Best Approach IMO - Expand Medicare then Repeal Obamacare.

November 1, 2018

Our company is busy enrolling people in Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) health insurance plans. Open Enrollment runs from November 1st to December 15th. If you can "fog a mirror", you can buy a health insurance plan during this timeframe.

The problem for most people who earn a decent income is PRICE and DEDUCTIBLE. For example, a 59 year old who earns $49,000 or more per year, will pay $850 a month for a $7,900 Deductible CIGNA health policy, that less than 50% of the doctors and hospitals in America will accept. In Illinois, that is the LEAST EXPENSIVE PLAN AVAILABLE for this 59 year-old.

The best plan is $1,560 a month, from Blue Cross, and still has a $7,900 Out of Pocket per year.

Health Insurance that people buy on their own is so expensive, because everyone who buys ObamaCare plans, are responsible for covering ObamaCare customers who have very expensive medical conditions.

Example: $1 million a MONTH for Iowa teen: www.desmoinesregister.com...

OBAMACARE/ACA TAXES are levied mostly against businesses. Those taxes are scheduled to increase to $500 Billion (1/2 Trillion!) dollars by 2023. The revenue from these taxes is mostly used to keep premiums and deductibles low, for low income earners. (i.e. At $18,000 annual income, Premium is $38 @ month, and Deductible is $600 @ year....for the same Cigna plan referenced above.) The ACA tax revenues also fund Medicaid expansion in states that chose to expand. In Medicaid expansion states, anyone who has less than $17,000 a year income gets free healthcare.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS ATS?

1. Redirect the $500 Billion in ACA Taxes to Medicare...expand the program.

2. Everyone who does not qualify for UNDERWRITTEN major medical, can enroll in Medicare. The U.S. government will use the ObamaCare subsidy formula to keep premiums low...or non-existent.

3. The vast majority of Americans on ObamaCare are healthy. They will pay a 70% LOWER premium each month, because the heavy utilizers will be removed from the private market.

Both Democrats and Republicans want people with Pre-existing conditions to have access to the best medical care in the country. Almost all of us know someone who would be turned down for private insurance, if ObamaCare was repealed.

But if ACA/Obamacare was REPLACED...and then REPEALED, all would be good. That's the LOGICAL and SENSIBLE way to do it! It's FRUSTRATING to me that none of our "well educated" Democrat or Republican leaders, have proposed this common sense approach.

OK... I'm done venting. Thank-you for your time!

-CareWeMust

As long as the insurance companies are making obscene profits along with the for profit healthcare system, pharma, nothing will change. It's just business and we don't want single payer socialist BS now do we? Capitalism all the way...no surrender!!!

Medicare is socialism pure and simple. Let those old geezers die!

The lobbyist know how to take care of business.

a reply to: carewemust

I give you bigtime kudos for thinking outside the box.

Of all the proposals I have seen, yours makes more sense than most. Your way would avoid the chaos and catastrophe of an immediate ACA repeal, with nothing in place to support those who are most dependent.

No matter what type of healthcare system we may choose to provide for the people in the US (or anywhere on the planet!), there will always be those that can pay, and those that cannot … and the nonpayers still need some type of healthcare. In the old days, charity would provide that care, but now the government (read: taxpayers) have taken the place of charity. So be it.

I prefer free market, and maybe above the bottom tier of the most needy, the free market would still exist, but of all the government run programs, Medicare is not so bad, actually. IMHO.

Just be ready though - when someone else pays for your healthcare, and maybe especially when it is 'the government', expect that they will be making the choices about your healthcare options for you.... in your own best interests of course!

a reply to: olaru12

Medicare pays 20%-30% less for medical services than individuals or private insurance pays. A full 81% of seniors are happy with their Medicare insurance.

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: olaru12

Medicare pays 20%-30% less for medical services than individuals or private insurance pays. A full 81% of seniors are happy with their Medicare insurance.

Those geezers knew they would get old and sick; they should have made provisions for their healthcare instead of taking it out of my pocket in the form of taxes.

I pay out my ass for Medicare- it's a tax.
As far as I know it's never paid a cent to me...

And never will!

It's bankrupt. A stupid idea from the start, never took inflation into account.

I'm tired of wasting my life working hard to pay Medicare.
Give me my money back, maybe I can use it to give me and mine a proper retirement.

Just get government out of healthcare.... allow a true free market to develop. You can do it easily by decoupling health insurance from employers and allowing people to buy plans just like they buy any other kind of insurance like car, life, or home insurance.

Our health insurance and medical market is screwed up because of government. Adding more government into the mix isn't going to fix it.

