Obamacare

[Redman]

Do you really think the government would not be involved in the single biggest expense to the Nation.... not happening, its just not reality. It always has and always will.... some form of Government is absolutely necessary in healthcare. Who runs the government.... people.... who are crooks.... people..... they come in all shapes and sizes..

 

Say what you will about Obamacare, I am not a fan of it in its current state.... but its a start and will force changes to be made to a system that will/would have taken over the entire GDP in 20 years if it was left unchecked at the current rate.

[wayno945]

At what level was the government involved before Medicare was implemented in the 1960s? What changes need to be made to the system?

[reganranch]

Obamacare gets passed with flying rainbow colors, and the Keystone XXL (vital to national security) is still in limbo, and may not happen under this administration. There are 1000's of miles of pipelines across the country moving natural gas,diesel,jet fuel, and other petrol underground. Raw crude pipelines are under the ocean in the gulf, but building extensions to Houston (The Mecca for Oil & Gas) is not part of the liberal agenda.National Security/Energy Independence should take precedence over fixing a few flaws in healthcare policy.

[scoutm]

It doesn't take a P.H.D to see that Obamacare will send things into a death spiral......at least to anyone that pays attention. There is no such thing as "Affordable" in healthcare.I had a friend who died from Cancer. Her healthcare treatment over 2 years was upwards of a million dollars. Most of which was paid by insurance. It would take an uninsured person 5 lifetimes to try and payoff a bill like that, But then they wouldn't get treatment without a way to pay anyway.

 

Congress is not worth what they are getting paid now. If they worked in the corporate world, they would be fired for incompetence.

 

no, but as you said it does take someone that pays attention and while Foxnews will highlight the failures of Obamacare, they seems to forget the previous model was unsustainable.... but i guess doesn't matter....most Americans are so reactionary without knowing the facts.

 

The previous model and the current model are unsustainable for the exact same reasons:

 

1.) Healthcare is not insurance and insurance is not healthcare. Until the individual is held financially responsible for their own choices and the impact those choices have on the cost of their medical care people will continue to make bad choices about how they eat, how much they (don't) exercise, how much they drink, whether they smoke and the other unhealthy choices they make every day will only continue to drive up the cost of insurance for everyone else. The amount of money this country spends every year attempting to fix health issues that are 100% preventable and/or reversible simply by making better choices is astronomical. It's insane that you take two people of the same age in the same environment one makes good choice the other makes bad choices but we are forced to pay the exact same amount for coverage. Its the Liberal way and it's total BS.

 

2.) Tort reform. It's totally lacking from both models. All one needs to do is watch an hour of TV to see there's a huge problem. You can't get through an hour show without seeing lawyer ads for "if you have ever taken XYZ drug you could be entitled to compensation" or "if you have XYZ joint replacement you may be entitled to compensation". Mistakes do happen and when they do there should be compensation but when all the science and evidence shows an issue was simply a bad outcome there shouldn't be but because these issues are argued in front of a jury insurance companies settle for fear of astronomical and entirely unjustified settlement amounts driving up the cost of health insurance.

 

3.) End of Life Choices. Don't get this confused with "death panels" that's not what I'm referring to. There's really two components to this. The first being not too long ago people wanted to die at home not in a hospital. If you die at home there really isn't any costs associated with it. If you die in a hospital the costs are staggering largely due to fear of #2 above. Secondly, over 30% of medicare medical costs are incurred in the last 12 months of life - Over half of that is spent during the last two months of life. This clearly isn't an easy one to tackle but clearly there's a problem with how we as a country approach end of life medical care. How many heroic measures should be taken to save someone who really has no hope of any quality of life.

 

4.) Anti-depressant Usage. In the last 25 years anti-depressant usage has increased by over 400% in the US. Studies have shown that over half of the individuals using anti-depressants have used them for more than two years and most have not seen a mental health provider during that time. I recognize Depression is a brutal to deal with but there is really no explanation for an over 400% increase in 25 years.

 

 

If these 4 things could be addressed I would wager we would see a insurance costs drop by well over 30% giving us a system that is sustainable. Unfortunately, too few want to be accountable for their own choices and too many lawyer in government to allow tort reform.

 

And most importantly no one in government is really willing to have an HONEST dialog about how to really fix it.

[DesertBull]

I pay for mine

You pay for yours

 

Works for everything else in life.

[Redman]

It doesn't take a P.H.D to see that Obamacare will send things into a death spiral......at least to anyone that pays attention. There is no such thing as "Affordable" in healthcare.I had a friend who died from Cancer. Her healthcare treatment over 2 years was upwards of a million dollars. Most of which was paid by insurance. It would take an uninsured person 5 lifetimes to try and payoff a bill like that, But then they wouldn't get treatment without a way to pay anyway.

 

Congress is not worth what they are getting paid now. If they worked in the corporate world, they would be fired for incompetence.

 

no, but as you said it does take someone that pays attention and while Foxnews will highlight the failures of Obamacare, they seems to forget the previous model was unsustainable.... but i guess doesn't matter....most Americans are so reactionary without knowing the facts.

 

The previous model and the current model are unsustainable for the exact same reasons:

 

1.) Healthcare is not insurance and insurance is not healthcare. Until the individual is held financially responsible for their own choices and the impact those choices have on the cost of their medical care people will continue to make bad choices about how they eat, how much they (don't) exercise, how much they drink, whether they smoke and the other unhealthy choices they make every day will only continue to drive up the cost of insurance for everyone else. The amount of money this country spends every year attempting to fix health issues that are 100% preventable and/or reversible simply by making better choices is astronomical. It's insane that you take two people of the same age in the same environment one makes good choice the other makes bad choices but we are forced to pay the exact same amount for coverage. Its the Liberal way and it's total BS.

 

2.) Tort reform. It's totally lacking from both models. All one needs to do is watch an hour of TV to see there's a huge problem. You can't get through an hour show without seeing lawyer ads for "if you have ever taken XYZ drug you could be entitled to compensation" or "if you have XYZ joint replacement you may be entitled to compensation". Mistakes do happen and when they do there should be compensation but when all the science and evidence shows an issue was simply a bad outcome there shouldn't be but because these issues are argued in front of a jury insurance companies settle for fear of astronomical and entirely unjustified settlement amounts driving up the cost of health insurance.

 

3.) End of Life Choices. Don't get this confused with "death panels" that's not what I'm referring to. There's really two components to this. The first being not too long ago people wanted to die at home not in a hospital. If you die at home there really isn't any costs associated with it. If you die in a hospital the costs are staggering largely due to fear of #2 above. Secondly, over 30% of medicare medical costs are incurred in the last 12 months of life - Over half of that is spent during the last two months of life. This clearly isn't an easy one to tackle but clearly there's a problem with how we as a country approach end of life medical care. How many heroic measures should be taken to save someone who really has no hope of any quality of life.

 

4.) Anti-depressant Usage. In the last 25 years anti-depressant usage has increased by over 400% in the US. Studies have shown that over half of the individuals using anti-depressants have used them for more than two years and most have not seen a mental health provider during that time. I recognize Depression is a brutal to deal with but there is really no explanation for an over 400% increase in 25 years.

 

 

If these 4 things could be addressed I would wager we would see a insurance costs drop by well over 30% giving us a system that is sustainable. Unfortunately, too few want to be accountable for their own choices and too many lawyer in government to allow tort reform.

 

And most importantly no one in government is really willing to have an HONEST dialog about how to really fix it.

 

well said.

[DesertBull]

During a hearing this week, a congressman flat out told Eric Holder to his face, "You belong in prison".

 

 

 

 

 

[Outdoor Writer]

Ole was hunting geese up in the Minnesota woods. He leaned the old 16 gauge against the corner of the blind to take a leak. As luck would have it, his foolish dog Dawson knocked the gun over, it went off and Ole took most of an ounce of #4 in the groin.

Several hours later, lying in a Duluth hospital bed, he came to and there was his doctor, Sven.

"Vell Ole, I got some good news and some bad news. Da good news is dat you are going to be OK. Da damage vas local to your groin, dere was very little internal damage, and I vas able to remove all of da buckshot."

"What's the bad news?", asks Ole

"The bad news is dat dere vas some pretty extensive buckshot damage done to your penis. I'm going to have to refer you to my sister, Lena ."

"Well, I guess that isn't too bad," says Ole. "Is your sister a plastic surgeon?"

"Not exactly," Sven says. "She's a flute player in da Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, and because all you have is Obamacare, she's going to teach you where to put your fingers, so you don't pee in your eye."

[azshtr]

April 12, 2014 9:53 am

• ObamaCare

(Bloomberg) – The departure of Kathleen Sebelius from President Barack Obama’s cabinet removes a focal point for criticism over Obamacare’s troubled rollout, right at a moment when the White House can blunt attacks with enrollment numbers that exceeded targets.

Senate confirmation hearings on the president’s choice to succeed Sebelius as Health and Human Services secretary, budget director Sylvia Mathews Burwell, will give Republicans days of media exposure for their criticism of a program that remains unpopular.

