FROM THE ARTICLE:
In 2024, average health insurance premiums rose to $25,572 for families and $8,951 for single workers, increasing 6% and 7% respectively, according to KFF. Premium growth has outpaced inflation almost every year since 2000.
Posted on 12/10/2024 8:40:40 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), more commonly referred to as Obamacare, was signed into law by then-President Barack Obama in March 2010. According to the law’s proponents, Obamacare would expand access to affordable health insurance, improve healthcare quality, and reduce costs.
Well, the media is finally admitting Obamacare hasn’t made health insurance more affordable — a stunning admission, considering “affordable” is quite literally in the official name of the law. No one can pretend that making health insurance more affordable for Americans wasn’t the supposed point of the law. Yet it seems like each year, health insurance not only costs more but covers less.
And now the media is finally willing to admit it — even if they’re not saying it directly.
“Health insurance costs are far outpacing inflation, leaving more consumers on the hook each year for thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses,” reports CBS News. “At the same time, some insurers are rejecting nearly 1 in 5 claims. That double whammy is leaving Americans paying more for coverage yet sometimes feeling like they're getting less in return, experts say.”
Frustration over denials and medical costs has fueled an outpouring of vitriol against health insurance companies in the wake of the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Also last week, a similar outcry led Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield to reverse a decision to limit anesthesia coverage during surgeries.
The anger may be rooted in fears that unexpected medical costs could prove financially ruinous, as well as concerns that essential care could be denied by an insurer, putting health and well-being at risk even for those who have health insurance.
Some of those anxieties are well-founded: The top cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. is health care-related debt, underscoring the financial stresses that can stem from high medical costs.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Health care needs reform, as does public schools, as does social security and medicare etc.
Good luck. Politics interferes with logical improvements.
RE: Health care needs reform, as does public schools, as does social security and medicare etc.
Isn’t RFK Jr. the nominee to be the HHS Secretary? What are his plans/ideas to confront this problem?
Of course they do, now that Republicans control all 3 branches it’s time to roll out that big drum again.
Federal laws often tell you exactly what they are going to do—the opposite of the name.
One example: The Inflation Reduction Act just increased inflation.
HA! It was NEVER about making care affordable, it was about government control of healthcare rationing.
I don't think he has a plan. Nobody does, it just keeps getting more expensive with reduced benefits.
I respectfully disagree. Obamacare did make health insurance more affordable to the chronic work avoiders -- people who loyally vote Dim. It's the middle class that Obamacare is punishing.
The left will double down as they always do and claim it was a compromise (even though only Democrats passed it, illegally, as a Christmas gift years ago), and argue for going further in the same wrong direction.
What they always wanted and still want is a single-payer system. The elites will always keep the best healthcare for themselves but will destroy the medical industry for everyone else. Then, we really will all have affordable healthcare (i.e. in terms of direct costs, not counting taxation and government waste), but it won’t be worth having.
What we need is everyone on a health savings plan that covers most healthcare including preventative, incentivize health and fitness to reduce healthcare costs, and implement some kind of universal coverage for catastrophic health issues that help avoid bankrupting people.
The basic problem is that health insurance companies are forced to provide coverage for people with preexisting conditions, also known as sick people, and the healthy are forced to subsidize them with higher premiums. Healthy people should be freed from this burden. Let Obamacare with its subsidies insure sick people.
Obama is a failure.
“It was NEVER about making care affordable, it was about government control of healthcare rationing”
And making people who work and save pay for those who do not work or do not save.
“”Premium growth has outpaced inflation almost every year since 2000.”
So since before Obamacare.
BTTT
With ridiculously priced crappy insurance, my blood clot bill for rverything at the hospital was $13,000 of which I would have been responsible for about $7800
I didn’t have Insurance and it cost $2500 for everything.
The hospital lists both the Insured Price and the Non Insured Price.
There will still be a political fight about it when the time comes to repeal it.
With so many presstitutes facing unemployment, now they see the light on socialized medicine...
A good start would be to allow for the sale of health insurance across state lines. Let capitalism take its course.
Wait, I thought that ACA required everyone to have insurance, or face stiff penalties.
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