An Interesting Number About Health Insurance

[g5000]

My personal belief about health insurance is that we should be able to pick up a telephone and call any insurer in the country, and choose a plan which works best for ourselves and our families.

This is what we do for all other insurance. Home, life, auto, renter's, you name it.

So why can't we do that with health insurance?

We can't because health insurers own our politicians and will not let that happen. They abhor competition and have bribed our government to partition our country and create health insurance zones which have a minimum of competition.

Hospital corporations are also regulated such that they can't expand across the nation.

If you were allowed to call any health insurance company, there would be fierce competition for your business. You would also be able to bundle your health insurance, like you do with all your other insurance, to get a discount.

What's more, you would not lose your job and your health insurance at the same time any more. And when you get a new job, you would not have to wait three to six months to get your new employer's insurance.

Instead, you are hostage to your employer for your health insurance. Literally a hostage to your employer.

It is a fact employer-sponsored health insurance (ESHI) bends the cost curve UP. However, labor unions want us all hostage to ESHI.

Of course, employers want us hostage, and they like the big tax write-off for providing ESHI.

This means the ability to pick up a phone and call any insurers for ourselves is never going to happen.

More in the next post, where I will provide the interesting number.

Reforming Health Insurance: Competition Across State Lines

Competition across state lines is necessary for any fundamental transformation in American health care. But the precarious financing of state individual-market risk pools, as structured by ACA, is inherently incompatible with vigorous interstate competition.

manhattan.institute

 

[kyzr]

Thank your lucky stars that your employer has health insurance. You are not a hostage but a beneficiary of your employer's negotiated insurance coverage. If you had to pick up a phone and call for coverage, you couldn't afford it.
This is bullshit:
"Instead, you are hostage to your employer for your health insurance. Literally a hostage to your employer.
It is a fact employer-sponsored health insurance (ESHI) bends the cost curve UP. However, labor unions want us all hostage to ESHI. Of course, employers want us hostage, and they like the big tax write-off for providing ESHI."

If you retire before age 65 you will get an education in healthcare coverage and costs.

 

[g5000]

Now, you may occasionally hear a politician say something to the effect we need to be able to buy health insurance "across state lines".

That is very misleading, but it does highlight the fact you are limited to what companies you can buy from. And so is your employer.

Next time you hear a politician say "across state lines", ask yourself why they aren't saying "across the entire country".


Our health care system is broken. Everyone knows this, and insurance companies are laughing all the way to the Too Big To Fail bank.

More and more Americans are being priced out of the market. Health insurance costs have been skyrocketing for decades. You think "Bidenflation" was bad? Look at health insurance inflation.

Decades.

Long before Obamacare. Long, long before.

During all that time, the Republicans offered NOTHING to fix the problem. In fact, to win the senior vote in 2004, they created a NEW trillion dollar government health insurance program without paying for it. And that's because they repealed the law which required every new program be offset with either spending cuts or taxes.

So Obamacare was inevitable. It was the Democratic answer to the cries of the American people.

But as I predicted when it passed, it has not brought costs down.

Donald Trump saw an opportunity to exploit this pain and he promised to repeal and replace Obamacare "on Day One".

Strangely, no one ever asked to see his plan. I know this because I repeatedly asked his followers to show it to me, and that just pissed them off. They didn't want to believe they were being hoaxed.

Trump was just piggy-backing on the Republican Party's claim to do the same if the American people would just give them all the power.

When the GOP did get all the power in Congress and the White House, they were caught with their dicks in their hands.

Trump and the GOP had no plan. They never did.

And health insurance costs continue to skyrocket to this day.

Here's the thing.

So many Americans have been priced out of the private market for health insurance, 40 percent of them are now on a government sponsored health insurance plan of one kind or another.

Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, VA, Tricare, CHAMPVA.

40 percent.

I think that is an interesting number which highlights just how broken our health insurance system is, and for the dual reasons of Republican apathy and rising costs, it has now become inevitable we will end up with Single-Payer/Universal/Medicare-for-All health insurance.

