ObamaCare Deductibles Keep on Soaring

a reply to: Gryphon66

Actually, completely coded non-emergency medical procedures enforced by law (like when you go to a restaurant, they have to post the price of your burger so you don't get a $700 bill afterwards).

If all health service providers are required to post their prices. You the consumer can shop around for the best price.

This is why Lazik eye surgery continues to go up in quality and down in price year over year. Competition for your service, posted prices, shop around on the web.


The healthcare industry NEVER wants this. If they are forced to compete and post prices, they can't charge you 5k for and CT one place and $200 for the same CT in another. You the consumer have no easy way to shop around.

Make that happen, watch the innovation.

originally posted by: xuenchen
a reply to: stosh64

Looks like many Democrats were "with us" as they would say.

One was against...

And he is a serious candidate for president

a reply to: StoutBroux

It's what happens when people can't say, "No." And anyone who knows anything about economics will tell you that about spiraling costs, but progressives all know better.

Actually, in this case, they did know, or at least I believe they did know. It's a feature. If this continues, it's a new crisis they must solve, and they're betting that everyone will forget they created this problem in the first place and beg them to fix it by taking total control.

Obamacare is a Trojan horse.

a reply to: infolurker

Sounds like a great innovation. Run for office and implement it!

You don't think it smacks of too much government control, though?

so how is this any better than the way things were?
The only ones making more money now are the insurance companies, the hospitals are still getting screwed.

Then: uninsured people would go to the ER, get a bill that they couldn`t afford and just not pay it.
Now: obamacare people go to the ER get a bill (that isn`t covered because of their deductible), that they can`t afford and just not pay it.

originally posted by: Tardacus
so how is this any better than the way things were?
The only ones making more money now are the insurance companies, the hospitals are still getting screwed.

Then: uninsured people would go to the ER, get a bill that they couldn`t afford and just not pay it.
Now: obamacare people go to the ER get a bill (that isn`t covered because of their deductible), that they can`t afford and just not pay it.

Shhhh... you are not supposed to tell anyone.

a reply to: infolurker

Worse yet, IMO, is the fact that the same hospital will charge several different prices for the same procedure... depending on whether you have medical insurance or which insurance plan you have.
I am talking about insurance companies negotiating prices for a medical facility to perform a procedure.

a reply to: Gryphon66

even before obamacare, the gov't was putting so much money into the healthcare system--- medicare, medicaid, chips, grants for research, grants for equipment, grants for new hospitals, and on and on--

money usually comes with strings attached to it, especially if it's the gov't giving it, and the healthcare industry has so much gov't money flowing into it that you might as well say that healthcare is their dog...
well, if I had a dog, I would have to chain him up, the gov't has the power to do the same with their dog if they choose to.

Is anyone surprised? What if I told you that obamacare was passed to give kickbacks and guaranteed returns to the health insurance industry, all while giving democrats a "free" healthcare solution to lambast the uninformed, uneducated voter with

originally posted by: avgguy
Is anyone surprised? What if I told you that obamacare was passed to give kickbacks and guaranteed returns to the health insurance industry, all while giving democrats a "free" healthcare solution to lambast the uninformed, uneducated voter with

"Idiocracy" is coming.
We are already partway there.
The election of any of the announced candidates (R or D) will just push us a little closer to completion.

This is one policy that I still have trouble getting behind with Obama. I just can't stand this stupid scam. Nothing infuriates me more than forced consumerism. I shouldn't be required by law to buy something from a private company. Plus the reason health care prices are so outrageous in the FIRST place is mostly due to insurance companies. They started out as a good idea, but they've become leaches on the health care system. Unfortunately the industry also holds quite a few many jobs, so dismantling it isn't so easy either... But it really must go.

Yet no one seems to want to just expand Medicaid to be universal health care... Medicaid is only one of our best working social programs.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

This is one policy that I still have trouble getting behind with Obama. I just can't stand this stupid scam. Nothing infuriates me more than forced consumerism. I shouldn't be required by law to buy something from a private company. Plus the reason health care prices are so outrageous in the FIRST place is mostly due to insurance companies. They started out as a good idea, but they've become leaches on the health care system. Unfortunately the industry also holds quite a few many jobs, so dismantling it isn't so easy either... But it really must go.

Amen to that part.
The SCOTUS is at fault for their ruling on the law too, IMHO.

a reply to: butcherguy

The problem I see is that repealing the law is just unreasonable. The health care industry has changed too much to go back to the way things were. We HAVE to try to fix the law or break health care for everyone in the country and let it fix itself, but I imagine that would result in quite a few unhappy Americans.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: butcherguy

The problem I see is that repealing the law is just unreasonable. The health care industry has changed too much to go back to the way things were. We HAVE to try to fix the law or break health care for everyone in the country and let it fix itself, but I imagine that would result in quite a few unhappy Americans.

