Isn’t it interesting the mainstream media makes barely a peep about the ongoing and worsening Obamacare debacle. Healthcare premiums, co-pays and deductibles are soaring, while doctor and plan choices contract to a minuscule level. Recent surveys reveal the hardship being inflicted upon families across the nation. Those who are willfully baffled by the lack of consumer spending need look no further than Obamacare and its impact on the budgets of hard working Americans.
According to a survey by LIMRA, an insurance and financial services trade association, six in 10 workers agreed that the rising cost of health insurance directly affects how much they set aside in their workplace retirement savings plan. Employees are being forced to cut back on their retirement savings in order to meet the skyrocketing cost of their health insurance. Based on the numbers being bandied about by the Kaiser Family Foundation, it seems average families will soon have to decide between food and healthcare. Remember Obama’s quotes in 2008- 2009 when he was selling this bloated pig of a plan to you?
“We will start by reducing premiums by as much as $2,500 per family.”
“If you like the plan you have, you can keep it. If you like the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor, too. The only change you’ll see are falling costs as our reforms take hold.”
Millions of people have been kicked out of their existing health plans and have seen their premiums and deductibles go up by double digits. Small business owners are being forced out of business. And now the fines, mandates, and taxes really begin to kick in. At least median household real wages are lower than they were in 1989. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation:
Single and family average premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose 4% this year over last. The average annual premium for single coverage is $6,251, of which workers pay an average of $1,071; the average family premium is $17,545, of which workers pay an average of $4,955. Deductibles have risen more sharply than premiums. That’s the amount that consumers must pay out of pocket before insurance pays for anything, except for certain preventive services that are covered at 100%. The average deductible for workers with employer-sponsored health insurance who face a deductible is $1,318 for single coverage this year, up 44% from $917 in 2010. By contrast, over that same period, single premiums are up 24% and wages have risen 10%, just outpacing general inflation at 9%.
The brain dead proponents and cheerleaders for Obamacare reveal themselves to be nothing more than liberal control freaks who care not for the people they supposedly are helping with “free” healthcare. They need to falsify enrollment figures in order to prove how successful they’ve been in destroying the health system. They only care about press releases and winning the PR battle with the Republicans. It’s all about votes. It’s not about what is best for the uninsured. Families being forced into the limited number of Obamacare plans are seeing weekly costs of $300 to $400 for barely acceptable coverage.
The poor suckers forced into the Obamacare marketplace have to contend with health plan deductibles that are even higher than those with workplace-based coverage. The average 2016 deductible for a silver plan on the Obamacare exchanges is $3,117 for individual coverage, up 6% from 2015, while the average silver family deductible is $6,480, up 8% from this year, according to a recent analysis by HealthPocket, a technology company that ranks and compares health plans.
The entire reason Obama and his liberal minions forced Obamacare down the throats of a public that did not want it, was to provide insurance for the 30 million uninsured Americans. He failed, as there are still close to 30 million uninsured Americans, only they now get to pay a penalty to the IRS. It’s laughable for the MSM and brainless liberal twits to hail Obamacare as a huge success in covering the low income uninsured, when a poor family has to meet a $6,480 deductible before insurance pays a dime. How many poor families have $6,480 to spare? We know for a fact that more than half the households in the country don’t have $1,000 in savings, let alone the poor households. It’s a joke to say they have health coverage.
Obamacare is an unequivocal disaster that has resulted in less job growth, small business closures, worse care, less options for consumers, higher health insurance premiums for all, and soaring profits among mega-insurers, mega-hospital corporations, drug conglomerates, drug stores, drug wholesalers, and the political campaign coffers of corrupt bought off politicians. It’s the gift that keeps taking from hard working Americans.
Obamacare was designed to fail so its failure could be used to coerce the people into accepting a new system of totally government controlled health care that was originally wanted.
Valid, and Constitutional, systems such as HSA’s that give the recipient almost total control of his health care costs and cost him much less on top of it weren’t even considered -ones in existence were actually outlawed- because they work against this.
Be prepared for things to get unacceptably worse and then for the government to step in and be in charge.
I’m sure the new system when it finally emerges will be as good as the VA system is today.
I’m sure the millions that actually got “free” insurance ie medicaid will surely provide stability to this fine government program. I’ll bet there are hardly any illegals immigrants or unqualified citizens who might scam the system. No corruption here. I can see that my money is well spent.
Bob.
Well, Democrats can still blame racism, guns, Republicans, corporations, capitalism, Bush, social injustice, income inequality, Christians, the MIC, biased and irrelevant time wasting standardized tests, big pharma, global warming, home schooling, Veterans, etc.
