B-Large Posted October 6, 2015 Share Posted October 6, 2015 Democrats Begin the Long, Tortuous Retreat from Obamacare by Ed Morrissey After five years, two midterm disasters, and a rollout that reminded Americans why they fell out of love with big government in the 1970s, reality has finally begun to dawn on some Democrats about Obamacare. With open enrollment about to start and a third straight round of premium spikes about to hit voters’ pockets, the Democrats’ leading presidential candidate has offered a “major break” with the Obama administration on its signature domestic policy achievement. Hillary Clinton will speak out against the so-called Cadillac tax on high-coverage health care plans, as early as this week, according to The New York Times. The politics on this are complicated, and not entirely focused on health care; in fact, this has more to do with the health of Clinton’s struggling and scandal-plagued campaign. Even so, the Cadillac tax on high-coverage plans is a key to Obamacare, both fiscally and philosophically, and Clinton’s coming attack on it shows just how much of an albatross the entire system has become for her party. More at the link: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2015/10/01/Democrats-Begin-Long-Tortuous-Retreat-Obamacare I'd have more respect for her if she stuck to supporting the legislation and let it roll. If I vote for a Democrat it would be Sanders.. At least he stands for something, agree with his platform or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted October 7, 2015 Share Posted October 7, 2015 I'd have more respect for her if she stuck to supporting the legislation and let it roll. If I vote for a Democrat it would be Sanders.. At least he stands for something, agree with his platform or not. I've told politicians that before, to their face. "I don't care what your rationale is for going into Iraq. Just pick one of the twenty you're giving, so I know if I agree with it or not." Someone who tries to be everything to everybody is ultimately no one to anybody. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCinBuffalo Posted October 7, 2015 Share Posted October 7, 2015 (edited) Ben Carson has been absolutely brilliant in this area, though I've modified his proposal to improve it further: - Every American, when they are born, is issued an HSA along with their social security number. - The government then gets out of the way and opens up the market for actual competition, which in every other industry drives down prices. - In regards to the disadvantaged, the government at various levels (local, state, federal) can make contributions directly into these accounts. - All accounts can be funded, with no cap, with individual and employer contributions with a 100% tax deduction. - These accounts can only be used for qualified health care expenses with no exceptions, and cannot be passed down as inheritance or leveraged by creditors. - They are subject to a 100% estate tax which pays directly back into a fund which subsidizes the accounts for the disadvantaged. This encourages patients to actually responsibly shop for their own care, and for actual prices to materialize in the direct heath care market. I would couple this with a national pool for catastrophic care. (edited for bullet points) Great! But, uh, I've only been saying this for what? 4 years now? And, it's dopey to apply an inheritance tax. Rather, the deceased should be able to pass it on to whomever they choose. This is how real wealth is created. More often than not, poor people get and stay that way because they piss their $ away. Rich people tend to be cheap/savers. This is life. But, if both the poor and the rich all get to pass on their HSAs, because they can't use it for anything else? A couple of decades of that, and we've got a very large pool of cash that can be applied. Over time this pool of cash competes with catastrophic insurance, which prevents a collusion/price fixing by the major insurers(assuming they can operate across state lines, finally, idiots)in your national pool. Essentially you are forcing wealth on people who would otherwise piss it away. Yes, tyranny. Please stop forcing poor people to save their $ for the first time in their lives. In fact, we should allow anyone to pre-tax contribute to anyone else's HSA. Governments, Employers, Family, Friends, everybody. The reason? Human nature. Nobody gives a crap about the deductions for insurance on their current paycheck. All they see is the $ they put in the bank. And, nobody cares about 2k in a HSA account, especially if they know that the government is ready to step in when they blow through it. But, if that account has 200k in it? Suddenly people get awfully careful about how/where/why they spend. It's counterintuitive, but, that's human nature for you. EDIT: Doubt me? Take $50 to the casino one night. You lose/blow it, so what? The next night, take $2k. You'll see for yourself. EDIT: The only problem with this is: end of life health care. Expensive as hell and likely to drain an account dry. That's why our system is so important. REAL cost monitoring, controls, and accountability, the kind you and I are familiar with, are the answer here. This includes documenting care so granularly, especially when mistakes are made and immediately corrected in real time, that it eliminates "negligence" from the argument, and thus, eliminates lawyers sucking $ out of the system as well. We don't need laws to deal with tort reform, we simply need indisputable data, processed into information so solid, that the lawyer/auditor runs from the field. Edited October 7, 2015 by OCinBuffalo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Man Posted October 10, 2015 Share Posted October 10, 2015 (edited) Kentucky Health Cooperative going out of business; 51,000 insurance customers affectedLexington Herald-Leader FRANKFORT — The largest private provider of health insurance policies on Kynect, Kentucky's health insurance exchange, is going out of business. The Louisville-based Kentucky Health Cooperative Inc. announced Friday that it will end current memberships on Dec. 31 and will not add new members because of financial problems. It will not offer health insurance plans on Kynect when open enrollment for 2016 coverage starts on Nov. 1. The cooperative has about 51,000 members in all 120 Kentucky counties. Jonathan Gold, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in an email that the federal government is "working with Kentucky officials to do everything possible to make sure consumers stay covered." As of June 30, 88,904 people in Kentucky were enrolled in private health care plans through Kynect. Almost 70 percent of them received a tax credit to help offset their insurance premium. Excerpt) Read more at kentucky.com ... Edited October 10, 2015 by B-Man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Large Posted