One of the greatest issues that is facing and affecting America leading to and reinforcing many of the problems that it faces and grapples with constantly whereby America and Americans act and think too selfishly.
In the case at hand, too many Americans and especially those with power and wealth and have vested interests...are too selfish to provide or even agree for Universal Healthcare for all its people...usually with the thought..."Why should I pay extra/good money to/for...somebody else who..."
This is troubling given the fact that most other countries and their people have no problem providing it in common cause for the greater good of all, around the world.
Not America. And the same thinking applies in so many areas of social/societal advancement whether it be paid maternity leave, paid sick leave, paid vacations, a living minimum wage and why in regards to American Employees...divided you fall & fail, why Americans in general work longer, for less without many social benefits all advanced countries take for granted.
It's seen in by the highest levels of inequality among its people suggesting selfishness plays a huge role in the many issues faced.
By definition, the ideal functionality of a Country , Nation and People is best achieved by working together, being united and helping and sharing with your neighbour & treating each other as equals. This not seen to be the case in America.
Share, Care and Fair. 3 guidelines/principles to consider more than so far.
The Affordable Care Act of 2010 — Thank you Margot Sanger-Katz for not calling it Obama care as most of the press have since its inception. Thank you again for trying to clear up some of the confusion surrounding the ACA. The one thing I think should be illuminated is the fact that healthcare insurance has gone up by leaps and bounds long before the ACA or Trump. The Times should include a chart displaying increased cost state by state for at least the last twenty years. I remember Blue Shield, Blue Cross 20% increases eons ago. I think people need and deserve the big picture. How else can people wrap their minds around the issue and not be distracted by all the noise we have to navigate these days?
1
Does anyone know if the subsidies are granted based solely on income (wages) or is it income and assets (bank accounts, etc.)? In other words, if you have savings, are you out of luck to be eligible for a subsidy? Where can I find out?
The hollowing out of the middle class continues. It really stinks to be deemed to rich to receive any government benefits, but to really be poor enough to not afford health care and decent housing.
The marginal tax on your typical median income is just too high. As soon as you start earning a semi-decent salary, you lose all your benefits.
This is not a way to structure a social-safety net.
7
My partner and I insure ourselves as we are both self employed. Prior to the ACA, we had a comprehensive health care plan that cost around $350 a month for each of us and was ACA compliant. My partner had surgery and everything was covered; I believe he paid around $500 out of pocket for it. Prescription co-pays were $5 for generic, office visits had co-pays from between $10 - $35, depending on specialty.
After the ACA, that plan's premiums rose to over $1,000 per month and came with an added $750 deductible!! We switched to a catastrophic plan that comes with a $7,500 deductible but $350 premiums.
Of course, anything negative that is said publicly about the ACA immediately brands you as a Trump supporting, red-state living, ignorant racist hillbilly that wants to deny health coverage to people, so we pay the premiums, keep our mouths shut and hope we have no catastrophic medical issues.
12
I am in the same boat.
2
Your opportunity to fix this mess was a generation ago. You fouled it up and then letting the situation fester for 25 years leaves us where we are.
The reality is that the U.S. spends on average $11K in healthcare costs for every person in this country. There is no way to make healthcare costs manageable across the entire economy without CUTTING IN HALF the cost of healthcare. By allowing the vested interests to grow to the sky, you have ensured that the problem will never be solved.
This is what waiting around for magic beans has done. Congratulations! You imploded the U.S. economy.
6
Obama and a completely Democratic Congress without a single Republican vote voted for this unsustainable and profoundly unfair plan.
Countries that offer universal care such as Canada, UK, and France have very high tobacco taxes in the range of $5 to $6 per pack or more. Our federal tax is a paltry approx. $1. Raising the tax to levels of these 3 countries for 13 billion packs smoked would have yielded conservatively $30 billion or more for health plans.
Taxing tobacco contributes more than half the effect of getting people to quit smoking or never start. While overall rates have been declining, for those at the poverty level and below the rates have been a stable 35% or so for the past 2 decades.
7
That is just wishful thinking. Tobacco taxes would be a drop in the bucket. Countries with universal health care also have a 20% VAT and much higher income taxes.
7
@NH:
Thank you for your input, but do the math:
1.4 million individuals / families paying individual plans earning more than the 400% guideline.
13 billion packs smoked per year.
Raising taxes to $6 per pack would yield $5 times 13 billion packs or $65 billion. Let's assume half quit or reduce smoking (which is good), then still $30 billion in revenues (and there are fewer heart attacks for example, almost immediately.
$30 billion for 1.4 million plan holders above 400% comes to $21, 500 per plan.
Economist Larry Summers who helped to architected the ACA could certainly have done this math and so it was known to the Democrats. But they decided to burden individuals and families with onerous increases in healthcare costs which to these people were unaffordable and with the high deductibles actually worse for healthcare than before the ACA.
The Democrats were bought off by big tobacco which is why they decided to burden these people. These plans were immensely unfair which led to the unpopularity and reversal by Republicans.
Therefore, it is the Democrats who are to blame for not doing what other countries do for universal care which is high tobacco taxes.
At the time, a good journalist would have asked Obama and Sen Reid head of the Senate why they didn't tax tobacco like other countries offering universal care instead of taxing individuals. But no journalist ever asked.
3
Oh, you are blaming Democrats for Obamacare not being more effective? Democrats begged for single-payer but the current monstrosity was a "compromise" Obama agreed to in order to sweet-talk Republicans. Unsuccessfully, I might add. I consider it the biggest mistake of his presidency, so come to think of it, maybe you're right.
7
As opposed to paying premiums but not being able to access care because of high deductibles and exorbitant out-of-pockets? For millions it wasn't affordable before the price hike. It was just obscured by the "enrolled" myth.
3
Health insurance will not be affordable unless the government takes strong action to stop price-fixing and unfair billing practices. In addition, it is very expensive to rely on Big Pharma to do most drug testing. The government should fund projects to test old drugs and supplements for new uses and determine therapeutic doses. For example, the Redo Project tests generic drugs to help in cancer treatment, but a wider effort to find new uses for old drugs could really save money. Taxpayers have no stomach for "Medicare for all", and ordinary people and employers cannot cover hefty insurance premiums. The industry is rife with unfair, obfuscated pricing. In addition, taxing unhealthy items directly for medical expenditures, rather than making everyone pay higher premiums. Overweight people should pay extra, or if they are too poor, be required to do community service since they are a burden to the health care system. Everyone getting subsidized care should be required to take health classes, especially if they have a chronic disease since poor management of diabetes and high blood pressure are so costly. We can't allow these high costs to continue, whether paid for by the government the consumer. The prices need to be brought down.
4
Barbara,
Small quibble, "This month’s Kaiser Health Tracking Poll (March 23 '18) finds six in ten (59 percent) favor a national health plan, or Medicare-for-all, in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan – including a majority of both Democrats and independents and about one-third of Republicans. Support for such a proposal increases among the overall public (75 percent) and among partisans (87 percent of Democrats, 74 percent of independents, and 64 percent of Republicans) when framed as an option for anyone who wants it..."
Otherwise, I agree with your comment.
https://www.kff.org/health-costs/poll-finding/kaiser-health-tracking-pol...
www.medicareforall.org/pages/Chart_of_Americans_Support
5
I recently lost health insurance benefits gained as part of divorce proceedings, so checked out Maryland's ACA plans. My income from retirement annuity is $34,000. Add my alimony support and it would have been about $45,000. At $34K, I get $1000 in insurance subsidy each month and my cost is $4.50 per month; however, at $45K, I get no subsidies and my cost for the exact some HMO plan w/ $1000 deductible and $6000 max out of pocket, costs $1090 a month!!
I could not get an answer of why the differences were so great even though the income difference was only $10K. Spending $13K for insurance as a healthy 60-year old is insane and deeply unaffordable! We must have single payer insurance and get rid of this crazy private insurance scheme.
18
It's because as income rises eligibility for ACA tax credits declines. Unfortunately it hits a hard cutoff at 400% of the federal poverty level. If you are older being just under, or just over 400% of FPL results is extremely large changes in insurance costs. This is a problem that needs to be fixed.
14
This is precisely why so many were angry about Obamacare. It seemed great to those eligible for subsidies and who went on Medicaid (80% of initial enrollees), but it was unaffordable for everyone right over the subsidy threshold, which included many middle Americans.
Obamacare's killer was the threshold was too low and didn't provide enough relief for those carrying the burden of its resultant increased costs.
5
@Liz Dickson:
I'm sorry you've had to experience this.
The problem was caused because the Obama and his Democratic congress wanted to institute universal health care but neglected a mechanism used in other countries such as Canada, UK, and France which is to raise tobacco taxes to $5 to $6 per pack or more for 13 billion packs smoked each year from the current about $1 federal tax.
They decided to burden people like you earning $45 K to pay $13 K (your words). It is profoundly unfair.
It is precisely because Democrats instituted this hugely regressive formula instead of taxing tobacco that the ACA is so immensely unpopular and that the Republicans are withdrawing it.
There was absolutely no excuse for not taxing tobacco like other nations offering universal care.
4
How do we know those 1million to 1.3million fewer unsubsidized customers didn't start getting health insurance through a job?
3
"These reports show that the high-price plans on the individual market are unaffordable and forcing unsubsidized middle-class consumers to drop coverage,” Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said ..."
With all due respect, I wonder when Ms. Sanger-Katz and her colleague, Ms. Reed Abelson, will write as reporters rather than editorialists. The quote above blatantly disregards the Center's role in placing every obstacle imaginable to inhibit plan registration -- while approving self-insured "limited duration" plans that discriminate against pre-existing conditions.
