THE OBAMACARE DISASTER IN ONE GRAPHIC

A shitshow and clusterfuck all rolled into one. This is the Obama capstone “accomplishment” of his failed presidency.

Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist

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Anonymous
Anonymous

After the ravage of premiums and deductibles, how many average working class people can actually afford health care (not healthcare insurance) without suffering serious financial hardship or bankruptcy?

I think those who cannot may be a significant and growing number.

Card802
Card802

I’m growing increasingly weary and afraid at the same time.

Weary because as a small business owner I’m tired of fighting the government control over our healthcare, and really, all aspects of our lives.
Afraid because going forward I know a quick and simple solution is nothing but a dream, a lot of pain must be endured for years.

And yet, we will still look to (And pay) the same fucknuts that fucked everything up to solve this fucking shit.
Like a bad dream.

Iska Waran
Iska Waran

Just because the individual mandate was ruled a tax doesn’t mean it’s a constitutional tax. Seems to me it’s a capitation tax (“head tax”). I got a D in Con Law, but an A in Frisbee.

Chubby Bubbles
Chubby Bubbles

Where are these under-$100 plans? Through my state’s exchange, I pay $629/mo. for two adults in their mid-fifties. That’s for a “gold” BCBS plan that has a $6k deductible per person, and that is with a subsidy of $4k, which I had to cough up back last year because our income went from $30k to $60k. So I’ve been paying between 20-25% of our income in health “care” (note that the higher percentage figure is actually the one with subsidies for a lower income) before I even set foot in a doctor’s office. Clearly I’m doing something wrong.

Persnickety
Persnickety

You actually have it pretty good. It would cost me roughly $2300/month to buy “gold” coverage for my family, and I’m not eligible for any subsidy.

Six years ago it cost me less than $800/month to buy essentially the same coverage that “gold” provides today.

Looks like I will be buying “bronze” again and hoping I don’t have to pay any large part of a THIRTEEN THOUSAND DOLLAR DEDUCTIBLE. Oh, that bronze plan will still cost me $1400/month and won’t cover anything significant (one routine exam per person per year) until using up that colossal $13,000 deductible, which I really hope not to do.

Anonymous
Anonymous

A simple visit to an emergency room can use up that deductible in many parts of the country.

I’ve seen people run up unbelievable bills in an emergency room for what would seem to be rather small problems that just needed immediate treatment.

anonemouse
anonemouse

I don’t doubt you, but there are two different things happening there:

1) If you are UNinsured, hospitals charge you literally whatever they want, which is often four to six TIMES what they accept as full payment from any insurer. So a $2k ER visit might be charged as $12k, it’s bullshit, but happens all the time.

2) Other than outright gouging, well, medical care is very expensive for reasons that are opaque but don’t seem good.

TreeFarmer
TreeFarmer

Idaho is shown without any data up or down. All I know is that my wife and I are in our early 50’s. In 2016 our monthly premium was $790 on the Idaho exchange. In 2017 the monthly premium will be $1,079. So there’s a nice little 36% increase.

In 2011, before this crappy law, we could buy a better plan for both of us for $240 per month. I don’t think the Republicans could possibly do anything to make matters worse, so I’m not at all scared by the “repeal and replace” rhetoric.

Flying Monkey
Flying Monkey

Take the total spent on sick care in the US divided by the number of people and you will get close to $10,000 per head. No mater how you slice and dice who pays, the cold hard fact is that it just plain costs to much compared to what one is capable of earning.

If what I heard is correct that Trump wants to eliminate the mandate but retain the ability to get into a plan with preconditions, I can’t help but think that will not turn out well either. You run off all the people subsidizing the plans today and you leave only the people taking large benefits from the system. You will be left only with a group of sick people who have very high sick care costs. Sooner rather than later they will again have real unaffordable sick care too. What little I know, Trump does not really have a coherent plan either.

