The Affordable Care Act II - Because Mr. Obama Loves You All

[TakeYouToTasker]

I know getting hung up on semantics while ignoring the whole point of a post is sport here.

So, you're going to engage in attempting to redefine what rights are, while advocating for the nullification of natural rights, and then try to make a hasty escape claiming I'm getting hung up on sementics?

 

!@#$ you.

 

But I'll play along. If it's in the Bill of Rights or if a police officer tells me I have a right to remain silent or a right to an attorney during questioning, I go with those as rights. It's not hat complicated.

Appeal to Tyranny? You're a !@#$ing dope.

 

Again, what philosophy are you appealing to when you claim something is a right?

[reddogblitz]

Again, what philosophy are you appealing to when you claim something is a right?

 

I think it should be a right that if a person is sick or breaks a bone or whatever, they should be able to get decent medical care even though if they can't afford it in an advanced, affluent, enlightened, compassionate society. It's my opinion.

 

Again, don't even touch my point about how to finance and implement such a system, just get hung up because I said it was a right which you disagree with which is certainly your privilege (I hope I used that term right).

 

Yeah, I know I'm a &*^&(* idiot.

Edited March 2, 2016 by reddogblitz

[TakeYouToTasker]

 

I think it should be a right that if a person is sick or breaks a bone or whatever, they should be able to get decent medical care even though if they can't afford it in an advanced, affluent, enlightened, compassionate society. It's my opinion.

 

Again, don't even touch my point about how to finance and implement such a system, just get hung up because I said it was a right which you disagree with which is certainly your privilege (I hope I used that term right).

 

Yeah, I know I'm a &*^&(* idiot.

You've missed the entire point, and have simply restated when you believe someone should have unrestricted access to unlimited care.

 

Please, answer the question I'm very directly asking you: what philosophy are you appealing to when you say something is a right?

[DC Tom]

 

I know getting hung up on semantics while ignoring the whole point of a post is sport here.

 

But I'll play along. If it's in the Bill of Rights or if a police officer tells me I have a right to remain silent or a right to an attorney during questioning, I go with those as rights. It's not hat complicated.

 

But it is foolish. The Constitution and Bill of Rights define the responsibilities and limitations of the government. Not the rights of the people.

[Nanker]

 

I think it should be a right that if a person is sick or breaks a bone or whatever, they should be able to get decent medical care even though if they can't afford it in an advanced, affluent, enlightened, compassionate society. It's my opinion.

 

Again, don't even touch my point about how to finance and implement such a system, just get hung up because I said it was a right which you disagree with which is certainly your privilege (I hope I used that term right).

 

Yeah, I know I'm a &*^&(* idiot.

What the !@#$'s the problem here? Don't you know the law? This is posted in every hospital in my state.

[unbillievable]

You have the right not to become bankrupt for choosing an iphone over health insurance.

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

You have the right not to become bankrupt for choosing an iphone over health insurance.

 

When an iphone costs the equivalent of one month's health insurance premiums, there's a problem.

 

 

And that's to buy it outright. The price of insurance for me, myself, is more than my car payment, and half what I pay for housing.

 

I thought insurance was supposed to be "affordable" under the ACA?

Edited March 4, 2016 by joesixpack

[Azalin]

 

When an iphone costs the equivalent of one month's health insurance premiums, there's a problem.

 

 

And that's to buy it outright. The price of insurance for me, myself, is more than my car payment, and half what I pay for housing.

 

I thought insurance was supposed to be "affordable" under the ACA?

 

I can only imagine what the extent of ridiculous costs are throughout the health insurance industry. Last year my doctor prescribed liquid Albuterol for me to be used in a device called a nebulizer. The company that provided the equipment came out to my home to instruct me on how to use it, and told me that since I'd already met my deductible, there would be no charge until after January, when the annual maintenance contract on the device was due. When I learned that it was going to cost me $500, I thought about buying an air pump and fashioning my own nebulizer. The very first link I clicked on after googling 'air pump' showed a display for the exact device I had at home - with a price tag of $34.95. I called the company who was leasing me the device and told them I was going to send it back, and they told me "All you have left on the device before you own it is $11.00". Own it? I was never even told that was an option. The experience made me realize how much this sort of thing must happen, how much unnecessary cost is accrued, and how much less insurance might cost if things like this were reigned in.

[Nanker]

 

I can only imagine what the extent of ridiculous costs are throughout the health insurance industry. Last year my doctor prescribed liquid Albuterol for me to be used in a device called a nebulizer. The company that provided the equipment came out to my home to instruct me on how to use it, and told me that since I'd already met my deductible, there would be no charge until after January, when the annual maintenance contract on the device was due. When I learned that it was going to cost me $500, I thought about buying an air pump and fashioning my own nebulizer. The very first link I clicked on after googling 'air pump' showed a display for the exact device I had at home - with a price tag of $34.95. I called the company who was leasing me the device and told them I was going to send it back, and they told me "All you have left on the device before you own it is $11.00". Own it? I was never even told that was an option. The experience made me realize how much this sort of thing must happen, how much unnecessary cost is accrued, and how much less insurance might cost if things like this were reigned in.

Absolutely.

