Posted on 11/17/2014 9:08:26 AM PST by PROCON
This month, two developments have shaken the conventional wisdom that repealing President Obama’s healthcare law is an impossibility.
First, Republicans scored a historic election victory, not only taking control of the Senate but likely winning the most House seats since 1928 — the year before Ernest Hemingway published A Farewell to Arms.
Second, the Supreme Court took up another case on Obamacare, and if the justices rule against the administration, it would force a re-opening of the law.
This doesn’t even account for the recently released videos of one of Obamacare’s main architects, MIT economist Jonathan Gruber, conceding that Democrats misled the public to get the legislation passed, benefiting from “the stupidity of the American voter.”
The prospects of repealing Obamacare can now be better described, in the words of Rocco Lampone in The Godfather Part II, as “difficult, not impossible.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Something like 26 states have tort reform limiting damages in medical malpractice cases.
Free market sounds good to me.
“Remove health insurance from the employer and, over time, the cost will “re-center”. That is, the cost will reflect the fact that the people using it are the people paying for it. You may find that instead of paying 10% of $1,000 a month ($100), you are paying all of $400 a month (the new “centered” price), but earning $300 a month more.”
It would be interesting to see but I’d be surprised if it just stabalized at current levels. A significant drop seems unlikely unless something drives costs to crater.
I completely agree with your post.
Obamacare is a bit of a gigantic scam, but we had nothing better. Meanwhile America bleeds jobs to China, and our unemployment rate CONTINUES TO RISE.
There are currently 93,000,000 Americans out of work.
“Do nothing” is not a health plan. The GOP needs to step up, and deal with this.
We cannot “do nothing”. We need a plan, which deals with healthcare. For real.
Now.
Or else we need to leave it alone. We cannot simply cast it aside. What we had before it, was every bit as bad.
First: Reduction of government involvement -— medical care does not require political commissars and bureaucrats and social engineers and community watch officers ... to wit: cut out the socialism.
Second: Ban government from deciding, or affecting decisions, regarding whom you wish to see for your medical care. You get to - again - pick your doctors.
Third: Several of the states -— BEFORE OBAMACARE -— already had special exchange/pools, where people who had difficulty getting health insurance, could submit an application to the insurance companies of their own choice, and each year, the submissions, let’s say to a Health Insurance Company X, would be accepted by Company X. Thus, if you had some previous health condition that kept you out in the cold, and you bothered to re-apply, you would be accepted ... IF YOU BOTHERED TO RE-APPLY. It worked.
I do not disagree with your points and am actually sympathetic to them, but if the medical profession would simply create an hourly rate plus expenses, vendor fees, etc. (like everyone else in America) then it wouldn't be so complicated.
Your clinic, for example, could bill $X/hr billed at 15 minute increments (plus any testing/lab fees).
The patient comes and takes up an hour of your time then they get the full hourly rate. Before you do a blood work-up you tell the patient, "hey, this will cost $80, you still want it?"
Every doctor, NP, or clinic business manager should spend a day or two at a law office and some other general consultant like a graphic design firm and learn how to bill and tell the insurance companies to pound sand. In the end, everyone would benefit, I think.
But don't get me wrong, I sympathize.
You should 'bargain' with your doctor or shop around. Cash is always king.
How?
ensure that persons are not denied coverage because of preexisting health conditions when changing employment;
Which Obamacare does, and which I believe a lot of its opponents claimed would drive up premiums.
crack down on Medicare and Medicaid fraud, while preserving the confidentiality of medical records from inappropriate scrutiny and without imposing criminal penalties for clerical errors and billing mistakes;
How many years, nay decades, have we heard politicians talk about cracking down on waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid. Yet Republican congresses and Republican presidents haven't done squat.
reform malpractice laws, to reduce the costly practice of “defensive medicine” and to make it easier for doctors to specialize in fields like obstetrics. We also recognize the vital importance of maintaining the confidentiality of the national practitioners data base;
There are, I believe, at least 26 states that have enacted tort reform that caps payouts in medical malpractice cases. Can you offer any evidence at all that medical insurance premiums are lower in those states than in states that don't have tort reform?
let individuals set up tax-free Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs), so they can plan for their own medical needs instead of relying on government or insurance companies.
