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I'm still waiting for that $2500 annual savings that Obama promised.

Obamacare was obviously written by Insurance corporations. Main point was to compel people to buy insurance. Now they pay to Obama hefty dividends.

REpro says

Obamacare was obviously written by Insurance corporations. Main point was to compel people to buy insurance. Now they pay to Obama hefty dividends.

Nope, the buying of insurance was of secondary consideration. The primary consideration was the expansion on Medicaid The paid for insurance was designed to get so expensive that eventually it would be done away with and folded into Medicaid The Democrats run on Medicare for all, but they really mean Medicaid for ALL.. With all the crap care that entails.

Misc says

REpro says

Obamacare was obviously written by Insurance corporations. Main point was to compel people to buy insurance. Now they pay to Obama hefty dividends.

Nope, the buying of insurance was of secondary consideration. The primary consideration was the expansion on Medicaid The paid for insurance was designed to get so expensive that eventually it would be done away with and folded into Medicaid The Democrats run on Medicare for all, but they really mean Medicaid for ALL.. With all the crap care that entails.

I agree as I remember listening to Democrat pundits on TV state that likely Obamacare would fail and be replaced with a single payer healthcare system.

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The current state of US healthcare is a fascinating study in government involvement to 'fix' things. The illiberal overeducated karens' have been embarrassed that the US has not joined the rest of the world in providing Universal Healthcare since WW2 and have been doing an end run around our quasi-capitalistic system to bring single payer healthcare to the masses by degrees.

1920's - First health insurance plan (1929). The Baylor plan. For Public school teachers. "IT'S GOAL WAS TO KEEP SICK PEOPLE FROM GOING BANKRUPT AND TO HELP HOSPITALS STAY IN BUSINESS". See? We've come full circle. We're still looking for this solution 100 years later. Turns out that this (prepaid insurance plans) worked right up until government started to get involved.

1942 - Government imposes wage controls to 'fix' inflation. The IRS decides employer sponsored healthcare is not taxable at the individual level. In order to retain employee's and skirt the wage cap law, employer's roll out healthcare plans.

1945 - the McCarran-Ferguson Act reaffirms state rights to regulate health insurance and establishes a framework for federal oversight ONLY WHERE STATE REGULATION WAS ABSENT

1954 - IRS formally codifies the healthcare plan tax exemption. Between 1939 and 1952, Private health insurance jumps from 8 million people to 92 million people. Important to note that this claim came from the US secretary of health - who said it in a speech pushing for national healthcare (single payer) solution.

A major opponent of universal healthcare during this time period was the good old AMA (American Medical Assc.). Why did they oppose it? Lots of talk about Patient rights and quality of care but basically because doctors' are fucking greedy and wanted to be able to charge whatever the market would bear. Well I'm a capitalist type of guy but when the AMA is artificially limiting the supply of doctors then it's not really capitalism, is it?

1965 - We get medicaid and medicare because all those poor and old people don't have healthcare.

1974 - ERISA Act establishes federal standards for employer sponsored plans - the beginning of the end. Now the Fed had the tools to begin dictating to the free market regarding what a plan must and must not do. As per usual, this was sold as a bill to help the constituents, when really it was an important 'get' for getting to a single payer system.

1996 - HIPPA Act. Sold as a way to protect our personal data but really about codifying more federal control over employer sponsored plans and further pushing federal control over state regulations.

Post 1996 - don't feel the need to document it because we have all lived through it. Every new law sold as a way to improve the healthcare in this country has resulted in a degraded product at a higher cost.

LIKE IT OR NOT, WE ARE ON THE ROAD TO UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE. Both parties want it (don't forget it doesn't apply to Congress). We will pine for the days when healthcare was "only" 25% of our GNP.

We now have the Military industrial complex and the Medical industrial complex to fund.

An interesting side effect of Obamacare was the huge proliferation of "treatment centers" for drug, alcohol and general nuttiness.

This happened because Obamacare covered drug and alcohol treatment.

Those centers are a racket and make some guys rich; they also have seemed to proliferate in Florida.

clambo says

An interesting side effect of Obamacare was the huge proliferation of "treatment centers" for drug, alcohol and general nuttiness.

This happened because Obamacare covered drug and alcohol treatment.

Those centers are a racket and make some guys rich; they also have seemed to proliferate in Florida.

We have a few here in Panama City Florida and I wonder if they attract people to come down to sunny beach weather (from 1 March to Thanksgiving) and check themselves into a treatment center.

Plus addiction is very common here, especially alcohol with all the beach bars and pubs.

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stfu says

doctors' are fucking greedy and wanted to be able to charge whatever the market would bear

It's not even a real market when it takes days to get a quote on what any treatment will cost, and it's often wrong anyway.

Doctors and hospitals: "Just agree to pay whatever random price shows up on your bill later, and we will treat you now."

Some solutions which do not require government programs at all:

- Require every medical provider to publish exact prices for every treatment in a simple and easily accessible way.

- Absolve all patients from legal liability for medical care bills whose costs they did not agree to in writing in advance of treatment, aside from emergency care.

- Require all emergency medical charges to be limited to moderate fixed prices by law, because there can be no market in emergencies.

- Require medical insurers to give a coverage response to a proposed non-emergency medical bill within one day, again to control medical costs.

https://patrick.net/post/1303173/2017-02-19-patrick-s-platform

Misc says

REpro says

Obamacare was obviously written by Insurance corporations. Main point was to compel people to buy insurance. Now they pay to Obama hefty dividends.

Nope, the buying of insurance was of secondary consideration. The primary consideration was the expansion on Medicaid The paid for insurance was designed to get so expensive that eventually it would be done away with and folded into Medicaid The Democrats run on Medicare for all, but they really mean Medicaid for ALL.. With all the crap care that entails.

Now in Senate: Obamacare winners.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/we-will-not-give-in-lindsey-graham-whose-party-controls-the-government-claims-democrats-are-holding-the-gop-hostage-amid-government-shutdown/vi-AA1Q0Zq6?pc=U531

Schumer fighting for Obamacare tax money for insurance companies, because his payout from them is at risk.

https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/strategic-misdirection-friday-november

Tinkering with Obamacare is like pulling a loose brick out of a load-bearing wall. The whole structure depends on an insanely complicated lattice of interrelated subsidies, mandates, and cross-subsidies that nobody understands and everybody hates except the insurance giants gorging on guaranteed government revenue.

Any serious move to redirect billions in subsidies to people instead of insurers threatens epic levels of entrenched cash flows, making it politically explosive. It’s not just adjusting health policy, it is kicking the revenue stool out from under some of Washington’s fattest, best-connected clients.

Drop a reform package too early, and powerful opponents have months to organize a counteroffensive; drop it too late, and miss the chance to shape the battlefield. But drop it just as the midterm machinery starts grinding, and suddenly it becomes a narrative-setter: “We’re taking your money back from insurers and handing it to you.” It’s the kind of move that burns media’s oxygen for weeks and forces Democrats to defend the least defensible part of Obamacare— the part even their own voters despise.

Prepare for the main issue of the 2026 midterms to be health insurance. I bet you didn’t see that coming.