Medical care providers ask you right up front if your malady is the result of an accident or a workers compensation case. Those two scenarios get billed for the full amount, i.e., bust out retail pricing. If your case doesn't fall under those two conditions, and you have insurance, they'll bill the insurance company for the full amount - but the insurance company "negotiates" down the amount they'll pay as "reasonable and customary" costs. The medical provider accepts the lower amount and bills you for a much smaller amount - "the balance you owe that your insurance didn't cover."

 

Back to the accident and workers comp scenarios. The providers bill them full-bore pricing because they'll generally get it after the legal haggling is over.

 

Also, some providers will bill you a lesser amount if you're "self insured."

[B-Man]

NPR and Harvard Say: Obamacare Is a Complete Failure

 

National Public Radio collaborated with Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to survey Americans’ recent experience with health care. As to the Affordable Care Act, the survey’s findings are damning. They suggest that Obamacare has been worse than a complete waste of money.

 

This is the survey’s only question directly on Obamacare. Most respondents say that Obamacare hasn’t affected them; where it has affected them, most say the law’s impact has been harmful:

 

 

 

 

 

The promises that President Obama made about the ACA–cheaper premiums! lower co-pays and deductibles! better coverage!–have completely failed to materialize. This isn’t a surprise, of course, but it is nice to see it so copiously documented:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember how we were all supposed to save $2,500 a year in health insurance premiums? Only 4% say they have saved anything, and those respondents are probably wrong. For the vast majority, Obamacare has either done nothing, or has increased the cost of health care, counting premiums, deductibles and co-pays. Good going, Barry!

 

The federal government has had its share of failures over the years, but it is hard to think of a federal program that has proved such a comprehensive disaster, in such a short period of time, as the Affordable Care Act. Which, by the way, still hasn’t been fully implemented, as the Democrats have postponed some of its more baleful effects until 2017.

 

So the number of people who are hurt by Obamacare, e.g. by losing the employer-based coverage with which they were content, is destined to rise.

[Keukasmallies]

Failed exchanges, $2,000,000,000 debt outstanding, promised services not delivered...who ever would a thunk it?

 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/03/10/failed-obamacare-co-ops-have-not-repaid-1-2b-in-federal-loans-docs-say.html

 

Sail on, Oh ship of state!

[B-Man]

All of that tax money you loaned to the Obamacare co-ops? That’s probably gone

 

Yesterday Ed Morrissey wrote about the fiscal insanity on display as the government poured more and more money into the failing Obamacare exchanges. The investments, to put it mildly, were ones which any bank manager with more than six hours on the job would have taken a pass on given the fiscal outlook for those enterprises. With that as a backdrop, this news likely won’t shock anyone too much. American taxpayers loaned – not allocated and paid for – these exchanges more than a billion dollars to get them started. To date the total amount repaid to us stands at zero and you shouldn’t expect that figure to go up any time soon.

 

The key thing to observe here, is that this was not the cost of the program as an approved spending initiative. If the House of Representatives had approved that money as spending and it went south, well… you can’t win ’em all. But much like the Detroit auto industry bailout, these were taxpayer backed loans which were expected to be repaid with interest.

 

Another parallel is the Export Import Bank which makes taxpayer backed loans on a regular basis, though with an admittedly far better record of repayment. If the loan goes bad and the money isn’t returned, that’s our taxpayer dollars gone down a rat hole with no return.

 

When you combine the shaky nature of the investment which Ed described with the political climate surrounding it, the results are clear. This was a program which a first year economics student should have been able to identify as a sinking ship, but the Democrats were motivated by political reasons to keep flushing cash into it to preserve the tale they were spinning about the American healthcare market. Those assumptions proved false and now a billion dollars of your money has sailed off into the sunset.

 

This was an experiment which has proven little more than the fact that Washington is barely able to manage the budget for mowing the lawn. Asking them to master something this complex was a fool’s errand, and yet Hillary Clinton is basing her campaign on preserving the gains we’ve made. This should work out wonderfully if she’s elected President.

[Alaska Darin]

Obamacare is obviously too big to fail, right Democrats?

[Tiberius]

Obamacare is obviously too big to fail, right Democrats?

Not big enough, Republican

[3rdnlng]

Not big enough, Republican

So, you are advocating spending more on a failed program? This is what pissants are made of.

[IDBillzFan]

Not big enough, Republican

 

Every time the left spends billions of dollars on something that fails, it's always because it wasn't big enough.

 

ACA. Recover Act. If only they were bigger.

 

Probably would have been bigger if not for GOP obstructionists, amirite?

[keepthefaith]

So, you are advocating spending more on a failed program? This is what pissants are made of.

"The rich" need to fund universal health care for all. It's a birthright doncha know? Never mind that the federal government can't claim a single large entitlement that is well run or fiscally sound.

[Tiberius]

Universal healthcare! Hopefully Trump drags down so many down ticket republicans that Dems get super majority in Senate and majority in House and they pass this.

[TH3]

Universal healthcare! Hopefully Trump drags down so many down ticket republicans that Dems get super majority in Senate and majority in House and they pass this.

Ya but guys like Azalin or J6pack who would see there HC improve dramatically in cost and benefit would be totally against it...

[Chef Jim]

Ya but guys like Azalin or J6pack who would see there HC improve dramatically in cost and benefit would be totally against it...

Please explain how universal health care would dramatically improve health care.