Obamacare is facing the hard knocks of reality. Selling overpriced insurance to the healthy and underpriced insurance to the sick is not a good model for insurance companies.
Aetna is the latest insurer to say it has had enough. Aetna announced it withdraw from 11 of 15 states where it currently offers plans through the exchanges.
Pinal County Arizona, in the Phoenix area, may have no insurers offering plans.
The Wall Street Journal reports Aetna will reduce the number of counties where it sells exchange plans next year to 242 from 778.
Aetna Inc. will withdraw from 11 of the 15 states where it currently offers plans through the Affordable Care Act exchanges, becoming the latest of the major national health insurers to pull back sharply from the law’s signature marketplaces after steep financial losses.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona said in June that it would withdraw from Pinal County and Maricopa County, in the wake of steep losses, but maintain its exchange presence in the remainder of the state. The nonprofit had said in June that it stayed in more-rural counties partly because it “couldn’t overlook that several counties would have no options or very limited access if we didn’t find a way to stay in the market.” A spokeswoman had no immediate comment late Monday.
Aetna will reduce the number of counties where it sells exchange plans next year to 242 from 778, a dramatic turn that came a few weeks after the insurer said it expected steep losses for the year and would reconsider its participation in the market, which it had previously called an important opportunity.
Aetna’s move comes after UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Humana Inc. already unveiled major reductions in their ACA-plan offerings, and as more nonprofit cooperative insurers have said they will fold.
“I see an erosion of freedom of choice,” said Jim O’Connor, a principal at consultants Milliman Inc., both among different insurers but also among health-care providers, as more exchange plans feature limited networks of hospitals and doctors.
Mispriced Insurance and Unstable Economics
Those wondering why Aeta and other insurers are abandoning Obamacare in droves will find the answer in the Unstable Economics of Obamacare.
Aetna Inc. dealt the Affordable Care Act a severe setback by announcing Monday it would drastically reduce its participation in its insurance exchanges. Its reason: The company was attracting much sicker patients than expected. Indeed, all five of the largest national insurers say they are losing money on their ACA policies and three, including Aetna, are pulling back from the exchanges as a result.
The problem isn’t technical or temporary; it’s intrinsic to how the law was written. By incentivizing insurers to misprice risk, the law has created an unstable dynamic. Total enrollment this year will be barely half the 22 million the Congressional Budget Office projected just three years ago. Premiums, meanwhile, are set to skyrocket, which will further hamper enrollment. It isn’t clear how this can be fixed.
Insurers can no longer charge or exclude coverage for pre-existing conditions or charge men and women different rates. They can’t charge older customers more than three times as much as the young. They must cap out-of-pocket costs.
By circumscribing insurers’ ability to underwrite risks, the ACA thus distorts how insurance is priced. Avik Roy, a health-policy expert who advised Republican Senator Marco Rubio during his presidential campaign, says the average 64-year-old consumes six times as much health care as the average 21-year-old. To adhere to the 3-to-1 maximum ratio, an insurer would have to charge the 21-year-old 75% more than his actual cost and the 64 year old 13% less.
The rational response to such pricing would be for young, healthy customers to stay away and sick, older customers to flock to the exchanges. The ACA included several mechanisms to prevent that: income-linked subsidies to purchase insurance; penalties for those who didn’t buy insurance; and three separate mechanisms to compensate insurers in the early years for outsize costs.
It hasn’t worked. The compensation payments have been much less generous than insurers were led to believe.
According to Avalere, a health-care consulting firm, enrollment drops sharply as subsidies shrink: 81% of people earning between 100% and 150% of the federal poverty level and eligible to enroll did so in 2016; just 2% of those earning more than 400% did. “The more consumers must pay themselves for what the ACA is offering, the less attractive they find it,” notes a report by 10 health policy experts, including Mr. Roy, issued by the conservative American Enterprise Institute last December.
So how can the ACA be fixed? Democrats’ solution is, essentially, more subsidies. Mr. Obama has called for a “public option,” a federal health plan to supplement private insurers. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president, goes even further: She wants anyone over 55 to be able to opt into Medicare. Both would nudge the U.S. closer to a “single payer” model like Canada’s that liberal activists have long sought.
Yet this would require a lot more money and further erode market forces in health care.
