Whether they repealed ACA or not,GOPsâ actions on the ACA have always been to disrupt the market wherever and whenever possible. Theyâve pretty much failed in that regard. Insurers have never believed it would/will be repealed. They have continued to forge ahead with business and made it harder for GOPs to repeal the ACA.
Itâs hard to believe Republicans now oppose free markets.
Please stop calling insurance companies âproviders.â Doctors are providers. Insurers are value-subtracted parasites who get in providersâ way.
Great. Just great. Thatâs what we need - larger more-money-than-god insurance companies. This will allow them to purchase even more legislators, and forever block all attempts to get rid of these leeches.
This. And stop letting opponents of M4A get away with talking about a âgovernment takeover of health care.â No one is proposing any such thing. What we need is a government takeover of health insurance.
Iâd put an end to the Medigap policies, as well. Copays are a pet peeve of mine. The intent is to prevent people from overusing a limited resource. Fair enough. A visit to your primary care physician should perhaps have a copay. But why is there a copay for getting someone to set your broken leg? Without it, would people be showing up in ERâs by the tens of thousands, looking for casts? Without a copay for an appendectomy, would irresponsible people go back for seconds?
This is the nature of things. Insurance companies see the GOP trying to kill the ACA. They fear a success in this, as it will then drive the Democrats to extend Medicare, thus driving insurers out of the market. Watch them do things to preserve the ACA.
Not sure if this is good. Maybe we should compare this to the GOP "replacementâ of the ACA that they have fostered since the ACA became law (âRepeal and Replaceâ).
Letâs list the parameters of the GOP plan (does one exist?) and âMedicare for Allâ in a side by side chart to determine the value/expense of each.
To clarify here: both Centene and Wellcare are huge providers for Medicaid managed care plans. Neither company sells plans on the exchange:
Did you mean Medicare Advantage programs? Because my friends who have Medigap policies pay no Co-Pays aside from some prescriptions via Part D.
Or you could join the military,and, if you behave yourself, get free Socialized Medicine vis Tri-Care.after paying for part B at 65.
Are those Medigap policies free of charge? My point is that Medicare should pay for the healthcare you need. Period. Full stop. End of sentence. There should be no need for any add-ons, no private health insurance. It should also include prescription drugs, a couple of dental visits every year, one eye exam. Beyond that, things get murkier (fillings? a crown? glasses?), but that can all be hashed out. Not sure what to do about long-term care - thatâs an even tougher nut to crack.
This, BTW, is also how you control the spiraling cost of healthcare. The Medicare payment for procedure X is $Y. Thatâs what the doctor gets paid for it. Thereâs no âsecondary insurance,â no âpatient responsible for the balance.â A doctor who wonât accept that payment will have to go to welding school to learn another trade.
Medicare has cost shares as well.Most people seem to think Medicare means no out of pocket costs but it does not.
What about the the thousands of people employed by health insurance plans. Full disclosure, I am one of them. And as I said in my earlier reply, Medicare today has cost share. Most people pick up a secondary to cover those, but starting next year the secondaries will no longer be able to cover the deductible. Changing that will mean a large tax increase. I just want these conversations to be up front about that. I am not sure M4A is the magic bullet people think it is.
And it shouldnât. This is what props up the private health insurance market, which is inefficient and confusing. Itâs all completely unnecessary.
Rules are changing for next year, deductibles will no longer be covered. Not sure offhand about copays. I work on a Med Advantage plan and the regs are different for those.
What is the price tag on that? I will have to look it up and see if it is included in any of these proposed p lans, havenât had a chance to do that yet. Probably what has been paid in with current retirees isnât enough for full coverage.
M4A will require a large number of additional employees, and those who currently work in the private health insurance industry would be uniquely qualified to take those jobs. Others will simply have to find other employment, and in an economy thatâs effectively at full employment now, that shouldnât be exceedingly difficult. Itâs not as if private health insurance workers are all concentrated in Appalachia, where thereâs no other work.
And of course taxes would go up. But theyâd go up less than the premiums youâre currently paying for private health insurance. Out of pocket costs would go down for just about everyone.
Almost every other advanced country on the planet has some form of M4A. They get objectively better health care, and for about half the cost of what weâre paying, all things added in. This is not some wild theoretical proposal - itâs just what others are already doing, and itâs a proven solution.
Only for those not already on Plan C or F. Those who currently have deductible are grandfathered.
Perhaps health insurance plans can evolve to insure driver-less vehicles and get out of the healthcare business.
Why not, they scream âFREEDOM,â while trashing âLiberty,â which in the final analysis is 100% synonymous with âFREEDOM,â or is that FREEDUMB (scratching head in confusion)!
Why do goobers hate liberty?
Nailed it.