A very entertaining half hour.
intercst
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USAian “healthcare” seems to me to be the biggest ongoing financial scam in the world….
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Even bigger than the Catholic church!
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Which runs a vast network of health care facilities!
Which I do not like.
Many years ago, 1poorlady had to have a procedure. They were obsessed about her possibly being pregnant. She had to sign a form saying she wasn’t, they asked her verbally at least three or four times, and they also ran a test anyway. The doc doing it was authorized for that hospital, and they were on our network, so we had to go with it.
They were more concerned about a possible pregnancy than doing her procedure. It was really annoying. But that was their priority, evidently. Why not just run a test to confirm, and that’s it? But no! They had to hound us repeatedly.
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Re: health care financial scam
Fundamental problem is voters like the system we have even though it is inefficient and costly. Hillary care proved this. 80% of us are insured and like our plan. Voters are not willing to try a slimmed down govt program that may trim what we have. More efficient plan might provide health insurance for all for what we now pay.
Insisting on Cadillac coverage for the poor makes plan expensive. But voters will not accept trimming their perks to cover the poor.
Who has a better idea?
Let me buy exactly what I want. Why should DW & I (in our 60s) need maternity care? Pediatric dental care (no kids)? Psychiatric care? Etc., etc., etc. the list of things that “had to be included” in our Obamacare/ACA/insert pejorative phrase here policy is ridiculous compared to the barebones catastrophic plan I used to be able to get.
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That’s what makes health insurance more expensive (i.e., giving the for-profit health insurer the opportunity to slice and dice the market and exclude the “sick” people.) The sick people are still getting care, but it just that you’re paying for them to get it in the most expensive place possible (i.e., the emergency room.)
When I was on Obamacare, I still had a high-deductible Bronze Plan with a $5,000 to $7,500 annual deductible that would really only kick in if I was hospitalized. I was paying cash for all my medical services since it was usually cheaper than the price the insurance company had “negotiated” on my behalf.
You just have to understand how much of a scam the for-profit health insurance industry is.
Lastest update to the REHP.
In praise of traditional Medicare
intercst
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I had a catastrophic plan that I liked before Obamacare as well. Problem is you had to have no pre-existing conditions. That was the case for me then but not now.
You can’t go back.
.
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I think people may be missing the point of this statement. Or maybe not. But I’ll say it, anyway. Stay away from Medicare Advantage. It’s a trap. Traditional Medicare is all you need.
For those with HBO, John Oliver did a deep-dive a few months ago. He arrived at the same conclusion that we discussed at length on the old TMF (and now on the new TMF). It’s a trap. And once you go down that path, you can’t go back.
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Just a minor detail.
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Before ACA, this was typical if you tried to buy health insurance as an individual or family. Employer group coverage is affordable because many participants are healthy and have few claims. Sick people often want to buy insurance. That makes rates higher.
And yes coverage for preexisting conditions is a major cost problem for ACA. You can buy insurance after you have been diagnosed. Those who anticipate big bills find expensive, high deductible policies attractive. That drives up cost for the young and healthy making them unlikely to insure. Benefits should be capped for three years to encourage the healthy to buy insurance. There should be penalty for failure to insure.
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Which is why the Heritage Foundation(!!) came up with the mandatory subscription plan that the ACA adopted. Congress later voided it (idiotically!). It was intended to prevent the “free rider” problem, which you are describing. If we’re going to stick with insurance companies, they need to reinstate the mandatory subscription for anyone that is eligible for the ACA.
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