Obamacare on Death Bed
Obamacare, as we know it now, is on the death bed. It will likely be replaced by an even bigger fiasco requiring still more taxpayer subsidies coupled with fewer market incentives to reduce costs.
Gee, who predicted this?
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Oh cry me a river….Mark Bertolini makes $17 mil a year. The Aetna board are a bunch of overpaid drama queens. They want affordable healthcare like I need a hole in the head.
And that has what to do with the unsustainability of the ACA?
For a progressive like Mike “affordable healthcare” has little to do with it. Vengeance on productive, successful people is the primary objective. If democrats get more power in the process, so much the better.
It’s classic misdirection. That’s what.
This story broke yesterday…. how ironoic that it did and that obama was on the golf course on the traditonal doctor’s day off to golf, Wednesday. Meanwhile, Louisiana caskeys are floated out of the ground in tribute.
Nothing, other than an effective for-profit healthcare system doesn’t work.
Mike – are you familiar with the FOR PROFIT Oklahoma Surgical Center? They post their prices on their website, refuse to take Medicaid, Medicare OR INSURANCE… but their prices are 1/5 (NOT 1/5 less, 20% of the cost of the same procedure) as other hospitals may charge for the same procedure.
They take only cash and credit cards. So don’t tell me that for-profit healthcare doesn’t work. Because it is socialized medicine that does not work over the long term.
That’s not a for-profit Healthcare system, that’s a private Hospital. The reason that Healthcare is so incredibly high is that Healthcare providers (insurers) have complete control over the pricing structure. Yes, a for-profit Hospital CAN work, when they stick to reasonable pricing, but it still doesn’t work for everyone. I doubt that someone making $40k a year can plunk down $4k for a knee operation at the Oklahoma Surgical Center.
It’s actually worse than that. I pulled all the public health insurers Form-4 filings since Obamacare was legislated into law. What I found was insiders pillaged their companies to the tune of over $1.3 billion as of Q1 2016.
So while insurers, public and private alike are crying poormouth, the corporate kleptocrats took their taxpayer subsidized “fair shares”.
You got it figured out!
FOLLOW THE MONEY!
I’m in the 300% bracket. I’d rather not pay the $13,000 annual premium plus the $12k family deductible up front should I need maximal insurance, especially when I’m healthy. It’s a far better deal to pay the penalty, sock away cash, and use concierge medicine. Alternatively, I can use a medishare plan, concierge medicine, and sock away cash.
When going in to confirm flu costs $4,500, or a broken arm $6,000, it’s better to say screw you to insurance. The 40% cash discount is cheaper than premiums.
If I get hit with long term bad stuff, I plan to manage it until open enrollment, then jump on and do every procedure on the book that I might conceivably need, then drop off once everything’s complete. Either that or do medical tourism if it can’t wait.
Otherwise, my family’s toast. Let me die and at least the life insurance will kick in.
That’s how royally boned we are by Obamacare. the sooner it dies, and the US Sickcare system with it, the better.
Had the President been more like an FDR, he wouldn’t have been so hamstrung in giving the people a Single Payer solution. Instead he let the Republicans and Insurance lobby have their way with this contraption that’s billowing smoke and ripping the Middle class off.
Single Payer?
One question: Who pays for it?
*crickets*
Well we all going to pay for it one way or the other. So shall we just let the Healthcare scam keep going or do we make it a fair system for all?
“Public option” has worked very well where I was born. Scandinavian countries made big effort establishing social welfare, free education and healthcare. Result was countries that were very stable, equal and economically made huge advantages.
It must be said that so called natural monopolies like infrastructure, schools, army, healthcare etc. are cheapest when they are paid by taxpayer money.
The problems arise when there are not enough people working and paying taxes and nowadays the influx of so called “refugees”. In the long run, if this change in demographics is going to be permanent (populace getting older and borders kept open to anyone willing to enter) the system will collapse. I would give it maximum 15-20 years.
I am not against private healthcare or insurance but I like to state my opinion that the US system is out of control when one looks at the costs.
Healthcare is not a natural monopoly. AEI, Hoover, and many other think tanks have proposed far superior solutions to the problem than ACA.
Comparing costs shows that US system is very far from superior in its present form. What has been planned is not what is.
@samijr Those plans have not been implemented, thanks to the political left.