60% premium increases in Iowa are beyond obscene, and indicative of the runaway pricing by predatory and mercenary major insurers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, blindly permitted by CMS and HHS.
Meanwhile, Medicare and Medicaid, with average administrative expenses of 3%, are under siege as Administrator Verma and Secretary Azar race to shred the social safety net. Thankfully, Kentucky's scandalous "work for benefits" program has been halted -- and hopefully other states with similar punitive programs will be justly addressed.
This proves that universal, comprehensive, affordable and cost saving Improved Medicare for All programs such as The New York Health Act are even more urgent. Let's put an end to the cancerous malaise called for-profit health care. Healthcare is a moral good. Learn more at nyhealthcampaign.org. Take action! Register to vote -- and Vote!
12
Hadrian,
Health insurance premium increases are TOTALLY controlled by the states. HHS has nothing to do with it. And BCBS is state-by-state companies who also band together as a consortium - some of those companies are for-profit, and others are not.
In my state BCBS is the only insurance company covering the entire state, and it is a non-profit. Also - they only started emerging from the red last year, so they aren't "mercenary and predatory" in this state.
3
Does "for profit health care" mean that doctors have to work for free?
Medicare is already about $40T in the hole We can't even pay for Medicare for Some. Not one of the advocates of "single payer" or other utopian schemes has made any proposal to actually pay for it.
Any such wild-eyed scheme will at least double the size of government.
If you want Denmark-style socialism, it will involve Denmark-level taxes, primary on "the rich" -- aka folks hauling down a princely $50K, who see marginal tax rates of 62%.
Curiously, the advocate of these programs always omit the fine print on how they intend to pay for it. Why might that be?
Put simply, for anyone with a job -- including every single public employee in the country -- this would involve a massive tax hike, and would provide ... nothing in return.
Rotsa ruck selling that bottle of leftist snake oil.
3
Mr. Trump PROMISED us a much better health system, which would cover everyone, and be a lot cheaper.
But like all the rest of the Republicans, Trump did not have the faintest idea how to accomplish such a thing. So, instead, Republicans tried to repeal the system which WAS working (Obamacare). Lo and behold, they received so much pushback from their constituents, they were unable to get that done.
The honorable thing to do at that point would be to acknowledge defeat, and try to shore up Obamacare, since that is the only vehicle available to help the people who need health coverage. But no, they are trying to let Obamacare slowly strangle to death.
The Republicans are not even making a pretense of developing a better health care system. They don't think about it, or talk about it. They don't care what happens to people.
15
Obama promised "if you like your doctor, you can keep them." This was a lie. The honorable thing would have been for Obama to halt his health care program immediately when that fact became crystal clear. Instead he shoved his lie down the throat of the American people. So much for Obama doing the honorable thing. Giving health care to people who were uninsured does not justify Obama's actions. Obama broke the first rule in medicine, "do no harm."
6
@j. harris
I think you will find a lot of Health Insurers, Drug Companies, Doctors and Hospitals broke the first rule in medicine far earlier, more and for their personal or bottom line profit (and continue to do so) before laying it at Obama's door and based on that single criteria and promise he made but which could not be kept.
1
Those of us who are self employed got slammed with this as soon as the ACA took effect. Sorry to see it has spread to the rest of you, but I was afraid it was inevitable. For those of you who have a subsidy, I'm happy for you.
Neither Republicans or Democrats are going to help. They are invested in the status quo. If we want change it will come from the bottom up, in workarounds and perhaps from health care providers doing an end run around the insurance companies and charging a reasonable price and bypassing insurance companies.
Waiting for compassion and logic and common sense from our currently money hungry and corrupt government is pointless. We have to solve this on a community up from the grassroots level.
16
Obamacare severely damaged mom and pop small businesses by removing them from group policy eligibility. They had to go on the individual market, which was a nightmare. They were like "orphans" being dumped every year by one insurer or another as they exited the unprofitable individual market. And, no, their policies weren't "junk" before. Let's finally lay that myth to bed.
5
As prices go up more people (many healthy people) drop coverage and more important, more companies drop the benefit or reduce their share of costs. And so, prices spiral up again and more people and companies drop coverage. Ultimately, only wealthy and high salaried people will be able to afford coverage.
The other spiral is on the services end: fewer people going to health providers mean lower revenue which leads to higher prices that doctors and hospitals must charge. And so insurance companies have to charge higher prices to offset their higher costs.
The free market for health insurance will not survive as the model for national health care and will severely damage the affordability of all health care provision. A government provided non-profit solution is the only rational way to reign in costs and provide health care to all who need it.
8
20% doubles cost in 4 years. I go to interest rate double calculator as my basis to complain to officials. It is the basis of rapidly rising property taxes: supporting health care for state, county and town employees. Now that Trump has weakened unions, why should the middle and lower classes pay for these state workers health insurance? No universal coverage, no taxpayer funded health insurance! Let’s see how that gets people’s attention.
4
For the working poor, it's a Catch-22. Stay under a low limit and your medical costs are paid, even if you can't afford your housing and food. Get a job, even a part-time one for a few hundred a month, and you have to pay your own insurance, which will cost more than the job brings in. That means some will choose to be poor, even if it means living on benefits and food stamps, and others will work under the table for cash. That's where many of those out of the employment market are.
18
It's not health insurance we have in the US; it's bankruptcy insurance. Even then, some insured people end up having to declare bankruptcy. Every time the Democratic National Committee phones our house for a contribution, I say the same thing: I'll send money when you send us a Public Option. The Dems caved on that. Then Joe Lieberman, the Senator from Aetna, drove a stake into its heart. Single payer will reach the USA when the sun rises in the west. Too many special interests.
Small businesses and self-employed entrepreneurs are worse off under the ACA. It breaks my heart to admit that, but as a business owner who has self-paid since 1984, I can vouch that it's true. My husband is in his late 70s; his Social Security and required IRA drawdowns are counted in household income and put us over subsidy level. His hard-earned retirement savings (no pension) are supposed to cover my skyrocketing health care costs as well as his own. I'm counting the minutes until I reach Medicare next year.
The "association plans" promised to small biz owners by the Bankrupter-in-Chief will be a joke, assuming they ever actually happen. Still the National Federation of Independent Business members continue to doven to #45.
12
I waited a year for skin cancer treatment due to my ACA plan. I watched my heathcare costs go up and my coverage go down year after year with the ACA. With the premium increases last year and the bad coverage I opted to get on my partners plan that had far better benefits. I knew my skin cancer was going to be a real problem and I did not want to go broke. Words cannot express how upsetting the healthcare debate it. It's partianship is going to affect all of us. The truth is hard to swallow for us. The ACA was in fact in a death spiral and things like this are what the other side was trying to tell us. Instead of fighting each other can we please sit at the table and understand together that healthcare is a serious problem in this country and the ACA did not solve all of it's problems. Our partianship is going to start killing americans. It surely put me in a precarious situation. The ACA has some good parts in it, but tons and tons of god awful in it. Doctors are going to keep dropping the coverage and this thing is going to burn to the ground soon and people will start going broke again.
9
"The ACA was in fact in a death spiral and things like this are what the other side was trying to tell us." Yes, we tried to tell you, especially about "rationing" care, which is the only way other nations manage the costs of their programs. That said, I'm so sorry for what you have had to endure and wish you the best outcome.
1
@AACNY
Other nations do not ration care! No one here would wait a year for skin cancer treatments...that's plain crazy!
Australia is on track to have cured all cases of Hepatitis C by 2021 which costs around $65,000 in the U.S for the 12 week Drug regimen.
It costs any Australian $38 for the same drug regimen. Except for Seniors , Unemployed or Disadvantaged who will have to pay $6.50 as they have lower incomes or Govt Support payments.
Does that look like we are rationing anything if we aren't rationing that...but in fact subsidising the cost as well as negotiating better prices with the drug Supplier which your Country actually prohibits!
One million without insurance translates into one thousand premature preventable deaths.
Meet the real Death Panelists. Every one has a R after their name.
18
With all due respect to the author, but; Why should we believe any report from Seema Verma’s CMS shop?
From the start with Tom Price, she has worked tirelessly to destroy Obamacare, and if she succeeds she will be the darling of the right wing, with either a political career or a lucrative private sector job as her reward.
Negative stories based on information her staff provides are just part of the message the T administration wants Americans to swallow. Beware of the message and the Trumpists behind it.
12
A majority of Americans live on the financial edge, paycheck to paycheck. These are people who should be paying the most attention to elections, now. Voting will be their only opportunity to have a positive effect on their futures, and improve their lives. This is the face of American health today. Shameful, isn't it? Thanks, Republicrooks. Medicare for all will eliminate the middlemen, who make most of the money--insurance companies. Vote for Democrats. Vote for yourself, and your family. Then tell your elected representatives to get the money out of politics.
12
Its too complicated. Its too expensive paying every medical care person too much money and paying the pharmaceutical industry too much money.
Get national health care. Negotiate with big Pharma and the hospitals on a National basis. All prices will go down. We have it in France, the Germans have it, the Italians, the Portuguese, even the English have something. This should be a no-brainer, but the Republicans have Americans brainwashed so these industries go on making fortunes. Oh, and vote them out in November, please.
11
Under President Obama my costs for individual market insurance significantly increased. Given that insurers were able to keep prices low by denying coverage or charging more to sicker people it seemed like reasonable policy -- more people could gain insurance. Now my costs for individual market insurance are rising again. This time my rates are increasing because healthy people are dropping coverage, and the penalty to do so has been eliminated in the Republican Tax bill, which will increase my rates even more.
This is a good example of the extreme dis-function in the American political and healthcare systems. Under Democrats I pay more so that more sick people can be insured and have access to healthcare. Under Republicans my costs rise again, this time so that fewer healthy people can have insurance.
5
Democrats were in complete denial about the hardship of those too "wealthy" to receive a subsidy but too "poor" to be able to afford care under Obamacare individual plans. Republicans were the only ones listening; hence, the shellacking the democrats received in that mid-term election.
3
My daughter, salary 25 K was diagnosed in December with stomach cancer, followed by emergency surgery. OOP $ 6 000.
Follow up in January found more cancer. More surgery.
New Year, OOP $ 6 000.
In less than 2 months, she faced a medical bill of $ 12 000.
3
I’m so very sorry to hear this. Did she gave an ACA plan or a non ACA plan? I’m curious becuase I put my non life threatening cancer off for a year becuase of my ACA plan. I hope she pulls through ok. Please know that you can negotiate with hospitals to lower these bills substantially. I really hope you get that bill cut in half.
5
It's time to do away with the patchwork of laws, regulations, and corporate profiteering - and adopt single payer.
16
My oldest daughter has three children with health issues. Manageable but expensive. Florida did not expand Medicaid. So she has to manage how much income she can earn so she can get affordable healthcare for her family. Too much and she loses the help she needs to afford healthcare for her children. If we truly had universal health care like almost every other country she would take the risk and start her own business. She is a entrepreneur type. But she cannot risk one of her precious children dying for lack of health insurance.
13
Missing data alert: 82% of the public get their health insurance through their employer, medicare or medicaid. The average premium for employer provided health insurance was just over 3% last year
2
That is an important piece of data that is missing. Could you cite your source for your 82% number? And for what year(s)?
1
Those Americans are still facing higher and higher costs burdens.
2
Although I earn a low six-figure income, am single with few tax deductions, and buy my own insurance through the Marketplace, I do not see this as a sustainable option going forward. I currently pay over $8000.00 a year in premiums and that's after-tax money and before co-insurance and deductible. Something has gone wrong, VERY wrong with the program.
When Obamacare began I was unemployed and qualified for a small subsidy and think I paid roughly $200.00 a month. In four years it has escalated beyond all my expectations. The Democrats have not fixed it and I'm disappointed.
20
Hard for Democrats to fix anything when all 3 branches of government are owned by the Republicans.
9
You do know that Democratic's have not been in charge of Congress for over 10yrs., right? How did you think they could, would fix this if they don't hold the reins nor purse strings?
The road blocks and purposefully sabotaged effects are what you are feeling. Democratic's had little to do with it. Short of using a Rightwing, Heritage Foundation, HealthCare plan to begin with. Oops!
Maybe you should look to your insur. Corp. and take a look at their record profit this year. Last year, the year previous etc.
By the by, this is now TrumpCare. All his.
8
With Congress firmly in hands of GOP, determined to destroy the ACA, why blame Democrats for not fixing the program?! Fix Congress instead!!
1
Filing jointly with my spouse (on Medicare) puts us just over the income limit for the ACA. Premiums for a woman my age in my county are around $800/month for a nearly useless bronze and well over $1000 for a silver plan. High deductibles too. After having insurance for most of my life through my spouse's job, I'm now another self-employed person who can't afford insurance. The hope was that Hillary would lower the Medicare age to 62. Now the fear is that the Republicans will keep trying to decimate Medicare. And please don't offer advice as to what I should give up to be sure that an insurance company gets more than $20,000 from me before they kick in with more than preventive care. Any tax I paid in a single payer system would be way lower than that.
15
Ocasio-Cortez has my answer, which is Medicare for all or single payer health insurance. The idea of being without insurance is terrifying and intolerably unjust.
17
Single payer. Problem solved. You are welcome
13
The ACA was doomed to never reach it's intended purpose or potential when Joe "The Hartford" Lieberman killed the public option followed by the blizzard of GOP lawsuits that worked their way to the Supremes where the Medicare expansion was deemed optional. That sawed off one leg of the ACA stool - See: how insurance works. Red states lined up to sabotage the ACA by not allowing the expansion and being generally hostile to the whole enterprise. It's amazing it worked as well as it did. Now that Trump has taken a blowtorch to anything with the word "Obama" on it - we have a crazy quilt of barely breathing ACA exchanges and an increasing number of states throwing people to the wolves. Rates are going to continue to go up - and coverage is going to go down. Yay? Once the McConnell Court shovels the last load of dirt on it - I'm not sure how voters are going to like their new "freedom."
16
When will the NYT mention the fact that NY has a chance for a single-payer comprehensive bill? The New York Health Act has passed the Assembly 4 years in a row - now its up to the senate. Everyone in NY should call their senator to see where they are on this bill, and back candidates this November that affirm they will help it pass. NY can lead the way, saving money and providing care to all New Yorkers.
10
If NY would align with California and likely, several other states and offer single payer across state lines, the crooked private health insurance market would soon evaporate.
6
What is all this nonsense about people not having health care insurance?
President Obama signed into law the Affordable Care Act in 2010.
There is, under the law, the "individual mandate" which requires EVERYONE to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.
Many of our citizens may unable to feed themselves much less afford suitable shelter, but one had better buy health care insurance.
It is affordable and it is the law!
3
Nope.
The Supreme Court in 2012 upheld a major provision of the law that required most Americans to have health insurance or pay a tax penalty. The court said that while this “individual mandate” exceeded Congress’s power to regulate commerce, it could be upheld as an exercise of Congress’s taxing power. But last year the Republican-controlled Congress eliminated those penalties as part of the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul that Mr. Trump signed in December. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/08/health/obamacare-pre-existing-conditi...
4
58 years old, and now over the income limit for subsidies. For a Silver Plan, now have to budget over $200,000 for the next 7 years! Ouch!
13
Better budget more. If the Ryan Republicans have their way, they will at least raise the Medicare eligible age to 67 or 68 (if not manage to privatize it which will kill it), just like they did to the Social Security eligible age.
6
@Dan Weinshenker
I will have to budget the same amount this year as for all the previous years and of course those to come for myself , wife and 3 children which comes to a fairly affordable $0.
Just like the cost of my wife's Heart Surgery to replace a faulty valve last year at $0
We may pay slightly more tax than the U.S , but never having to Budget or say Ouch! ever for my family of 5 is well worth small cost of higher taxes.
Bill Clinton was elected President in 1992. The first thing his wife did was convene a group of experts to figure how to solve the health care insurance ( or lack of ) crisis, which had been a problem since Nixon was President in the early 70's. She was widely scorned by the way from the vast right conspiracy that is now completely taken over. Here it is 2018 and it's the same song & dance, which has only gotten way way worse. Insurance for profit will never work. And you can write about till your blue in the face, which you have. There is only one thing that even has a chance of starting to solve this problem ... that is Medicare For All ...
21
Do-able in 1962, 1972, 1982, 1992. Now, nearly 30 yeas later than the Clinton admin the question is how to pay for 330 million+.
2
First, some countries have successfully implemented cost effective insurance based universal healthcare (e.g. Germany, Singapore). The common element to both successful insurance and single payer healthcare is that the government, not the insurance companies, set prices. A free market does not and will never exist in healthcare.
Some single payer plans are severely underfunded (e.g. UK) where medical equipment and facilities that are far past their service life are still in use. But at least nobody goes bankrupt from healthcare debt.
Second, Nixon did try to pass comprehensive healthcare reform and almost succeeded. His plan was insurance based and would have required ALL employers to provide healthcare for their employees. The unemployed would be covered by Medicaid.This plan was far more comprehensive than Obamacare and did not depend upon fictitious healthcare “markets.”
Ted Kennedy initially opposed Nixon’s plan, insisting upon a single payer plan, but later began to work on a compromise. In early 1974, as reported by Catherine Mackin on NBC news, it was widely expected that a compromise would be reached, and that universal healthcare would be in place in the USA by the end of the year. Unfortunately, a problem called “Watergate” happened.
Before he died, Ted Kennedy said that his biggest regret in government was that he didn’t compromise sooner with Nixon on healthcare.
Now, the insurance companies are so powerful that meaningful reform is all but impossible.
3
I don’t need an annual quote for health insurance. I need a lifetime quote. And I need accrued benefits, because if I paid money in the past for health insurance, it‘s not right that I have no coverage as soon as I can no longer afford to pay.
14
I support single payer. But I really would like to see some reasonably rigorous study showing what the total cost of single payer would be and how much each person or family would have to pay at each income level. Only then will we know the true costs and benefits.
13
Everyone should be entitled - yes, entitled - to healthcare regardless of their ability to afford it.
The continual increases in premiums resulting from Obamacare illustrate some of the shortcomings in that law. It simply does not, as a practical matter, provide healthcare for all. Millions still elect not to have it or are priced out of their plans. I know many people whose health care premiums are more, sometimes far more than their mortgages.
Politicizing this matter ( as, tragically, we do to almost everything else) does nothing to resolve the issue.
Nor does blame or finger pointing, on all sides. Each side promotes some good and some bad ideas.
The solution is not simple. Single payer may have the preferable result, but its cost would be prohibitive. As it is, Medicare is operating on fumes.
I am not smart enough to know the answer. But I do know that healthcare should not be a privilege, but should be a basic human right. The phrase used by our founding fathers that we should all have the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", has been stretched to cover many situations. It should certainly cover the basic health of our citizens.
No one should be able to tell from my comments, above what party or political philosophy I favor. It is in the absence of those factors that this critical matter must be resolved.
10
Everyone in America did have access to medical care. What they did not have was medical insurance.
5
Do you think that if maybe we took some of the money that we pay and our employers pay along with premiums that are realistic for all of us and placed them in a fund that even the 1% have to pay we might be able to figure it out?
We put a man on the moon without digital computers... unless you believe that is a conspiracy.... I’m certain with the Power of a cell phones computer ability we can make healthcare for everyone a reality it just takes a heart and a brain and some courage. Dorthy where are you
8
"Everyone in America did have access to medical care"? That's absurd.
The entire problem stems from one cause. We allow oligopolistic, and in many regions monopolistic, private insurance companies to profit from people's pain and illnesses, giving them a strong motive, opportunity and the power to take from the vulnerable. Health insurance should not be for profit. We should allow only regulated non-profit corporations in the health insurance business.
15
While I support a single payer system, to blame it on the insurance companies denies the reality of where our healthcare dollars go. First, the ACA requires that 80% of all insurance premiums be spent on medical care. That certainly still leaves many billions of dollars for insurance company profits, overhead and advertising, but in a $3 trillion industry, insurance companies are not the main factor.
The main culprit is hospitals. They take by far the biggest single share of the health care dollar (estimated at about 30% of the total) with the balance going to doctors and then pharmaceutical companies. Politically speaking, I just don't see how Congress would take away monies from hospitals and doctors (who combined take about 50 cents of each health care dollar) even if it might lower costs and reduce premiums.
For now, realistically, we are somewhat stuck with the system we have and we should try to make incremental changes to the ACA. In particular, we need to increase the subsidies for those most adversely affected by the premium increases, who primarily reside in the $80,000 to $150,000 income range for a family of four.
3
Before the Affordable Care act, I had a bare minimum plan that I could barely afford. After the Affordable Care Act that plan more than tripled in price, and that was before that back-to-back years of price increases.
Needless to say, I had no choice but to roll the dice and go without health insurance.
The ACA is a disaster and should be replaced with a single-payer system. We do it with K12 education, we do it with retirement, why not healthcare?
But the lobbyists for the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies and the healthcare industrial complex have our representatives in their pockets, so single-payer will never happen.
20
You are partially right. Part of the reason that we don't see change is the lobbying and campaign contributions of the medical industry. But part of it also lies in the fact that most Americans, for reasons that are not clear to me and perhaps against their self interest, do not support single payer. My sense is that a large segment (60%?) don't want to be taxed to support "other people". If the people (or at least about 3/4th of them) supported single payer, then you might see some movement on this issue. Until then, gridlock.
9
The people who don't want to support "other people's healthcare" are not thinking with a clear head. Everyone, at some point, will need affordable healthcare. That's pretty much a given in life. Sooner or later, the people who don't want to support single payer are going to find themselves as part of the "other" crowd--people who need the support. In other words, they'll end up as the ones needing the support.
1
Norton,
Agreed. The question is how people become educated about this and ultimately view the matter differently.
Think I can go seek asylum in El Salvador by begging them to let me in out of fear for my life here from the medical insurance lords and their gangs?
16
For our family of 4, our HMO premium is $1700/month (our HMO which won't cover anything outside of our state, despite Kaiser having facilities across the US. god forbid anything happens on vacation).
Imagine what my family could do with an extra $20K a year. For one we could both save for retirement and for our kids' college education. As it stands we have ~ $500/month of disposable income for our kids' activities and for family enjoyment. We can't save for retirement. We can't save for college. And we can barely put any money back into the economy.
What I cannot understand is why the Democratic party can't put universal health care in the simplest terms, i.e. "As a family of 4, today you pay $20K/year in insurance premiums. If we had Universal health care, your tax liability would go up by ~ $7K/ year. As a family of 4 you would have ~ $13K of disposable income".
I despise this country and its misaligned incentives that only benefit the rich. Happy 4th suckers!
23
I like your thought. But the politics are tricky. First, although I don't know your income, I am not quite sure how you come up with the $7,000.00 per year figure. Assuming that you could cut current healthcare costs by about 1/3rd, that's still $2 trillion of new taxes. I would like to understand who would pay for this and how much it would cost all the way up the income scale.
Moreover, you still have a large number of people (40 million?) who have good coverage and pay little to nothing because their employers pays the tab. These may tend to be more upper income people but while you might save $10,000 per year someone else may have to pay an additional $20 thousand or $30 thousand per year above what they currently pay. That's a political problem.
5
I went to a physical therapist today (HMO.) It cost me $70. Between myself and my employer we pay $10,000 per year for my health care. I mentioned the $70 to the clerk and she said "oh, you have a delectable plan." To which I responded "all of my choices with your HMO have a deductible." I could choose the highest plan for almost $12,000 per year. But it too has a deductible. I can do the math $2,000 will pay a lot of copays.
6
Single-payer / Medicare-like for all.
Make it a tiered cost system, with both age and income being used as levers to establish premium costs.
Medicare is finally doing this, and for higher-income 65+ers, it's still a bargain, if not an outright steal. But -- it's also a promise fulfilled. People paid into it for 50+ years -- they should have coverage, and it shouldn't be onerous in cost. Even at highest cost tier, based on highest income level, it's very fair.
So, to use that as an example: think all the 50-somethings and up to 65 ... suddenly not working, due to tech changes or their own health issues, or whatever. Many would LOVE to 'buy-in' to a Medicare-type plan, and pay more than the standard (65 yrs) eligibility cost ... but would still be significantly less in premiums than the 'go it alone approach' that currently exists. With better, more consistent coverage.
It's lonely out there in the 'gap years' ... and very, very, very expensive.
41
The bottom 90% of Americans who do not receive healthcare coverage from their employer collectively do not possess and cannot supply sufficient wealth to fund their healthcare. *Some form of wealth redistribution is required to do this.* The ACA tried to do this with the “individual mandate” but this is just redistributing wealth from the healthy poor to the unhealthy poor.
The individual mandate was never going to work. Young healthy people without insurance need to build their wealth, not give it away to subsidize unhealthy people. For healthy people without assets to lose, going without health insurance while they are poor makes good economic sense for them. I had to do it for about 18 months when I was between jobs. There was no other way.
For healthcare to work for all Americans, wealth redistribution must come from people who have money to spare: the top 10%. That means from most New York Times, LA Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal readers.
It is indicative of national moral rot that the country with the largest economy in the world allows its citizens to become impoverished and financially ruined because of healthcare debt.
14
"Young healthy people without insurance need to build their wealth, not give it away to subsidize unhealthy people." I would say that it true--however life is unpredictable even for "young, healthy" people.
I read a recent news story about a twenty-something-year-old California woman who was celebrating her birthday by hang-gliding in Mexico. Well, wouldn't you know it--there was a huge mishap and she ended up severely injured and hospitalized first in Mexico, and now for a month (and counting) in a hospital somewhere in the US. She was NOT insured prior to her accident--and she had to beg from Go-Fund-Me just to pay her Mexico hospital bills (they wouldn't let her out of the country without payment-in-full)--and now the same for her mounting US medical bills which are running in the six figures.
You never know what life will dish out--this YOUNG and formerly vibrant woman certainly never expected a life-altering accident to come her way--but it did and she had no health insurance to fall back on. Now her previous "healthy" bank account will be depleted by the time she's done paying off the medical bills--maybe by retirement age if she's lucky.
9
My then 22-year-old was diagnosed with a glioblastoma several years ago. Can't begin to add up what his surgery, radiation and chemo treatments cost. He is fortunate enough to still be alive without huge deficits, but of course, chemo and radiation carry their own long-term dangers. He surely got his money's worth out of health insurance premiums, which he carried after he finished his undergrad education. Thanks, BC/BS. If he'd chosen to do without health insurance as a very "healthy" young person, it would've been left to the hospitals, his doctors, etc. to "write off" his treatments. We'd have had to borrow to finance his chemo. As it was, they wrote off his portion of his deductible. And the insured pool would have been left (were left) paying for those write-offs in the form of higher premiums. That's what happens when you go "naked" if you don't buy insurance. Life turns on a dime.
1
Even healthy young people can develop bad disease (e.g. leukemia, testicular cancer, melanoma) requiring expensive treatment that can be financially ruinous without insurance. But there is a world of difference between taking a carefully calculated risk and engaging in stupid and unnecessarily risky behavior.
Hang gliding without health insurance is inviting disaster and is just plain stupid.
Carefully avoiding unnecessary risks while healthy can be an effective bridge strategy during an unavoidable gap in health insurance.
Here is a key point that most posting here forget.
FOX news and the Republicans target predominantly white males 60+ in age. Meaning the vast majority of their supporters are retired, and thus covered by Medicare. My parents are included in this group even if they are not Republican.
This older cohort could care less about insuring the young, poor, and newly disabled. They have gotten their universal coverage at low cost through Medicare, so they can say SOCIALISM! at the ACA even though they are direct beneficiaries of a universal senior-healthcare policy.
The sheer number of voting boomers will allow them to punish the young until they literally die off.
14
Well, you know what, those "boomers" worked all their adult lives and paid into the system--just like the previous generation worked all their lives and paid into the system.
Apparently, you haven't been keeping up with the news reports that older people--the 50+ category- are in favor of single payer because many of them are part of the "gig" economy due to age discrimination in hiring. They don't have those Medicare benefits or other affordable health insurance--and they are stuck as well when it comes to being poor and/or unhealthy.
15
Right, blame senior citizens for your problems.
You may not know because you seem clueless, that folks sixty and older who qualify for medicare have been paying through the nose all their working lives for this coverage. Medicare is deducted from their paychecks same as social security payments. Find someone else to blame for whatever financial difficulty you may find yourself in. It's not you parent's fault.
