Hurray for Obamacare! Vast improvement!

[Bullwinkle]

More on Kaiser - have to say one thing they are persistent - I haven't made my semi annual fly by - now they are leaving messages - hounding me to make one - ok mom.......

[GuyinHPP]

quote:

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Originally posted by punaticbychoice

The best solution for health care is Medicare for all- womb to tomb, no one left out or without healthcare.
ACA (Obamacare, Romneycare)are nothing but a rip-off for Wall Street and its private for profit interests.

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I couldn't agree more. I have worked in and around the insurance industry for most of my adult career. I have seem them do some really shady things to people like cut off benefits to the terminally ill because they were getting "to expensive", refuse people the services they need and make them jump through hoops hoping they will expire before they have to pay for an expensive procedure. Some are better than others of course, but we would be much better off with a single payer system. If someone wants to have a commercial secondary fine, let the insurance companies compete for that!

[Lee M-S]

I've been buying Kaiser coverage out of my own pocket for years, so I really supported the ACA, and looked forward to saving money. It sure didn't work out that way for me.

I don't have enough income to qualify for subsidies--they just rolled us into the Quest program. Everything's free then, right?
Except: Kaiser doesn't accept Quest on this island (they do on Maui and Oahu). Also, none of the doctors various people recommended accept Quest.

I finally found a GP that takes Quest, and it turns out that the specialist I need doesn't take it.

So I've gone back to paying Kaiser--but the monthly premiums are nearly double what they were last year, for what appears to be about the same coverage.

Single payer is the way to go!


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[gogould]

Lee that hurts just hearing about it.

The payoff for being responsible by way of long term personal sacrifice is basically to now pay for being insured but not have useful coverage... and accept a level of risk and cost that is unacceptable.
Where is the win in this for you?

I have a similar situation where ultimately I am saying where is the win in this for me?

What actually is this single payer idea I keep hearing about?

[TUCK]

Please go to humanmedia.org under Humankind Media #199 The Search For Wellbeing Part II. It is on NPR.

It seems my observation was dismissed because I am seen to have support for ACA. It does not appear that commenters listened to the NPR program I recommended above.



I absolutely support single payer. When following the negotiations for passing ACA and seeing that Obama did not have the stones for standing up to the plethora of reprobates opposing single payer, I was apoplectic. However, for the time being, we have ACA ,and it does change some aspects of medical insurance/practice for the better.

I included the NPR program information for educational purposes so we might have a more intelligent discussion about what IS rather than more bombast on what would be preferable. I was referring to a feature that requires
medical facilities to set up integrative medicine practices so one can be seen as a whole person rather than the six square inches each specialist is willing to address. That happens to be one of my hot buttons and where I see
a persistent breakdown in medical care. I am not blind to the deficiencies of the ACA, I am merely being sanguine about what improvements DID happen and how we can use those incremental changes to our collective benefit until we can get the filthy lucre out of the equation.

By the time ACA came into effect, I was already covered by Medicare, but I went on-line and calculated that had I been eligible, it would have saved me $900 a month in premiums. I had gone naked for many years because I had a pre-existing condition (horrors)requiring a once a year blood test and office visit but it meant I was too much of a risk to be insured. Through a fortunate circumstance I eventually was able to obtain insurance, but had to pay $1300 a month for it. So, had I been a bit younger I would definitely have financially benefited from its passage. Yes, I would love to have seen single payer enacted, but it wasn't yet.

[punaticbychoice]

We need health care not private health insurance.
In 2009, remember, the US Senate Finance Committee chaired by Max Bacas (D-Montana) prevented the submission or scheduling of testimony in support of Medicare for All or single payer, and on May 5th and again on May 12th had potential testifiers arrested for "disrupting Congress". So much for a representative republic with the legislative branch duly considering the alternatives existing or presented. At the same time , H.R. 676 to expand Medicare for all was suppressed by the House Democratic leadership including Nancy Pelosi, at that time, Speaker of the House.
Senator Inouye at least formally proposed an amendment to the "health care" legislation at the time to drop Medicare eligibility age via a "buy in" to Medicare to 55 from 65.

[David M]

I've said it before, but it bears repeating. Serious healthcare reform would have taken a serious bipartisan look at the dozens of existing government programs along with the various state Medicaid programs and crafted a limited number of solutions incorporating the best of them while addressing their short comings. Private insurance would have picked up the better points of auto insurance such as portability. Tort reform would have been major. Most important, the final solution would have addressed the personnel shortages especially with regards to training and staffing in under served regions such as the BI.
Instead we got a one sided political mishmash that will truly help very few, but negatively impact others more.

David

Ninole Resident
Please visit vacation.ninolehawaii.com

[oink]

David, you don't really expect punatics to listen this time either, do you?

Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.

[Obie]

Those of you who think medicare for all is a good idea, might want to read this:

U.S. health insurers brace for new steep Medicare cuts

http://news.yahoo.com/u-health-insurers-...ector.html

FYI My monthly cost for medicare and the supplement I have to cover what medicare doesn't, costs me more than the rates UKJ is talking about.

[Lee M-S]

Gubmint. Medicare for all.
instead of dealing with individual insurers like Kaiser and HMSA, doctors would be paid by the government health insurance plan. You know, like they do in civilized countries.

quote:

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Originally posted by gogould

What actually is this single payer idea I keep hearing about?

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