The problem begins with the insane prices for drugs and medical equipment which only Americans pay. This has been clearly established. Add in all the overpaid doctors, nurses, hospital staff and the executives running the insurance companies. Being a doctor is supposed to be a calling, not a Wall Street job.
I live in the CZ Republic and it is stunning how good and inexpensive the system is. One of the keys: if a drug or health care product is too expensive, they don’t offer it! You’re not entitled to the latest million dollar treatment! It should be easy: don’t pay more for a drug in the huge “USA market” than ANY European country is paying. That’s roughly half the cost problem. Negotiate prices at the national level. And limit tax deductions both individuals and corporations available for executive health insurance.
National health care works wonderfully all over Europe. Our leaders in the U.S. Have screwed us over with protections and side deals built up over decades.
It takes months in Canada to get a simple MRI. You can ration by price or by time.
Bingo! In healthcare, the question is always “How much healthcare are people entitled to?”. In a central system the answer is determined by the system, so healthcare costs re controllable. In the US the answer is always “The absolute best”, and that answer in enforced by the malpractice bar. This adds two problems. First is theoretical – if you you are to have infinite healthcare, you also much have infinite costs. The second is practical, between malpractice costs, and pre-authorization system, extra layers of waste are introduced to the system, increasing the costs for no discernible good.
@DennisAOK
“It takes months in Canada to get a simple MRI. You can ration by price or by time.”
Let’s say you have 1000 people who need an MRI. How does it get cheaper to push it out a couple of months? Simple answer: have fewer MRI machines. Which means less machine downtime and machine and labor wastage.
Now, if I’m a Canadian, I have a choice. Have a less expensive health care system and spend my money on things I like (and MRI is not one of them), or drive down to the USA and pay for a wildly expensive MRI out of my own pocket. Freedom!
Americans don’t get that choice.
One US provider is offering $395 MRI on cash/credit.
http://www.advancedpatientimaging.com/
Europe is broke… i.e. bankrupt. So how well could socialized healthcare possibly be doing if the entire continent is INSOLVENT?
It does not work! There are death panels determining who will live and who will die. The father of a friend of mine got sick, 70 years old, never been sick. Paid the medical fees all his life. Doctors just say: It is not profitable for us (Norway) to pay the medical bills. He dies.
I have lived in both the US and in the scandinavian paradises, and NO. It is no paradise here. 2 year for an MRI? Children waiting for months if not years for a 10 minute job making them hear better?
It is all about taking away money/power from people with the promise that they will get it back later…
Anecdotal bullshit. There will always be tales of how somebody did not get the treatment he wanted/needed, but those abound in the US as well, where a very large portion of the population has no access to medical care at all.
The problem of spiraling costs exists everywhere, and has to do with the insurance industry, no matter the system. People should be paying most medical incidents out of pocket cash, and only be insured for catastrophic events like traffic accidents or a heart attack. It’s not insurance when all expenses are insured.
Imagine that everybody buys hardware insurance: When they go to the hardware store, they want the best hammer there is. The shop wants to sell them expensive hammers (higher profit margin, more revenue), and the insurance company who is paying also wants higher rates and more revenue.
–Who in this triangle ever benefits from a lower cost option?
–What do you think this indiscriminate buying would do to the quality and price of hammers?
Exactly!
“in the US… where a very large portion of the population has no access to medical care at all.”
utter nonsense.
it is ILLEGAL to turn away patients from medical care facilities in the US. The poorest of the poor simply walk into any Emergency Clinic or Hospital, and they are ALL well taken care of…
Cash and carry for routine medical is the most efficient plan.
The Scandanavian population is very importantly different than the American population
That is true, the Scandinavians have a much healthier lifestyle. I have relatives in Scandinavia; they refer to Americans as “the fat people”.
FYI, Scandinavian-Americans live longer than Scandinavians.
Longevity by country has these countries in this order starting with the longest life span:
Sweden
Norway
Finland
Denmark
USA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
I realize that is not exactly what you said Dennis, so what is your data source?
DennisAOK,
IF Scandinavian-Americans live longer than Scandinavians, (I do not doubt)
AND Uncategorized-Americans live shorter than Scandanavian-Scandanavians (Wikipedia)
THEN Non-Scandinavian Americans are even shorter lived than Scandanavian-Scandanavians than direct comparison implies.
The point stands:
The Scandanavian population is very importantly different than the American population.
Also life expectancy does not equal expected medical expense.