12
That's not how I understand it. I may be wrong but I've heard the average person takes way more out of the system than they ever put in. In fact, I've also heard the highest amount of healthcare spending in a person's life takes place in the last six months. Hmm. Maybe that was social security, though. I remember Al Gore saying "lockbox" but then didn't we spend a bunch on the war in Iraq?
1
We'll hear more and more of these drop outs due to insurance costs rising, as the years pass by. Soon we'll here about more and more bankruptcies due to high health care costs. Then we'll people clamoring for change, but nothing will happen. Congress will not act. The President will not act. We will be stuck exactly where we were prior to the enactment of the Affordable Care Act. That act has worked very well in states that worked to enable it as the law was written. In those states that fought against it, the ACA did little good for its residents. It is too bad America had to elect a Republican President and Congress. Many will pay the price.
14
It's funny when people say they don't "need" insurance because they think they're healthy. Perhaps they don't understand what "insurance" is.
17
What you say is true, generally. However, a lot of health "insurance" is not actually insurance, i.e., it is not protection against random, relatively low frequency risks, but, rather, an option for third party payment for ongoing, predictable, and routine health care costs. The insurance model is not really a good way to fund those costs because it includes significant administrative-middleman costs.
9
Absolutely correct! Health care plans are not really insurance. Health insurance would be what pays for your hospital care if you get hit by a bus, or need treatment for a new cancer diagnosis. It seems a “no brainer” that everyone should have this sort of insurance. But it is less clear when predictable expenses are included: periodic screening tests, cobtradeption, etc. Insurance is not the right model here.
5
As long as a person eats healthy all natural foods nonprocessed foods, exercises and keeps injury free for the most part they should not need healthcare. But of course if a person is having rare extreme medical case then they should need health insurance.
2
You know, I think about the ideological indoctrination that we've undergone, forbidding discussion of Medicare for all or public options for health insurance. We've made it political suicide to even talk about these ideas. Meanwhile, insurance companies make huge profits, and many Americans are left either without insurance or with such giant deductibles that they are effectively without insurance.
The idea that the greatest, richest country in the world will not fix this problem because our representatives are bought and paid for is beyond shameful.
21
Were are the only industrialized country in the world where healthcare is considered a privilege not a right. Your health is simply another form of ATM for corporate usurers. And it will remain that way until the GOP is voted out of existence.
14
This is exactly why medical costs are rising! So you drop your insurance, you get sick and go to the ER (the most expensive form of health care), most states require hospitals to give you some treatment. Then what? You can't get blood out of turnip so they don't even both trying to collect from you, but they do pass that cost along to all the other patients who do have insurance by charging more for that bandage. That is how we get $50 for that bandage.
Insurance companies don't really care nor do the hospitals, they are getting paid and they can adjust their rates to accommodate the economic conditions. Until we have mandatory health insurance for everyone, be prepared for only the very wealthy being healthy and the rest of us slowly dying off. Hey, isn't that what the conservatives want? Yup!
13
ER visits have increased, markedly among those receiving free or subsidized ObamaCare ever since 2010.
The only feature of the failed ACA worth keeping is pre-existing conditions. The law was written for the Obama admin by the medical and health insurance industries minus any adequate or even competent review prior to voting by Democrats in Congress. What could go wrong there?
5
Margo:
Unfortunately, there were a lot of mistaken assumptions made by Obamacare drafters. The president trumpeted these fall assertions (ex., reduced costs, keep your doctors, etc.) and his supporter blindly defended. People fault Obama for lying about keeping doctors and plans. I fault him for his gross ignorance. He was like a salesman who knew nothing about the product he was selling but could sell snow in winter.
1
Why would GOP legislators care? They get free medical care for life paid out of our taxes!
10
Look at the picture accompanying this story, and then think about the Big Picture. We have folks waiting to sign up for insurance plans so complicated that it takes specially trained government employees (under Obama, they were called "navigators") to explain it.
That's the first, obvious sign that something ridiculous is going.
ACA is flat stupid. So is, or was, the individual mandate. What 20-something in his or her right mind is going to sign up for insurance that they're extremely unlikely to need or ever use, given out of pocket expenses, so that sick folks who really do need health care can get it thanks to premiums paid by these young folks? Making these 20-somethings, who are already struggling to get started in life, pay a penalty is just pushing them into the welcoming arms of the GOP.
ACA needs to go away, the sooner the better, and be replaced with Medicare for all. If Medicare was universal and took effect early in a presidential term, there'd be no blowback at the polls. Repealing it would be as politically possible as repealing Social Security.
Democrats just don't get it, and so Republicans win. Again.
9
And I’ll bet that if your twenty something child need extremely expensive care and didn’t have insurance you would be screaming about why we dont have single payer or would you. Think about it. In my twenty’s I needed a few small procedures but the socialist military took care of them and I took care of my obligations to you. Enjoy
10
So you think young people never get into serious accidents, come down with cancer or other serious illnesses? Yeah, I know, young people think they're invincible--until something unexpected happens to change that--and then they're not so carefree and healthy anymore.
1
he is advocating for medicare for all.
My wife and I stopped buying insurance this year. In 2014 premiums were $642/month for me (48) and her (54). We are non-smokers and have no medical issues except for being overweight, me slightly and her a little more-so.
In 2015 the premiums went up to $742. In 2016 they went up to $1,073. In 2017 they went up to $1,427. For 2018, the cheapest plan (pretty much the only plan available in Missouri) was $2,070/month. That’s $25,000 PER YEAR. Nope, not doing it.
If I thought there was any chance they would actually cover anything I *might* pay those premiums but based on past behavior and other people’s experience it’s not worth it.
We are putting the $1500 we were paying last year into an account and hoping that by the time something happens we can afford it OR some sort of common sense kicks in and the American health card system won’t be the steaming pile it is now.
We do have the advantage of being more financially secure than most people and can easily handle most medical issues but I still dread any sort of major health issue like cancer . That would probably wipe us out.
18
Andrew - I was going to write a very long post about my premiums in New Mexico in 2010 ($398) to Oregon in 2011 ($495) and currently in Oregon @ $1000 per month but you said it all. I'm 62 with no healthcare issues. $7520 deductibles. It's not doable and no one cares. Like you, it will go into a savings account with a lot of "thoughts and prayers," whatever that means, right?
10
Open and HSA, buy the cheapest insurance policy you can find and invest the remainder. You'll make enough so that the cheap policy pays for itself. Any additional profits are yours tax free.
2
Universal Healthcare please
16
You better move to Sweden. If they let you in.
5
Readers... this is now TrumpCare.
His little fingers have been all over and thru the Act.
Please refrain from calling it ObamaCare, which it never was.
Remember! TrumpCare.
Better! Cheaper! Winning! Gag!
12
This is just shocking! Who would have thought?
The Republicans were hell bent on taking away insurance from millions of people, so what's the shocking news here?
6
Who knew this would happen? Everyone! When the GOP screwed with the ACA, and couldn't agree amongst themselves on a better health care system. Its going to get worse, as more Americans drop there coverage because of rising costs. Another win for the GOP and trump, "not". trump wants it to get real bad, so people will demand a fix, to which he will try and take credit. his modus operandi.
6
This is 100% on Obama and the ACA, and Democrats. Obama RUINED healthcare in the USA. Period.
9
Oh yea cause it was so great before ..... it's been a disaster for as long as I can remember. And that's a lot longer than 8 years ago.
5
There wasn't anything before Obama for anyone who wasn't rich or had good employer supplied health insurance. 30+ million with NO insurance.
Perhaps you never were without insurance then or you chose to lie or be ignorant of the truth and reality.
5
Prior to ObamaCare, we had an affordable health insurance policy for less than $289/month with a $2500 deductible. After ObamaCare that very same policy skyrocketed to $1200 with an $8000 deductible. We haven't had health insurance since 2010.
1
Last year my wife and I insurance, thanks to Mr. Trumps policies, was originally scheduled to increase $475 a month, and only going to a plan with higher deductibles and less coverage we were able to keep it to $250 per month. A the higher rate that was nearly a 25% increase in one year. The only fortunate thing to happen was my wife is now eligible for Medicare, which is now a significant savings. The choice is not good, when one needs to gamble with being able to save for retirement or having medical insurance. The only thing I can say for sure is that there will not even be an attempt to solve the healthcare issues in the country until every last Republican is voted out of office.
12
Many of us over 50 were forced to stop buying health insurance in 2014, when the Affordable Care Act replaced discrimination against pre-existing conditions with price discrimination based on age.
As long as we allow the presence of shareholders between us and our doctors, there will always be groups of us who will have to be excluded in order to keep the profits flowing.
22
Obamacare was the opposite of what the country needs, which is to rein in the exorbitant costs of medical tests and procedures in the US. Instead, Obamacare transferred wealth from working middle class Americans who didn't qualify for taxpayer subsidies to the medical industrial complex, thus perpetuating the problem of costs. There are models in other advanced countries with much lower costs that we could follow. But our corrupt and incompetent politicians seem able to only rearrange revenue streams.
24
It didn’t start that way but folks who sound quite a bit like you made the Congress change the original intent into something that satisfied the insurance companies and their share holders... if we had a single payer system there would be a bunch of ticked off insurance folks looking for work as well as some politicians. Too bad President Obama’s original plan was modified to ensue the 1% got theirs. Guess what you got yours
13
RC,
The main transfer was not to the medical industrial complex as medical costs (as distinct from premiums) have not risen exorbitantly since the enactment of ACA. The main transfer of money was from upper middle income and upper income families and individuals to working class and middle income families and individuals in the form of subsidies for premiums. (This is the primary reason for premium increases.) I think that this transfer is essential but I sense that many people just view it as a sophisticated form of welfare.
