Healthcare... America and the rest

[Feck]

Point made .

[Tero]

THEY HAVE NO PLAN

With only weeks to go before the GOP-controlled Congress begins work on legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Republican lawmakers and staff are struggling to address potentially catastrophic effects of killing off the program without a suitable replacement in hand.

Until now, GOP lawmakers’ biggest challenge has been to convince consumers, insurers, the hospital industry and others that the process will be gradual – perhaps taking as long as two to three years to implement – and that the 20 million or more people who obtained coverage under Obamacare and the expanded Medicaid provision will not abruptly lose their plans.
However, it is now dawning on the Republicans that repealing the dozen or so major Obamacare tax increases along with the premium subsidies for low and middle-income Americans would seriously crimp their effort to devise and finance a substitute health insurance program down the road.
Obamacare is financed by a combination of tax increases, Medicare tax increases and cost-saving measures, and other federal and state tax revenues. When Congress passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, it required hospitals, the health insurance industry, medical device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies to share in the cost because of the huge profits they would likely accrue from millions of new paying customers.

Republican critics of Obamacare have long derided these additional taxes – especially the 2.3 percent medical devices tax, a 10 percent tax on indoor tanning services, and taxes on brand-name drugs and health insurance companies selling policies on and off the government exchanges as millstones around the necks of businesses large and small.
They have also targeted two other Obamacare tax hikes on the earnings and investments of those making more than $250,000 a year.
But there is compelling evidence that if the Republicans go ahead next month and scrap all the taxes hikes as part of an overall repeal of the Affordable Care Act, they will not have enough revenue to finance a replacement plan.

http://www.businessinsider.com/republic ... es-2016-12

[Scot Dutchy]

All noise and no substance just like the Brexiteers.

[Tero]

More people than ever buy "terrible" Obamacare
http://www.businessinsider.com/obamacar ... eat-2017-1

[Brian Peacock]

The US could provide free healthcare for a quarter of the defence budget.

[Tero]

Mystery plan: drugs are like fighter jets?

He spoke in the same generalities that he used to describe his health care goals during the campaign — that it would be “great health care” that left people “beautifully covered.”
Mr. Trump said specifically on Saturday that “I don’t want single-payer.” He told The Post that he would force drug manufacturers to negotiate better prices with Medicaid and Medicare, the government-run health programs.

Asked how he would force the drug companies to do that, he noted the public pressure that he had exerted on other companies, mentioning his Twitter posts criticizing cost overruns for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet.
Republicans have expressed anxiety about the demands from Mr. Trump and others for a quick replacement of the law. Many believe that will require a very complex plan that could be tricky to develop and push through Congress.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/15/us/p ... ement.html

[Forty Two]

Bzzzt! Ding ding ding!!! Fal!!

Both Obamacare and Medicare have reduced fraud. Medicare would reduce fraud even more if it were properly staffed.
Now it will be further defunded.

Hillary's plan of putting all older than 50 into medicare would have saved the most.

Obamacare and Medicare have reduced fraud? I'll leave it to you to back that claim up with evidence.

"Further" defunded? Are you acknowledging that Obama and the Democrats defunded Medicare?

[Tero]

Paul Ryan will defund it. After atrump finds Ryan is his only friend in DC, he will sign every Ryan bill.

[Forty Two]

Evidence?

[Tero]

You will see. Ryan plans are all the same: cut funding to welfare. It's apparently shameful to take federal money, unless it is a tax cut.

If you pay 1500 dollars a month insurance and the government pays 1000 of it, that's a handout. If you pay the 1500 directly to insurance and thejn get a 12000 tax cut at the end of the year, that is not.(Republican logic)

[Tero]

For Americans over the age of 65 on Medicare, we're Canada. For working Americans who get insurance on the job, we're Germany.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline ... odels.html

[Forty Two]

We were both those things before Obamacare. Now we pay 2 and 3 times as much plus higher deductibles and some small minority are cheering as if it's a good thing.

[Forty Two]

You will see. Ryan plans are all the same: cut funding to welfare. It's apparently shameful to take federal money, unless it is a tax cut.

If you pay 1500 dollars a month insurance and the government pays 1000 of it, that's a handout. If you pay the 1500 directly to insurance and thejn get a 12000 tax cut at the end of the year, that is not.(Republican logic)

Or just open up competition and get the government out of it. Cover the poor on Medicaid and the old on Medicare. It would not be $1500 per month if not for the government mandate .

[Tero]

The competition is not going to do it. When will you get it? Healthcare is essentially a monopoly. It is the providers that are driving up the costs. They can do more stuff. They will do as much as they can bill you for, whether you need it or not. Insurance taking a cut on top of that drives up the cost to you.

[Forty Two]

It's more expensive now than it was, by far. There has been no savings . Nothing. How can you claim that there has been? The numbers are staggering.