Kevin,
A good point. A racially homogeneous population has very different social, health, and cultural issues, be they Swede, Finn, or Norwegian, than a racially heterogeneous population such as the US. Scandinavian countries are now experiencing this with the influx of migrant aliens.
Long time preference altruistic cultures and peoples are not compatible with short time preference warrior cultures and peoples.
Where there is no profit there are no providers. As Venezuelan food goes so goes US medical care.
The reality is that Obamacare was never about affordable care or about health; it’s all about government control over your life; the true elite agenda towards totalitarianism. It has been a continuing and never ending incremental Marxist takeover since Wilson and the League of Nations, followed by the New Deal of FDR, and the unionization of public education. To this last point, I am old enough to remember when the US was first among all countries in math and science; now we are way down on the list.
I think it was a tool for the democrats to claim they’re attacking the rising health care cost issue.
“democrats… claim they’re attacking the rising health care cost issue.”
And they failed miserably in this “effort”.
Take a deep breath and count to ten slowly andyb.
How is the complete control of Healthcare by Insurers swimming in profits, equate to Government control over your life?
Regulation, regulation, and more regulation.
Why is it that I can’t buy the AFFORDABLE ‘catastrophic’ health insurance anymore?
Because GOV’T regulations took that option OUT of the marketplace.
That IS gov’t control over my life choices. Get it?
Poorest health care outcomes and highest health care costs (by far) in G-20 and entire world, both before and after Obamacare. Successful Healthcare models abound in countries around the globe, but the arrogance of so-called “American Exceptionalism” prevents us from adopting them. Or perhaps it’s just old fashioned corruption and cronyism, milking that health care cow.
And a population duped into believing that anything the government does is “central planning”.
I would call a government run program central planning.
Why? Take ObamaCare (which is a twisted travesty to me). Private insurance companies design individual plans. Individual citizens choose the plans from competing insurance companies. You don’t have to use ObamaCare. You can still buy plans outside of Obamacare if you want to. Insurance companies are doing their planning. Citizens are doing their planning.
Now the UK has something like central planning for medical services, where the government owns the hospitals and hires the doctors.
“…but the arrogance of so-called “American Exceptionalism” prevents us from adopting them.”
A cartel is not American exceptionalism. What we need is enforcement of 15 USC. The political parties support monopolies, democrats a government and republicans a medical industry monopoly.
+1
Ron both parties support big business and no the republicans did not vote for Obamacare, not one. So the Dems own it. So yes the Dems voted to take over 22% of the economy and handed big business gobs of money. Wait until the end of 2017 when Obama is out of office and all the waivers expire for his friends. That is when all hell will break out. You see that number some of you have on your medical insurance form will become taxable income.
Many here miss the point of this monster anyway.
The plan was designed for failure to begin with. The plan was designed to move to a single payer healthcare plan for all except of course our politicians and those that can afford to pay for healthcare. Eventually we will all be on a single payer system and those that can afford it will buy a private supplement so they can move to the head of the line. Just like most European plans. I know I lived in Europe for five years and that is how it worked in every country we worked in. Of course I did not live in Scandinavia so I will not comment about their healthcare.
But the Southern European countries all had the same set up. Great emergency care by the way but routine medical care we waited a couple of years unless it was preventative care. I do agree that most Europeans are a lot healthier then their American counter parts. Most Americans want it fast and easy and fail to realize processed food is a killer. My wife and I make everything from scratch and save a lot of money doing it.
Basic health, nutrition, and physical education in the USA is being dropped all over the country in favor of English as a second language or feel good classes. Americans wonder why their child has adult related illnesses while they stuff them with processed food and fast foods. Most men and women these days cannot even cook a meal unless it is in the microwave. Dumbing down of our children is the plan and nothing will change it. Critical thinking is demonized and you will be sent to the principals office for questioning a teachers lesson plan. The dumber the better for those in charge. This way they can continue to plan their total utopia of the world. Everyone on the government teat needs to remember what the gov gives the gov can take away.
As an update, pulling out of those markets was retaliation for the Dept of Justice threat to block a merger on the grounds it would be anticompetitive. Go Figure!!!
Obamacare created by Soviet style planners who never made a payroll, never produced anything of value, coukdn’t change the oil in theur car
I think that is a bit extreme. I bet a few of those people can change the oil in their car.