Don’t forget all the health care co-ops that are now collapsing and being liquidated:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-30/obamacare-disaster-co-op-insurers-across-america-are-collapsing-and-now-there-fraud
Meanwhile the big preexisting insurers are merging and getting bigger, and there is no real choice on the individual and small group market. I’m already on a “bronze” plan and my premiums are going up another 30% for 2016, on top of >20% for 2015 and double digit increases the two years before that. In 2016 the cost of a Bronze plan with a $12,000+ deductible will be more monthly than what I paid 5 years ago for a full coverage plan with only trivial deductibles.
It’s an unmitigated disaster for consumers. Something of a bonanza for a few select, large and politically connected insurers. It’s almost as if we had seen a scam like this before!
I was on a photo workshop in the U.P. a few weeks ago, just so happened there were three doctors along.
At breakfast one morning Obamacare came up in the conversation, wow.
One couple from california thought it was great that people who could not afford insurance could now get insurance.
Vicki who is a loud and proud pro gun republican from Michigan that owns her own practice spoke up so the entire restaurant could hear, “Yeah, that’s just it, all the takers love obamacare because it’s free to them, while the rest of the workers have to pay for it and then doctors get the shaft and that’s just not right.” Then the other two doctors chimed in about how bad it is for them to be forced to work and then not get paid and so on.
The couple from california shut up pretty quick, they weren’t in LaLaLand no more.
We’re one of the small business’s that lost our BCBS insurance plan we wanted to keep because we didn’t include mental health and maternity. Yes our premiums went up as did the deductibles with the new and improved government approved plan and yes we had to pass off those additional costs on the employee.
Once the ACA fails, and it will, I shudder to think of what these fucknuts will come up with next.
CMS stated that the average increase for 2016 is 7.5% over last year. CMS didn’t bother to tell you that the 7.5% average is only for the Silver Plans and only for the Federal exchanges. When the costs of the Bronze Gold and Platinum plans are put in the mix, and the 13 state exchanges are added, the average premium increase is about 14.7%.
In another year or two CMS will just be using the cost of a single Silver plan in Tonopah Nevada as the cost of the average plan.
Silver Plans where I live come with $2000-3500 deductibles and premiums in the 600-700 per month range if you don’t get a subsidy. In addition, they all come with copays for doctors, drugs, and emergency room use.
7.5% my overweight white ass
My premiums remained stable for this year. What is different is I now pay $6000 yes THOUSAND in out of pocket before they pay a plugged nickle.
Last year when my wife went to a dermatologist for a long time issue she saw the ” nurse practitioner” for a copay of 35. Now that it is reset to full pay it has to be the doctor at $85.
Somethings got to give.
HEY ITS GUY FAULKS DAY!
I don’t understand – my son told me that DEMONcrats care about the people and that it was the Republicraps that enriched the Corporations.
Being self employed, I’ve paid around $1,500 a month for BCBS for my wife and I. That is with a $2,000 deductible (per person). This insurance is a racket. It’s not health insurance, it’s anti-bankruptcy insurance. I say if you don’t have assets – fuck it – you don’t need the insurance.
The real rip-off is that you pay month after month, year after year, and there’s not one cent of cash value. No reward, no lessening of the deductible.
A was paying $87 a month for a basic single Kaiser plan in 2007. My premium seemed to go up constantly for various reasons but I canceled my coverage when rates hit $249 a month in 2010. Where are the catastrophic plans? I want insurance not health care. I can take care of my own health just fine.
“We will start by reducing premiums by as much as $2,500 per family.”
“If you like the plan you have, you can keep it. If you like the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor, too. The only change you’ll see are falling costs as our reforms take hold.”
And…You still believe anything coming out of the mouth of this guy??? If you do, you’re ‘stuck on stupid’.
If the corporations run the government and get their laws passed, who do you think those laws benefit?
Duh! Thanks, chief justice, Roberts. I’m sure that you and yours will be taken care of, by those thankful corporations.
I said from the start that ACA was nothing but a tax increase and a boon for the healthcare industry and in the long run there will be more people uninsured than before cuz that’s the way it seems to work out.
Passing grandiose laws and ignoring the psychology of people and thinking you’re going to have compliance is disillusion. When the rubber meets the road, people will choose to feed their families before getting overly priced healthcare insurance or pay the penalty. Like the 18th amendment to the Constitution (Volstead Act) passed by the Progressives and their puritan beliefs that all sin must be stamped out, the Obama healthcare law forces people to an subscribe to an idea of what’s good for them. What Chutzpa!
