Maybe it's time to pull the plug on health insurance

CNBC ^ | August 4, 2017 | Jake Novak

[IrishBrigade]

‘...taking a good that has limited supply and pushing the demand to maximum.’

the perfect scam; and you the consumer have no options whatsoever...

[In God I trust]

Yet for $165 per month you can get health coverage through a Christian provider with a $500 deductible...

Do tell please. I would love to call them.

[CMailBag]

Obamacare is MOSTLY ‘Single Payer’.

[Soul of the South]

“This forty million without health insurance in 2010....is a myth piece.”

Illegals may be close to the 40 million number. Politicians have been claiming the number of illegals in the country is 11 million at least back to the Bush administration. We know about 2 million illegals sneak into the country each year or overstay their visas. In the 16 years of Bush and Obama the illegal population likely increase by 36 million. Add to that number the millions of “refugees” resettled by the government and put into the social safety net and you easily have 40 million “uninsured”.

[bert]

Senate dithers
Obamacare withers

Exchanges less subsidies die on the vine

[Antipolitico]

“Modern medicine is inherently unaffordable.”

Actually the prices are jacked up to make it profitable for the drug companies, big hospital systems and insurers to make money and to pay for those people that don’t pay at all. I was told by one person who worked in admissions of a big city hospital system that it seemed to her like 70-90 percent did not pay. Big hospital systems tell doctors they must order scans for as much as they can and the hospital makes lots of money this way. This is not a market system. There is no competition if your “network” is one of these systems. The physician groups are owned by these hospitals, setting higher prices than the doctors would have charged if on their own. The whole thing needs to be freed up and taken out of government control and interference.

[Vlad The Inhaler]

The government and insurance companies working together have purposely conflated healthcare with healthcare insurance.

The government politicians do it to exert control and to have another “Freebie” to buy votes with.

The insurance companies cooperate with the government because the government has sent them a bonanza of new business by forcing many millions of people to now buy health insurance policies and coverage they don’t really want.

Working together they have successfully convinced an entire generation that healthcare insurance is an absolute necessity and a right.

The cost of actual healthcare and healthcare insurance would both plummet if the government stops forcing people to buy healthcare insurance they don’t want and stops dictating what policies the insurance companies can sell.

But the insurance companies will lose the bonanza of business they acquired with Obamacare and the insurance companies own the politicians.

[RckyRaCoCo]

TRUE free market capitalism works.

Crony/corrupt/greed capitalism doesn't.

Here's some REAL fundamental transformation...get rid of the shysters and their servants(politicians, judges, media, globalists, freeloaders, etc.)...and you'll have competitive, affordable healthcare for all(who actually pay for it), as well as a safety net for the TRULY needy.

...Drain The Swamp.

[Vlad The Inhaler]

Democrats are laughing at the republican party today while the republicans turn another victory into a looming defeat.

Republicans never fail to squander a golden opportunity.

Donald Trump handed the republicans an unearned victory and a chance to redeem themselves and become a party of the people.

But the lure of the millions of dollars the healthcare lobbyists offer them has proven to be stronger than their campaign promises and their honor and ethics.

The republicans who prevent President Trump from repealing Obamacare will be handing the senate to the democrats in the 2018 election.

But their bank accounts will be fat.

Senators make $174,000 a year, plus benefits.

But how many, if any, have not become millionaires serving in the senate?

[Daffynition]

True that.

This child of the 50s recalls the family pediatrician, would come to the house [on his way into his office practice]; his visit for a diagnostic exam was $5.00; Mostly measles, chicken pox and the like.

When my brother was born [1939], mom spent 8 days in the hospital to have him; [no, there were no complications]; among her papers, when she passed, I found the bill/statement from the hospital; it was for $8.00, :D

By today's standards, the hospital's natal departments, were pretty bare bones.

[BBB333]

Here are the main four:

http://www.chministries.org

https://samaritanministries.org

https://www.libertyhealthshare.org

https://mychristiancare.org/medi-share/

My wife and I belong to the first one, have many friends that belong to Liberty.

If you do not attend church regularly Liberty is the best choice for you...

Best advice is to read the options and how they work...Medishare was not available in Montana a few years ago (where We live) but I believe it’s available now.

CHM helped us with a issue that my Wife had: $7,900 total cost, our total out of pocket was $390 - beats the heck out of O care!

If you are planning upon joining CHM, please consider PMing me for a referral.

Best to you!

[Wuli]

This must be understood in the full context of the problem.

1. In terms of looking at the problem, the insurance part is the hole, and it is the cost of healthcare itself that is the doughnut. But no one is looking at the doughnut, nor trying to produce solutions that will improve the doughnut. As the doughnut gets more and more bloated, they just keep trying to expand the hole - the insurance. Trying to throw more insurance and subsidize more insurance just feeds an unrepentant bloated costing health care industrial complex.

2. The solution should not be, most of the time, “insurance” in the traditional sense. It should be consumers paying for health care directly most of the time and on most general occasions. The insurance part should be reserved for “major medical” and catastrophic situations. Yes, companies that provide insurance can provide help with consumers paying directly by providing policies that have a generous portion directed to a health savings account.

3. A third leg that is actually very cost effective for certain medical needs is “accident insurance” which is insurance that is wider - as far as accidents - than mere “auto” insurance. Accidents have a statistically accurate history in terms of measuring risk, and an accident insurance policy is financially very affordable for both the consumer and the insurer. Young folks with very good health could be enticed into starter policies that are primarily the accident insurance portion.

In sum yes “insurance” as it is now being used is the problem. It is presently being used to “insure” the bloated health care industrial complex gets every dime it wants, without it being put on a consumer driven diet.

[silverleaf]

Probably a good time to look at insurance as a limited product to cover catastrophic and chronic issues, not average issues

More people are coming to terms with paying healthcare costs out of pocket due to exorbitant deductibles

[ptsal]

Eliminate the special cut-out subsidy for the elites.

[Sirius Lee]

But with the insurance-government cartel that has been imposed on us, the insurance industry has now BECOME one of Americans’ greatest financial risks

It's not about insurance and it's not about health care. It's all about control. The government, and increasingly their crony corporatist partners act only to impose more top down control over the populous. Federal judges are in on it, too. Anything that belittles and erodes the rights of the individual gets the imprimatur of some black robed fascist.

[mewzilla]

Insurance manages risk.

Businesses, individuals, even governments, need insurance. For a variety of reasons. To manage health care cost risks is just one.

What CNBC is really shilling for is single payer.

[bert]

——A third leg that is actually very cost effective for certain medical needs is “accident insurance”-—

Very interesting thought.

I agree with the concept.

[cymbeline]

“Obamacare subsidies sent to health insurance companies alive so the insurance exchanges”

This is mini-single-payer.

[BJ1]

>>>Modern medicine is inherently unaffordable.<<<

People expect, or think they deserve, ultra expensive treatment. I met a guy who had some sort of stint put into his intestines for some heredity disease that runs in his family. 150k for that. He is on medicare. He sees nothing wrong in that price tag, because he didn’t pay it.

[grania]

At my last dental visit, it was like being sent on a NASA space flight. There's no question the technology is out-of-sight excellent. The net result is that there's a high-priced solution to everything. I don't have dental insurance, so my questions are "how long will this repair last, what are the odds of it succeeding, and are there less expensive solutions". In the next cubicle there was a patient asking "is it covered"?

Insurance companies are inherently flawed. If they allow expensive coverages, it allows them to justify raising their rates when the regulators do their thing.