It’s not worth the cost to me and provides little for the amount I would need to pay. So I am going without insurance.
I changed my taxes to where I would get the lowest possible return possible and the government now keeps that but I now owe the penalty that they can not collect. They now send me a letter every month to remind me that I owe for the penalty but they have no ability to collect it.
Be careful. They eventually win.
Free market medical care will never be affordable care.
Inelastic demand, price gouging for many prescription drugs, no publicly posted pricing available, non-standardized levels of care, hypochondria, too many people who take poor care of themselves and consider it a basic human right, make it impossible.
When I was a boy – before Medicare and massive federal intrusion – health insurance was quite cheap. Of course, insurance companies didn’t pay for most things. The free market gave us one of the best systems in the world. Everything the federal government touches it ruins.
“no publicly posted pricing available”
Yes, yes, yes!
I asked BCBS if a procedure was covered, they said yes. Post procedure they changed the answer to no. They acknowledged they’d given the wrong answer yet refused to pay. They stated a three month internal kangaroo appeal process then still refused to pay, saying their own answer was invalid until after billing. Thus coverage could not be determined before the service provided.
Now I ask a doctor what a procedure will cost before I get it. Recently an opthamologist refused to answer, point blank.
No private business would survive these policies.
The enforcement of drug monopolies and the non-enforcement of competitive pricing (Robinson-Patman) are the two logical points to start, since they contravene existing legislation.
1. It is crazy that elderly people cannot drive to Canada and fill their prescriptions for 1/12th of the price and drive back for fear of arrest as drug dealers: often the drugs are manufactured in the US to begin with. This is anti-competitive and enforces a monopoly
2. In any other business, charging variable rates to different customers (say they’re out of town or black) and not posting prices (like a garage that refuses an estimate prior to your permission to start) is illegal.
These are no-brainers because they don’t even require you to think about all kinds of complicated parameters in organizing health care.
Most of the people who vote Democrat either like it this way, don’t care, or don’t know how screwed we all are by open borders and the welfare system. Just as the insurers have no more incentive to lose money, half the country has no incentive to work when the other half will support them.
The solution: Same as always – just print the money. Simple. Easy.
If by open borders you mean free trade, I agree. If you’re talking about the immigrant boogeyman, look elsewhere for someone to blame. Namely, the business owners who hire illegal immigrants. There is however a very important place for these people, specifically the fruit industry. Without immigrants who willingly work for low wages and toil in a field all day, such industries would not be able to keep prices where they are now.
The problem is health care costs are too high. There are many reasons. Too many who use the emergency room for non-emergency care and don’t pay their bill. Huge cost of malpractice insurance. etc… . The problem can’t be solved by coming up with new ways to pay for it. It’s like solving an over spending problem by switching credit cards.
“too many who use the emergency room for non-emergency care”
Red herring. The problems are cancer and old people.
Spend some time in an emergency room. Almost everyone needing care speak Spanish.
Cough syrup for 10,000 Mexicans cost less than Chemo for one white kid.
A bone marrow transplant procedure costs $700,000.
@Kevin: you think too basically. Making wait the patients with real immediate medical needs due to the alien waiting lines transform their illness/injury into serious critical conditions costing 1000x more…
That ‘s why in France we can manage (partly) the costs of medical care. It is called prevention.
Making clever choice about medical situations is the everyday key and most of our doctors are indeed not Wall Street sharks like in USA.
Here in Georgia, Kaiser Permanente HMO is the low cost provider of Obamacare. My wife and I are members. We both need cataract surgery. We both have been told we will not get it until some unspecified date in 2017. By pushing surgery back like this, Kaiser is creating a backlog which they will have to deal with next year. Kaiser will have to price in this backlog in 2017.
Obamacare may not be socialized medicine, but it acts like socialized medicine in the way it creates long lines and backlogs of anything that can possibly be put off.
“Socialism does not fix problems, it just spreads the misery equally.” Rush Limbaugh
“Kaiser will have to price in this backlog in 2017.”
Or is Kaiser planning to be out of your market in 2017?
can you not pay for it out of pocket? isn’t cataract surgery just a laser to melt away spots on eyes? how could that be so outrageously expensive?