Central planners are telling you what’s good for you, with the caveat that further meddling in your affairs will be forth coming. Because healthcare cost are so high due to poor eating habits causing disease and a run up in those costs, the central planners will tell you what you can eat or drink or how much you can eat or drink, what you can smoke, and what choices in food or drink are available to you, etc., etc..
Like all good Progressives, born of Puritan thought, saving the world for Christ, they will take you to hell their way. NO THANK YOU! If I’m going to hell, I’ll do it on my own. If that means eating Big Macs 3 times a day, I will have the knowledge that I did it to myself rather than having it done to me.
But…then again this about control not about the healthcare concerns of people. You can thank Chief Justice Roberts for ignoring law, the rights of the people and pushing a socialist agenda.
And…you still believe that the courts are the last vestige of hope for the people??? DUH!
Time to prosecute for bait and switch.It was a lie concocted to defraud America Citizens must step up take back the reins of their own health care,quit paying for free shit army .Not to mention the money that vanished under Val Jarret and Michelle O.No investigation or prosecution.Audit them both and follow the money.
All the discussion seems so far to be mainly about the increase in premiums. I haven’t seen much discussion about the other side of the coin.
About a week ago I was at the doctors. Before I left I had a question about a previous bill. I was invited to go on back and talk to the lady that handles all the billing. She was very helpful and easily answered my question. While I was there I decided to ask her about the ACA.
What she said was that early on prior to the implementation of the ACA, the doctors had an overall positive impression of the program. Maybe they were thinking it would increase traffic, anyway she didn’t say why. She said that all changed when they learned what the pay rates were. She said the amount that ACA pays for any procedure is very low to where none of the doctors there can afford to accept ACA patients.
So I asked her to give me some idea how low is low. I know that in this area not all doctors will accept Medicare and far fewer will accept Medicaid. I know one doctor that I talked to that accepts Medicare that said she only had one patient that was on Medicaid that she treats and she said the pay rates on Medicaid were so bad the it cost more in time to do the billing then what the bill is worth that she doesn’t bother to bill for that patient, she treats that patient for free.
Anyway what I was told was that the pay rates under the ACA were close to what Medicaid pays, not anywhere near Medicare rates.
So If I understood correctly they don’t accept ACA patients.
Are there any Doctors out there that can comment?
Haha! My monthly payment went up from $409 to $530 almost 125%!! I have yet to use the fucking thing. Forward!
Hey! Why don’t you complainers vote the Republicans into the House and Senate? Then your representatives can enact changes to Obama Care or junk it and come up with something better.
OH! WAIT! You did that. Now everything’s better. Wait, they gave Americans an Intelligence Test and most Americans wondered what Intelligence was.
The percentages also make it look tamer than it is. I also pay the first $6000 in all of my yearly costs ( fortunately I personally only go once year for the check-up and a blood work up).
However my monthly premium ( for me, my wife and our adopted granddaughter) jumped up this year from last from $509 to $735. Doesn’t seem like much to a liberal but that $226 a month is a chunk of change to me.
My wife turned 65 this year and changed her coverage to Medicare with a Healthnet plan. After 4 or 5 phone conversations with Covered CA and Healthnet because they’re still billing for her coverage (and we’re paying double), what does Healthnet do? They terminate my coverage as well.
I call Healthnet and they say, ping-pong, it’s Covered CA’s fault. I then call Covered CA and they pong me back to Healthnet. After a two-hour phone call (I’m not shitting), they figure out the problem and I’m back on my original plan. Premium for my solo coverage is almost the same amount as it was for the two of us. So my rate went up 100%.
Those of you who think this was all prelude to a single-payer system are dead wrong; that’s the opposite of what they want, which is why we’re forced to endure this fucked up, poorly planned and badly executed “protection” of the huge private health insurance companies. I’m sick just thinking about it.
Ordering the peasants to have insurance, and the peasants being able to afford said insurance are 2 different things.
My Rates are lower, My deductibles are higher. My CHOICE on whether I purchase insurance or not is now gone. I just cant wait till they decide box 12d on my w-4 is income now . Which is the portion the company I work for pays . At that point in time , I sell my motorcycle and say fuck off to the Fascism that exists in the ussa now. What’s next? You can only buy a Dodge, or Ford?
Or you can only shop at Walmart , or Kroger?
If you dont purchase from a government approved vendor , why ,you have to pay a brand new tax.
Or worse.
