A Modest Proposal (Think Jonathan Swift) on Health Insurance and Health Costs

[Grumblenuts]

Good to see you learned that bright blue underlined text is a hyperlink.

I did? Doesn't seem to be working? Bright blue underlined text where? I'm old, son. Help me out. Here's your picture again.. Now pretend I'm from Missouri:

 

[Grumblenuts]

Oh, you mean from that website I found by doing a Google image search on your silly picture of a chart! Sure, yeah, you're so welcome, btw. I guess there are plenty of hyperlinks in blue text in there. I dunno
{Note: I've checked since I posted this -- no, those don't work}

I sort of like this site. I'm gonna check it out and see if they agree with you at all here. Stay tuned..

National Center for Health Statistics

The nation's official source for health data

www.cdc.gov

 

[Grumblenuts]

Anyway, what are you disputing? The post-ACA slowdown in health care spending growth is quite well-known and well-documented in every corner of the health care system (e.g., the halt in Medicare per beneficiary spending growth in 2010--after 45 years of steady growth up to that point--when the ACA passed has saved nearly $4 trillion so far just on that program).

Paywall. Used up my NYT free access allotment. Anyway, I'm disputing pretty much anything you say at this point. You're FOS. When you succeed in backing up a single thing you've asserted so far with a quote from and link to an unbiased, reputable source..? Perhaps then we can talk.

 

[Greenbeard]

Paywall. Used up my NYT free access allotment. Anyway, I'm disputing pretty much anything you say at this point. You're FOS. When you succeed in backing up a single thing you've asserted so far with a quote from and link to an unbiased, reputable source..? Perhaps then we can talk.

But you don’t know how to open links. And thus continue to request the same ones already provided.

It’s not a secret that health care cost growth plummeted after the ACA passed.

 

[Grumblenuts]

^BS. Happy Halloween, clown!

Fascinating stuff here:

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/insur202305_1.pdf

Examples:

• The percentage of adults who were uninsured decreased from 14.7% in 2019 to 12.2% in 2022. Public coverage increased from2019 (20.4%) through 2022 (22.0%). No significant trend in private coverage was observed between 2019 and 2022.

 The percentage of children who were uninsured decreased from 5.1% in 2019 to 4.2% in 2022. Public coverage increased from2019 (41.4%) through 2022 (43.7%). No significant trend in private coverage was observed between 2019 and 2022.

 In 2022, 4.3% of people under age 65 had exchange-based coverage

 In 2022, among adults aged 18–64, those living in Medicaid expansion states were more likely to have public coverage (24.2%)than those living in non-Medicaid expansion states (17.0%)

Notice how the ACA pretends to include people on Medicaid? Yet somehow there's always way more people on Medicaid than those with "exchange-based coverage"?

 

[Grumblenuts]

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 amendment, it represents the U.S. healthcare system's most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.

In that case, one would expect it to have made a huge difference by now.. Pissed lots of people off, that's for sure. Made the rich much richer and life far more complicated for many including yours truly. What has made a huge difference? Medicaid. Thank goodness for Medicaid and the States that allowed its expansion! Medicare needs a good cleansing, a de-leeching if you will, to get it back to health. Medicaid can better handle those stuck in the ACA trap. Or Medicare4All can handle all of it much better..

 

[Grumblenuts]

But won't that drive health care inflation - as described in the OP?

Yeah. Unfortunately, ACA piled requirements on the catastrophic policies and now they cost too much for the HSA strategy to make much sense.

HSAs work for two distinct groups of people. Those who don't need insurance, but can gain advantages from it like paying less in taxes, and those those who can't save money unless a portion of their paycheck is automatically invested into a special account for this purpose or that. They're an insult to everyday, responsible people, as is the ACA in general.

 

[Dadoalex]

We have had lots of both and neither works perfectly or without waste. So I don't see any 50% savings just from making more provider facilities public ones. Cheaper, undoubtedly. But I believe people in this country value private, independent service providers more than elsewhere. They would be screaming communism in a heartbeat with little prompting from the billionaires. I've gone to one of these local drive-in HC places several times now and been treated as well or better than at my family doctor's office. They ain't half bad.

What there can't be is private HC insurance for routine HC or emergencies. Cosmetic care? No problem.

I'm not proposing to do away with private providers.
I'm saying a choice between a $200 doctor visit and $0 for the same service reasonable people will choose the latter.
Sure some doctors will have boutique practices to service the very wealthy and there will be exclusive facilities to cater to those who don't deign to wallow with the riff raff but because those facilities aren't supported by insurance and bulk patient loads the costs for service there will be enormous.

But when you look at the cost benefit analysis The net cost to the economy will decrease by 40% or more and the deficit spending driven by health care costs will decrease significantly.

The same arguments were made in Europe but I know of no country with socialized healthcare that would trade for the US system.

 

[Dadoalex]

Piss off, troll.

Actually, you're the one needing to piss off.
But since you're such a dick it should be easy.

 

[Grumblenuts]

I'm not proposing to do away with private providers.
I'm saying a choice between a $200 doctor visit and $0 for the same service reasonable people will choose the latter.

I know and I disagree. There is no "choice between a $200 doctor visit and $0 for the same service". Whether people realize it or not, private HC insurance generally costs everyone way more than that $200 per visit in multiple ways, except of course for those relative few who don't need it. Just one more way the rich get richer at our expense.

 

[Dadoalex]

I know and I disagree. There is no "choice between a $200 doctor visit and $0 for the same service". Whether people realize it or not, private HC insurance generally costs everyone way more than that $200 per visit in multiple ways, except of course for those relative few who don't need it. Just one more way the rich get richer at our expense.

True Dat!

 

[Greenbeard]

What has made a huge difference? Medicaid. Thank goodness for Medicaid and the States that allowed its expansion!

Medicaid expansion is the ACA.

 

[dblack]

The OP hits the nail on the head. We've created the problems with health insurance, and created a dependency on employers for our health care, via ill-conceived regulation and tax policy. All we need to do is repeal these laws and let the market re-balance. In the mean time we can beef up welfare programs to help the people at the bottom, who are hit the hardest by the inflated health care prices.

 

[Grumblenuts]

Medicaid expansion is the ACA.

Clown. Medicaid has existed since 1965. The idea of expanding it has obviously been promoted ever since by the Left while the Right has offered "Die Quickly." The ACA is not Medicaid expansion. It's a huge g(r)ift to Big Insurance that had to include Medicaid expansion else it would never have sold politically.

How is ObamaCare different from Medicaid? - SBMA Benefits

Obamacare aims to provide affordable health coverage to all Americans. Medicaid provides coverage for those that cannot afford it otherwise.

www.sbmabenefits.com

Emphasis on "aims to" -- Obama was always aiming to do wondrous things.. then sold out more often than not.

 

[Greenbeard]

The ACA is not Medicaid expansion. It's a huge g(r)ift to Big Insurance that had to include Medicaid expansion else it would never have sold politically.

So, in short, Medicaid expansion is the ACA.

 

[Grumblenuts]

So, in short, Medicaid expansion is the ACA.

Shirley, given one is a Bonehead!

 

[Grumblenuts]

All we need to do is repeal these laws and let the market re-balance. In the mean time we can beef up welfare programs to help the people at the bottom, who are hit the hardest by the inflated health care prices.

 

[dblack]

Nice emoji!

 

[dblack]

So, help me out here. I'm working on a new joke:

"A socialist, an idiot, and an insurance industry shill walk into a thread to take a crap ...."

Just need a punchline.

 

[Grumblenuts]

So, help me out here. I'm working on a new joke:

"A socialist, an idiot, and an insurance industry shill walk into a thread to take a crap ...."

Just need a punchline.

The socialist takes one whiff and walks out saying, "That's okay, you two can have it."