Cataract is now a very common, mostly out-patient surgery involving cataract removal and implant of a new lens (which can provide vision correction at the same time, for more money). Laser vision correction is different, Nick. New lens ($1-2k range, per eye) is not covered by medicare or most health insurance, I am told. Doctor-owned hospital told me their wait is about 2 months (much less than HMOs). Of course, Obamacare outlawed new doctor-owned hospitals (old ones are grandfathered in); which I suppose is Socialism 101, eliminate the competition.
Cash is not a bad option with a doc-owned hospital, as medicare and insurance are not completely free; usually premiums, co-pays, deductible, non-covered items like lenses. Might be different for the Congressional health plans Obama promised everybody; bait-and-switch works well, a good sales tactic. No doubt, every Hillary promise will be similar (e.g. TPP). As P.T. Barnum, said…
Sucker-care. People “buy” the words, regret it later. Pattern repeats again and again. Great for Hillary and the politicians of the world. A safer bet than Fed interest rates.
This article linked by Ritholz today excellently explains a parallel situation
https://niskanencenter.org/blog/why-in-wage-segregation/
Adverse selection is everywhere!
I recently attempted to get an appointment with a endocrinologist. I am fully insured, first available appointment is in 2017, 5+ months away. WTF was my only response.
Lack of competition driven by the AMA setting the number of available medical schools and positions within medical schools. Thank your local bribe-taking state representative.
Yep. US healthcare wasn’t perfect before the ACA, but it is FAR WORSE after the ACA.
No one who has been a patient recently, or works in HC, can possibly disagree with this…
…which is why Mish is 100% correct. Obamacare itself is facing the Death Panel.
Same as always with Communism.
Time to pull the iron fist from the velvet glove.
Gruber must be falling over himself laughing – the chumps just never get it.
As I recall, substantially all of the provisions of the ACA were written by insurance industry lobbyists. The insurance industry intervened because they wanted to make certain that a far superior single payer system would not be adopted.
So now that the industry’s ACA monstrosity will not give the industry the profits it expected it is having a pissy fit. But, it is disingenuous for Aetna or any other insurance company to blame the government for the ACA’s shortcomings because the ACA was forced on the American public by the insurance industry.
“…the ACA was forced on the American public by the insurance industry.”
now THIS is disingenuous… as if the insurance industry volunteered for the ACA. LOL.
Dems shoved this down our throats, not the insurance industry.
The insuranace industry tried to save themselves (by co-authoring ACA), but the hand was dealt by Dems. The insurance industry didn’t get to pick their cards, they simply played the cards that the Dems dealt to them.
Get your story straight.
Apparently letting a few people become healthcare billionaires doesn’t work when it comes to ensuring healthcare for all!
Did letting a few people become technology billionaires improve our standard of living? I am all for anyone become rich if they earned it without government’s help.
The only real answer is to break up the monopoly. Abolish government medical licensing and school accreditation. That said, other things that can push toward a more open market in medicine would be portability of insurance. Repealing or nullifying all laws requiring health care workers of all kinds, including the those in industry from adhering to any noncompete clauses in their contracts. Making patents and copyrights good for fourteen years with no extensions and ostracism and banishment for conspiring to attempt revision of the law.
Add to your good list:
1. tort reform to limit physician liability
2. double the number of physicians
3. legal remote skype general practicioners
4. legal import of medicines from other nations
5. end the corporate tax benefit for medical insurance
6. require price quote before treatment
Lack of ability to license implies lack of ability to regulate. That dovetails into medicines because there will be no monopoly on prescriptive function. The industries would have to become self regulating all the while subject to laws against monopolization and trust formation. A real market automatically forms.
Add to both lists:
1. Hang by the neck anyone who gives or receives a “campaign contribution”.
So are you advocating for unlicensed physicians trained in a non-standardized institution… simply to save money? Do you realize that would lead to something like the University of Phoenix offering a medical degree based on “life experience”? If you combine that with pharmaceuticals, I can see a traveling snake oil salesmen with a medical degree from an online university selling castor oil for cancer. You are right, it will cost your wallet much less..but at what cost to your health?
I think your idea isn’t well thought out.
Maybe we can have our aeronautical engineers pass a paper airplane making test(to get their PhD) and they can then design the next aircraft you fly on. Sound good?