 

[g5000]

Thank your lucky stars that your employer has health insurance. You are not a hostage but a beneficiary of your employer's negotiated insurance coverage. If you had to pick up a phone and call for coverage, you couldn't afford it.

You are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.

Competition lowers prices. You are not allowed to participate in a competitive health insurance market, and that is why under the current system you would pay out your ass for insurance.

But not in a free market.

This is what I mean when I constantly say Trump's followers would not know a conservative principle if it kicked you in the balls.

I'm kicking you in the balls.

You have NO CHOICE but to take your employer's insurance. You are a hostage. By definition.

 

[g5000]

As a retired vet, I am entitled to Tricare and the VA.

I took one look at the cost of my employer's insurance and was disgusted at how expensive it is. And it gets worse every year. My poor hostage co-workers have to pay more and more for coverage, and their deductibles and co-pays are outrageous.

Don't get sick in America.

 

[g5000]

Here's another thing.

Donald Trump has always been in favor of universal health care. This is why I say it would not surprise me in the least if he rolled out a UHC plan during this lame duck presidency.

I have no doubt his followers, in their usual Orwellian fashion, would turn on a dime and full-throatedly back his plan.


"As far as single payer, it works in Canada. It works incredibly well in Scotland." - Donald J. Trump, 2015.


Donald Trump in his book The America We Deserve:

We must have universal healthcare...I'm a conservative on most issues but a liberal on this one. We should not hear so many stories of families ruined by healthcare expenses...

Doctors might be paid less than they are now, as is the case in Canada, but they would be able to treat more patients because of the reduction in their paperwork..



The Canadian plan also helps Canadians live longer and healthier than Americans. There are fewer medical lawsuits, less loss of labor to sickness, and lower costs to companies paying for the medical care of their employees. If the program were in place in Massachusetts in 1999 it would have reduced administrative costs by $2.5 million. We need, as a nation, to reexamine the single-payer plan, as many individual states are doing.



Donald Trump on Larry King the first time he ran for President:

I'm quite liberal, and getting much more liberal, on health care and other things. What's the purpose of a country if you're not gonna have defense and health care? If you can’t take care of your sick in the country, forget it, it’s all over. So I'm very liberal when it comes to health care. I believe in universal health care.

 

[BluesLegend]

Instead, you are hostage to your employer for your health insurance. Literally a hostage to your employer.

You are a hostage to stupidity. Nobody is forced to work for anyone, especially not now that denying pre-existing conditions was gotten rid of. Christ try not to be totally STUPID before starting a thread.

 

[DBA]

Here's another thing.

Donald Trump has always been in favor of universal health care. This is why I say it would not surprise me in the least if he rolled out a UHC plan during this lame duck presidency.

I have no doubt his followers, in their usual Orwellian fashion, would turn on a dime and full-throatedly back his plan.


"As far as single payer, it works in Canada. It works incredibly well in Scotland." - Donald J. Trump, 2015.


Donald Trump in his book The America We Deserve:

We must have universal healthcare...I'm a conservative on most issues but a liberal on this one. We should not hear so many stories of families ruined by healthcare expenses...

Doctors might be paid less than they are now, as is the case in Canada, but they would be able to treat more patients because of the reduction in their paperwork..



The Canadian plan also helps Canadians live longer and healthier than Americans. There are fewer medical lawsuits, less loss of labor to sickness, and lower costs to companies paying for the medical care of their employees. If the program were in place in Massachusetts in 1999 it would have reduced administrative costs by $2.5 million. We need, as a nation, to reexamine the single-payer plan, as many individual states are doing.



Donald Trump on Larry King the first time he ran for President:

I'm quite liberal, and getting much more liberal, on health care and other things. What's the purpose of a country if you're not gonna have defense and health care? If you can’t take care of your sick in the country, forget it, it’s all over. So I'm very liberal when it comes to health care. I believe in universal health care.

I would not support that. Would Democrats oppose just because Trump proposed it.

 

[kyzr]

You are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.
Competition lowers prices. You are not allowed to participate in a competitive health insurance market, and that is why under the current system you would pay out your ass for insurance. But not in a free market.