2
JD,
Obama couldn't even get a public option never mind a single payer system. That's not his fault. It's partly the result of lobbying and campaign contributions to Congress. But it also reflects the reality that for some reason a significant enough of a majority of Americans does not support something that smells of single payer.
The people who have incomes too high to qualify for aid can’t afford insurance.
The Republican solution is to get rid of the aid so nobody can afford insurance and we will finally achieve a free market nirvana.
23
The present 'system' is a scam-it benifits insurance companies, and their executives, primarlily....and given 'the numbers', is unsustainable.
Single payer, now....
22
Don’t like your insurance?
Remember that this November.
35
Just as Trump wants. Obamacare decays from within once the mandate to buy is gone and the healthy desert the system.
20
Because the middle class was caught in the undertow of ObamaCare. Those who couldn't even begin to afford an ACA policy had to pay a tax to fund those receiving free/subsidized policies.
2
Our company plan costs in Colorado stayed stable the entire time since the ACA. Now it will go up because the Republicans have decided it's bad. Wonderful. The Republicans have contempt for the American people.
29
Another day, another debate about health care in the USA.
The numbers I see seem very high- I'm not sure what you get for such large premiums. And deductibles running thousands of dollars- what's that all about?
Look, my wife and I are retired. Recently our provincial government halved our premiums, for political reasons. Before the reduction, we were paying $150 (Canadian) per month, with no deductible. Maybe you get better care for the premiums you pay, but we're pretty happy with what we get for what we pay.
22
How much longer will the citizenry tolerate being bled dry by the insurance cartels? We need single-payer healthcare, and we need it now. Full commitment to "Medicare-for-all" is the absolute least I expect from any politician who wants my vote. At this point, it's not an exaggeration to say that political leaders who stand in the way of single-payer are enemies of the American people. This of course includes the entirety of the Republican party, but also a distressing number of entrenched Democrats who have sold their souls—and our futures—to their donors in the healthcare lobbies.
35
I agree with you. But someone has to estimate what this will cost and what everyone will have to pay at the different income levels.
4
In 1979 I joined the navy and as I aged I realized that although I wasn’t going to make a ton of money I’d always have health care for myself and family. I retired and was able to get a job with insurance at zero cost for me and my family( I could have had a job for more money but no insurances). My wife got cancer and had insurance thru her work so we were triple covered and after the surgery and chemo treatments I got a bill for 146$. That was 1995 we have had double or triple coverage ever since and don’t regret the smaller paychecks one bit. I’ve had both knees replaced at an out of pocket cost of zero.
Sometimes it’s better to plan for the worst and enjoy life than to find out instant gratification of a high paying job turns into a nightmare. I would love to see everyone covered by Medicare or a similar plan but until the legislature renounces the big insurance companies campaign money I’m not holding my breath
21
This is all par for the course when American oligarchs remain oblivious to the pain and suffering inflicted upon lower income individuals who will succumb slowly but surely to an avoidable form of benign neglect.
Health reform and gun control : two interlinked subjects of US public policy which neither the government nor the people appear to have much interest in seriously reforming. I suppose that this is part of American exceptionalism, too.
16
I am a freelancer who makes too much to qualify for a subsidy--just over the limit. Which, in NYC where I live, means I'm borderline poor. My premiums--as a healthy person with nothing wrong with me--are very high and I got a letter from my insurance company--Emblem--that they will be going up 25% next year. They said, in their letter to me, that the reason the prices are going up is because this current adminstration decided to take away the individual mandate which will cause prices to skyrocket. That is a huge amount of money to spend on the off-chance I need help. We need a single payer plan and need it immediately.
74
There are multiple reasons for price increases. But one of the most important is the cost of insuring for preexisting conditions. So your coverage, that you rave about, is forcing a million others per year off the ranks of the insured. No way to say that nicely.
6
What is a 'preexisting condition' ? Acne ? Asthma ? Where does one draw the line between a benign and controlable condition and one that can spiral into a fatal disease such as a staph infection of the face gone awry or or an asthmatic condition complicated by a wider range of environmental triggers ? Just another excuse for insurance companies to deny coverage to patients who suffer from bona fide illnesses......
20
Michjas,
You are absolutel right as to one of the main reasons for premium increases. But the only alternative is to deny care to those that need it.
Subsidies have to be increased up the income ladder.
1
Unless you qualify for a subsidy -- insurance is very expensive. I had a great HMO policy in PA (personal choice) ... The cost exploded after the ACA. We now pay $2200 a month for the two of us ... thankfully, we never really need it .. but $2200 bucks.
10
Seven years ago we were paying over $1500/mo for a small business policy for two of us. Thank the US for Medicare!
2
" I had a great HMO policy in PA (personal choice) ... The cost exploded after the ACA. "
Of course you need to assume cause and effect, and it had nothing to do with the people you voted for.
Assuming what you say is even true....???
I'm sure the administration is not in the least bit embarrassed or concerned about this.
24
Until the Trump base, the only people he caters too, outside of his criminal crony's and dictator despots, raises a stink, healthcare won't be fixed.
His base won't say anything, 'cause to not goosestep in time is a sin and warrants banishment and stoning.
They would rather children die, than pay a tax. Just look at gun control. Life means nothing unless its a zygote or rich. Preferably white and both.
May Karma bite them.
10
I purchased my insurance on the exchange the first few years on the KY exchange—which had political support here. But I noticed that each year insurers found ways to circumvent paying for anything.
I had one of the Gold Plans but the insurance company never paid for a single prescription. For other things they said “oh yeah, we will reimburse you later.” I did all the paper work. My doctor’s office submitted prior authorization documentation. They denied it. I appealed and it was denied again. I literally took days office to stay home to be on the phone with Anthem representatives but no one you get on the phone has power or answers.
These were medication I’d been taking for decades. For two months I got them to pay for one medication but then they said they would no longer allow me to go to any retail or mom-and-pop pharmacy, I had to do it with some mail service, which was a backdoor way to deter me.
In the end, I was paying them money and getting nothing in return. I’ve gone without insurance ever sense. I would like to have insurance but I don’t have the time or money to pay for a product where the other party doesn’t act in good faith and fights in every possible claim or lies.
Also, you won’t be surprised to learn that the several thousand dollars I was told would be reimbursed wasn’t because they managed to delay until coverage ran out for that year. There is little a person can do when insurers lie or are deceitful.
24
The problem with Obamacare was the name.
They should have insisted on calling it ACA, the republicans would not have found it so offensive.
As long as the insurance companies have their hands in the mix and health care providers have to pay outrageous sums for insurance driven by litigious lawyers and maximum profit pharmaceutical companies the USA will always have the most expensive healthcare system in the world pricing out all but the very rich.
The best solution would be a single payer system with tort reform. The problem with that is the big donors to the legislators are the insurance companies, big pharma and most congressmen and senators are lawyers.
May we all make it to 65 and be able to get Medicare,
14
It was the Republicans than named it "Obamacare" as a way to mock the program.
9
Well, Trump owns this Healthcare now.
Welcome to TrumpCare.
Feeling ripped off yet?! Just wait.
5
It was called the Affordable Care Act.
It was never called Obamacare by anyone but the Republicans who wanted to keep the Tea Party riled up.
7
I’m self employed and live in Massachusetts, so was buying insurance through the Romneycare market before Obamacare was a thing. Obamacare was and is much worse for me. I never qualified for any subsidies under either system. But Massachusetts made a real and successful effort to match clients and plans regardless of income. Obamacare didn’t. My take is that insurance companies had too much input into how Obamacare worked; they were chasing Medicare dollars, and too much faith was placed with states to manage their own markets. It should be said, Massachusetts has a long history of active state level regulation of consumer insurance markets. Other states don’t. Still, Obamacare was simply not written with the small business owner or self employed person in mind and Romneycare was.
I’m a liberal Democrat and always will be, but there were many slings and arrows for the moderately successful entrepreneur during the Obama era, which I feel have been under reported. Obamacare was one. I do think there’s a way to have a market-driven yet humanely regulated insurance system, like Switzerland’s, but my sense is that the political moment for this in the US has passed, and it is indicative of Democrats’ hubris and lack of attention to the “little guy” that the effort is failing. Blaming Republicans for blowing up Obamacare misses the point that it never worked well for people like me in the first place.
43
62 years old, single, healthy, Silver ACA policy, went from $750/month in 2017 to $1040/month in 2018, plus $5000/year out of pocket. No subsidy. This was the ObamaCare vision, and now it will be made worse by Trump. Only the rich and the subsidized poor can afford medical insurance, and the out-of-pockets will make sure the poor do not go to the doctor.
48
"This was the ObamaCare vision, and now it will be made worse by Trump."
No, Mr. Bunker, the GOP refused to reform the original ACA legislation which it opposed.
The people you voted for did you in.
6
Meanwhile all Trump nation can say is "Death to ACA! Yeah, Donny, you the man". The sad reality is Roseanne nation really thinks that once Trump and the GOP dismantle ACA (which in their eyes goes to those lazy people on Welfare who get gold plated Medicaid benefits for nothing) they are going to get this marvelous system where they, the "real working Americans" will have health insurance that covers everything, with no deductibles and copayments and a cheap monthly cost, 100 bucks or less. What they likely will get is what Trump is trying to promote, small business plans that basically cover office visits, little to no coverage of tests, drugs, hospitalization and the like, but hey, it will be afffordable..until they are faced with a real health situation then find themselves on the end of many tens of thousands of medical bills, then blame Obama and the ACA for it.