I can’t add much to what has been said. From a provider’s point of view, Obongocare has thrown the entire health insurance industry into total and complete chaos. WHICH WAS THE PLAN ALL ALONG.
1) The sponsoring insurer for a plan (BCBS, Aetna, etc) often has no fucking idea what providers or hospitals are on their own fucking plans. So when my financial people try to sort out who or what is covered, it can take hours AND half the time the information is WRONG. So the patient goes to have a procedure/test only to find out that they are not covered and have a huge bill. Which they can’t afford to pay, evan at Medicare + 10%, so that provider takes a hit if the patient doesn’t pay and the patient feels actually terrible about the whole thing. Oh, and the provider gets profiled by the plan for not using the in-network facility and risks decreased reimbursements in the future.
2) In Harris County this coming plan year, NONE of the Exchange plans are going to offer anything other than an HMO plan. That means an extremely restricted panel of providers and NO out of network benefits. You didn’t know that Obongocare was restricted not just by states but by counties also? Silly rabbit. I doubt any provider will sign up for an HMO plan so there ya go, MORE uninsured people, or people pushed into Medicaid (same as being uninsured).
3) As to the reimbursements, our practice signed up with a few plans that BY CONTRACT would pay us Medicare + 10-20% (which is good these days). However, when we audited the claims, we found we were being paid LESS THAN MEDICAID. We have had to sue them to get them to pay the contracted rate. After paying the attorneys, we probably lost money.
4) These Obongo Exchange plans have very high deductibles (2000-6000$), high copays (35$ every time the patient steps into the office) and often never get to 100% coverage. These patients are already paying$ 600-$1200 per month for this. This helps the lower income people how?
5) Every single fucking test you order on the patient these days, exchange policy or not, requires a phone call by the physician to “justify” the test. I spend until 7-8 pm almost every night filling out forms, talking to reviewers, blah blah to get the studies approved for patients on these policies. I am my breaking point here and you may read about a much put upon oncologist going medieval on somebody’s ass.
I could go on and on here – about how women with breast cancer who cannot find a breast surgeon and a plastic surgeon with privileges AT THE SAME HOSPITAL on their plans so they have to have TWO surgeries in TWO different hospitals instead of ONE SURGERY AT ONE HOSPITAL to do immediate breast reconstruction after their breast cancer surgeries.
Or about the lady with ovarian cancer who will need big time ovarian cancer surgery that lives in Huntsville will need to travel to fucking GALVESTON 120 miles away to see the only gyn-onc surgeon on her plan – who DOES NOT HAVE PRIVILEGES at Galveston hospital where the patient is covered.
It is a complete and total FUBAR CF. It is working EXACTLY AS INTENDED – which is:
1) To kill off the weak, poor, sick people who will just give up and die or go to the public hospitals and die, same same.
2) Expand the Medicaid rolls, thus forcing the states that elected to expand Medicaid to become even MORE dependent on federal dollars. (Thanks God Texas did not do this.)
3) Bankrupt the private health insurance companies, through which, prior to Obongocare, 85% of the US population was very happy with. The health insurance companies jumped into bed with the Obongocare Satan, thinking they would have their losses reimbursed and tons of new premium payers courtesy of the subsidies – WRONG! They have been losing $$$ hand over fist and the Obongocare Satan has paid only 12% of the promised $$$.
4) Drive the good docs/providers either out of the profession or into concierge care. Then the fed.gov can import tons of H1B foreign docs to fill the gap. That’s working out real well in the UK. Better learn Arabic, Pashto, Turkish or Nigerian for your future doctor, that’s my advice.
5) The smaller hospitals and practices are merging into these giant entities just to spread risk around and negotiate the new 158 Obongocare Satan’s NEW fed.gov entities and the 50 MILLION WORDS of new regs. These large entities are now, paradoxically, more vulnerable to the whims and vagaries of the federal government as now very small changes in reimbursement translate into ginormous losses (rarely gains) for these institutions. These giant entities are now larger targets for capricious and predatory federal regulators. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Same holds true for pharmaceutical companies.
I guess I better stop now. I am finally off hold (35 min) to talk to some insurance flunky about why I need staging CT scans for my potentially curable 45 yo man with lung cancer prior to lung surgery.
Final note: If any bright young person asks me about going to medical school and investing 10 years of their youth and spending $150K, I say, no fucking way. Go be a plumber or an electrician or a carpenter or a baker.
And that is some pretty fucking sorry shit.
