Posted on 12/02/2016 5:59:48 AM PST by Kaslin
Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming physician, gave an outline of the plan on the Senate floor this week, which he said has a goal of doing “no harm.”
"I want to make a couple of things clear. First of all, nobody is talking about taking people off of insurance without a replacement plan in place. We all understand that there needs to be a transition over time," Barrasso said.
"People have already been hurt too much when they lost their insurance and when their rates went up because of Obamacare and the mandates, and the government saying they know better than families across the country. So we'll be working to make the transition as smooth as possible for everyone," he continued.
The plan, he explained, will cut costs, expand health insurance, and allow people to choose their doctors. Additionally, it will include helping young adults and those with pre-existing conditions.
"We'll be talking about ideas, ways to protect people with pre-existing conditions, and letting young people stay on their parents' insurance," he said.
Barrasso Outlines the Future of Obamacare
I’ve not had health insurance since the day obamacare became the law of the land.
It has become a religious thing for me now. i.e. having health insurance would show a lack of faith in God taking care of the body He gave me. And I reciprocate the best I can be living a healthy lifestyle.
Who cares what plan they are on. I couldn't give a crap if a 35 year old was on their parent's plan. The parents still have to pay the premium. Why would anyone care who's on who's plan, as long as the premiums are paid?
The solution is to have a basic plan that costs less than your average cable bill and covers preventive with a high deductible (not astronomical) with an adjoining HSA for every single American. Some check ups, urgent care clinic visit, $500 hospital co-pay, and $20 generics.
Everything else needs to be optional provided by employer or on the private market a la carte. There is no reason why a single man 33 years old needs abortion coverage.
The insurance companies don’t want this because they don’t want to deal with the collection costs from that many individual payers. They want to send one bill to the government.
It's really easy to find out.
Go to Healthcare.gov or the state version if your state has it's own exchange and get a quote.
The only personal information you need to provide is your age, gender and whether or not you smoke.
Based on my experience a policy from the exchange, without subsidy, may be cheaper than a good COBRA plan, but the deductibles may well be higher.
Repealing this monstrosity is the right thing to do.
We elected Trump and the GOP Congress to do the right thing. Not to play more gotcha politics.
I suspect most insurance company risk evaluators are savvy enough to realize that offering abortion coverage to men doesn't cost them anything.
If they're using that as an excuse for high premiums they're being disingenuous.
Agree.
Cut its head off.
Every plan under Obamacare must have abortion coverage, and the underwriters are definitely charging men for it. There’s no individualization when something is mandatory.
It’s put up or shut up time for the GOP and they’re still tip toeing around it. They really need to grow a spine.
And no reason why I, as a 36 year old female, need coverage for prostate cancer or Viagra. But it's easier for insurance companies to provide blanket coverage because they know I'm not going to be making any claims for either of those.
I get it but here’s the problem with HSAs as I told Sen. Cruz in the New Hampshire airport-—it will never fly because
1) the average American family now (perhaps not 30 years ago) DOES NOT SAVE ANYTHING. So you cannot try to implement a policy “requiring” more savings when they don’t have the money to save now.
2) the entire benefit of an HSA is a tax break-—but we also have large numbers of Americans who pay no taxes.
HSAs were brilliant alternatives 40 years ago, but I don’t think they will work today.
“Talking about ideas to...”? What? Haven’t they had years to plan this? Whatever is to be done should be passed in Trump’s first 100 days. No futzing around.
It’s not cheaper than COBRA when you’re over 35. A private company will get much better options because they actually negotiate with the insurer.
I’m not kidding. The individual deductible skyrockets to over $10-$15k on the cheapest plan and you pay $500/month for the privilege to carry around an insurance card that gives you nothing until the deductible is met. You’re lucky if you have more than one insurer on a state exchange.
It’s that bad. And it’s getting worse.
You're still getting charged for it.
HSAs are pre-tax deductions from your paycheck. If elected, it’s an amazing thing to realize you have money specifically set aside for medical emergencies, surgeries, premium prescription costs, etc. It also can cover your health insurance premiums if you get laid off.
If I didn’t have one, I’d be dead right now.
No, I think they should be able to be on their parents plan. They don’t care so they wouldn’t get insurance because “nothing will happen to them.” Whereas to the parent that kid is EVERYTHING. Life wouldn’t be worth living without them. Is a win for the insurance cos and they should offer it until the kid is 30 or has his own house or married or whatever. That is like offering the insurance cos free money. You can cut out maternity care from the policy, that would be fine with me! But those kids won’t go to the doc unless they are quite ill or a limb is hanging off. It’s a payment the parents want to pay, though, so take it.
Not necessarily. It all depends on the corporate plan.
Been there.
It’s funny...skyrocketing health costs, skyrocketing education costs, skyrocketing rents, etc. yet they want us to believe inflation is at 1%.
Actually, come to think of it, it’s not funny.
Agreed. No mandate to buy insurance. And employers should stop it as a regular policy. They can offer it to longtime trusted employees as a perk. If they want.
People should buy their own family’s policy and there needs to be tiers of care / premium costs. I think Switzerland did it correctly. Employers pay ALL accident costs, no matter where the accident took place, in the workplace or the ski slope. Removed the workmans comp cottage industry completely. But health insurance is bought by the individual and there is a very low cost tier called ward care that is perfectly decent, just less private and maybe the fanciest of docs wouldn’t take it. All the seniors on their pensions use it. I saw it in use and it is perfectly fine. In a hospital you will be in a ward like in the movies, but it’s not that bad and if you are pretty poor, it is worth it, same hospital docs and services of course.
Of course other than stanch the bleedingand get him breathing once more, hospital services should REQUIRE proof of citizenship, residency, or tourist visa (show me your return flight).
I don’t think the insurance companies really see Obamacare as an opportunity to raise rates and cut coverage. What happened here is that people HAVE been rebelling and canceling their coverage. That’s why rates have been escalating out of control. More and more healthy people are dropping their coverage and paying the Obamacare penalty, which means the insurance companies end up covering a disproportionate number of people who have a lot of medical expenses.
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