Posted on 03/26/2017 5:55:07 PM PDT by BellaMac
Dear President Trump,
I will gladly contribute to your campaign directly. I will not support the Republican Party. This party is full of establishment hacks lead by a Speaker who in no way supports you.
The republican healthcare bill would have hurt millions and especially late boomers. I have heard republicans says that healthcare is a privilege. As long as they are okay with pricing people out of the market, I am not okay with them. Healthcare, drug prices, premiums and deductibles must come way down.
I am in the individual market - we must have associations to distribute risk and get the same or more generous tax breaks as companies and while we are at it – putting Medicaid recipients in associations and having the government pay the premiums, rather than what they are so poorly administering now, would bring down costs exponentially.
The manner in which the Speaker did not involve the various factions from the very beginning and suggested that this was a binary choice was stupid and dictatorial. Dictating to the American people is why the Dems lost so badly. Now it's time to find a solution with or without all of the republicans - find Reagan or better yet Trump democrats to work with.
I have been in charge of important projects and if I had done as poorly as the Speaker - I would rightly have been fired. With respect, he needs to step down.
I am 57 and I stupidly thought that I would soon be able to afford healthcare insurance. I put my faith in you Mr. President. I still do. You must realize that someone like Trey Gowdy would better serve us all.
I am exposed, if I get seriously ill they will take my house. That is a stress factor I believed I would soon be rid of.
It appears the Speaker thought that a binary decision, under which I still would not have been able to afford coverage, was just fine. In my world when someone gives me an ultimatum - I ask them to leave and if called to provide my help at a later date to save what I was not invited to contribute to in the first place - well I smile and wish them all the best. The problem is that his game - this horrible bill that in no ways reflects what you promised on your campaign - was designed to hurt us all and your presidency.
Speaker Ryan is not a dumb man, he knew exactly what he was doing. This bill was never going to pass and he and establishment republicans knew it.
Do I really have to live in fear of getting seriously ill and not being able to afford healthcare insurance because of a bunch of sophomoric establishment republicans who could care less about what you promised and what the American people voted for.
Clean house sir - you have no time to waste. And pray that not too many of us get sick – because it could mean – not meaning to be melodramatic - financial ruin or worse my life and those of others.
A friend of my brothers was just put to rest, because he could not afford his insurance premiums and deductibles. He had a DVT that needed expensive Lovenox injections and constant follow-ups. He could not afford $12,000 in premiums and $12,000 in deductibles for his family nor could he afford the medications. He also did not want to leave this earth knowing his family no longer had a home to live in. Speaker Ryan’s bill would not have changed a thing for him – because his plan ensured that late boomers would still not be able to afford healthcare.
Many wanted to get rid of Planned Parenthood because of their aversion to supporting tax-dollar funded abortions. I get that. At the same time, it seems that unassisted suicide of God knows how many people who simply give up – because they don’t want to bankrupt their family – they seem to be just fine with that.
Mathematics is a many wondrous thing – the Republicans believe that the middle class need not keep their homes and must give up every last vestige of what they worked all their lives for – just to survive easily treatable diseases because a) they can’t afford the premiums and deductible and b) the actual healthcare and drugs are priced beyond any normal person’s grasp.
About ten years ago, I had to pay $450 at an urgent care for 4 stitches.
Please get rid of the Speaker and replace him with someone who understands and cares and commits to helping the American people! That is their job – they hide behind their “principles” while we cannot afford the most basic security – healthcare insurance.
Why not sign an Executive Order that takes healthcare coverage away from congress and their staff - maybe then they would listen!?! I sincerely doubt that - look at their track record - 7 years and they have left me and my countrymen and women out to dry.
Mr. President, rather than working with the Captain of the Titanic who ignores all the signs that he needs to change course - find a captain who is able to chart a course and make appropriate proactive course corrections - not with the objective of avoiding icebergs, but with the intention of getting to the final destination successfully.
God Bless you and your family!
Sincerely PFR
P.S. This was in response to a GOP fund raising letter. I did contribute directly to your campaign.
ryan/mac told us to take a pain pill just like zer0 said
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%.
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.
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
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.
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!!
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.
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
Sorry I meant to say no right
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.
Please look into health shares. You can afford it, and you will be covered for a catastrophe.
I have and am close to joining one! Thanks!
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.
So - if you don’t make enough money to pay for insurance - what then?
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.
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.
“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.
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.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.