Peddler of (his own) Fiction:
…
This legislation will also lower costs for families and for businesses and for the federal government, reducing our deficit by over $1 trillion in the next two decades. It is paid for. It is fiscally responsible. And it will help lift a decades-long drag on our economy. That’s part of what all of you together worked on and made happen. (Applause.)
https://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/president-obama-signs-health-reform-law#transcript
add to that outrageous lie: “if you like your physician, you can keep your physician”.
Apparently the only campaign promise he intends to keep is setting loose all the terrorists in Gitmo. Oh wait, he promised to change America too. Yup he is doing that, unfortunately.
Not an Obamacare fan, but you can absolutely keep your own physician. Nothing forces anyone into Obamacare. You can always keep a non-Obamacare plan, get a plan through your employer, or pay out of pocket for your own medical services.
The insurance industry is racketeering pure and simple, always has been…the health insurance industry is no exception, it’s just the fact that it so close and personal that it garners so much digital ink.
Fat slobs that over eat, don’t exercise and smoke, should pay through the nose. Folks that doing everything right shouldn’t. But that impossible to manage.
The only way it works is to either:
[1] Nationalize the industry, or
[2] Allow private companies to continue to offer “deluxe coverage” above and beyond some form of basic CAT coverage that would be offered by Uncle Sucker
In South Korea, I paid $300 for 2 nights 3 days stay after natural delivery in 2 person room. In the US, child delivery will cost $10,000 for natural delivery, $30,000 for C section. For C section, I would have paid $1000 and stay in the hospital for 1 week. People dont wait in lines to see doctors or get procedures in Korea. People can choose any hospitals in the country, they can go to any specialty clinic to get colonoscopy etc or choose to go to the best teaching hospital in the nation. Only difference is Doctors see patients for 2-3-5 minutes vs. 20 minutes or longer in America. I don’t mine having to see my doctor only for 3 minutes for the cheaper cost and accessibility. More patients doctors see, the more experience they get.
In South Korea, I paid $300 for 2 nights and 3 day stay after natural delivery in 2 person room. I would have paid easily more than $10,000 for natural delivery in America. I hear C sections cost $20-30,000 in the States and women stay in the hospital for 1 or 2 days only. In Korea, you pay $1000 at most and stay in the hospital for 7 days. You can go see doctors in your neighborhood or go to the finest for-profit hospital or the best teaching hospital in the nation. There is no barrier whom you can go see and everyone is covered.
The only difference over here and there is doctors see you only for 2-3 minutes instead of 20-30 minutes like in America. I don’t mind that because of cheaper cost and accessibility. The more patients Docs see, the more experience they get and the better doctor they become. But then, you also don’t get to sue doctor for 300 million dollars. So there is no malpractice suit that awards patients for millions. In America, even nurses have to have malpractice making everything more expensive.
Ain’t socialism grand?
Everything is free.
usdjpy < 100
My doctlor appointment for today was cancelled because the computer system mandated by ACA was down. They only have 5 years of my medical history on it, per mandate of ACA, so everytime I go in, I have to remind them of what they dont have staring them in the face, and there is some pretty glaring stuff in there.
It has been the plan all along. Force the market to crater then propose a “cheap” single payer: Uncle will just add some taxes and create a National Health Plan. It will become loved of the fools who believe in free lunches as it descends into another socialist morass of deficits, rationed care and a VA type hospital system. Wait for it.
JJK sees the future, and it ain’t pretty.
Want VA-style healthcare? That’s what’s coming thanks to ACA (and all the Dems & Repubs who facilitated the ACA… I have all their names on a list, and I think a lot of other voters do, too.
The problem with health care in USA is it’s all about money, not health. For example, it’s proven that mammograms cause more cancer than they find, but it’s a huge money maker that the federal government and the AMA mandate. They know better but the investment is so high across the country that they won’t back away from them. Thermal imaging finds problems 10 years earlier, so they can be addressed, and the cost is much lower. This is just the beginning. Vaccines are a scandal, they’re killing people, and permanently disabling people, are not even effective most of the time, and are usually unnecessary, yet the federal government and the AMA mandate more and more of them. Another money maker. No one is looking out for your health so you’d better do it. bo should have mandated catastrophic care, instead of trying to make insurance pay for anything and everything. What idiot thought that would work? Only the government can print money and put paying the piper off.
One truism about government is this. The more government meddles in something, the higher the costs go, and the worse the service tends to be, and the suggested solution is always more government.
