Posted on 10/27/2017 6:14:11 PM PDT by Kaslin
I remember when my patients used to pay me up front for my service, and then apply to their insurance company for reimbursement. Health insurance policies came in all shapes and sizes back then, some more comprehensive than others, depending on a patient’s needs.
Patients understood that health insurance was not the same thing as health care, and that it was at best a promise that sometimes went unfulfilled.
Over the years insurers gained more control of the health-care system, until I had to appeal to the insurance company to be reimbursed for a service I had already provided. Since patients no longer paid for my service directly, it was no wonder they began to think of health insurance as the same as health care.
The new system put a lot more pressure on me and other doctors. Insurers made more of a profit if they denied payment for our bills, while we continued to hold all the responsibility for providing patient care.
ObamaCare gave the insurers even more power, providing them access to a new clientele in the individual market, and allowing them to charge increasing premiums for heavily regulated policies with high deductibles. Only the biggest insurers could afford to provide this coverage – and they counted on a captive audience of patients who were mandated to buy it.
But ObamaCare didn’t work, because young healthy patients were too smart to pay such a hefty price for coverage they might never need. In 2016, there were 6.5 million of them who took the tax penalty under the law for going without health insurance – half of them under the age of 35. In 2015, the average individual mandate penalty for going without insurance was only $442 – far below the cost of a year’s worth of health insurance.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
This doctor has no idea what healthcare means. The DC lawyers are now in charge and they are taking their fair share. Obama’s legacy—hijacking healthcare to profit the lawyers.
And the politicians are exempt so they don’t really care in either party.””
That is a media lie. Not one single republican voted for the hijacking of healthcare which turned out to be the DC lawyer bonanza and the biggest welfare increase since the 60s.
BS! They should be “replaced” by NOTHING. The government should replace itself right out of the Insurance and the Health business along with big time tort reform, at least toward loser- or loser’s attorney pays. Medical costs would come down drastically to be less than the costs of off-shore medicine. Insurance would shrink back to being actual insurance for large unexpected expenses and would be paid for with a tiny fraction of the current “premiums.”
Spot on.
The Aetna Building, since 1931; Hartford Steam Boiler 1866. Besides our beautiful State Capitol Building, very visible from the highway, as you are blazing through on I-91 N...is the Colt Dome, On the Colt Armory Building, built in 1855.
The Hartford ...the list goes on. Once the "the insurance capital of the world" that is all changing. Rapidly. Sadly.
One only has to thank all of the dipshits who voted for 0bama for the mess the health insurance is in.
Obamacare isn’t designed to deliver healthcare; its purpose is to destroy the middleclass. To that end, it is doing a fine job.
So which is it?
But the Free Stuff Army doesn't care. As long as they get their "fair share."
Of course, the fact that Obama funneled hundreds of Billions to the insurance companies illegally concerns not the media.
What which?It is both, not one or the other.
I thought the Clinton healthcare bill failed to pass?
Yes, it did. But Hillarycare crept in indirectly, through many of the states and through a variety of partial health bills under Clinton and Bush and LBJ.
Medicare pays first before your insurance company.
Never have I paid so much and gotten so little as the healthcare we're receiving.
Insurance companies are now non profits?
31 million is what our taxes subsidize for 2965 people at 10,455 per person spent
UHC had revenue of 184 billion
Net income was 7 billion
CEO took 31 million that year or four tenths of one percent of that
Seems fair to me
31 mill is base. What about dividends paid? Most of that 7 bill. would have gone to patient care in non-profit.
No ins cos. are not non-profit.
You must be a business person. Health care does not belong in business model.
Are you sure you’re on the right forum with talk like :
I must be a business person or healthcare does not belong in a business model
That sounds more like Mother Jones than Jim Robinson
Problem with healthcare is everyone now deserves the Mayo Clinic and nobody wants realistic office visit and treatment and meds deductibles and copays and non payers get same insurance as you or I do..I assume you are a positive contributor
As for Hemsleys pay....that’s his name....his net worth rises when UHC stock does....he is one of their largest individual stockholders and has stock options that trigger at certain prices like ANY CEO of a public company would
You sound like someone bitter about their rising healthcare cost and uninformed about what happened
I have a family of 7
My blue cross silver level policy without dental was 350 a month at the time of Obama care
I’m self employed and participate in a Tenn Farm Bureau group policy...no I’m not a farmer but I have 10 acres...you pay a membership fee
Now what six years into as yet unrepealed Obama care
My once blue cross policy 350/month is nearly 1000 now and with UHC
Farm Bureau dropped Blue Cross because it was even higher
Almost tripled premium precisely after Obama care due to requirements etc
My policy had been 275-350 for at last ten years before
I am paying for folks who don’t pay
That is what Obama care is
Folks who have money and good health young people are footing the bill for the five dollar copay crowd
It ain’t complicated
That insurance companies are profiting from it is not the why of the problem but rather a consequence of the problem
That was free btw
I am coming from the same place as you with unbelievable insurance and drug increases and have been involved in health care for decades.
I do not know the history of the Blue Cross entity you participate in, but indeed Blue Cross used to be non-profits. Some, in recent years have begun to act like the business model insurance companies I object to and some, like one in California have lost their non-profit status. Maybe you need to check and see what is going on with your insurance.
Remember that generally non-profits are chartered in states, and the tax benefits allowed them are determined by IRS law/regs. So overreach by the company can be stopped much more easily than by a business like a United Health Care.
Mother Jones? No. The truly conservative position that the corporate, business model has no place in health care is one that used to be and worked well until the truly greedy business community got ahold of it. Sick people are not chess pieces to be moved on a chess board by profit motive.
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