Posted on 03/09/2017 5:37:44 AM PST by pgkdan
The moment Republicans bought into the notion that Obamacare must not just be repealed but “replaced,” Democrats won. Democrats argue that health care is a “right.” Republicans claim they disagree, that nowhere in the Constitution does the federal government guarantee health care treatment or health care insurance. But Republicans' behavior suggests otherwise.
President Donald Trump, for example, says that in replacing Obamacare no one should be worse off; that insurance companies cannot decline those with pre-existing medical conditions; that insurance carriers must allow parents to keep their “children” on their insurance plans until the age of 26; and that insurance companies cannot drop people under any circumstances. Polls show that these are the most popular features of Obamacare. But forcing an insurance company to cover people with pre-existing conditions completely destroys the concept of insurance. Insurance is about pooling groups of people whose premiums cover unknown risks, not known ones.
The “replacement” plan runs head-on against two principles of economics. Competition makes products and services better, cheaper and more accessible. And there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Health care — just like cars, sweaters and smartphones — is a commodity. But health care is one of our most regulated industries, a far cry from a free-market-based system.
Start with the supply of doctors. Because of regulations, the supply of doctors has been artificially limited. Economist Milton Friedman once compared the American Medical Association to a medieval guild that shuts out would-be practitioners and artificially protects the wages of doctors. In a piece called “American Medical Association: The Strongest Trade Union in the U.S.A.,” Mark Perry, a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan and an American Enterprise Institute scholar, writes:
“Between about 1970 and 1984, there was a significant increase in medical school graduates that pushed the number of new physicians from 4 per 100,000 Americans in 1970 to almost 7 per 100,000 by 1984. Since 1984, the number of medical school graduates has been relatively flat … while the population has continued to grow, causing the number of new physicians per 100,000 population to decline to only 5.3 per 100,000 by 2008, the same ratio as back in 1974. Over the last few years the number of medical school graduates has increased slightly, and the ratio of graduates per 100,000 increased to 5.56 last year, the highest in a decade.”
What’s wrong with this picture? An aging population, in need of more doctors, on a per capita basis, has fewer of them. Economics 101, supply and demand and plain common sense tell us the opposite should be happening.
This is the argument Republicans should be making. The true replacement plan should be loosening regulations that prevent would-be doctors from entering the field, and prevent less-schooled and less-credentialed paraprofessionals from doing things that only licensed doctors can now do.
We train battlefield medics in Iraq and Afghanistan to deal with battlefield trauma, saving countless lives. The Oscar-nominated film “Hacksaw Ridge” depicted the true story of a medic with aspirations of becoming a doctor, whom the army trained to treat battlefield injuries. But that man, had he returned stateside and tried to set up a practice to treat victims of urban gun violence, would have been guilty of practicing medicine without a license.
There are many examples. In some states midwives cannot legally deliver babies, despite ample evidence that they possess the experience and ability. In his joint address to Congress, Trump criticized the lengthy and expensive process of getting a drug approved by the FDA. In some cases, drugs that could help people do not become available even when risks are known and desperate patients would be willing to assume these risks.
We strangle the health care and insurance industries with regulations, licensure requirements and barriers to entry that artificially increase the cost of health care. We prevent people from buying health care across state lines.
We advise developing countries to follow the well-worn path to prosperity — free markets, free trade, rule of law and property rights. Yet when it comes to nearly one-seventh of our economy— health care — we ignore our own advice. For health care, we don’t write ourselves the proper prescription.
-—If it is repealed outright, won’t millions of people be left with no insurance until something new is implemented?-—
That little fact seems to be lost on many....
Go ahead leave millions of people hanging out to dry and you might as well hand the Congress to the dems now...
Are the repubs complete idiots? By trying to “fix” nobamacare they are taking on responsibility for it. They promised to repeal it. So repeal it! What fools. Have they lied yuet again???
Is medicare, medicade, and social security constitutional?
If somebody has a pre-existing condition that would no longer be covered, it becomes a life and seat matter that transcends political ideology.
If pre-existing conditions aren’t covered, some people will oppose ANYTHING, at any cost. IMHO that is the crux. Even someone who knows it’s a socialist cluster^^^, harmful to constitutional liberty and a sleazy give away to insurance companies is still going to fight to defend it if the alternative is dying quickly of untreated/uncovered heart conditions, diabetes or the like.
If someone’s played the game by the rules their entire adult lives, expect intransigence and resistance if you change the rules for them, even if the rules were evil and arbitrary.
Yeah they lied to us again. Obamacare has been the biggest GOP fund raising tool since the Civil War and that’s all it’s been to these liars. Every repeal bill passed since 2012 has been a complete and utter sham.
If health care is a right that the government must provide, then where is my M-16? The 2nd Amendment is a real right as written in the Bill of Rights. If the government must provide health care then they must also provide the arms for me to keep and bear. However, the rights as enumerated in the Bill of Rights are things that the government can't do and not things that the government must do. Health care may be a basic right, but that only means that the government can't block someone from obtaining it as opposed to having to provide it. The government needs to get out of the way and let the market do its job.