To me the first priority is knock down the total cost by unleashing the dogs at the attorney General for anti-competitive activity. Denniger has a post on it and from reading his page, Trump does not have the right people for it

https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=231704

Chubby Bubbles
Chubby Bubbles

Flying Monkey: “it just plain costs too much”. I just read a story about a VT doc who went to places like Nepal, offering low-cost cataract surgery. He developed techniques to get the surgery done as cheaply and efficiently as possible, and then faced the hurdle of the lenses. The lowest price he could find was $200. So he helped them open up a local factory to make the lenses for a couple bucks a pop. Why can’t that be done in *this* country? Better: why can’t I order lenses from this place for -say- $25 including international shipping?

http://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/vision-quest-a-waterbury-based-project-brings-eyesight-to-the-blind/Content?oid=3842035

“HCP’s $25 cataract operation has the same success rate as that of the $1,200 ultrasound one used in the U.S. — 99 percent.”

Similarly, a pair of eyeglass frames *should* cost about $10 max., but somehow we are made to pay many times that.

The overhead of insurers is still jacking up costs by 30% or more. Then you have the other monopolies at every level.

I know some people here think Denninger is nutty on the subject, but I totally agree that he is pointing out patently-illegal practices that everyone just seems to accept as “the way things are”.

Probably the bloom will be last to come off the rose in the health-care field, though, as most people are desperate to keep themselves and their “loved ones” alive at all cost (“loved ones” in quotes because some of the things they put these people through I would not do to a weasel, much less a dog…).

TampaRed
TampaRed

Here is my then 82yo dad’s story.It is wrong on multiple levels.He has a medicare HMO.
Summer,2014,he was having lots of recurrent back & hip pain.His primary referred him to a pain clinic,who sent him in for a scan.Luckily he had a good tech.The guy stopped the scan & called the doc over.It was not the cause of the pain but dad had a massive aortic aneurysm which required surgery within a few days.
He had the surgery & was recovering but came down with a bad infection in the wound.He was re hospitalized and recovered ok.
He was hospitalized for a total of 10-14 days,I do not remember the exact # of days.
A few months after he had recovered he sat down and totaled all of his bills,including hospitalization,surgeons,etc.
The gross total was approximately $220,000.00,of which the insurance company paid a pre negotiated amount of approximately $26,000.00 and dad paid about $800.00.
Was the bill really that high?
If so,why discount it so much?
Why isn’t the patient responsible for more of the bill?
If he were under 65 & without insurance,how much would he have been charged?

ed_209

Wow I detect some real bitterness here and honestly I can relate.
Obamacare was designed to bankrupt America, along with all the other nastyness Obama and crew (Senate, House, Supremes, Appointees, etc) committed or failed to stop on purpose in the last 8 years. Its all part of a plan to bring America down as well as any other sovereign nations.
http://www.joeplummer.com/tragedy-and-hope-101

Miles Long
Miles Long

What I want to know is why the cocksuckers moved the full phase-in (read: real pain) date to after the 2016 election. It sure seems like they knew what was going to happen & didn’t want $hillary to have to explain. Is that extra special real estate tax on all transactions, 1.3% or something, in effect yet?

Speaking of $hillary, who remembers back in the 90s when she was in charge of the medical insurance cluster-fuck that spent millions but accomplished nothing? My BC/BS premiums doubled in 2 years before the worthwhile plan was replaced by a lousy stinkin’ HMO. That was just from the threat of $hill care. Funny how they didn’t return to normal after the threat passed.

AKAnon
AKAnon

Anyone notice the “blue” states that went Clinton (or were expected to) have mostly (only) single digit increases? I know correlation doesn’y equal causation, but….

James the Wanderer

Douglas Adams’ _Hitchhiker’s Guide_ series 2nd book “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe” gave us the concept of “bistromathics” –
“Numbers written on restaurant checks within the confines of restaurants do not follow the same mathematical laws as numbers written on any other pieces of paper in any other parts of the universe. ” – http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Bistromathics
Similar computations are used to set hospital pricing, deductibles, etc. – anything to do with medical care in America. The fact that foreign locations like Thailand can do the same care for far less is an indicator of a Somebody Else’s Problem field encompassing the entire U.S.

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