Posted on 02/17/2017 4:06:09 AM PST by IBD editorial writer
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control shows that the uninsured rate has hit a historic low, or at least it's the lowest it's been in the 20 years the CDC has been tracking it.
This is being treated as trouble for Republicans who want to repeal ObamaCare, since it seems to indicate that the law is working as promised. But does it?
According to the report, the overall uninsured rate was 8.8% in the first nine months of 2016. That's down from 9.1% the year before, and 16% in 2010, the year President Obama signed ObamaCare — also know as the Affordable Care Act — into law. What's more, the biggest one-year drop occurred in 2014, which is the year that ObamaCare's exchanges opened and the Medicaid expansion went into effect.
The CDC says this means that 20 million people gained coverage since 2010.
Andy Slavitt, who was acting administrator under Obama for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told CNBC that "the continued reduction in the uninsured rate is more historic good news from the ACA — measured in the quality of people's lives."
But the CDC report is far less encouraging about ObamaCare than it seems.
For one thing, the 8.8% uninsured rate includes everyone, including those on Medicare. With the massive baby boom generation starting to retire, the number of uninsured will go down automatically as they go on that program. Those gains in coverage have nothing to do with ObamaCare.
What about those under age 65?
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Except MUCH more expensively, but at least you get to give up your privacy and freedom.
Pray you don’t have a heart attack.
I see this life as sort of a video game, or the Matrix. Another way to look at it is as though it is the womb. And death is birth - into the REAL world.
At 63, with all of our kids gone for a LONG time, we are both ready for the Lord to call us at any time. Interestingly, I was just listening to I Cor this morning. And in chapter seven it teaches this:
“29 What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not;
30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep;
31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.”
I am in, but not of the world. I do not fear death, and I also know that the Lord will not heap on me more than I can bear.
Which makes sense since a large number of uninsured would have been the working poor who could not afford insurance. So instead of just dealing with that group he created a frankenstein.
Who wants to bet me, that Juan Williams will jump up and down and misrepresent this statistic every chance he gets, and no one on The Five will counter him with the facts?
The writer seems shocked the increase in coverage was due to an increase in folks on government programs vs private insurance. That was and remains the libs goal. Single payer. The system was designed for the insurance companies to participate, fail, take the blame, then everyone look to Uncle Sam.
I don’t think many Americans understand most company provided insurance is self insurance and the insurance companies just manage the traffic and administer the plans.
Exactly! Now, tell that to Kathleen “Mother of 0Care” Sebilius.
She was just on FoxBiz saying the repeal of 0Care will mean hundreds of thousands who are now covered, will lose their coverage. (Whaaaa whaa bew hew.)
Wrong, again, Kathleen!! They’re on MEDICAID - which is what we knew would happen, all along.
And states. TN has had TennCare for over a decade, it has nearly bankrupted the state several times and has been downsized that many times to stop the hemorrhaging. Memphis is the largest user, has 1 public hospital. Which is always begging for funds.
The ER is a doc office for illegals. The Elvis Presley Trauma Center services the 3 state counties around us, getting their welfare money is hard. Same goes for the NIC U. They are top draw, while the hospital is a cesspool of germs and diseases you pick up in third world countries.
You must be referring to The Med. I grew up in the Mid-South and even back then, it was the hospital you wanted to avoid. I can only imagine how things are now, with the level of violent crime and drugs in Memphis.
To be fair, there are a lot of great doctors, nurses and technicians at The Med, and it’s the only Level I Trauma Center for the region. But it’s like walking into a third world country.
I’m guessing the medical drill in Memphis is the same as it’s always been. If you’re one of lucky few who still has private insurance, can actually choose your doctor, and need to see a specialist in Memphis, you get a referral to someone in the Methodist or Baptist health care systems.
After retiring from active duty, I lived in northern Mississippi for a while, before moving away again. Baptist has been very aggressive in expanding into neighboring states and creating a wider network of feeder hospitals and facilities. The local hospital where I resided was owned by Baptist, the care was excellent, and if you needed more specialized treatment, the life flight helo would carry you to one of the system’s larger facilities in Memphis. And the waiting room didn’t look like Kabul General.
Exactly. And we now have our “secretary” with that ‘discretion’.....payback is a bitch. They thought they were gonna get 12 more years of Democrat control......WRONG.
Medicare has been the camel’s nose under the tent since the day it passed in 1965. The original plan was to gradually dial back the eligibility age until you got to de-facto national healthcare.
Had it not passed insurance companies would have demanded it, because older and sicker people are a pure drain on the bottom line. Better to shove them onto the public purse.
It’s why I believe single payer is sadly inevitable. Because an environment where insurers get to cherry-pick only profitable customers is not sustainable, politically or financially.
Wouldn’t they have been on Medicaid or some form of free medical before if they couldnt afford insurance?
Possibly, but likely they would have just been an ‘emergency room’ burden on the county hospital like the illegals. In, treated and out. No bill. That’s why when you have a legitimate emergency, you have to wade through illegals and poors.
Formal Medicaid requires things like asset disclosure and there are limits. Assets above a certain amount are taken as the accruing bills grow. This is typically the time when heirs start to talk their Medicaid parents into bequeathing off their assets to them early so the gubment don’t take them. That usually doesn’t work because by the time they think to do it, the reach back period is in force.
Yesterday’s “day without immigrants” certainly didn’t apply to the emergency room; I guess they took off work to get more free sh!t...
[What has changed is the dramatic growth in government insurance. That went from 16.8% of the under-65 population in 2005 to 26.6% now. . .That translates into 29 million more people getting health benefits from a government program — mainly Medicaid — over the past 11 years. Just since 2010, the number has climbed by nearly 14 million.]
Studies have shown that health outcomes for poor people using emergency rooms are more favorable than patients in Medicaid.
What the article doesn't specifically address is the surge in the veteran population resulting in a surge of new Veterans Administration hospital patients.
For the last few years I had to include in my IRS return a document mailed from VA saying I had access to in their program—even though I haven't used their services for 4 or 5 years. For purposes of identifying health insurance delinquents IRS excludes veterans eligible for VA medical services.
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