I'd support nationalized health insurance as long as free market options are available to compete and EVERYONE pays for it. We also have to shut down our borders as you can't be giving out free healthcare with hordes of poor immigrants coming across the border.

a reply to: Fowlerstoad

Interestingly, private citizen Donald Trump proposed this method for the U.S.. He cited the Norway healthcare system as what would work here in the U.S.. The entire country pays for the sickest citizens. Everyone else buys on the private market.

After being elected President, he was willing to work with Chuck Schumer/Nancy Pelosi on implementing that system here, but they didn't want to do it while Trump was President.

Democrats are campaigning on fixing healthcare, but they really don't mean it. Not while Donald Trump is President, and will get credit for it.

originally posted by: a325nt
I pay out my ass for Medicare- it's a tax.
As far as I know it's never paid a cent to me...

And never will!

It's bankrupt. A stupid idea from the start, never took inflation into account.

I'm tired of wasting my life working hard to pay Medicare.
Give me my money back, maybe I can use it to give me and mine a proper retirement.

Payroll taxes are only for Part A. (you pay 1.45% of your earnings)

Part B is paid by the person (usually deducted from Social Security)

😯

originally posted by: olaru12

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: olaru12

Medicare pays 20%-30% less for medical services than individuals or private insurance pays. A full 81% of seniors are happy with their Medicare insurance.

Those geezers knew they would get old and sick; they should have made provisions for their healthcare instead of taking it out of my pocket in the form of taxes.

Have a heart! Besides, the vast majority of "geezers" on Medicare paid into the Medicare general fund for several decades.

a reply to: a325nt

If Medical Care INFLATION were taken into account, you'd be paying a hell of a lot more $taxes$ into the Medicare fund than you are now.

a reply to: Edumakated

Unfortunately, those who want Nationalized Healthcare want to do away with private insurance. It's "all or nothing" for them. It's one of the frustrating aspects of how Democrats think. Totally inflexible mindsets.

a reply to: carewemust

Federalize state insurance competition and mandate healthcare providers publish three month rolling rates of what they charged consumers for itemized expenses.

Problem solved.

I suppose this would be the best we can do at this point since Democrats already screwed up healthcare so bad it is unlikely we could put it back the way it was, but it still makes me sick to have Government involved with our healthcare.

Ideally we would reverse all the damage and return healthcare to pre-Obama status where most people were happy.

originally posted by: loam
a reply to: carewemust

Federalize state insurance competition and mandate healthcare providers publish three month rolling rates of what they charged consumers for itemized expenses.

Problem solved.

Publishing rates charged won't help lower costs. I laugh every time I hear Republicans tout that idea.

1.) Medical providers will always charge close to the same price...like gas stations do.

2.) When people get sick or injured, they wouldn't shop around anyway. After that bad car accident, you're not going to tell the Helicopter or Ambulance to leave you there, because they charge too much. And, do you really want a "cheap" doctor doing your open-heart surgery?

a reply to: Metallicus

So when you turn 65, will you decline to enroll in Medicare, and choose to purchase a free-market plan instead?

a reply to: carewemust

Sounds like socialized medicine to me.

I think that's pretty close to what most on the left wanted from the start, but they knew the right wouldn't except that.

So they tried to compromise. Created a crappy hybrid system, based on ideas from the right. Which the right can't except because the left would get credit.

So if the right is able to implement such a system I think the country wins. Maybe the right can take credit.

The ridiculous part is all the politics it takes to get to a solution that actually might works.

It's all a political game.

a reply to: villagesmithie

My proposal is "socialized medicine" only for people who would not qualify for a health plan on the open market. That would be less than 15% of the population who have ObamaCare. Most importantly, the premiums and deductibles would go WAY DOWN for the other 85%, in a free-market environment.

Plus, there are many millions of Americans who have purchased Short-Term medical, Fixed Benefit, and Christian Medshare plans in recent years, because they couldn't afford the sky-high ObamaCare policies.

Note: Obama reduced Short Term Medical plans to just 3 months in duration, before he left office. Wanted to force more people onto ObamaCare. Trump just reversed that...effective October 1st. People can now get Short Term Medical for 1 to 3 years in duration.

a reply to: carewemust

Name a single consumer good or service, other than healthcare, where you do not know the price until after you consume it?

Half of all healthcare is planned.

a reply to: carewemust

Mostly agree but I don't think costs will drop much under a for profit system. Still willing to try.

There would probable be an initial drop but, well, we've seen the profit taking that's happened around insulin and Epipens for example.

Maybe those would be mostly covered under the medicare part, still comes out of everyone's pocket. Just means taxes go up to pay for profits.