Posted on 03/14/2017 11:10:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The CBO has released its estimated cost of the new GOP health care plan and the numbers are getting some bad spin from the usual suspects.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Monday projected that the number of people without health insurance would grow by 14 million in 2018 under the Republican ObamaCare replacement bill, with that number rising to 24 million in a decade.
The Hill described the report as a "bombshell."
The Washington Post called it "cruel."
The New York Times said Republicans were anticipating an "almost certain to be a bleak accounting" of the plan.
The implicit standard in analysis of the health insurance system is that every consumer must have government-selected coverage. But why? This chosen paradigm doesn't take into consideration the most forceful motivation of human behavior, namely, whether a large expenditure of limited resources is in one's economic interest. This standard of "universal coverage" is as artificial as the government's bloated healthcare costs.
A young person with minimal health expenses is well served not to purchase one of these government-created insurance policies: his yearly medical expenses do not exceed the cost of his premiums and deductibles. With the rate that Obamacare costs are skyrocketing, that pool isn't just confined to young people anymore. If an individual or family has to fork out tens of thousands of dollars before seeing healthcare benefits, what's the point? Why not save that money and when services are needed, pay directly to the care providers?
Perhaps there are people who do not want the available insurance policies and prefer to handle their healthcare costs in their own way that best fits their individual or family situations. We are seeing a rise in concierge medicine, internet-based medicine, and free-market surgery centers. Insurance is a hedge against future risk; a young, healthy person might chose to cover himself with a catastrophic policy and pay out of pocket for the usual cold, flu, or ear infection. This makes economic sense.
If more people chose to pay routine, non-catastrophic costs with cash then more healthcare practitioners would compete for their business: doctors and companies would innovate new solutions to earn patients' healthcare dollars. I offer the example of two healthcare commodities that are outside the insurance world and outside government cost regulation: elective vision surgery and cosmetic procedures. Both are not covered by insurance. The cost of these two services has plummeted since being introduced to the market. There are commercials, Groupons, and "deals" constantly competing for your business.
That kind of competition is missing from our healthcare market. If you see any advertisements for products in the healthcare industry, like medicine or hospitals, there is no emphasis on "value" because the consumer isn't picking up the cost. How much is a routine office visit to your doctor? Well that all depends on who is paying for it.
So perhaps millions of people wouldn't "lose" their health insurance but rather would choose to opt out of the artificial system created by the government because it doesn't serve their economic interest. Under Obamacare, we saw rising costs for less coverage crushing the middle class. No right-minded person would choose this arrangement.
Some will argue that people aren't capable of acting in their own best healthcare interest and perhaps this is true some of the time or even most of the time, But one thing is certain: the government bureaucracy will never advocate for your interest. Save yourself and demand a free-market healthcare system.
Don’t we all have Medicare?
Oops, that’s only for us over a certain age.
I’m now 63. for the first time in my life, I cancelled health insurance the day Obamacare went into effect. I’ve saved roughly $40k in after tax dollars and only put out $280 to a dentist (for two visits and x-rays) and $50 last week for a Dr. Appointment for my wife. And the doctor said it was just a “really” bad cold. She’s fine, now.
Health insurance is a ripoff. I’d love to get a $20k deductible policy for the big stuff, but it’s not Obamacare compliant.
RE: Don’t we all have Medicare?
Yes, we do. But you’ll have to be 65 years old to qualify.
I got my Medicare card yesterday and the doctor put me in the ER. I’m going back for a longer stay [at Cedar’s Sinai] ...
My overnight stay last night was very nice and efficient.
So... you LOSE ‘insurance’ that is now THREE TIMES the price you used to pay, and which no one takes?
How awful...
I am FORCED to buy NY State marketplace, crony-capitalist expensive crappy health-care
Its like asking a slave if he worries about being forced off the plantation.
Some slaves might worry about who will give them their next meal and fear it. Other slaves will realize that its simply better not to be a slave.
If one is unemployed, a mere appendectomy could wipe out the entire family.
No, you’re better off.
RE: If one is unemployed, a mere appendectomy could wipe out the entire family.
That is why you need a Health Savings Account to is yours and will help cover your expenses if you should lose your job.
Or you could apply for Medicaid. since as an unemployed, you have low income.
All that matters is what they can splash the headlines, and broadcast in unison - that Trumpcare will kick people off health insurance, and have them dying in the streets.
If Ryan’s plan is the best POS we can get then, let’s do nothing and let Obamacare implode on its own, dying an ignominious death.
Medicare is fixed RATIONED health care. Same as Military healthcare Tricare Prime or Life, Medicare/Tricare Life are the fixed RATIONED health care for those over 65.
