Discussion for article #243858
To those of us who are middle class and self-employed and have to pay for ever increasing health insurance premiums out of our own pockets without subsidies with after-tax dollars, this is a real insult. The ACA is falling apart because the Obama administration is doing absolutely nothing to keep costs under control. I now with the damn thing had never passed. I feel just screwed over by the whole thing.
Great article, Ms. Sneed – very informative.
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The Democrats pander and cater to the rich just as much as the Republicans. Hillary would love this change as well!
The US Plutocracy is out of control thanks to a spineless congress.
Bernie 2016! Bernie is the only that will stop such acts of pandering to the rich and making the rich even richer - Hilary, Harry Reid, and especially money boy from NY (Chuckie baby) will do nothing to reverse the wealth inequality that got rolling under Reagan and has been picking up speed ever since!
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A good friend of mine who has always paid for his own medical insurance premiums out of pocket saw his costs nearly triple. He never bought cheap plans, sort of middle-of-the-road kind. He also lives in the most expensive place in the nation–San Francisco, his home since the '70s. He is a major supporter of a system like that of Canada’s or the UK’s, but did support the ACA because he felt it was a step in the right direction. That said, he has been very negatively affected by the implementation. He told me he had expected a steep increase in his premiums but not a tripling. He, too, feels screwed over a bit. That said, he told me he still supports the moves in the right direction, but he’s also thinking we’re letting down our guard here. I literally just spoke with him recently about this topic. I’m somewhat shielded due to me being disabled, on SSDI and receiving Medicare (though my surgery and other copays are eating up what little I have), but I’m still very concerned here because of my friend and my family members who pay for their own policies. I think the Dems are making a big mistake here. Unless, of course, their plans are to initiate plans to go full-on single-pay or Medicare-for-All, etc.
The reason we have this tax-subsidized system in the first place is because Republicans and Southern Dems in the 1940s wouldn’t support a single payer National Health type system. Getting rid of the tax subsidy without implementing single-payer, and leaving low income employees at the mercy of insurance companies, would be a disaster of the highest magnitude.
How fucking stupid are these people?
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I think the more relevant question is: How buyable are these people? The Insurance industry and Big Pharma are two of the worst corporate citizens in America today. The Oil & Extractive and Military Industrial Complex are the other two. Round out the Top 5 with Big Ag.
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The story, for me, in Illinois, is that the exchange plans are losing access to good hospital networks. The insurance companies are making it so that the plans in the exchanges are limited to a few low-tier hospitals. Blue Cross changed their VERY popular bronze plan this year substantially, and the biggest change was that the once-great network is now lousy. I don’t care so much about the deductible; I want access to the excellent hospitals near me.
I actually bought my plan backwards this year: I called the big University hospitals in Chicago and asked which individual plans they accepted. At Northwestern, the person I spoke with said they took NONE of the Blue Cross individual plans, and only a few exchange plans at all. For example, they did take Harken, (a new subsidiary of United Health, doing a pilot in Chicago and Atlanta). https://www.harkenhealth.com But it was a short list for me to choose from.
Anyway, BC/BS looks like they are abandoning any attempt at offering high-quality coverage on the exchange plans here in IL. They are huge and that is a big deal, at least to me.
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If you’re against the ACA, don’t sign up for it!
If you vote Republican, don’t sign up for it!
It’s as simple as that!
Then you’ll have a real authentic reason to whine and belly ache about it!
There’s one thing for sure, if a republican had been President and he signed the ACA into law , the republicans would be authorizing billions in funding to put that president, on Mount Rushmore!
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With Medicare for Everyone (medicare part-E) this would be a nonissue. However, the GOP and insurance lobby saw that this never happened. The appeasement to the GOP and insurance lobby created the problems with the Affordable Care Act. A result of the GOP swearing a blood oath to fight the president on the very day he was sworn into office.
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“Unless, of course, their plans are to initiate plans to go full-on single-pay or Medicare-for-All, etc.”
I hear that “plan” mentioned quite often as if it is some eventuality or natural outcome but can’t figure out how it all comes about. Of course it is the right outcome and logical solution but, you know, will Carly Fiorina or Marsha Blackburn one day become caring compassionate advocates for the poor? Sure, it’s possible but just can’t visualize it.
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Harry, we have two questions:
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What are you doing about gun control? Over 475,000 Americans have been killed by gun violence since 9/11. So what have you done about it?
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Even the most ignorant now realize that climate change and global warming is real and that it is human caused! We also know that the worlds’s over population crisis includes the US where we are over populated!
Why aren’t you talking about the US needing to reduce our population? We have over 320 million people and our land mass and natural resources can only sustain between 150 million and 175 million.
The US has an over population crisis…which is a key reason the climate is changing!
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Please proofread your articles.
Please proofread your articles.
Please proofread your articles.
Please proofread your articles.
Please proofread your articles.
Please proofread your articles.
Please, please, please, please proofread your articles.
Otherwise, thank you for the information.
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The GOP proposals would destroy the insurance industry overnight. It isn’t industry that is demanding them. The opposition is driven by their handful of billionaire donors.
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Yes! BERNIE 2016!!!
But…
If Hillary gets the nom, then I unabashedly say,
HILLARY 2016!!!
And I certainly hope other Bernie supporters feel the same way.
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No.
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The nuts are coming out of the woodwork today.
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I have United Healthcare through my employer and I’ve been extremely happy with them. They’ve covered just about every cost incurred from my pregnancy - including a majority of my hospital stay when I gave birth - over the past year. I just discovered how lucky I am though. My boss is pregnant and due next year. She has a more expensive plan than I do and just found out her out-of-pocket responsibility for maternity costs was almost doubled, from $800 to $1500. I just paid the balance of my hospital stay yesterday. I was able to afford it, but it hurt. I’m not sure I would have been able to had my pregnancy happened next year instead of this year.
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The Cadillac tax isn’t “pandering and catering to the rich.” It’s the unions that negotiate for these plans for their members in an effort to insulate them from the higher costs and deductibles that some of the commenters here are lamenting.
My concern is: if the Dems support the Repubs on postponing or eliminating the Cadillac tax, there’s no hope for it. Period. Getting rid of the tax may be poor policy, but if there isn’t any support for it, we may as well get used to it.
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Hopefully there will be more discussion on this topic.
At yesterday’s press briefing, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked about the House budget proposal that includes suspending the Cadillac tax and the medical device tax – both embattled components of the ACA.
Earnest described the measures, in the context of the Republicans’ years-long effort to kill the ACA outright, as “meager,” and said language in the bill describing the Cadillac tax’s delay would actually work to strengthen the tax and make it more effective, but he did not elaborate on that contention. I would like to know more about that.
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