Voters are fed talking points about the evils of "socialized" medicine, with its rationing and the fact that it doesn't let crippled poor children die in the streets.
But it becomes a huge problem when those socialized systems rank ahead of ours for efficiency and outcomes.
The people defending the American System don't understand that after decades of concentrating lobbying the American Health Care and Pharmaceutical sectors became virtual state protected monopolies that were able to raise rates and decrease service/coverage without fear of losing customers to a more efficient/innovative competitor.
Our politicians were paid off. They enabled a rentier class to take over our health care delivery system. We made a small class of people rich while at the same time fleecing the middle class, who became unable to afford a system that grew at 5x inflation.
Reagan promised the opposite. He said the market would innovate and offer competitive pricing. Who knew that they would do the opposite? Who knew that they would simply invest in politicians to help them monopolize coverage and distort market incentives, and who knew they would invest in talk radio to convince morons to scream "socialism" at anyone who tried to fix it?
i agree there are problems that need to be addressed.......but socialism is not the answer......we have one foot in it already with Obamacare (which was supposed to solve it all) and the problems just keep on increasing......
correct me if i'm wrong but are more ppl insured because of Obamcare? If so please explain how the situation is getting worse?
Now, as 2015 slowly draws to a close, we see that each and every one of those promises was broken, and the problems with Obamacare seem to be getting worse − although there are almost 10 million more people insured. But at what cost?
Tens of millions of Americans have been forced to change health care plans, change doctors, incur significantly higher premiums, pay much higher deductibles and often skip routine testing because it must be paid out of pocket. All of this, the president tells us, was necessary to provide insurance for an additional 10 million people by 2015.
About 85 percent of the previously uninsured receive a subsidy reducing their premiums by an average of $270 per month. That’s a cost to taxpayers of more than $27 billion annually. This is added to the higher premiums and higher deductibles that the average American now already pays for Obamacare coverage.
There are additional costs that taxpayers incur. The ACA established 23 health co-ops. These are essentially non-profit insurance companies that were supposed to provide health coverage at the lowest possible cost to consumers and keep a lid on prices charged by commercial health insurance companies, thus adding an element of “competition” to the coverage pools.
But one by one, these co-ops have been failing. Recently, Health Republic Insurance of Oregon and Colorado HealthOP said it will cease operations at the end of the year. Just days before, the Kentucky Health Cooperative and the Tennessee Community Health Alliance said they would also shut down.
All told, eight of the original 23 cop-ops that received a whopping $900 million in federal loans and provided service to more than 500,000 Americans have failed. Worse, a recent report by the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general said the remaining co-ops are “in deep financial trouble,” with more expected to close.
It gets even worse for Medicare recipients. When the ACA was passed, it included a provision that transferred funds out of Medicare to pay for the exchanges. The result is that about 30 percent of Medicare beneficiaries will see their Part B premiums rise by as much as 52 percent in 2016.
In 2016, the penalty on individuals who choose not to purchase health insurance will increase to at least $625 per year. But that figure could be even higher, based on an individual’s income. This tax − which President Obama refused to call a tax until the Supreme Court said it was a tax − will be paid by every American who freely chooses not to purchase health insurance.
In 2018, the situation will get even worse. Millions of Americans who are able to negotiate a high-quality health care package as part of their benefit package will discover they have incurred an additional tax. If an individual employee negotiates a “Cadillac” plan which costs his employers more than the Obama administration says it should, that individual will pay a 40 percent tax on the amount above Obama’s arbitrary limit. This could cost such individuals another $1,500 to $2,000 per year in taxes.
All this added expense is effectively penalizing several hundred millions of Americans just so that less than 10 million people can receive free or nearly free health insurance. Such a policy seems grossly unfair. But in addition, many Americans are receiving poorer, not better health care as a result of the ACA. Nearly every doctor and hospital administrator that I have spoken to about Obamacare speaks negatively regarding the results. Doctors are working more hours and are receiving less pay, hardly an incentive for providing quality care.
Obamacare problems will only increase in 2016
