With the full support of the MSM, the American people have lost their minds.
(1) "Socialized Medicine" is an institution whereby GOVERNMENT provides healthcare (owns the hospitals, employs the doctors & nurses, owns the clinics, etc), and it assesses everyone a certain amount (usually a percentage of income), and everyone gets the same level of healthcare, at least theoretically.
The U.S. Constitution prohibits the Federal Government from getting into the healthcare business. Socialized Medicine could not be done without a Constitutional Amendment.
(2) In an attempt to capture some of the supposed benefits of socialized medicine, our Congress has created a few programs that imitate socialized medicine: Medicare and Medicaid, which are intended to help provide healthcare to the very poor and to people over 65 years old. But rather than Government DIRECTLY providing healthcare, they pay private providers and try a number of measures to control the costs. Hence, not all providers are willing to accept Medicare or Medicaid patients.
(3) Insurance is a social device whereby private companies offer to provide contingent benefits to consumers as follows: Consumers who cannot or don't want to assume risks of catastrophic events send a small amount of money every year to the Insurance Company, with the stipulation that if the feared catastrophic event occurs, the Insurance Company will "indemnify" the consumer and reimburse the expenses resulting from the event. The insurance companies consolidate the payments from thousands of customers so that they will have sufficient funds to cover the losses of the few who have catastrophic events. They employ actuaries who study the data constantly, so that the insurance companies can charge "premiums" that cover the cost of customer losses,, as well as administration costs and profits.
In order that the "best" customers will not be burdened with the costs of the "worst" customers, insurance companies have traditionally grouped customers into high and low risk categories, with the people in high risk categories paying MORE in premiums than those in low-risk categories.
SHOCKER: OLD PEOPLE incur more medical expenses than YOUNG people. Hence, in a logical world, old people will be included in a higher-risk category than young people, and will pay higher premiums.
(4) The Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") attempted to turn traditional health insurance on its head, and did so at the point of a gun, figuratively speaking. It demanded that, for example, young people who probably didn't need health insurance (they could self-insure) buy health insurance that they didn't need. It mandated that insurance companies cover people with pre-existing conditions - a mandate that completely obliterates the role of the actuary in insurance. There is no "risk" associated with someone having an expensive pre-existing condition; it is a CERTAINTY. It mandated that ROUTINE, EXPECTED, MINOR costs be included in insurance coverage (office visits, birth control pills, routine maternity costs), which again flies in the face of what INSURANCE is supposed to be.
Hence, the participating insurance companies saw exploding costs with little real prospect of ever making a profit, as they could under normal circumstances. Hence, rates under Obamacare are predictably skyrocketing, and insurance companies are rapidly refusing, state by state, to participate. This is the gradual death of Obamacare that Republicans in Congress and Our Exalted President have been talking about.
(5 The Republicans in Congress are now trying to devise an alternative approach that brings back SOME OF THE SANITY IN TRADITIONAL INSURANCE COVERAGE, without "harming" those few people (statistically, "millions") who have been taking advantage of the perversion of insurance that was Obamacare.
And we hear complaints that "Old People are really getting screwed under this proposed Republican plan."
No, they are not getting screwed. They are being placed in a separate higher-risk insurance classification, BECAUSE THEY ARE OLD, AND WILL DEFINITELY INCUR MORE MEDICAL EXPENSES THAN YOUNGER PEOPLE.
Remember, up above when I described Socialized Medicine and said that the Constitution prohibits Congress from engaging in socialized medicine? This is NO LONGER a congressional attempt to copy socialized medicine, which is what Obamacare was. It is a congressional attempt to move back toward traditional insurance practices, so that the whole system will be sustainable in the long term.
Are we all bozos on this bus?
(1) "Socialized Medicine" is an institution whereby GOVERNMENT provides healthcare (owns the hospitals, employs the doctors & nurses, owns the clinics, etc), and it assesses everyone a certain amount (usually a percentage of income), and everyone gets the same level of healthcare, at least theoretically.
The U.S. Constitution prohibits the Federal Government from getting into the healthcare business. Socialized Medicine could not be done without a Constitutional Amendment.
(2) In an attempt to capture some of the supposed benefits of socialized medicine, our Congress has created a few programs that imitate socialized medicine: Medicare and Medicaid, which are intended to help provide healthcare to the very poor and to people over 65 years old. But rather than Government DIRECTLY providing healthcare, they pay private providers and try a number of measures to control the costs. Hence, not all providers are willing to accept Medicare or Medicaid patients.
(3) Insurance is a social device whereby private companies offer to provide contingent benefits to consumers as follows: Consumers who cannot or don't want to assume risks of catastrophic events send a small amount of money every year to the Insurance Company, with the stipulation that if the feared catastrophic event occurs, the Insurance Company will "indemnify" the consumer and reimburse the expenses resulting from the event. The insurance companies consolidate the payments from thousands of customers so that they will have sufficient funds to cover the losses of the few who have catastrophic events. They employ actuaries who study the data constantly, so that the insurance companies can charge "premiums" that cover the cost of customer losses,, as well as administration costs and profits.
In order that the "best" customers will not be burdened with the costs of the "worst" customers, insurance companies have traditionally grouped customers into high and low risk categories, with the people in high risk categories paying MORE in premiums than those in low-risk categories.
SHOCKER: OLD PEOPLE incur more medical expenses than YOUNG people. Hence, in a logical world, old people will be included in a higher-risk category than young people, and will pay higher premiums.
(4) The Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") attempted to turn traditional health insurance on its head, and did so at the point of a gun, figuratively speaking. It demanded that, for example, young people who probably didn't need health insurance (they could self-insure) buy health insurance that they didn't need. It mandated that insurance companies cover people with pre-existing conditions - a mandate that completely obliterates the role of the actuary in insurance. There is no "risk" associated with someone having an expensive pre-existing condition; it is a CERTAINTY. It mandated that ROUTINE, EXPECTED, MINOR costs be included in insurance coverage (office visits, birth control pills, routine maternity costs), which again flies in the face of what INSURANCE is supposed to be.
Hence, the participating insurance companies saw exploding costs with little real prospect of ever making a profit, as they could under normal circumstances. Hence, rates under Obamacare are predictably skyrocketing, and insurance companies are rapidly refusing, state by state, to participate. This is the gradual death of Obamacare that Republicans in Congress and Our Exalted President have been talking about.
(5 The Republicans in Congress are now trying to devise an alternative approach that brings back SOME OF THE SANITY IN TRADITIONAL INSURANCE COVERAGE, without "harming" those few people (statistically, "millions") who have been taking advantage of the perversion of insurance that was Obamacare.
And we hear complaints that "Old People are really getting screwed under this proposed Republican plan."
No, they are not getting screwed. They are being placed in a separate higher-risk insurance classification, BECAUSE THEY ARE OLD, AND WILL DEFINITELY INCUR MORE MEDICAL EXPENSES THAN YOUNGER PEOPLE.
Remember, up above when I described Socialized Medicine and said that the Constitution prohibits Congress from engaging in socialized medicine? This is NO LONGER a congressional attempt to copy socialized medicine, which is what Obamacare was. It is a congressional attempt to move back toward traditional insurance practices, so that the whole system will be sustainable in the long term.
Are we all bozos on this bus?