32
Yeah those Billy and Bobby policies that only cover you if you're bitten by a werewolf that's Trumpcare in a nutshell. Like a previous poster said if we can only make it to 65!
3
At 64 and as a self-employed white female in Colorado, I had a choice between two plans. Only the more expensive plan allowed me to keep the group of eye specialists I need, so I pay $1,340 per month with a $6,000 deductible. Looking forward to Medicare!!
37
Marie, that is really horrible. I thought we had it bad.
We are each paying $850 / mo with $6000 of total deductibles.
3
This has been the problem with Obama’s plan all along: it helps the poor on the backs of the middle class.
24
That could have easily been fixed with a little tweaking but yea for those tax cuts that go to the ultra rich and corporations tax cuts! Right?
BTW a good portion of the ACA subsides go to the middle class. And you know taxes is what you pay for a civilized and equitable society.
3
The assault on the middle class continues unabated, brought to you by Trump and his fellow Republicans in Congress and the Supreme Court.
21
The private health insurance industry did not want ACA. They fought against it. When it was finally shoved down their throats they took revenge on Americans by offering ridiculously expensive plans with high deductibles. A true insurance scam. And the beauty part was that the government said you had to buy it. To rub salt in the wound, the government named it the "Affordable Care Act".
16
Who cares!!
Oh wait a minute, that's right. If they don't have coverage they will go to hospital ER for care which is very expensive, or otherwise delay care until what could be solved with a penny pill costs $100,000 like stroke from lack of high blood pressure pills.
Who cares!!
Oh wait, that's right. My own health premiums will increase to pay for that...
Who cares!! I'm a Trump voter. Facts don't matter, only belief!
23
When will America get sick of all this and pass single-payer?
46
When they GET sick. Literally. And by they, I mean those who can get it to pass. You know why there is finally movement on covering hearing aids? Because They - our congress people, the baby boomer ones - are losing their hearing. The political is personal.
1
So much winning, trump supporters!
14
From 2013 (last year before ACA took effect) until the premiums for 2017, the premiums for all types of health insurance (PPO, HMO etc) went up. And went up hugely under the ACA
Before 2014, in 2009 -2013, HMO premiums actually went DOWN 4.6%
2014 -2017 -the ACA - they went UP 46.4%
Before 2014, in 2009 -2013, PPO premiums went up 15%
2014-2017, they went UP 66.2%
Before 2014, in 2009-2013 POS (go where you want plans) premiums went DOWN 14.9%
2014-2017, they went UP 66.2%
You can't have unlimited anything without driving costs through the roof - not medical, not 5000 sq ft homes, not perpetual free meals at 5 star restaurants, not $2400 pairs of shoes
The ACA promises UNLIMITED care to absolutely everyone.
Prices reflect that
Spare me the whine that all coverage before the ACA was"junk" coverage because it didn't cover endless treatment for drug addicts & endless pyscho-therapy for everyone who had a bad breakup with a boyfriend & everyone who waited to buy special coverage until they planned to get pregnant and then dropped it ASAP
(BTW, if you can't afford pregnancy/delivery costs, how can you afford daycare & to raise the kid?)
The ACA is "JUNK" coverage with its huge deductibles and enormous total-out-of-pockets ($7350 individual/$14300 family) Thinking a couple with a $50000 income can pay $14300 in deductibles and copays is NUTS!
Those who don'tget subsidies were okay with the ACA premiums the first year. Since then they have dropping out like mad
10
You call ACA plans "junk coverage" probably because you have no idea what they cover. First, all ACA plans - in fact, all health plans now - cover annual preventative care for FREE. This means that children get check-ups and vaccines, and grown-up get blood tests, mammograms, etc., prior to deductibles, prior to spending another dime. That wasn't true before, and is really good for health care (and health costs) in the USA. Second, if you have a plan and see in-network doctor for an illness, your cost for the visit is deeply discounted; mine is about one-third of the "sticker" price. Third, while a $7,000 deductible is high, if you get really sick, that (sadly) will probably be covered the first day in the hospital. After that you'll be glad to have insurance to cover the rest, rather than no insurance at all. And last, your stats. on costs do not include the money being saved by people no longer going to hospitals for simple things, the amount of which has has dramatically decreased since the ACA was passed. Single-payer would be better than what we have now, but the ACA is better than before.
7
You’re very right. Free preventive care has been great. In my own experience I’ve found most of the talking points people use who are against the ACA to be untrue. I’ve been with the same doctor for 17 years and have always been able to find a plan where she’s in network. From 2014 through 2016 my premiums stayed steady or decreased. Since the Republicans began trying hard to destroy the law, my rates went up 10% for 2017, then another 25% for 2018. I’m 60, no subsidy and currently paying $920 a month for a silver medical plan plus dental. Who knows how much this will increase over the next 4 years until I can get Medicare? I’ve known a number of healthy people who were suddenly stricken with cancer, so I know better than to be without insurance. Just trying my best to keep my own good health going. I would never begrudge anyone the chance to have health insurance they can afford, including subsidies, and I don’t understand how anyone in our country can take that view.
Somehow other countries have managed for years to do what you say is impossible. It is only impossible here because we are different.
5
This is entirely predictable. People who are not forced to buy private insurance will not buy it. It is a crappy product. It costs a fortune, the insurance companies will try to cheat you out of coverage for anything so they can keep your premiums as profit, and the deductibles are enormous. The only insurance program worth the money is Medicare - our socialized health plan. Imagine that.
26
Yeh, except those over 65 buying Medicare PAID into the system over 40+ years for that lower coverage in their sunset years. There never has been and there still isn't such a government animal as "free".
2
After more than 30 years of dutifully paying steadily monthly premiums we got a letter from Mutual of Omaha stating that they were no longer insuring us. Simple as that. We chose to go without health insurance for about 8 years until we qualified for Medicare. A real gamble, and we lucked out. Others might not.
What's really funny is that MofO has the gall to continuously send us ads pleading with us to buy life insurance, etc. I'd like to think this is just the work of computers and that no pretend human beings are behind it.
23
who wants to pay $10,000 per year for health insurance. it is truly insane and not right. we have to come up with a better system. I live in Holland and paid $120 per month as an American getting private insurance. what the hell is going on in this country! enough! #basta
33
10,000? the premium on a family level plan for a company (group plan, self insured ) is 25k these days, if you tried buying it yourself it would be well over 35k in most areas.
The reason your premium was reasonable in Holland is easily, their medical system is state run and as a result the cost to your private insurance is a lot less, because even as a US citizen the cost is relatively low. Someone I know's daughter got sick there, and as a US citizen while she was responsible for some of the costs of treatment as opposed to a Dutch citizen, it was a fraction of what you pay here. She had a serious condition, that required specialists and blood work and all kinds of tests, and if I remember correctly the total bill was under 5,000 dollars (and insurance did pay for most of this, her cost was like 500). In the US, 5000 dollars would be the cost of going to an ER to get a broken arm xrayed and set, between the 'radiologist interpretation", the bill from "radiological services" (the xray and the xray technician",), the "hospital services fee" (taking up space in the ER, getting assessed), 'Hospital materials fee" (the plaster cast probably), and "medication" (tylenol for the pain of the broken bone).
The GOP thinks medical care is a luxury that if you can pay for it, great, and if you can't, you should be grateful for whatever the Koch brothers of the world decide you deserve.
26
The individual market pre-ACA was a sanitized one: People with existing health issues or a family history of them struggled to find coverage before. It stands to reason prices on the individual market are rising and discouraging -- especially given actions to destabilize it. If auto insurance was only available to those whose families never had a fender bender, those rates would be cheaper for anyone could qualify, too.
7
The price for my insurance has doubled over the last 4 years, from $400 + a month to $800 + a month this current year. I pay until I can not. The process start over again every new year.
7
Catch-22. Of course, those people who cannot afford the cost of premiums certainly could not afford the cost of paying for medical care out of pocket. Conservatives seem to think that cheap but woefully inadequate or junk insurance solves this problem but the end result is the same as having no insurance. In those plans the medical costs borne by the patient are exorbitant. Medical bill debt rises, as does bankruptcy. Taxpayers end up paying for the escalating number of uninsured treated in emergency rooms. As every other nation in the Western world already knows, for ordinary people profit-driven, stock-exchange medical insurance isn't more affordable and doesn't result in effective, quality healthcare. Unfortunately, we are so divided as a nation, we can no longer even hold a rational conversation about this issue, let alone set about fixing existing problems, or considering new solutions like Medicare for all.
39
61 years old, contactor (not by choice), single again, healthy. Silver ACA policy and dental.
Over $1000 a month, crazy. I signed up because I have no choice really. Can't be without health insurance.
Hopefully the current Washington horror story will end soon and we can move to a single payer system.
84
Single payer will bankrupt you and the country. $1000 a month will look like a dream. 1/2 to 2/3 the country has no money and Democrats want to flood the country with more poverty and they will tax you into the ground to pay for it.
The real problem is too many Americans are selfish and refuse to buy health insurance even when they can afford it. Either we all pay or we all suffer.
5
I would not want to pay $1,000 a month. Better if others pay the premium ie ideally a singly payer plan where the other taxpayers effectively pay my health insurance premiums. Let the other taxpayers assume my personal risks since I do not want to assume the risk.
Why should I have to assume responsibility for the the risk or go bankrupt before Medicaid kicks in.
In the current system it is not that the government won't pay for my healthcare but that they expect me to take primary responsibility for it and only when I am unable to cover it ie bankruptcy will they kick in.
Wrong. Mexico is going to pay for it, believe me.
1
The unregulated health care industry is gouging Americans, profiting handsomely year after year and forcing insurance cost increases. Take your anger out on them, not those who “use” the care they need.
59
Not worry. As candidate or president Trump said:
“We’re going to have insurance for everybody,” Trump said.
Trump boasted via Twitter, “I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid”
“We don't want anyone who currently has insurance to not have insurance.”
“I firmly believe that nobody will be worse off financially."
“I am going to take care of everybody … Everybody’s going to be taken care of much better than they’re taken care of now.”
70
“If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.”
“Families will save $2500 per year on insurance.”
Trump didn’t say those whoppers.
14
He has told so many lies about EVERYTHING including health insurance. You want to defend YOUR president with his lies by slamming Obama - give me a break dude. ENOUGH.
...but folks had insurance.
If our politicians, all of them, not just the GOP, weren't owned by their large donors, corporate, family, individuals, etc., we might have a universal access single payor health care system rather than the wealth care system we're suffering under now. If our politicians didn't receive the best health care imaginable due to their positions, and had to go through the aggravation the rest of us go through each time we require health care (and that includes dental care, eye care, etc.) we'd have a better system. But they don't. It's not we, the people who have no skin in the game. It's our politicians who have no skin in the game. They aren't forced to fight with the insurance companies over payments, the necessity of tests, the need for more than the normal amount of treatment. That's for the unwashed masses who weren't smart enough to be born rich.
The answer isn't ending the ACA. It's having some backbone and creating a real health CARE system, one where anyone, rich or poor, can receive the treatment they need when they need it. The real waste is the thousands of people who wind up unable to receive treatment when they first require it and who must wait until it's a matter of living with intractable pain or getting treatment, as well as those who die because they cannot afford to pay for the cure. What a wasteful country we are.
75
"and made it harder for people to sign up for insurance later in the year, two factors that could have also depressed insurance enrollment."
Sloppy writing, not giving an example of how Trump "made it harder for people to sign up.."
Poorly designed policy usually fails. Still waiting Oregon to cough up the $400 mm in federal dollars they wasted on a website that never went live.
7
I find myself wishing the US had never had a Revolutionary War, so we would be Canada, instead of what we are, a country that sees food, housing, medical care, for the poor as an impediment to business.
If you watch YouTube video from Scotland's or England's Parliaments, you see them argue over health care, but only because all sides want more.
Capitalism isn't worth it, in the long term. The rich get to pit the poor of America against the poor in Mexico or China, and along the way we stop being a country, and start being a...banana republic.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
121
But then you would be going to Mexico for health care, just like the Canadians are now going to Detroit.
4
Very few Canadians come to the US for medical treatment. Those that do can afford to pay out of pocket for quicker treatment. In Canada, emergencies of any type are always taken care of, with appropriate follow-up care. Elective procedures, on the other hand, do require the person to wait. Same as here unless you have the money to pay privately.
Ask the Canadians who come here for treatment if they'd rather live with US-style medical insurance or Canadian medical care. (Yes, we have insurance requirements before care can be provided; they bypass insurance and go straight to care.)
11
"Elective procedures, on the other hand, do require the person to wait. Same as here unless you have the money to pay privately. "
That's nonsense. As long as you have a good insurance policy, there is no waiting for elective surgery in the US.
There's no reason why those making over $48000 aren't getting the reductions in price whereas the poor are. If you make $50000 a year, you are in effect going to work everyday and using your hard earned money to pay for someone else to have insurance (not you). That's why you should vote against what's left of Obamacare. Because at your income, you can only afford to subsidize someone else's insurance, not pay for your own and you are on the hook entirely any way for your own healthcare costs. They should be too.
18
I believe it was Jake Tapper who characterized the attitude of a typical spiteful American voter as follows: "I want my government benefits, but I don't want you to have your government benefits, and I don't want to pay for any of it!"
52
But that's the problem, isn't it? If they can't afford to be "on the hook entirely for your own healthcare costs" they're simply not going to pay for insurance. Then when the inevitable, accident, flu, whatever happens they'll go to the ER. They can't pay that bill either. So you and I are still "on the hook" only now we have an insanely inflated ER bill, and those costs get passed on to the rest of us who are insured. The last time I was in the hospital for an ER visit that led to a three day stay it was $35,000. Call me crazy, but I'd rather pay for someone's insurance than their ER bill. Even if that insurance cost $1,500 a month, it's still cheaper than that ER visit. Yeah, in a perfect world everyone would be able to pay and we would only have to take care of ourselves. But we don't live in a perfect world, we live in this one.
25
As a single person with no children I subsidise child care, schools, education etc through my tax payments.
On your logic can I have that money back because I’m not using the service.
Taxes pay for or subsidise lots of things I don’t use but I still have to pay tax. That is the price of a civilised society.
48
Our family was dropped by our insurance company hours prior to Christmas Day 2015.
At that time premiums were unaffordable, and the benefits of paying essentially extortion prices for a remarkable healthy family, were nothing to write home about.
Congress never met a tax revenue it did not like.
Insurance companies do not make any sense, financially.
11
Ok gang, let's go over it again.
The answer is a national, affordable, quality health care plan that most of the civilized world has.
It's not rocket science.
180
The key to your statement needs to be "fully funded."
What is happening is individual choice based on the ACA- a terrible law, sorry, Obama lovers- entice people to choose high deductible low-upfront health plans. Wanna know why? Because the masses don' think they will get sick or need care. So they scrimp on health, and pay $750 for an iPhone.
It's not rocket science. People need to understand that they should value their health as much as they value their mobile devices.
8
Come on, people aren't going to be able to afford a decent health plan if they give up their i-phone. $750 spent on a phone that lasts 4-5 years is trivial compared to health insurance.
And for the cost of that Iphone, they could buy about 2 weeks of non-garbage coverage for a family of 3.
Seriously - I pay $300/mo through my employer's plan and they pay 80% of the full premium on behalf of the employee for a full freight cost of $1500/month.
That $1200 per month difference ($14,400) year equals about 20 brand new iPhones.
2
It could never happen here. The mantra of many conservatives when it comes to any form of socialized healthcare. As prices continue to rise for Americans many continue to make statements about the impossibility of health cost sharing within the US. I personally find these claims utterly ridiculous, non-socialized medicine is not the exception, it is the norm worldwide. It is time that Americans realize that concepts like supply and demand do not apply to things such as health care and medications. People do not consider whether it is economical to buy the medication that keeps them alive, they do not weigh the possible cost benefits of not visiting a hospital after a major injury. This all costs Americans, hospitals cannot deny emergency service, people who can't afford medication or treatment call ambulances when it becomes an emergency, hospitals raise prices on those who can pay to continue to treat those who cannot. America needs to make up its mind, is it a nation who will care for its vulnerable in a public and efficient manner, or is it a nation willing to leave the poor to die in the gutter. Decide, compassion or cruelty, because this half-way compromise is rapidly becoming utterly unsustainable.
80
My family ACA insurance cost $19K this year. No one earning anywhere near $48K can afford that. My plan came with a family maximum out-of-pocket of $15K and an individual OOP of $7.5K. In short, with a serious health emergency, it requires paying $26.5K before everything is covered. If two people are hurt --- say a bad car accident--- that's $34K. If the car accident happens on New Year's Eve, you can be on the hook for one max OOP in December and another for care on January 1.
Insurance is supposed to be financial protection. If a health emergency will bankrupt you anyway, why waste the money?
127
$19k/year isn't that far off from what the total cost for insurance through an employer is - just that the employer is kicking in around 80% of the premiums.
For anyone wondering why wages have been stagnant versus inflation for so long there's your answer.
44
“For anyone wondering why wages have been stagnant versus inflation for so long there's your answer.”
Really? Wow! Explain to the rest of us how that’s the case. In detail, please, and provide references.
1
Forget James Comey and the Russians. It was Hillary Clinton's "Never, EVER!" that put Trump in office.
1
I was laid off in November 2016. I qualified for the full unemployment benefit. I was required by law to buy health insurance on the exchange. Imagine my surprise when I learned that I qualified for only a partial subsidy -- more than $200 of my precious benefit would have to be spent on health insurance every month. I did some math and estimated that I would have to pay more than $10,000 out of pocket annually before any coverage kicked in -- really, the only thing it was good for was covering a catastrophic emergency such as being hit by speeding bus while crossing the street. What a scam. I am convinced the only solution is government-run single payer. The health insurance companies are part of the problem, not the solution, and they must go.
146
$10,000 won't touch the medical bills for getting hit by a speeding bus while crossing the street. There are way too many places where a broken arm will produce that much in medical bills. Either way, the only true solution really is Single Payer/Universal healthcare/Medicare for All.
10
Exactly JefferyK, my only addition would be unregulated for profit health insurance companies must go.
Canada and other countries have a private system that is regulated by gov't.
Our golf courses in NYC here are somewhat similar to Canada's health system ie privately franchised out but regulated as to what the course can charge. The fees did go up over when NYC ran them but the improvement in course quality far out paced the addition fee to pay. It is still reasonably and not way over priced like many totally private run courses charge.
1
In a nation that has a lot of disgraceful things to be ashamed of, this, in my opinion, is the WORST disgrace. That our own country would be fine with allowing corporations to dictate health and medicine is beyond comprehension. We are a joke among industrialized nations when it comes to health care. We spend more on this than any other nation and get less for our money. Why does our government not care?? There are people who won't call an ambulance because they can't afford to. This is SHAMEFUL.
78