If you don’t elect to buy insurance under the ACA, the penalty is handled by the IRS. The IRS will retain any refunds up to the penalty – so only withhold taxes from pay that won’t exceed what you will wind up owing the IRS after year end. There is a 10% leeway: On the 1040 Form, if your total tax due was 3,000, and you withheld anywhere from $2,700 – $3,000, they can’t retain any of your money for the ACA penalty; if you withhold less than the $2,700, there is a separate IRS penalty – I don’t know what it is, but it has to be a lot less than the ACA penalty.
Curious, so I got a quote on the website. $563 monthly premium and a $7,000 deductible. Pocket change….
Been in the professional workforce since 1975 (indentured child) and trying to remember at what time employers began sharing premium costs with employees. Thinking mid 1980’s as I can’t recall having deducts for health care from my paycheck until about that time. Found the bills for my daughter’s birth in 1981..totaled around $1,500.
Back in those days was working (pre-outsourcing) for some major US manufacturers.
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On a roll, but figure all smokers should get free cigarettes (I might start again), a daily doughnut allotment for the obese, and $2 twelve packs for others…time to thin the herd
Jim, can you PLEASE figure how to HEDONIC figure the inflation affect of DEDUCTIBLES for OBOMACARE? This is not apples-to-apples inflation, it is much worse. I trust you to figure it out, and report. Thanks!
@Westcoaster,
You have my profound sympathies. I’m in my early 60s. I moved to Palm Springs, CA earlier this year. I read the online horror stories from people trying to cancel policies purchased through Covered California. So I bought my insurance direct from Anthem Blue Cross.
At least I don’t have to deal with Covered California.
Don’t even get me started about dealing with the California DMV. That is its own separate nightmare.
Larry…insightful question.
Very good thread. Perhaps better than the one for the liars. Although the two can be combined.
So if somebody has to pay premium and co pays and deductibles, at what point do we go back to the old days and people buy just catastrophic insurance. They pay their doctors THEY PICK for routine visits.
Oh, we have that, its the concierge program. All we have to do is get government out of the way. Just like everything. You pay your bills and get covered for the big stuff.
We need to re-engineer govt–or hire a President and Congress that “get it”. How do we do it? Betcha it involves all of us getting more involved.
Get a load of this, my long suffering friends. My Ladyfriend’s best guy friend hasn’t worked in a long while. He hasn’t worked in years. Keep in mind through all this that he’s a good guy, not a scammer.
About a year ago he applied for free state healthcare and was approved. He had been suffering from breathing issues. He was real tentative about this because he felt like a piece of crap applying for any free stuff, but I told him to go for it and see what happens. His first visit to the doctor’s office brought him to a APRN who ordered a battery of blood work. The results of the blood work lead to a prescription. Then they sent him to a clinic to get a stress test. Then he went to a heart specialist. Then he went for more tests, some different meds, some more treatment and more very involved exams involving ultrasounds of his heart, and all kinds of shit.
Next stop- a back specialist and tests and x-rays to see if he needs a back operation. Meanwhile he’s going to a rehab place twice a week to treat his symptoms.
All of this free. Absolutely free. Then he got free prescription eyeglasses and is now going to a dermatologist for some skin problem. Along with all this he visited a dentist for the first time in years and is having several fillings replaced. All free.
I’m trying to wrap my head around how much all this costs, and I figure it has to be in the tens of thousands. I wrote a comment on a earlier article here about the benefits that welfare recipients get. I had said that It isn’t just the free housing, food, utilities, etc, etc that are the killer, it’s the medical costs that have to be extraordinarily high for each individual. It was actually this guy who I was thinking of when I wrote that.
This guy’s next visit is to a podiatrist. It seems that every time he asks about what’s covered he’s cheerfully told: EVERYTHING! All FREE!
This guy was a mess a year ago and now he’s vastly improved. I told him, as we were having a few beers and laughing about this insanity, that he’s going to be all set for when TSHTF. He’ll be breathing good, have good teeth, new glasses, no rashes, back will be better and his feet all good to go.
Is this a great country or what? ‘Murika!FuckYeah! Let us all join together with Len Greenwood and sing “God Bless The USA”.
There is always free cheese in the mousetrap.
FORWARD RODENTIA!
We pay $14,000+ a year in premiums for our family of four (no subsidy). Hubs used up his $6000 deductible this year (had a few minor things taken care of). If I go to the doctor, I have my own $6000 deductible, because our family deductible is $12,000. Such a crock o’ shit.
i apologize to all the above comments posted, i did not read. i think obuma will give mao a run for the money and at the end of the day, where you simply estimate have many died. won;t be long he will have his very own black book to inspire all the fsa, to reeducate those who do not subscribe. i quit the game in 2008, no work, no taxes, i refuse to feed this beast. poverty has not killed my yet, give it time, a hard winter and i likely will no longer post, that being a possibility i wish all on this site the very best/
Hope@ – interesting points, however during my employment with the UK NHS ALL (every single one) of the non-UK trained Clinicians spoke excellent English, so in reality there will be no need for the end users to worry.
