The US Healthcare Mass Debate

[Tero]

It's just so American, insuring healthy work age middle class folks. Paet time? Nothing. Wal Mart? A few minimal benefits. Once you get sick you go on disability for 6 months. Six months us up, you are fired. You can buy long term disability insurance. I had it through a professional organization.

[Tero]

Handful of staffers for SECRET group of senators writing bill, bypassing even republican committee members

The Senate bill would also allow states to opt out of many federal insurance standards. Republican leaders said they wanted to protect people with pre-existing conditions, but it was not immediately clear how they would do so.

Democrats stepped up their protests over the secrecy of the bill-writing process on Tuesday, and some Republicans chimed in. Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, was a member of a health care working group formed by Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, but even he was vexed by the process.

“It has become increasingly apparent in the last few days that even though we thought we were going to be in charge of writing a bill within this working group, it’s not being written by us,” Mr. Lee said in a video on Facebook. “It’s apparently being written by a small handful of staffers for members of the Republican leadership in the Senate. So if you’re frustrated by the lack of transparency in this process, I share your frustration.”

[Tero]

64 year old will get 1500 per month plan with 5000-10 000 deductible:
The GOP received flack for how the provision would impact older adults. For example, a 64-year-old making $26,500 per year would pay more than half their salary in premiums, according to the CBO estimate.

The Senate bill is likely to beef up the tax credits, particularly for older adults.

If the 64-year old has diabetes:
Over the study period, the cost of insulin per person more than tripled, from $231 a year to $736 a year and that is mostly with insurance. And in 2016, with the new introduced insulins, the cost can go well over $6,000-$7,000 a year.

[pErvinalia]

What's the actual reason that you guys can't have universal healthcare? Is it ideological, lobbying, greed, stupidity, what?

[Tero]

Socialism! Libertarians!(Rand Paul)

[pErvinalia]

Seriously?

[Tero]

Read the wikipedia entry on Rand Paul. Named after Ayn Rand. Government is evil. Therefore guns.

Ron Paul secretly named kid Rand, explaining to wife it was really Randall:
"[H]is name is not after Ayn Rand," Paul wrote. "His name is RANDALL despite some things that have been around on the Internet. He was called 'Randy' at home, and he became 'Rand' after becoming a physician."

[Scot Dutchy]

Pathetic but that is like certain members here especially American ones who find it impossible to thing outside the box.

[Tero]

It all started here:

[pErvinalia]

Read the wikipedia entry on Rand Paul. Named after Ayn Rand. Government is evil. Therefore guns.

Ron Paul secretly named kid Rand, explaining to wife it was really Randall:
"[H]is name is not after Ayn Rand," Paul wrote. "His name is RANDALL despite some things that have been around on the Internet. He was called 'Randy' at home, and he became 'Rand' after becoming a physician."

Yeah, but that's only two people.

[Tero]

The Freedom caucus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Caucus

Meanwhile, all consumer protections stripped

What about consumer protections? The House bill notoriously allowed states to opt out of Obamacare's insurance regulations, such as rules barring carriers from discriminating against patients with pre-existing conditions or requiring them to cover certain services. Sensing that it might be politically suicidal to strip cancer and heart patients of their protections, Senate moderates have reportedly resisted going down that path. Right now, it's unclear who won the argument.

Axios reports that the Senate will instead give states more leeway to use Obamacare’s existing waiver system, allowing them to jettison some of the law’s coverage requirements—though not the popular protection for pre-existing conditions. This approach would encourage carriers in states with laxer rules to limit their offerings to minimal plans that would be largely useless to people with extensive health problems.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/201 ... alled.html

[Brian Peacock]

[Tero]

Trump says plan is terrific because it erases Obama out of healthcare:
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/2 ... 4?lo=ap_b2

Obama bad, taxes bad, mandates bad. America great now.

[Tero]

But he's just getting started! This tax cut will make America great again!
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-r ... dy-n775736

[Forty Two]

It's just so American, insuring healthy work age middle class folks. Paet time? Nothing. Wal Mart? A few minimal benefits. Once you get sick you go on disability for 6 months. Six months us up, you are fired. You can buy long term disability insurance. I had it through a professional organization.

The big problem started with the government allowing employers to pay for employee's health insurance and making it tax free. That meant that employees who get their insurance through their employer get a tax break. Those who have to pay for their premiums themselves have to pay for it with post-tax money.

Either the employer's payment for insurance should be considered income, or all insurance premiums should come off of gross income at tax time. In a competitive market, the insurance companies would have the market incentive to charge lower rates. With the employment pooling arrangements, the insurance companies shaved down the markets, so they only had to win one sales pitch, not hundreds or thousands. Once they landed the employer's account, they had a captive pool of insureds. The employer paid, and the employee didn't give a fuck, because he/she wasn't paying, and they weren't taxed on that income.

They should mandate insurance coverage, but allow insurance companies to compete nationally, not just state-by-state. Increase the competition. Also, render all insurance premiums tax deductible up to $X - have that be up to a reasonable level, with any "gold plated" luxury plans being non-deductible over a certain amount.