Those hearings will now be held months ahead of midterm congressional elections, helping diminish the impact on voters.

 

Sebelius’s departure also addresses demands from some Democrats for a change at the department to demonstrate that Obama recognizes the difficulties, political and practical, caused by the flawed startup of the health-care law. Sebelius plans to leave next month.

Sebelius “has become a lightning rod,” Chris Lehane, a communications adviser in the Clinton administration, said. Now “it’s not as easy to use her as a foil in the fall because she’s hit her mark and she won’t be there.”

The Obama administration set the stage for the exit hours before news of it leaked out. Sebelius, 65, delivered to a Senate committee the word that enrollment in Obamacare’s health plans had reached 7.5 million, exceeding a first-year projection of 7 million made by the Congressional Budget Office.

Early Stumbles

Obama alluded to both early stumbles with the federal insurance exchange and the enrollment total in a White House ceremony this morning announcing Sebelius’s resignation and his pick to replace her.

“Yes, we lost the first quarter of open enrollment period with the problems with healthcare.gov,” Obama said. “But under Kathleen’s leadership her team at HHS turned the corner, got it fixed, got the job done, and the final score speaks for itself.”

Obama said Sebelius let him know last month of her desire to leave once the enrollment was done.

The choice of Burwell, 48, currently director of the Office of Management and Budget, permits an expedited confirmation process. She was approved by the Senate just one year ago, by a 96-0 vote.

“It will help the confirmation process that Sylvia just recently went through it,” said Jim Manley, a former top aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat. “I still expect it to be nothing short of brutal.”

Burwell’s Background

Obama praised Burwell, a former president of the Wal-Mart Foundation and head of the global development program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as “a proven manager” who can “deliver excellent results at the highest levels.”

Republican leaders seized on Sebelius’s departure to criticize the health-care law anew.

“Obamacare has been a rolling disaster, and her resignation is cold comfort to the millions of Americans who were deceived about what it would mean for them and their families,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in a statement. He said that he hopes Burwell’s confirmation hearings will be “the start of a candid conversation about Obamacare’s shortcomings.”

More Questions

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Sebelius “oversaw a disastrous rollout of Obamacare, but anyone can see that there are more problems on the way.”

Levi Russell, a spokesman for Americans for Prosperity, a free-market advocacy group founded by the billionaire Koch Brothers, predicted tough confirmation hearings to come.

“There are still a lot of unanswered questions,” Russell said. “Where the money went and how so much was spent on a total failure.”

Republicans have attacked the law since it passed Congress in 2010 with only Democratic support. They were given fresh ammunition in October when website intended as the main gateway to federal health-care exchanges was plagued by delays and error messages just as enrollment was supposed to get underway.

The next month, Obama was forced to apologize when thousands of individual insurance plans were canceled after he had repeatedly promised that people who liked their health plans would be able to keep them.

Campaign Theme

Criticism of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a central theme of Republican campaign messages going into November congressional elections.

Thirty-six Senate seats will be up for grabs in November: 21 occupied by Democrats and 15 by Republicans. Most of the races rated as competitive by non-partisan analysts are in states currently in the hands of Democrats. Republicans would need a net gain of six seats to get a majority in the Senate, giving them control of both chambers of Congress.

To win those seats, Republicans are seeking to exploit continuing public discontent with the law.

Likely voters oppose the health care law 55 percent to 42 percent, according to a George Washington University Battleground Poll taken March 16-20.

There have been 49,000 commercials broadcast with an anti-Obamacare message his election cycle through April 8, according to New York-based Kantar Media’s CMAG data. Americans for Prosperity funded almost 40 percent of those commercials.

Republican pollster Bill McInturff said he expects both Sebelius’s resignation and confirmation hearings on her successor will have “zero impact” on the political climate going in to the November congressional elections.

“Almost all cabinet secretaries are generally unknown to the public and the coming and goings don’t matter,” McInturff said. “What matters is whether the Obamacare program works, not who is the secretary.”

- See more at: http://www.teaparty.org/obama-banks-sebelius-leaving-take-heat-party-39249/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=social#sthash.GtDPUoYc.dpuf

Is there an opinion here or are you just copy pasting something? I can say for myself… this law put me out of insurance ( Mine did not have maternal, Im 52 and fixed ) and my new plan with the same company BCBS was almost double. My plan was a great plan except for the maternity coverage. I ended up with a higher deductible plan that has added maternity for roughly the same cost. I can't or plan to have more kids. Plus I needed to kick my son (24) off of the plan to keep the cost reasonable.