US 2016 presidential candidates and Obamacare

[Tero]

Most of them have no plan. The republicans merely want to dismantle Obamacare, but may keep quiet about it till the very last debates in the fall of 2016. One candidate is a doctor and is running as high as Jeb Bush now.

"I wouldn't mind the government giving me $2,000 for a health savings account because I have great health insurance from my employer," Jost added. "I'm sure if you are a doctor at Johns Hopkins, this is a great idea. You have $2,000 in your pocket. But if you are from the wrong side of Baltimore, it is not going to help very much. It is not going to help you get insurance and not cover more than basic primary care."

Jonathan Gruber, a health economics expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who advised both Gov. Mitt Romney and President Obama on their health care plans, echoed Jost's concerns, calling Carson's approach "just a plan for the very rich who would not be discriminated against by the insurance market."

"It's not really insurance," he added. "It is leaving you self-insured for any risk above $2,000. The typical heart attack in the U.S. can cost about $100,000. This is typical of the poverty of ideas on the right on health care right now."

Carolyn Engelhard, assistant professor of public health sciences and director of the Health Policy Program at the University of Virginia, agreed.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/04/23 ... thl/198985

[mistermack]

While I generally support our national health service as opposed to the American system, I am genuinely surprised at how expensive health has become in the states.

Capitalism and competition is meant to produce value for the consumer, and it often does.
So what's going wrong in the US health system?
I think it can only be that the companies are not really competing. There must be some under-the-counter deals being done, some bribery and price-fixing.

The bigger the organisations, and the fewer the numbers, the easier it is to do that sort of stuff. And health provision and insurance is a big big industry, with big players.

Instead of pissing around with FIFA, the FBI ought to be investigating the big health companies.
I reckon they will find some real dirt there.

I don't know why the NHS doesn't bid for some of the work. There must be profit for the NHS at the prices paid in the US. They could use it to subsidise UK treatment.

[Tero]

It's kind of like cable TV. A company gets monopoly or duopoly over an area.

[pErvinalia]

The repubs won't win, unless the cia/illuminati/rothschild/joo alliance stage another trrrrist attack on home soil.

[mistermack]

It's kind of like cable TV. A company gets monopoly or duopoly over an area.

Not really a recipe for cut-throat competition then.

Of course, the other big factor in prices is legal cover.
If the US wasn't so open to legal claims, the prices would be way lower.

Insurance premiums are supporting an army of lawyers on both sides, liability insurance companies, bill chasing lawyers, health insurance companies with their own regiment of lawyers, etc etc etc.

It all costs money. They all make a very good living off the health premiums.
That's why people like Seth can't afford cover.

[pErvinalia]

Ironically, he probably can afford cover now thanks to Bammy.

[Tero]

No single payer system! Basically, Obamacare!

[Tero]

Cruz, leading candidate as Trump will not get GOP stamp of approval, has no plan. It amounts to posturing: Remove Obamacare, or at least his NAME, the infidel Muslim!

Cruz's plan is the most detailed, in that he has provided legislative text. The other plans are not yet formal legislation and have only been outlined in op-eds. Questions such as the size of the tax credits remain on the House chairmen's plan.

Cruz told The Hill on Monday that he is not ruling out supporting aspects of the other plans, including the temporary extension of ObamaCare plans. "I don’t want to prejudge that debate right now, I want to assess the options," he said.

While Cruz's bill does not fully repeal ObamaCare, he maintains that is the ultimate goal.

"Every last word of Obamacare must be repealed,” Cruz said in the statement.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/23 ... lternative

[laklak]

ACA is perhaps the most short-sighted, stupid, useless piece of "legislation" ever crafted by the microcephalic idiots in Congress. It is; however, an object lesson in the application of the Law of Unintended Consequences. My insurance premiums have doubled since it's inception, and 12% of Americans are still uninsured (down from the actual 15% prior to the ACA, the 30% figure they bandied about was complete horseshit). The idea that insurance companies cannot refuse coverage for pre-existing conditions is complete horseshit, my daughter is office manager for an insurance broker and they routinely deny coverage, they just come up with a different reason. According to some studies there has been a slowing of the rate of cost increases for medical procedures, but others show no change at all. "Well, at least it's not as expensive as it might have been" is not, IMO, a rational defense of any fucking thing at all.

This was all readily apparent to anyone with more than 7 functioning neurons before they passed it, but the majority of the population (read "ignorant idiots for that) were in the grip of fee-fee-good "Change!". Fucking idiots. Fucking morons. They deserve whatever happens to them.

[Tero]

You did not watch the video. German insurance companies, like Obamacare, cannot deny coverage. They did not run out of business. % of GDP for healthcare is 2/3 or less compared to ours.

Basic care does not give as fancy hospital rooms as US, and they do not keep you on a ventilator for a month but: Savings! Reasonable chance of survival.

[laklak]

Doesn't change the drooling idiocy of Obamacare.

[Svartalf]

Isn't ACA idiotic because it was nerfed down by the repugnicans?

[Tero]

Doesn't change the drooling idiocy of Obamacare.

You must mean socialism. Everything is socialism now.

[Svartalf]

But socialism is idiocy, I'm sure there's somebody on Ratz who says so to whomever will listen...

[pErvinalia]

There's no such thing as Socialism. There's only Marxism and right-libertarianism. If you're not a libbo, then yer a Marxist. FACT!