supported Paris Treaty on climate
Lily Ledbetter
Cut pollution emissions
Protected Dreamers
Allowed all Americans to be able to serve in military- Hell, even Barry Goldwater said, "You don't have to be straight to shoot straight"
Ended the immoral war in Iraq
Wall Street Reform
Ended the moronic Cuba position of the US
Increased CAFE standards which lowers pollution and our dependence on foreign oil
Cut homelessness among vets by over 50%
Supported Marriage Equality

There's more, but that's more than any POTUS over the past thirty years. If not for the most obstructionist Senate in US history, even more would have been done.
 
Dems and Trump seem to agree on one thing - provider abuse. I'm hoping this develops into a Medical Usury law that limits charges to some percentage or multiple of Medicare. For now, it is "surprise bills." With Medical Usury, the need for provider networks diminishes.
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/427066-trump-boosts-fight-against-surprise-medical-bills

If I were a provider, I would be very concerned that there is agreement on both sides of the aisle on this.
 
awaken said:
Dems and Trump seem to agree on one thing - provider abuse. I'm hoping this develops into a Medical Usury law that limits charges to some percentage or multiple of Medicare. For now, it is "surprise bills." With Medical Usury, the need for provider networks diminishes.
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/427066-trump-boosts-fight-against-surprise-medical-bills

If I were a provider, I would be very concerned that there is agreement on both sides of the aisle on this.
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This is one of the issues that needs some delineation. Providers are the people/companies actually providing care. Insurers are the folks (hopefully) paying the bill. It's fucked up that the providers and insurers put the patients in the middle of their payment spat. It's really difficult to determine which side is to blame in any particular situation, but as a former provider, In know that insurers were incredible dicks when I was still working. I also know that the provider/insurer relationship has disintegrated since I retired.

There are dicks on each side. Fuck anyone/company that squeezes the patient who seeks care in good faith
 
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It's a giant business sector being propped up by government subsidy, of course everyone involved is trying to squeeze out the maximum amount of profits. It's not a matter of bad people, it's just capitalism - the commercialization of human survival.
 
WFU71 said:
This is one of the issues that needs some delineation. Providers are the people/companies actually providing care. Insurers are the folks (hopefully) paying the bill. It's fucked up that the providers and insurers put the patients in the middle of their payment spat. It's really difficult to determine which side is to blame in any particular situation, but as a former provider, In know that insurers were incredible dicks when I was still working. I also know that the provider/insurer relationship has disintegrated since I retired.

There are dicks on each side. Fuck anyone/company that squeezes the patient who seeks care in good faith
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I'd like to hear more about the provider side, but things like these make it look like gouging...


Examples of providers dealing with the uninsured (ie, no insurance company to blame)
http://time.com/198/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/

...and providers complain because insurance companies won't pay super inflated prices. If the provider situation is different, I'm interested in hearing it.

Now if insurance companies conspired with hospitals to inflate prices just to discount them (as video shows) then they are culpable on that point. Otherwise, they are on the patient's side trying to keep costs down.

The banking industry used to gouge like this, making usury laws necessary. Time for the same for medicine.

Most on this board want a single payer (Medicare for all) system, which would eliminate provider gouging. I think a usury law that pegs max charges to the Medicare rate accomplishes the same thing without the government bureaucracy and wait lists for treatment. We didn't need a large, governmental national bank to solve gouging in the banking industry. Neither do we need one for medicine. The role of government is to put checks on runaway capitalism, not replace it.

Right now providers are consolidating to gain leverage on insurance companies to negotiate their rates down from inflated Chargemaster prices instead of up from Medicare prices. A usury law makes that negotiation practically useless. Usury laws are friendly to the uninsured. Usury laws would drastically lower insurance premiums. Medical events would no longer be financially catastrophic. Insurance companies would go back to the business of spreading risk over time and population (like every other kind of insurance) instead of providing discounts to imaginary inflated charges.
 
awaken said:
I think a usury law that pegs max charges to the Medicare rate accomplishes the same thing without the government bureaucracy and wait lists for treatment.
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Your points are well taken, but given the above, this publication was too timely not to post.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2720917

Key Points
Question How do wait times for outpatient appointments compare between United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and private sector hospitals?

Findings In this repeated cross-sectional study of wait time data from VA facilities and private sector hospitals in primary care, dermatology, cardiology, and orthopedics from 15 major metropolitan areas, there was no statistically significant difference between private sector and VA mean wait times in 2014. In 2017, mean wait times were statistically significantly shorter for the VA compared with the private sector facilities as wait times from 2014 to 2017 improved in the VA facilities while wait times in the private sector remained unchanged.

Meaning Access to care within VA facilities appears to have improved between 2014 and 2017 and appears to have surpassed access in the private sector for 3 of the 4 specialties evaluated.
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Yep, the current system screams for better regulation. And that’s a proper role for government.


More than one way to do it.
 
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