The system we have in Australia is getting very much like yours – VMO’s only have admitting rights to Hospitals they are contracted to work for, so many private Patients already see restrictions on where they may be admitted. Cost-shifting is almost a National pastime, and the Federal / State / Local VERY well-paid bureaucracies do like to keep us running along to their tune. In the past decade alone I’ve seen billions squandered on “initiatives” where the problem has not been thought out very well (if at all). Lots of “great ideas” from Boardroom level, with no thought to their unintended consequences.
Just one example in my speciality (ID) – “everyone” is expected to use 0.5% alchoholic chlorhexidine between Patients – “waterless Hand Rub” must be earning 3M a bomb. Problem is, the residual chlorhex. rubs off, and so we have vast areas of the Hospital where there is sublethal chlorhex. concentration surface contamination – areas such as handrails. So, we’re starting to see chlorhexidine resistance in “routine” micro isolates (as well as MRSA and maybe VRE – but not where I work). The chlorhex. resistance is part of a multigene transmissible cassette, coding for significant resistance to other antimicrobials (beta lactams, macrolides, maybe some carbapenems).
This enduring surface contamination will ensure survival of such cassettes, and it does not take too much of a leap of faith to anticipate this leading to a major problem down the track.
Soap and water, then an alcohol rub (for High Risk Patients ONLY) worked very well for most of my career. Seems the latest fashion may cause more problems than it prevented. Thank heavens retirement beckons (21st May next year – almost counting the hours . . ..)
@Phil: Wait until the hospitals etc get desperate enought for doctors. The standards will drop like a rocket. The politicians just want to see bodies in white coats for the photo op. What actually happens to the patients they could give a flying fuck about since they all have their platinum plated health plans.
As to the issue with bacteria now resistent to that alcohol rub crap – no surprise there. My specialty is heme/onc so we are constantly washing our hands. (As well as trying our best to keep our patients OUT of the hospitals.) There is NO substitute for hot water and soap before and after every patient, none. That alcohol rub crap also sets off my asthma. It is to laugh – I am at the peak of my profession (and earning power) and yet my hands look about like they did when I was washing dishes at some high school job 40+ years ago!
I don’t know what is going to happen with the “bugs versus drugs” race but it probably will not end well. Add in unfettered immigration of people from parts of the world where TB/plague/cholera/malaria are rampant with the antibiotic resistence plasmids of bugs we already have, and it could be Biblical.
Oh well, I’m just SURE our Political Elites have it all figgered out. We. Are. In. The. Best. Of. Hands.
I would be very interested to hear your thoughts about the glories of “single payer” in Oz.
Is this our future med care?
Under new rules, designed to streamline healthcare services, The CMS said physician office visits for less than life threatening emergencies will no longer be reimbursed by Medicare.
From mid-November, healthcare consumers will have to use the CMS’s new Virtual Doctor, or similiar online resources, for well-person and non-emergent medical advice.
Any elective healthcare procedures with CMS reimbursements greater than $1,000, and all those involving inpatient stays, will also have to use the CMS’s Virtual Doctor to enter a complete medical history, complete a self examination, receive a diagnosis, select a treatment option from an approved list, and submit a request for preauthorization.
“CMS understands these changes may be a new way of heathcare for some of our customers, and the Virtual Doctor FAQ will be available to help and guide them through this change,” the federal agency said in a statement.
Everybody knew this was a disaster in 2012 yet they sent the High Handicapper in Chief back to the white house. I’m having a hard time drumming up a lot of sympathy.
Americans have allowed Politicians and big pharma to run roughshod all over us.Its time to say no more and push back!The reality is they will take from you until there is nothing left.That is insane Hussein goal
I could write a book on all the ugly price increases/service decreases due to obummercare. Lost my doc, my affordable but basically catastrophic insurance, went without insurance for a while (very do-able–most docs and hospitals will negotiate prices and/or give a payment plan). Got a new policy recently, ridiculously high deductibles, and like everyone else, premiums going through the roof. I could also wallpaper my house with all the papers filled with word vomit they mail me.