An average appendectomy will set you back about $10,000. How long will it take you to build up an MSA to pay for that? How about chemotherapy for a child? Or a simple broken arm and trip to the emergency room - that'll be a couple thousand right there. The problem with MSAs is you need the money to fund the MSA. The average person doesn't have that kind of disposable income.
Republicans believe that Medicare and Medicaid recipients should also have the option to utilize Medical Savings Accounts, which would result in huge savings for the American taxpayers;
And the same question there; how do you fund it? How does that segment of the population which generally has the least amount of disposable income and the greatest amount of medical costs come up with thousands and thousands of dollars each year for an MSA?
overhaul the Food and Drug Administration to get better products on the market faster and at less cost to consumers;
How? It is a serious question. What corners do you cut on testing new drugs?
promote a private market for long-term care insurance; reduce paperwork through electronic billing;
Long term care insurance is the ultimate rip-off.
change anti-trust laws to let health care providers cooperate in holding down charges;
Where is their incentive to do that?
Financial arrangements should not be a barrier to a patient’s receiving quality medical care;
It generally is the biggest barrier to a patient's receiving care.
permit families with incomes up to twice the poverty level to buy into Medicaid;
And who will fund the increase in Medicaid costs? The federal government? Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't that a big part of Obamacare that a lot of Red states turned down?
promote rural health care through telecommunications and emergency air transport;
Paid for with what?
and increase funding for Community and Migrant Health Centers.
Healthcare for illegals?
A significant drop seems unlikely unless something drives costs to crater.
The reason prices have done what they have done for the last several decades is, in part, because the market has not really been “free”.
“Your clinic, for example, could bill $X/hr billed at 15 minute increments (plus any testing/lab fees)”
That is actually a good idea. It gets rid of the total body evaluations from some patients, and the Chatty Cathys. Get to the point and get it done.Also, get rid of the documentation requirements, so that docs have more valuable time to see patients.
Cuban leaf: “My employer pays 90% of my healthcare premium costs. Remove that and my insurance costs go up my hundreds of dollars each month. Why should I be happy about that?”
Hi, I have worked for large companies and small ones. I have worked for myself for a while.
I never let one, single company pay for my health insurance. I, instead, negotiated a higher salary and paid for it myself.
Why?
Because when I left that company I still had my health insurance.
Also - I would get them to quote me the plan and rate they were offering. In every, single case I could get the same plan for less. Until last year when ACA really kicked in it was always VERY affordable.
Allowing someone to OWN your health insurance is very dangerous. In my opinion.
1. Tort reform
2. Portability of coverage from employer to employer
3. Allow insurance companies to sell their coverage across state lines
4. Pre-existing illness coverage.
Do these four things and the free-market will resolve the matter in very short order.
I wish we wouldn't have been such a nightmare, part of problem is that I call Alaska home, choices don't exist. I had always thought I had a good health plan, until we used it; got a rude awakening for sure. EBMS was quick to work everything in their favor rather than doing what was fair, right, and reasonable. That's why I say the problem honestly must be solved by our Repubs, and not just window dressing & smoking mirrors.
Then when you consider all the Americans who can't afford a 2-3 thousand/ month family health plan; very big problem indeed.
It actually creates a split. Prices for the lower level stuff will go down, but the prices for the higher level stuff (major surgery, time spent in an MRI machine) which are being subsidized by higher prices for the lower level stuff, will go up.
The only way to drive down costs is to ... control costs. Thats hard to do for the actual services themselves so you look at things like administrative overhead, malpractice insurance and limiting what services are provided (unnecessary tests, for instance)
Did you report your insurance problem to your state insurance commissioner?
Over time. How much time? Five years? Ten years? Twenty? How long will it take before GE decides that it doesn't want to charge a million dollars for its CT scanner and instead will charge only $10,000? How long before a pharmacutical company or an insurance company doesn't need all that profit?
Yes. I'm tired of hearing someone who paid into Medicare in 1970's, 1980's, and 1990's dollars tell me that they are "all paid up."
No. I am sorry, but you are not.
Not. Even. Close.
And I believe that is true. In most tort reform states the premiums for malpractice insurance have gone down, in some cases by a considerable amount. But we're talking medical insurance premiums here, and I haven't seen any studies that suggest that tort reform has reduced those.
You bet - It turns Chatty Cathy’s into Cash Cows.
It also makes it so that you don’t get so frustrated with those types because you’re kind of in the back of your head going, “man, I’m making a killing off this one.”
(My wife is an NP)
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