Obama Care

[ITSA426]

That said, I guess I had a better deal, so I kept the insurance that I already he'd.  Hard to be non-political if much of what I read is complaints about the government.  Sorry if I offended.

[Mike DC]

                          
I think the US public is just unrealistic about the whole idea of a modern health care system.

[Steve P.]

First I would like to say that there is no way this thread will not go full on political unless people restrain themselves.

Second, the title pretty much leads it right down the battle trail. It is NOT OBAMACARE. It is Affordable Healthcare Act. Still pretty close to the same trail, but with a little less sting.

Third, this is meant to find out if anyone has found a policy that better meets the needs and price. This is what I continue to see in question everywhere. Only a few have answered, but each time it looks fishy to me.. This is the reason I have not killed the POLITICAL push here..

I want everyone here to know and understand that we all have our opinions and for each of us there is a different reason. I can lay out a few stories of my own here that a few of you already know. Most do not. It is very personal to me and has changed the lives of most of my family.
On the other hand I have more family in another country that has complete healthcare through their government and it works very, very well.

Put simply,, there is no perfect answer as their will allllways be another side that either we don't know or don't give a damn about.  Some say I am young and don't need it or want to pay for it. My 28 year old daughter is going in for her second back surgery this coming Monday. Her first was 4-5 years ago. The first surgery cleaned them out and still went partially on the (GOVERNMENT TIT). Some of you would go as far as to call her a welfare queen as she has a few kids and was once on food stamps.. Well, both of our daughters scored very high in their classes in highschool and both went on to collage. Both are in the medical field and neither of them make even close to what I made 30 years ago in Rochester, NY. working as a young mechanic. And anyone living in NY can tell you about TAXES!!!

Right now her husband has MANDATORY INSURANCE through his work. (Right to work State with MANDATORY insurance).  Not until next month can they go on ACA due to the costs with both, but once her husband can be released from the MANDATORY INSURANCE he has to have through his job, they will be paying $378.00 per month for better care than they have now for only her husband at $320.00 per month.  So better insurance and for BOTH of them for less than $60.00 per month difference.

I will however, tell you that she was on line with many very often. MANY people have no clue what they are talking about and gave her different answers to the same questions.. This same thing happened with the folks that had to start paying Social Security many years ago.. Today those same people are living off what they paid in and are worried it may be taken away.

I am just saying this should be something we work on together. Not dividing the who's who or giving anyone hell due to their position in and on this issue.. So lets try to keep it nice and help each other instead of making this something I will get people begging for a lock.

[Back N Black]

What about military members, do they have to pay for medical care?

[Steve P.]

Unless you got out OTHER THAN HONORABLE, no.

[NHCharger]

The company I work for has Blue Cross. They pay for half my premium ($320.00/month). I have an individual plan for myself. We have a Blue Cross agent that meets with us once a year to help guide us on what plan we should go with next year. For the last three years the rates have risen between 20-32% each year. He said the government has basically taken over the entire healthcare system to make sure the 10-15% who aren't insured can get insurance. and he said that half of those people have no intention of signing up for insurance. He said his office still gets over a dozen calls per week from people asking when their free healthcare is going to start.  

[Steve P.]

Of course. Everyone blames everyone else. Now go look at what the top brass makes per year. You will never hear a salesman for any company say: Yeah, the boss needs a new yacht, so the price is going up again!!

I know every year that I have paid for insurance it has increased every year. Never stayed the same one year to the next and never went down. Some increases were bigger than others. So what is a salesman telling anyone (A FEW) years for when the truth is it is every year? It is all very pointed.

I paid $300 + 30 years ago when I got out of the Navy. How much did everything else cost 30 years ago?

[400/6/PAC]

That said, I guess I had a better deal, so I kept the insurance that I already he'd.  Hard to be non-political if much of what I read is complaints about the government.  Sorry if I offended.

No offense taken.
I'm just with out insurance at this time and was asking My DC Friends if Anyone had found a better plan than I found.

[ws23rt]

Their are many that speak about their insurance for healthcare going up. I am one of them.

It is true that healthcare cost more today than yesterday and that's because money is worth less today than yesterday. Nearly everything cost more for that reason. But the jump in healthcare cost that we are talking about is due to the new rules.

I am interested to hear from someone that has acquired a healthcare policy through the new online gov. path. And questions I have are---Is this your first time with healthcare insurance?----Are you comfortable with what you ended up with?----Was the threat of a fine a motivator?----

It is true that their are many that don't file a tax return when they should. I see this as yet another disincentive to file a return. And add to this the fact that critical healthcare is provided for those without insurance and that is not likely to change.

I am just trying to understand how all this is expected to work in the long run

In my situation It makes good financial sense to stop contributing to the pool of money that pays for those without. If I retire early my cost for my current policy will go from $1100 per month to $230. How does that make sense?  One would think that a money maker like me would be petted instead of kicked to the curb. It is true that someone will fill my shoes but why take my shoes off when I'm still walking.

[400/6/PAC]

                         
I think the US public is just unrealistic about the whole idea of a modern health care system.

We are not unrealistic, With all Due respect.
A lot of Us simply don't have the money.

[Steve P.]

This is exactly true. Not one of us has a problem with paying for the goods we buy. Meaning we all believe in paying our way. The problem is we cannot afford much of anything anymore. I completely understand as we should be able to buy the drugs that are known to help my wife's MS. We cannot afford it. If I were in the same boat as her I should be able to get it from the VA. I cannot because it is not a recognized drug or a LEGAL DRUG according to the VA.

That goes into more than I think it should in this thread, but that is the problem. There is a reason that we are all in this boat. It is not any one thing or due to any one person. It IS the way everything has been allowed to move over many years.

Still I have not seen an answer to the question from the OP.

[400/6/PAC]

al

First I would like to say that there is no way this thread will not go full on political unless people restrain themselves.

Second, the title pretty much leads it right down the battle trail. It is NOT OBAMACARE. It is Affordable Healthcare Act. Still pretty close to the same trail, but with a little less sting.

Third, this is meant to find out if anyone has found a policy that better meets the needs and price. This is what I continue to see in question everywhere. Only a few have answered, but each time it looks fishy to me.. This is the reason I have not killed the POLITICAL push here..

I want everyone here to know and understand that we all have our opinions and for each of us there is a different reason. I can lay out a few stories of my own here that a few of you already know. Most do not. It is very personal to me and has changed the lives of most of my family.
On the other hand I have more family in another country that has complete healthcare through their government and it works very, very well.

Put simply,, there is no perfect answer as their will allllways be another side that either we don't know or don't give a damn about.  Some say I am young and don't need it or want to pay for it. My 28 year old daughter is going in for her second back surgery this coming Monday. Her first was 4-5 years ago. The first surgery cleaned them out and still went partially on the (GOVERNMENT TIT). Some of you would go as far as to call her a welfare queen as she has a few kids and was once on food stamps.. Well, both of our daughters scored very high in their classes in highschool and both went on to collage. Both are in the medical field and neither of them make even close to what I made 30 years ago in Rochester, NY. working as a young mechanic. And anyone living in NY can tell you about TAXES!!!

Right now her husband has MANDATORY INSURANCE through his work. (Right to work State with MANDATORY insurance).  Not until next month can they go on ACA due to the costs with both, but once her husband can be released from the MANDATORY INSURANCE he has to have through his job, they will be paying $378.00 per month for better care than they have now for only her husband at $320.00 per month.  So better insurance and for BOTH of them for less than $60.00 per month difference.

I will however, tell you that she was on line with many very often. MANY people have no clue what they are talking about and gave her different answers to the same questions.. This same thing happened with the folks that had to start paying Social Security many years ago.. Today those same people are living off what they paid in and are worried it may be taken away.

I am just saying this should be something we work on together. Not dividing the who's who or giving anyone hell due to their position in and on this issue.. So lets try to keep it nice and help each other instead of making this something I will get people begging for a lock.

Steve
I never ment for this to get politacl
I was only asking about health insurance and did Anyone find a better deal then I did.
I should not have titled the thread Obama cara, I should have titled it Insurance question.

[Chargen69]

straight facts, no spin

friend of mine signed up.  he is the classic case they wanted, no real job, no insurance at all.

he is a kidney stone factory.

one OC two weeks, cant pee, bad pain goes to the er.  Passes a couple of ounces and they send him home with a RX, said, come back when you cant pee.
goes home, lives with the pain, barely passing liquid, so he is stuck waiting to get to see a urologist.

The primary urologist he has seen for years says he is out of network now.
Goes to 3 places and gets turned away from them all, only one doctor in an hour's distance can see him, 4 week wait

[bull]

You had to know that when someone (who shall not be named) said "we have to pass the law so we can see what's in it," it was going to be nothing but trouble. Nobody understands it and very few people have read it. It gets changed, postponed and otherwise screwed with almost daily.

What sucks about the whole thing is that poor people used to be taken care of before all this corporate and government meddling. Charity care is falling by the wayside because of it. There are still plenty of ways for the poor to get free care but things were going much better before. Not perfect, but better. Another thing that irritates people almost universally it that deadbeat moochers will be rewarded. No one I've ever known has a problem taking care of the truly needy but almost no one I know wants able-bodied free loaders on the dole at the expense of the working class. In fact, there's little doubt in my mind that this regulation intends to reward laziness in trade for votes. It will unfairly burden the middle class financially and gum up the works for the people who are truly in need.

[Steve P.]

The only "CHARITY" hospital around here closed it's doors due to lack of funds back in 2005'.

[Mike DC]

We are not unrealistic, With all Due respect.
A lot of Us simply don't have the money.

I fully agree, on a personal level a lot of it is money issues.   And that is unfortunate when so many decent hard-working people are caused such trouble for the basics in life.  It should upset us as a nation.



What I was originally getting at is a broader point about the nation's feelings:  The USA wants a capitalist for-profit healthcare system and then we complain when it acts like one.

There is nothing "broken" about the existing system we've had.  It is extremely effective at what it's designed to do, which has been to make money off the public ever since the big shift in the 1980s.  

IMHO the public wants a private industry to behave with a nationalized industry's morality.  People get frustrated when they see examples of the industry putting its effort into squeezing us for everything we own and shifting lots of indirect costs onto taxpayers, instead of trying its hardest to make us healthy at very cheap prices.  As a nation we want this system to be a tiger and then we complain when it eats people.


I am not advocating making the system nationalized/socialized/whatever.  I am not really advocating either way.  I am simply saying we can't have it both ways.  
 

[ramit]

After the first of this year my rates went from $320 a month to $400 a month.   My deductible went from $4,700 to $12,700 and nothing was actually covered anymore EXCEPT for prenatal care and "well child" checkups or whatever you like to call them.   I ended up cancelling my insurance because the coverage was so horrible.   If I have to pay $400 a month for the insurance how the hell can I afford to pay the first $12,700 of my medical expenses...it doesn't seem "affordable" to me.   In the meantime I am sticking the $400 a month away and hoping that will cover any expenses that come up....and I am hoping nothing catastrophic happens.

[bull]

I am not advocating making the system nationalized/socialized/whatever.  I am not really advocating either way.  I am simply saying we can't have it both ways.  
 

Agreed. But a government's lust for power won't make health care any more usable and benevolent than a corporate lust for money.

On the topic of corporate ethics, people today like to say "you can't legislate morality." Little did they know how that ideology would bite them in the ass. It was coined so that people could take a stand against what they felt was oppressive morality by busy-bodies but the problem with that is that everyone adopted it and it has become a corporate dogma too. Today the bottom line is more important to health organizations than getting people healthy. As screwy as that is the government's ideals are no more righteous. Corporations want money and power, politicians want power and control. Neither entity has superior motives and yet one of the two happens to be more experienced and efficient at running health care in one form or another. It was damaged, not broken but now it's on its way toward being completely decimated. The monster we know is better than the one we don't know. But hey, you guys can all get pap smears and prenatal care now at three times the cost of your private plan thanks to government intervention.