I have observed another side to sick care that’s happened enough to those around me, I’ve taken note. Several friends and family members, who have the best of the best insurance policies, got diagnosed with cancer and/or heart problems (a-fib seems to be the new diagnosis for everyone over 65) recently, complete with boat loads of tests, surgeries, you name it. A cardiac doc even called my mother 6 months after her last visit, in which they found NOTHING, and told her she needed more tests. She complied—I couldn’t believe the tests they ran on her–and then, when they couldn’t find a thing, they did exploratory surgery. Poor mom is so naive, she thought it was just GREAT that they doc was so thorough.
Yesterday, I heard an ad on the radio: “if you’ve smoked for a zillion years, come in for this screening! “. My first thought was that they’re fishing for those with great insurance policies.
Yeah, I’m cynical and paranoid, but there HAVE been a couple of cases in the nooz lately of docs giving chemo to people who didn’t have cancer.
kokoda says: If you don’t elect to buy insurance under the ACA, the penalty is handled by the IRS. The IRS will retain any refunds up to the penalty – so only withhold taxes from pay that won’t exceed what you will wind up owing the IRS after year end.
———————————–
If you don’t think the IRS is keeping track of your penalties year over year and will at some point extract those fees from your wallet, you are living in la-la land.
…….it is painfully obvious that in the USA, at the top, the right and left are team players. When this fact reaches critical mass in the minds of the American constituency some long term adjustments will be made to our body politic. Watch and see. History on repeat. Humans don’t live long enough to actually remember what happens a 100 years prior to their being here. If we did possibly we could break the circle.
NOT ONE Republican voted for Obamacare. This is a shinning example of why Democratic controlled cities and State’s are bankrupt basket cases, Democrats cannot manage anything. One of these days we’ll hunt democrats with dogs, got keep Ole Red in good shape and keep oil in the lantern.
Unaffordable Care Act Update–Double Digit Premium Increases Next Year
By Devon Herrick at National Center for Policy Analysis
The third Obamacare Open Enrollment period began November 1st. As a result, many families are faced with a tough choice: purchase coverage they cannot afford with few tangible benefits, or pay an equally unaffordable penalty and hope they do not become sick. The Internal Revenue Service determined that 7.5 million individuals opted to pay the penalty rather than purchase health coverage in 2014, far more than originally projected. The penalty for going without coverage in 2014 was only $95 or one percent of income, whichever was greater. Yet the tax year data found the average penalty paid was double the minimum. This suggests it wasn’t the poor who were going without coverage; the poorest individuals either qualified for generous subsidies, Medicaid or got an exemption from the penalty. Many of those who paid the penalty were likely individuals who did not qualify for subsidies and could not afford Obamacare coverage due to the costly mandates. To make matters worse, the costs are rising fast.
According to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, premiums for coverage in Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Oklahoma and Tennessee, for example, will rise by about one-third in 2016. Rates in Arizona, Delaware, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon, South Dakota and West Virginia will increase by 20 percent to 25 percent. Residents in Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina and Utah will see increases of above 10 percent or more.
No one will escape these rising costs. Americans with employee health plans also experience rising premiums when insurers are forced to sell bloated policies in unprofitable markets. Individuals who forego insurance and chose to pay the penalty will face a greater fine. In 2015, the penalty more than doubled from 2014; in 2016, it will increase yet again. Those failing to obtain health coverage in 2016 will face a penalty of $695 or 2.5 percent of income, whichever is higher.
Americans were led to believe the Affordable Care Act would save the average family about $2,500 per year. That dubious claim was actually just a sound bite with no basis in fact. Unfortunately, in a health reform debate about complicated insurance regulations, a simple assertion that families would save a couple hundred bucks a month resonated more than wonky counterarguments about adverse selection, moral hazard and rising deficits. The Obama Administration would ultimately be proved wrong about cost savings; it recently acknowledged that the “Affordable Care Act” is not affordable for many individuals. An “I told you so” may be in order, but it hardly makes people saddled with high insurance premiums feel any better.
These premium hikes are significant for several reasons: 1) the Affordable Care Act is anything but affordable for taxpayers, who have to subsidize these costly premiums; 2) moreover, the Affordable Care Act is unaffordable for many despite generous subsidies. Finally: 3) many of those who have Obamacare coverage are concluding it’s not a good value for the money.