Does not cover high cost stuff like vision, dental, or hearing. Lots of procedures were cut back from yearly to 2-3 yrs apart, some are pre cancer test. And DoD MANDATED Tricare Life to get scripts from Military base or Express Scripts, private pharmacy is full retail, unless it’s a 1 time fill or ER fill. But all daily meds you get through the first 2 systems, Base is FREE, ES is fraud prone, never give them access to your credit, debit of auto checking. You will regret it. Medicare has a $60 B per year fraud and waste issue. VA is as bad. So is Medicaid.
At least President Trump is listening to the victims of DUMBOCARE.
Donald Trump Meets with Victims of Obamacare at the White House
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/13/donald-trump-meets-with-victims-of-obamacare-at-the-white-house/
Ryan: ‘Of Course’ Fewer People Will Buy Health Insurance If Mandate Goes Away (NOT BEING FORCED TO BUY WHAT YOU DON’T WANT)
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/ryan-course-fewer-people-will-buy-health-insurance-if-mandate-goes-away?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWVRNMk1qWmhObVV6WVRabSIsInQiOiIwSWtHNWg4QW5vK053Q3N2bCtCVlwvSndNaXlMMDd3RXpBTGpuYVEydGVnZU82dHpQZlF4TjI5bW5XeWNUTmFKc0F4bUNOOUtSMEJKWHBCbHJxaGJpTDFPWWYrcmlhcElPeUdoS3QrOXMyUjlDbWdnYmJjRERPVXhMTjBadlVTVXoifQ%3D%3D
OMB Director Mulvaney: ‘People Do Not Get Better With Coverage. They Get Better With Care’
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/omb-director-mulvaney-people-do-not-get-better-coverage-they-get-better?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWVRNMk1qWmhObVV6WVRabSIsInQiOiIwSWtHNWg4QW5vK053Q3N2bCtCVlwvSndNaXlMMDd3RXpBTGpuYVEydGVnZU82dHpQZlF4TjI5bW5XeWNUTmFKc0F4bUNOOUtSMEJKWHBCbHJxaGJpTDFPWWYrcmlhcElPeUdoS3QrOXMyUjlDbWdnYmJjRERPVXhMTjBadlVTVXoifQ%3D%3D
President Trump Weekly Address, riminds you of FDR’s Fire Side Chats.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/featured-videos/video/2017/03/10/31017-weekly-address
The next step for Trump should be to eliminate Medicare and the VA health care system. It doesn’t make any sense, ideologically speaking, for one kind of government health care to be OK and another to be not OK. The markets should do their work.
Some states did no expand Medicaid, so just a low income won’t make you eligible.
In traditional Medicaid (before Obamacare) you had to have a low income and be a primary care giver of young children, or be blind and a few other criteria.
Medicaid was not for the average poor or unemployed person.
Under Obamacare the eligibility requirements were relaxed to allow people with low incomes in (regardless of other circumstances). However, the Supreme Court overruled that and said that States did no have to relax their Medicaid eligibility requirements ... so about half the States did not relax the eligibility requirements.
Bottom line, insurance is collectivism, and should only be used as an alternative to freedom as a VERY last resort. Certainly policy that lionizes it and worships the expansion of it is wrong. It pisses me off that the people who foist this crap on us have no personal stake. In a sane society, dogs would be eating their entrails as they watched and their houses would be repurposed as public toilets, all for the hubris to touch our freedom.
Rush Limbaugh was talking about this today. I just don't understand how Obamacare can "implode" on its own. The medicaid expansion is funded by the Federal Government with the usual debt and Federal Reserve printed money. Although Trump told the IRS not to enforce the mandate, its still there. In the meantime, millions of Americans are forced onto their state exchanges and will never get more choice, unless Congress "allows" it. I don't see that "imploding" either.
Sure, it will get ever-more dysfunctional and expensive - but most of Obamacare will continue to get funding, because most DC bureaucracies never die. So how exactly is Obamacare going to Implode???
I just discovered on Monday that I lost my health insurance back in November of last year. I stopped receiving monthly premium notices, and therefore did not send them any payments, and they killed my policy after two months.
According to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, they have been sending me mailings. However, I have not received any, although I have gotten the premium notices for my two children from them without incident.
Something is fishy about all this, but Blue Cross was more than happy to make it completely my problem, despite the fact that I'm the one who discovered the error in the first place. Now they simply want me to sign up again. All of this after dutifully paying premiums without fail for almost 20 years.
It has occurred to me that, with two pre-existing conditions (both of which appear to have been resolved for over a decade now), this would seem to be a very useful way for Healthcare insurance companies to get rid of people they deem "too risky" with plausible deniability.
I have contacted the Florida State Department of Insurance and filed a report. They have now contacted Blue Cross, who has 20 days to respond.
Meanwhile, I remain in limbo, attempting to fix problems I did not create.
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