[bull]

I will however, tell you that she was on line with many very often. MANY people have no clue what they are talking about and gave her different answers to the same questions.. This same thing happened with the folks that had to start paying Social Security many years ago.. Today those same people are living off what they paid in and are worried it may be taken away.

Be that as it may, what we have been given is neither what we asked for or what was promised. It is not affordable, usable or sustainable and yet that is how it was sold. For once I would like it if the govt would stop pissing on our legs and telling us that it's raining. I would like it even more if voters would stop believing everything the govt says in spite of its miserable track record when it comes to successfully running just about anything.

[chargerboy69]

Last week my wife switched jobs, she was our familys primary insurance provider.  Her new job will provide us insurance, but not until August.  It was my job to find insurance for the family to get us by.

I found, through a local agent 5 months of insurance for three of us with a $1500.00 detectable for $900.00 for 5 months, not bad really.

Obamacare was three times the price for a $5000.00 detectable.

[Cooter]

We are not unrealistic, With all Due respect.
A lot of Us simply don't have the money.

I fully agree, on a personal level a lot of it is money issues.   And that is unfortunate when so many decent hard-working people are caused such trouble for the basics in life.  It should upset us as a nation.



What I was originally getting at is a broader point about the nation's feelings:  The USA wants a capitalist for-profit healthcare system and then we complain when it acts like one.

There is nothing "broken" about the existing system we've had.  It is extremely effective at what it's designed to do, which has been to make money off the public ever since the big shift in the 1980s.  

IMHO the public wants a private industry to behave with a nationalized industry's morality.  People get frustrated when they see examples of the industry putting its effort into squeezing us for everything we own and shifting lots of indirect costs onto taxpayers, instead of trying its hardest to make us healthy at very cheap prices.  As a nation we want this system to be a tiger and then we complain when it eats people.


I am not advocating making the system nationalized/socialized/whatever.  I am not really advocating either way.  I am simply saying we can't have it both ways.  
 

This is true, but not in the sense it's portrayed. Greed is the real problem. Since when does medicine need to be only affordable to the filthy rich that can pay $200.00/pill?
Since when does medicine have the country over a barrel cause they know your ass is gonna get sick, have the right to just rape at will?

Since when does a doctor who's been in the healthcare field for over 25 years and long paid off his school loans, deserve to make millions/year just because he can?
How much is enough in a free enterprise economy? Do people actually need 5 homes? 29 exotic sports cars?
Take 20 trips/vacations/year?
Greed kills a free enterprize system. People rape because they are left to their own morals.

When you have a healthcare system that is set up on whoever has the money, whatever we charge, gets the goods, you end up with the same broken system as the legal system. When money dictates when people live or die, it's broken.
there has to be some way of regulation to where people are allowed to at least affordable healthcare.

Problem is, it ain't like car insurance where you have regulation.  You wanna charge too much? Fine, you won't be in business long cause too many are competing. 

[flyinlow]

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones . My insurance  ONLY went up 12% this year.  They are taxing my life insurance that the company buys. $180.00 month to the treasury.

Affordable health Care Act. What was in the bill that makes health care more affordable?  

Can you buy insurance from out of state to increase competition?

Tort reforms?

Limits on Doctors setting up corporations for imaging facilities?    They seam to always get used more after this happens.


Affordable (not free, there is no such thing)  basic healthcare for every US citizen is an admirable goal. Not sure that's what where getting.  

[Mytur Binsdirti]

It is NOT OBAMACARE. It is Affordable Healthcare Act.

Prior to last fall, everyone, including the Big O himself referred to it as former, but after the disasterous rollout, the spin doctors quickly changed it to the latter. Funny how that works.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsW0l139JD0

[Steve P.]

My point was that I'd like to keep this about HEALTHCARE and not OBAMA.

I thought that was understood!

[JB400]

My point was that I'd like to keep this about HEALTHCARE and not OBAMA.

I thought that was understood!

Save yourself the aggravation and lock it.  No sense in having another Mad Mod thread.