The Goat Pen

Professor Tiger wrote:

What can I expect with "Obamneycare"?

Costs rising even faster than before. Caregivers and hospitals getting paid less per procedure, so they will have to make up in volume, which will mean you get 3 minutes with your doctor when you visit. Fewer doctors entering the profession and PA's and NP's taking over a lot more primary care. Less choice in doctors and fewer standard procedures covered. More regulations, restrictions, etc. More lawsuits with rules of evidence stacked in favor of plaintiffs. More elderly forced out of Medicare and onto ObamaRomneyRobertscare. More and more sick old people being sent home to die with no recourse.

And then, widespread calls by liberal politicians that the only way to fix the health care crisis (caused by Bush) is to go for single payer, which was the plan all along.

Where do you get this stuff? Less choice in doctors...fewer standard procedures...sick old people sent home to die with no recourse?

You didn't get that from robamaneycare in MA, did you?

The mandate that requires all state residents to carry health insurance has also proved to be effective. About 97 percent of taxpayers are complying with that requirement.

The law, however, has failed to curb rising costs. While implementation of the law itself didn’t put a major dent in the state’s budget – according to an analysis by independent group Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation, the increase in net spending for the law was just 1 percent in fiscal year 2010 – it hasn’t reduced overall costs for policy holders.

Private spending per member grew by 15.5 percent on average between 2006 and 2008. Meanwhile, average premiums for full insurance increased 12.2 percent from 2006 to 2008, according to the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy.

The median health insurance premium for a policy holder in Massachusetts was $442 in 2009, a 21 percent jump from 2005. Meanwhile, employers’ share of premiums fell in the same time period.

Bankruptcy filings due to medical costs have also jumped, increasing by more than one-third between 2007 and 2009, according to analysis published in The American Journal of Medicine in March.

Rising costs continue to pose a challenge for the state. A survey published by Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts Foundation in April found that per capita health care spending in Massachusetts is projected to nearly double by 2020.

Small businesses also have yet to see the full benefits of the law. Like the national law, the state insurance exchanges were meant to give small businesses a choice of finding cheaper health alternatives, but that hasn’t happened yet. Premiums charged to small businesses since 2006 have risen faster than average, growing by 5.8 percent from 2006 to 2008, compared to a 4.8 percent growth for mid-size companies.

Professor Tiger wrote:The median health insurance premium for a policy holder in Massachusetts was $442 in 2009, a 21 percent jump from 2005. Meanwhile, employers’ share of premiums fell in the same time period.

Professor Tiger wrote:Bankruptcy filings due to medical costs have also jumped, increasing by more than one-third between 2007 and 2009, according to analysis published in The American Journal of Medicine in March.

THE_WIZARD_ wrote:Tell me one fucking program that is even 1/100th the size of this monsterosity that the feds have run properly...you can't. They fuck up anything they do. Government invlovement just fucks up market forces. Thats it folks. Tell me how 'rent control" in NYC has helped the people...tell me...did it actually curb costs in the long run? Did it improve quality? Did it make it more available?

Wake up people. Obamacare is pure bullshit.

bluetick wrote:

THE_WIZARD_ wrote:Tell me one fucking program that is even 1/100th the size of this monsterosity that the feds have run properly...you can't. They fuck up anything they do. Government invlovement just fucks up market forces. Thats it folks. Tell me how 'rent control" in NYC has helped the people...tell me...did it actually curb costs in the long run? Did it improve quality? Did it make it more available?

Wake up people. Obamacare is pure bullshit.

Rent control in NYC is not a federal program.

Obamacare is not a federal program. It's a series of laws that features, among other things, the mandate that everyone participates in our mostly-corporate healthcare system, with tighter regulations on said corporate healthcare system. The government does not 'run' private health insurors, hospitals, physicians and healthcare providers, pharma and medical equipment manufacturers.

bluetick wrote:I'd like to hear the puter/prof plan that will stop GBJ's wife's insurance policy from doubling again in five years under our current deeply-flawed healthcare system.

bluetick wrote:

Professor Tiger wrote:The median health insurance premium for a policy holder in Massachusetts was $442 in 2009, a 21 percent jump from 2005. Meanwhile, employers’ share of premiums fell in the same time period.

Hells bells - FIVE percent a year? If increases could be limited to 5% a year we wouldn't have a healthcare crisis. What did GBJ's wife's policy increase in 5 years...100%?

Professor Tiger wrote:Bankruptcy filings due to medical costs have also jumped, increasing by more than one-third between 2007 and 2009, according to analysis published in The American Journal of Medicine in March.

The American Journal of Medicine would also point out that medical bankruptcies jumped in every state of the union during that time period - something about a 'great' recession being the culprit.

Professor Tiger wrote:After a generation of Democrats scaring senior citizens every election screaming '"THE REPUBLICANS WILL CUT YOUR MEDICARE! THE REPUBLICANS WILL CUT YOUR MEDICARE!," Obamacare cuts medicare by $500 billion. If Republicans had done that, the Democrats would have burned down Washington DC.