You are not required to take your company provided healthcare. So go buy your own coverage, and see what free market coverage costs.

This is what I mean when I constantly say Trump's followers would not know a conservative principle if it kicked you in the balls.
I'm kicking you in the balls. You have NO CHOICE but to take your employer's insurance. You are a hostage. By definition.

Bullshit. If your wife has better coverage use hers and cancel yours.

When you retire from your current subsidized company provided health insurance coverage, you will see how much more it costs you for health insurance on the "free market".

 

[g5000]

You are a hostage to stupidity. Nobody is forced to work for anyone, especially not now that denying pre-existing conditions was gotten rid of. Christ try not to be totally STUPID before starting a thread.

I see the whole thing has sailed a mile above your head.

Not surprising.

You aren't even upset that Trump hoaxed you about his non-existent big, beautiful, terrific replacement for Obamacare. You didn't even look to see what it was.

I think we all know who is stupid in this picture.

 

[g5000]

You are not required to take your company provided healthcare. So go buy your own coverage, and see what free market coverage costs.

We. Do. Not. Have. A. Free. Market.

That is my whole point.

 

[BluesLegend]

I see the whole thing has sailed a mile above your head.

Not surprising.

You aren't even upset that Trump hoaxed you about his non-existent big, beautiful, terrific replacement for Obamacare. You didn't even look to see what it was.

I think we all know who is stupid in this picture.

Retard, the whole point of getting rid of denying pre-existing conditions was to free people to change employers and health plans. Just admit it, you're a moron.

 

[g5000]

This is why we will end up with UHC. This is exactly why.

These supposed "conservatives" don't even understand what a free market it, and they can't see how they have been roped into a system which is purposely rigged to rob them blind.

 

[BluesLegend]

That is my whole point.

LOL no your point is you want to be a MOOCHER and get your free GOVERNMENT healthcare while someone else pays for it. Your smokescreen was amateur at best.

 

[Polishprince]

Medical insurance is a bit different that auto or home.

Insurance companies with that line aren't allowed to base their rates on your health

 

[kyzr]

We. Do. Not. Have. A. Free. Market.
That is my whole point.

So when I retired at age 60 and was calling various healthcare insurance companies for quotes until I reached age 65 for Medicare coverage, I wasn't in a "free market"? If that isn't a free market, please explain wtf you are talking about.

 

[g5000]

Retard, the whole point of getting rid of denying pre-existing conditions was to free people to change employers and health plans. Just admit it, you're a moron.

Um, retard?

That Obamacare you hate so much? That's where the protection of pre-existing conditions came from.

If Trump and the GOP had repealed Obamacare, that protection would have gone away, which is one of many reasons they did not repeal it. Fury would have rained down on them like fire and brimstone.

They only pretended to repeal it 60+ times while Obama was president, knowing he would just veto any repeals.

It was all theater for you rubes.

 

[g5000]

So when I retired at age 60 and was calling various healthcare insurance companies for quotes until I reached age 65 for Medicare coverage, I wasn't in a "free market"?

That's exactly right. You were not in a free market.

If that isn't a free market, please explain wtf you are talking about.

I have already explained. I can't help it if your Stockholm Syndrome prevents you from understanding what real free enterprise is.

 

[BluesLegend]

Um, retard?

That Obamacare you hate so much? That's where the protection of pre-existing conditions came from.

If Trump and the GOP had repealed Obamacare, that protection would have gone away, which is one of many reasons they did not repeal it. Fury would have rained down on them like fire and brimstone.

They only pretended to repeal it 60+ times while Obama was president, knowing he would just veto any repeals.

It was all theater for you rubes.

Oh look it's captain obvious, well no shit Sherlock. Another swing and a miss from the cheap seats. You may want to go back to the minors of debating you are getting your ass kicked.

 

[BluesLegend]

So when I retired at age 60 and was calling various healthcare insurance companies for quotes until I reached age 65 for Medicare coverage, I wasn't in a "free market"? If that isn't a free market, please explain wtf you are talking about.

OP is on a long winding road to...FREE government run healthcare for all. Just wait and see, it's coming a few pages in.