Why are healthcare costs exploding? Because we, as a country answer the question “How much healthcare are people entitled to?” with “The very best, regardless of cost.” If a doctor gives you a cost saving treatment, but has a bad result, he is sued for malpractice. If a drug company comes out with something even a little better than the prior art, they are assured that it will sell, regardless of the price, and they will make a profit.
The result had been an absolutely fantastic improvement in medicine over the last 50 years. Things that were once dreams are now common. But, it comes at a cost. Eventually the cost of infinitely good care must be an infinite cost, so at some point the answer will need to become more practical.
Meanwhile, consumers are removed from the equation. Health insurance removes consumers from the equation, particularly when the employer “pays” the insurance, rather than giving them the money and letting them buy it. Government mandates what must and must not be in the coverage. Thus, you never see consumers calling doctors “how much to you charge for a blood test”, or whatever. Price is irrelevant, so it always goes up.
The solution must be more government involvement. It’s the only way. We must make the entire healthcare system like the VA, a single payer system. Then we’ll all be better off.
You nailed it!!!
Sent by mistake – intended for another note. I oppose government run health care and support free market principles as much as possible.
You mean the Free market principle of ever increasing profits through decreasing services? Because a truly effective Healthcare system has to, (first and foremost) get sick people well again and that aim is always antithetical to profit.
Really! So how to explain Canada’s government run single payer system which actually costs much less per person than in the US, before or after the ACA?
A single payer system can cost less because they can elect not to offer “the absolute best”, and instead only offer cost-effective treatments. In the US a huge amount is spent on leading-edge technologies, which tend to be very, very expensive. I’m also guessing that in Canada it is possible to fire government employees. In the US it is virtually impossible to do so, even when they do nothing. As a result, out single payer system, the VA, offers very poor service. A full-scale single payer system in the US, with employees who stay for life regardless of whether they do their jobs well or not would not function well, either.
Reblogged this on The Most Revolutionary Act and commented:
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Too bad Obama rejected the Public Option – and the proposal to expand Medicare (which is cheap and efficient to run) to everyone.
I think the scoundrels who voted for ObamaCare knew it would fail. That goes for both Democrats and Republicans. Heck, more than half the US population knew it would fail. But Congress approved it anyway.
We elect our government leaders to make sound decisions. If they can’t do it then we should move to a direct democracy instead of a representative one. If the ship is going to go down I’d rather it go down with the People in direct operation than a bunch of misfits who specialize in ‘pay to play’ and other corruption scams.
Look at all the special interest money that was pocketed by the jackals in Congress to kick ObamaCare across the finish line. They didn’t give a crap about what was best for the American People. They voted for PERSONAL GAIN. And by doing so dug a hole so deep for the country that chances are we’ll NEVER be able to dig ourselves out again.
I agree. I believe that no one expected the system to work. Instead, they expected this to simply be an interim step along the road to a single payers system. Government intervention broke the system. Not we impose more government intervention, which is breaking it further. The only logical step (since you can never go backwards) is a complete government takeover.
Canada’s single player system is far less costly than the US system before or after the ACA. It’s not perfect but I’ll take our system over the US any day and I’m somewhat conservative. Additionally, the Republicans are just as much to blame for ACA disaster. They basically said NO to any kind of reform regardless of its merits so Obama was forced to make a million compromises just to get something – anything – passed.
The Canada Health Act is 17 pages long and the ACA is more than 10,000 long which tells you everything you need to know.
Every word you typed is the honest to God truth, Glenn.
The US has turned into a big 3rd world banana republic. The only difference is that we have more banks, gas stations and fast-food joints.The mentality and the moral values are identical. It’s been painful to watch the tremendous fall from grace. I’ve seen this great nation at the very top and second to none. And I’ve seen it slide into the depths and doldrums of mediocrity and worse. The reason? Too much prosperity.
The expense of the American system is two-edged. While the cost burdens American consumers, the systems funds a vast array of medical research. Once this research is paid for by the American healthcare system, it is often made available for lower prices elsewhere in the world. If the American were to mimic the Canadian system, it would indeed lower costs dramatically in the US. It would also dramatically reduce the medial research, and unemploy people from the one healthy sector of the American economy, medical research.
Mmmhmm, you say, but that’s OK. We’ll just step up government funding of r&d. So, we take from here, and put it back there, but end up spending the same? Then there are no real savings.