Take the case of a self-employed professional I know. She always purchased coverage through her business. Since Obamacare became the law of the land, her premiums shot up even as the quality of her coverage deteriorated. Her retirement savings effectively meant she was too rich for Obamacare subsidies. In order to have affordable health coverage, she had to settle for a $6,000 annual deductible — a threshold so high she would never even approach it. To make matters worse, many of the services her pre-Obamacare health plan used to pay for were no longer covered. Many of her doctors were no longer in her network. Her compounded drugs were no longer covered. She calculated the only benefit she received from her $389 monthly premium was one “free” well-woman preventative care visit each year. She concluded that $4,668 in premiums provided almost nothing of tangible value; and that her well-woman visit was far from free. Two days before 2016 open enrollment, she called her health insurer and canceled her coverage for the final two months of the year. She reasoned the $778 she will save by dropping coverage for two months would be well worth the risk. She will not have to pay a penalty for a coverage gap that lasts only two months. In a few days she could sign up again for coverage to begin January 1.
Apparently, she is not alone. Nearly one-in-five enrollees drop their coverage before yearend. Moreover, people expected to pay their own way are few and far between. The data shows the only people likely to enroll in Obamacare exchange plans are those eligible for generous subsidies; nearly 80 percent of enrollees receive subsidies.
In October Health and Human Services Secretary, Sylvia Burwell, admitted that 2016 enrollment in the Obamacare exchange was expected to hardly change from 2015 levels. That’s less than half what the Congressional Budget Office estimated not long ago. But that may be overly-optimistic. As the sheen wears off of subsidized health coverage, and more Americans find they are paying hundreds per month for coverage that provides few benefits, they too may decide to sit this one out.
You get the government you voted for – good and hard. Without any lube.
Many people don’t realize that Obamacare didn’t just impact people getting insurance through the exchanges. All healthcare has been impacted. I work for one of the large multinational corporations that negotiated waivers for many of the Obamacare changes, so up to now we did not see any changes other than yearly increases when Obama promised decreases. But, the time period for the waivers has expired. This year my health insurance payment is %300 of what it was last year. Yep, going up by %200. The company said they would cut the increase to %100 – all I had to do was sign up for their “health rewards” program. So I signed up. What they didn’t say ahead of time is that to sign up for the program you have to fill out a health review including filling in all of your medical stats and anything they determine to be health/wellness related. So I lied.
Several years ago I opted out of the allopathic medical system, so I will not be using any of this “benefit” except in case of a catastrophic accident.
Greetings,
Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to Malice that which can adequately be explained by Stupidity.
With regards to the ACA, I think we are seeing exactly how stupid government at all levels actually is. Look, the president had no idea as to whether or not the ACA would lower costs, raise costs or destroy the economy because he is too stupid to know these things. After all, he has never run a business or been in charge of soldiers or anything that would prepare him for the job he has. What, again, qualifies him to run the country?
The same holds true for our worthless congress. If those guys actually had any talent for anything then they would be doing that but, no, they are nothing but dullard sociopaths living off of the taxpayer. Politics, after all, is acting for ugly people.
I do not believe that there is any evil in any of this. I think that there is nothing but blind stupidity.
Remember, you can fight evil. You can even negotiate with evil. You can reason with evil but you cant reason or negotiate with stupidity. All you can do with stupidity is fight it – crush it – smash it.
It may be our only recourse.
@Avraven: My wife & I each received a letter recently from Healthnet offering a “free IN-HOME visit” from one of their people to “assess our health needs”. It’s not mandatory, and if you opt-out there’s no penalty (yeah right!)
I think the insurance companies are trying to assess their exposure to their patient base and use that data against us to hike the rates even further. But I could be wrong.
@VegasBob: Thanks for the sympathy-you sound like me, almost there for Medicare.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
SUCKERS!!
I win, you LOSE!
Here is my contact info if you have a problem with what I did:
Jonathan Gruber
Contact Information
Phone: (617) 253-8892
Fax: (617) 253-1330
Email: [email protected]
Address:
MIT Department of Economics
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Bldg E17-220
Cambridge, MA 02139
Support Staff:
Beata Shuster
Bldg E17-201g
Phone: (617) 253-8883
Email: [email protected]
Nickel the ACA is far from blind stupidity, many Republican voice’s were describing exactly how this plan would shakeout before the Democrats rammed this bitch down our throats, they were spot on. Democrats are just to fucking stupid to listen to reason. Look at the last Democratic debate all they talked about were more freeshit programs they want to push forward when we are 20 Trillion in debt. That my friend is not stupidity, it’s insanity. Democrats are the party of insanity!
For legal reasons, the above post is satire, although the contact info is real.
Westcoater you fool, it’s not the insurance companies that did this, it’s that bastard Democratic President and his party that engineered this debacle! Westcoater you’re a prime example of a fucked up democratic mind at work.