October 10, 2015 Share Posted October 10, 2015 I've told politicians that before, to their face. "I don't care what your rationale is for going into Iraq. Just pick one of the twenty you're giving, so I know if I agree with it or not." Someone who tries to be everything to everybody is ultimately no one to anybody. i bet it was funny to see them quiver and shake and squirm when you asked that question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted October 10, 2015 Share Posted October 10, 2015 i bet it was funny to see them quiver and shake and squirm when you asked that question. It was Ari Fleischer. And his response was "Yeah, tell me about it." Not an easy job he had, trying to portray a coherent message out of the administration's incoherent nonsense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keukasmallies Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Just got my BC/BS rate increase info for 2016. The overall premium increases 14.4%; hospital in-patient (1st five days) 18%; outpatient services 25%, and so it goes. The final insult is that the out-of-pocket ceiling has increased by 32.8%. I just wish POTUS had been concentrating on climate change years ago, so Obamacare might have died from lack of interest. Certainly the great number of targeted people haven't availed themselves of health insurance and ain't nobody paying any penalties, eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Man Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Washington Post ✔ @washingtonpost Nearly a third of the health insurance plans created under Obamacare will be out of business at the end of 2015 http://wapo.st/1jIZqV6 2:13 AM - 17 Oct 2015 Washington Post Two more Obamacare health insurance plans collapseBy Amy Goldstein @goldsteinamy Nearly 100,000 consumers in Colorado, Oregon will be affected for 2016 coverage Well who could have predicted that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Large Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Maine community health options premiums for silver plan remain the same for next year... But the cherry here, got a 20.63 cent refund because MCHO didn't cover the minimum spent on healthcare for the plan year... Well, I spent 6,000 in premiums and covered 6,000 in deductible in Maine, with total covered services at 346.00. Good news is I've spent 1500 in Colorado based premiums are started on a new 6,000 deductible. !@#$, I gotta work just to pay for healthcare... I guess that kitty magnet corvette will have to wait Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Man Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 The old "Shell Game" Ninety-seven percent of Obamacare’s “newly insured” are from Medicaid expansion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 The old "Shell Game" Ninety-seven percent of Obamacare’s “newly insured” are from Medicaid expansion And what percentage is from those who had their plans cancelled by Obamacrap? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IDBillzFan Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Now, now...if the government can help even one person, it's worth it. Unless that one person is a Jew, or a cop, or a soldier... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keepthefaith Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 The old "Shell Game" Ninety-seven percent of Obamacare’s “newly insured” are from Medicaid expansion Now we need to know the total expenditures for Obamacare and divide that by the number of new Medicaid recipients to determine the coverage cost per person. I'm sure that when that math is done, we will see another example of really efficient government at work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Man Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 "The Slow-Motion Implosion of ObamaCare." "I see firsthand in my company why not enough people are signing up and premiums are rising." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 "The Slow-Motion Implosion of ObamaCare." "I see firsthand in my company why not enough people are signing up and premiums are rising." It still boggles my mind that anyone supported this abortion of a plan. It's a triumph of image over substance and hope over reality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GG Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 It still boggles my mind that anyone supported this abortion of a plan. It's a triumph of image over substance and hope over reality. Another WSJ article points out that the private insurers are losing money on ACA, so they're raising premiums at double digit rates and limiting participating networks. About half of the new co-ops are shutting down. You know, something that was easily predicted back in the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 I'm beginning to think it would have made more sense to go full retard and offer medicare to everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 I'm beginning to think it would have made more sense to go full retard and offer medicare to everyone. I thought that from the start. I'm against socialized medicine on principle, but it was clear to me that socialized medicine was a better plan than the ACA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GG Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 I thought that from the start. I'm against socialized medicine on principle, but it was clear to me that socialized medicine was a better plan than the ACA. I think that's the end game. They know that anyone participating in ACA from the insurer & provider side will either go bankrupt or stop accepting it, which will lead to the inevitable nationalization of healthcare for all. Like it's hard to predict this Trojan Horse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B-Large Posted November 2, 2015 Share Posted November 2, 2015 I think that's the end game. They know that anyone participating in ACA from the insurer & provider side will either go bankrupt or stop accepting it, which will lead to the inevitable nationalization of healthcare for all. Like it's hard to predict this Trojan Horse. Our healthcare system will never be government owned or run, at the very most we might see a single national risk pool payment system. I think what will eventually be comfortable with is tax deducted premium for catastrophic care, and a combination of deductibles and health spending accounts that are tax free that will be used for meds, annual exams, ED visits, outpatient specialist visits, etc. However, a switch like this will require nuking an entire economic industry, is private medical insurance, and I'm not sure how will that will go. I think there are mountains to gain by getting rid of third party payors, one of the biggest items is getting a true price for a service that is consistent across the industry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts