An Open Letter to the President (vanity)

Vanity - In response to a fund raising request

[no-to-illegals]

ryan/mac told us to take a pain pill just like zer0 said

[Neoliberalnot]

I understand the plight, but medical services are always going to be expensive. Med services are very hi tech, new drugs cost 100 million or more to bring to market, physicians train for 10 or 11 years, and then there is a large cut that goes to the lawyers. Hitech medical services are never going to be cheap. Why pay for one more layer, by adding health insurance? Save the premium costs and put your money in an account for medical expenses— just a suggestion. My dad never had health insurance in his life and he did just fine. Why pay for an added service, insurance, when you can save money by direct pay? Take the lawyers out of all of it and everything drops by 20%.

[Jim Robinson]

You should concentrate on your county and state governments and charity hospitals, clinics, etc. Our constitution prohibits the feds from getting involved. And for good reason. If the feds get involved you end up with corrupt socialist Obamacare, only worse. Nationalized health care is the worst of all worlds.

[McGavin999]

The best thing he could do is get congress to be subject to whatever healthcare law they pass. Congress, their staff, and every government agency not covered by the VA. That way you will be sure the bill they pass will be a good one

[BellaMac]

The only problem is that I would like catastrophic care - I have a doctor - Direct Primary Care - I pay $100 a month and get anything he can do in his office for free - he has negotiated inexpensive rates for MRI, blood work etc.
If - and I hope this never happens - I get something bad - I would like to be able to fight it and continue on - and savings will not cover that amount.

[WENDLE]

You got sucker punched real bad by the Rino , Mr. President. Shake it off and lay them to waste. We need a good war. North Korea has called us out— DO SOMETHING before (not after) they kill 10 million here. That will unify us and isolate the traitors. Remember this , Mr.President.Paul ryan is a #never trump jack ass. And get rinse Penis out of the White House before he hurts you any more. You need NEWT real bad!!

[GnuThere]

Same here. Right now the plan I have is like paying full Obamacare price yet getting only catastrophic care is the real effect anyway. I just should be able to pay less if catastrophic care is all I care about.

[BellaMac]

I am more than willing to pay my own way - but they have to right to price me out of the market. I cannot afford Obamacare

[BellaMac]

Sorry I meant to say no right

[Reverend Wright]

In my view the single biggest problem with Obamacare was that it forced Insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions in the individual policy market.

So, the cost of everyone with pre-existing conditions was put onto the ~25million who buy individual policies, rather than spreading those costs across the entire insured population.

Many pre-existing conditions have the potential for costs that are so high that one hospitalization for one person could wipe out the profit from several thousand average policyholders.

With that kind of insurance pool structure, with ~20 percent of individual policy holders having pre-existing conditions, the insurers can try to make money with huge deductibles and co-pays, but eventually will realize they can’t make money with individual policies and exit the market (which is happening).

I don’t think pre-existing conditions are really insurable by for-profit insurance co’s. And I would propose that pre-existing condition patients be pulled out of the private market, put on medicaid or medicare and charged a fraction of their income as premium.

The costs of health care procedures are actually dropping where insurance and gov’t regulations are minimal eg. cosmetic and veterinary. But as long as trying to limit pre-existing condition costs has the greatest impact on profitability of anything they do, the insurance co’s are going to focus on that, rather than finding efficiencies in treatment for their relatively healthy patients.

[Yaelle]

Please look into health shares. You can afford it, and you will be covered for a catastrophe.

[BellaMac]

You have a valid point. The individual market needs to be based on associations and not on the individual. In Germany the Government has a pool for cases that are out of the norm. The only difference is, is that the insurance schemes request funds from the pool in those cases. The members of the associations/insurance schemes are not expected to cover those extraordinary costs. The member/insured with the expensive condition is not involved in asking the government to cover them. The patient only concentrates on getting better. Plus doctors don't refuse seeing them because they are on “medicaid”. Germany has the individual mandate but does not have universal healthcare run by the government,

[BellaMac]

I have and am close to joining one! Thanks!

[Yaelle]

The pre-existing conditions clause means it’s welfare, not insurance. Insurance is where the insurance company can safely bet you won’t get sick.

I believe insurance companies should be mandated to provide expensive “pre-existing” policies for five years only. That period of time should be enough to teach the American people what the concept of “insurance” is. Then the insurance companies should be free to not “insure” people for eventualities that have happened. People should provide for the health needs of their familes from birth to death, at least with a low cost no frills catastrophic policy (which all insurance companies selling the USA should be mandated to offer), or not be able to afford medical care.

[BellaMac]

So - if you don’t make enough money to pay for insurance - what then?

[Yaelle]

Low cost clinics, run by charities and/or local governments, as well as free clinics. I know of one place already, run by a doctor with a practice on the west side of LA who has a cash clinic down by the airport. He’s a great doc and poor people can see him for pennies on the dollar, with no insurance.

[BellaMac]

Do those clinics pay for brain surgery. Sorry but that is second or third class care - everyone should have access to quality care and not have to be in a position to ask for charity. Healthcare is a necessity and quality care must be available to all.
Charity is not a policy.

[Reverend Wright]

“The pre-existing conditions clause means it’s welfare, not insurance. Insurance is where the insurance company can safely bet you won’t get sick.”

I would say, rather, that “insurance” means the insurance co can calculate your expected cost.

https://aheblog.com/2016/11/24/doing-the-math-on-the-distribution-of-healthcare-expenditures-a-pareto-like-distribution-is-inevitable/

High cost patients (pre-existing) have a cost distribution that is approximately power law (Pareto) with alpha<2.

For such distributions the variance is not finite and the usual probability and expected value estimates do not apply.

Trying to cost insurance products for preexisting conditions isn’t really conventional insurance. It is more like selling options that pay off in a stock market crash.

Which is why I favour pulling the pre-existing out of the insurance pools entirely and putting them on medicare/medicaid and charging them a fraction of income.

And letting the insurance co’s compete over the remaining policyholders where normal insurance actually applies.

[BellaMac]

By placing them on Medicaid you are also in favor of them losing their home, because you lose your home or any other assets to the government. Is that okay with you? So - sick people get to lose everything - Pareto's Law does not apply because you are suggesting that 100% of sick people with pre existing conditions should lose everything.
Guess your planning on never getting sick, losing your insurance then going on Medicaid and then losing all your assets - the American Dream.
Like I said people choose unassisted suicide by not getting treated because they don't want their families to lose everything.
But making sure premiums for the rest are lower is worth the price.
This is why pools funded by taxpayers are far superior - because people don't lose all their assets just because they got really sick.