“That said, portability should be obvious. It makes no sense to have a diabetic covered under the policy of company A only to have to wait 2 years if he moves to company B...sometimes using the exact same insurer. Now, most folks automaticly cover new hires without questions.”
Imagine a small business ( say a plumbing contractor with 6 employees) hiring an new employee and finding out that his family has two diabetics or someone with AIDS? Their Ins company would have to drop them like a hot potato.
I said in my original comment that portability can be addressed separately. And they can do it quickly. That means carrying coverage over from one policy to another. If you’re a diabetic and lose your job and your insurance you need to be able to buy similar coverage on the market. But if you go uninsured and find out you’re diabetic and THEN try to buy insurance you’d be out of luck and should be.
Put the COMPLETE repeal bill up there: forget about reconciliation and whether something is 'germane' or 'not germane' to the budget process. Let the 'Rats filibuster it, as the bloated piece of big government crap known as 0bamacare circles the drain in failure: pin it DIRECTLY on them and make them OWN it.
That's something the Trumpster is good at: using ridicule to make a point: as the 'Rats continue to obstruct, paint them as what's standing in the way.
What would it cover?
The reason the GOP won't repeal ObamaCare outright is that every single provision of it has an enormous constituency supporting it -- including plenty of people right here on FreeRepublic.
Go back over the last seven years and notice how many posts here on FR say some variation of the following:
"I want the GOP to repeal ObamaCare but they have to protect people with pre-existing conditions."
"I want the GOP to repeal ObamaCare but they have to keep the elimination of lifetime caps on insurance protection."
"I want the GOP to repeal ObamaCare but they have to make insurance companies cover [INSERT MEDICAL CONDITION HERE]."
That's exactly what we're up against, folks ...
Free ‘Basic’ healthcare should be provided to all US citizens regardless of income. Beyond that... not
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Nothing is ever “free”. What you are suggesting is, “Let old Graybeard pay for it. He’s got money”.
If this plumbing contractor doesn't offer insurance to his employees, then this wouldn't matter.
It's pathetic that we've adopted such an entitlement mentality that we expect employers to cover the medical expenses of people who don't even work for them.
There's nothing wrong with this. It happens all the time under other types of insurance.
In this particular case, the insurance carrier for Company A and the insurance carrier for Company B could be covered under simple contractual agreements for overlapping coverage. Maybe the carriers split the premiums that are paid for the first two years, and they have an agreement to split the cost of treatments that began when the insured worked for Company A.
“If you’re a diabetic and lose your job and your insurance you need to be able to buy similar coverage on the market.”
Precisely my point.
If they don’t do this either first or at the same time, then it becomes a fight to the death for some people (including friends of mine) who would otherwise support the GOP. I know FOUR people amongst friends and family to whom this applies, 40’s to 60’s. They’ve always held jobs and had coverage. Yank something away that a person has expected their whole life (no matter HOW irrational or ‘socialistic’ or unconstitutional YOU consider it) and expect violent opposition (I mean the general ‘you’, not anyone personally).
Hell I got laid off at 50, a year after being diagnosed with diabetes. Worked 6 crap jobs in the year before landing another one with health coverage, so as with my friends, it becomes a case of life and death. Better ANYTHING, any dictator, any form of government rather than dying slowly piecemeal as one said to me. It would be a different issue if they (or at one point I) could have purchased medical goods and services at a fair market-driven price, but you can’t.
Just saying, the pre-existing coverage issue, IMHO, MUST be addressed first. All the talk about ‘constitutionality’, ‘socialized medicine’ and the like means exactly nothing when the alternative is an untreated serious disease after one has played the game by the rules for nearly an entire adult life.
Just repeal it and stop there. That’s all you have to do. It was fine before he pushed it through. It will be fine without it.
Repeal Medicare for those over 65. Why should government give healthcare to elderly?
Repeal Medicaid. Even more so, why give free healthcare to the poor?
Repeal, or at least limit, TriCare. Guys with only a couple years in the peacetime military, and no service related medical issues get this benefit for life, why?
Target rich environment if you don't agree that "Health Care is a Right" then these should go.
Exactly, it might get signed. So, they won’t vote for it. They were never going to do it. I don’t hear one republican saying that they should drop people from coverage. Not one, not even Rand Paul.
The reality is that drug prices have to come down for Medicare and Medicaid. If we have to pay for these people, nobody should be making money off of it. They should be making money off of those who have money. There is the cost side and the care side. We should go after the cost side.
And lets be really honest, we pay drug companies to produce drugs that treat but do not cure people. We do not incent companies to produce cures. And we pay researchers so much money that after one hit. They have no more incentive. They are worth hundreds of millions. So our best and brightest are off buying islands paid for by Medicaid and Medicare.
If you DO believe healthcare is a right you have no business calling yourself a conservative.
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