Kind of torn here. Understand people need medical care that's affordable but this wasn't it. Almost hoping that everyone who supported this crap goes bankrupt because of it. Problem in politics most the time we can't even identify the real problem or the real solutions and the blind followers of either party buy it hook, line, and sinker. Depending on who is pushing what.

It would suck, but maybe if all the supporters suffered some serious financial repercussions because of that support we would do a better job of long term thinking next time.

a reply to: Reallyfolks

The problem I see with politics is a result of the high turnover rate of politicians. No one wants to implement a long term solution policy that can be overturned by someone who replaces them before the policy has a chance to really start working. So "solutions" presented by our government are only meant to appeal to people in the short term to get them to stop complaining.

It's a problem that isn't inherent with our current generation of politicians either. It's a problem that dates back to when our country was founded. It's a problem inherent in our country's political system, and I'm not sure how to fix it. I support term limits for Congress, but I also know that implementing such a thing would likely make this problem worse.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: Reallyfolks

The problem I see with politics is a result of the high turnover rate of politicians. No one wants to implement a long term solution policy that can be overturned by someone who replaces them. So "solutions" presented by our government are only meant to appeal to people in the short term to get them to stop complaining.

It's a problem that isn't inherent with our current generation of politicians either. It's a problem that dates back to when our country was founded. It's a problem inherent in our country's political system, and I'm not sure how to fix it. I support term limits for Congress, but I also know that implementing such a thing would likely make this problem worse.

We are in complete agreement. You will never get a fix that takes 20 years to implement when a politician is possibly only in office for 2,4, or 6 years. Let's be honest, no one cares what happens in 20 years from now so why run on anything beyond your term. Lifetime appointments won't solve anything either. One big pile of ugly.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: butcherguy

The problem I see is that repealing the law is just unreasonable. The health care industry has changed too much to go back to the way things were. We HAVE to try to fix the law or break health care for everyone in the country and let it fix itself, but I imagine that would result in quite a few unhappy Americans.

Agreed.
I think everyone, Republicans included, knew that it would be impossible to repeal the law once it was passed. The Republicans calling for repeal even now know damn well that it won't happen and are appealing to their voter base.
The architects of these schemes (like Social Security) intend to create systems that can't be done away with... except in the case of a total system collapse.

a reply to: Reallyfolks

Yeah it certainly IS a rather annoying catch-22. You don't want politicians to be in office too long in case a bad one is accidentally elected, but by doing so you rarely get good, effective policies.

a reply to: xuenchen

That is just the beginning by the end of 2017 deductibles can reach as high as 10,000, that is what the end result will be as the taxes that are to be in full gear has been in the increase since the Obamacrap started.

a reply to: neo96

the quotes and link you provided couldn't be more true.

my mother had a experience in who pays what in the medical world. although not done under obamacare back at the end of 2012, she went to the emergency room in the middle of the night, with pain back and side, and feeling sick to her stomach.
after admitting her and a day full of tests, it was decided she had kidney stones and they needed to be removed.

to make a long story short, my mother who was 68 at the time had two forms of insurance, blue cross and blue shield, and medicare. one day about 3 months from the date the procedure was done she gets a statement from blue cross, medicare and the hospital.

now i don't know all the particulars on what or who the charges were for, but BCBS said that they denied payment on a bill that totaled close to 150,000 dollars, medicare said they only paid 2450 on it, and the hospital sent he a bill for 1800.

so she called BCBS to find out why they didn't pay anything. come to find out that the hospital didn't get approval before doing the procedure, and they wouldn't have if they did. they would have been told to try medication to dissolve the stones first according to BCBS.

over the next year, she kept getting statements from BCBS that payment was denied. she also kept on trying to pay her part of the bill, but the hospital kept on putting her off. wanting to wait for the insurance company to pay something.
i kept on telling her to go down and pay what they sent her a bill for and tell them she wasn't going to pay any more.

reason being i told her that they were playing the how much can we milk out of them game. the hospital claims that they made a mistake and thought that BCBS was supplemental insurance and that Medicare was the primary. which is BS because she has been going there for tests and other things since she turned 62 with the same employee insurance BSBC and Medicare. she was also a employee of the hospital where the, emergency room visit and procedure was done. there was no way to confuse the two.

upon further investigation, through people that work there with her. she found out that they had just gotten a new lithotripsy machine, and needed to run patents through it to pay for it.

what they were doing was, going ahead with the procedures and then jacking the cost up and submitting it to the insurance companies knowing that they would say no, then resubmitting it with a lower bill, until they would pay it. BSBC just said no every time. the hospital even wanted my mom to call BSBC and tell them a lie in order to get paid. she told them no.

as far as she knows the hospital, and three doctors didn't get paid, and she only paid 1800 bucks.