Conservative Politics & Daily Events Discussion

The insurance companies do this on purpose as it forces you to get insurance from them. That at least is the simple answer. I got one better... why is it that I call my insurance company on a new insurance with three months to go in the year and they can't tell me 100% how much a procedure is going to cost? I called mine and they told me a test I needed would cost $1000. I say OK to the procedure not knowing any better and they send me a bill for $3,000. When I ask why it's not the $1,000, they basically tell me "maybe" they had the billing codes wrong. If it was $3,000, I would have waited until the following year to make sure it went to my total family deductible instead of having only 3 months left in the calendar year. They knew this too, they aren't stupid. They have screwing people down to a science. I was told that the next time I go in for this, I should go with a different procedure that is less expensive and I do that the following year, to be then billed for $3,000 again. Why? Because that one was less expensive, but because of billing, it counted as two tests and not one. WTF?... even though the other one was a better test and tells you more, I'm now getting screwed at both ends. ... and it hurts my Butt... it does... I'm Butt Hurt.

The government needs to get out of healthcare completely. Last time I checked, healthcare was not covered under the Bill of Rights, nor should it be. In fact, if you look at the already available example of socialized medical coverage in the US, also known as the VA, I'd ask you how well that's going. But at this point people expect the government to take care of them, to make them better, so completely getting rid of it would not be an acceptable option. I'd recommend:

1. Get rid of the VA (don't start getting pissed off yet, keep reading). Just getting rid of the physical structures and the maintenance of those facilities would save millions a year, not including the pay for the administration personnel, doctors, and support personnel. As many of those people are of questionable competence, it would be a good deal all around.

2. Revamp Medicare (don't start getting pissed of yet, keep reading). We all know that Medicare/Medicaid is a money suck, here is your opportunity to both expand it and fix it. The good part is that Medicare already has the infrastructure needed to make the changes it needs, and there would need to be a rather serious discussion with both doctors and pharmaceutical reps to determine the best course of action. For a general thought regarding a framework, the following plans would be made available:
A. Standard Plan - Available for purchase by anyone. Plans will be variable in coverage (tin, silver, gold, platinum, etc) This plan will also utilize the popular aspects of Obamacare (allows prior existing conditions, keep your kids until 26, etc). The plan would also allow subsidies for poorer insured to make sure that everyone who WANTED coverage was able to afford it. This would essentially be a fallback option for anyone who can't afford other plans, and would provide incentives for other insurance companies to develop plans with similar options. Essentially, the government would enter the insurance market as competitor instead of as an oversight committee. That allows the other companies to do what they want, but if they don't provide similar coverage for similar prices, they are going to lose capital. You could even roll Medicaid into this layout and reduce the amount of bureaucracy in the world.
B. Veterans Plan - Maintains the same low/zero deductible coverage created by the VA, but in a wider scope of available providers. This ensures your veterans are getting the timely good care they need instead of forcing them to utilize the VA hospitals.

3. Repeal Obamacare with everything else already in place.

I understand it isn't that simple, and that there are a bunch of ways to make the entire system more efficient, but it would be an interesting system to game out.

Good question. I don't know or have answers, all I know is if you tune out all the left and right of our politics and the fact that you can ALWAYS find people that don't like the system they have, I have lots of friends in Canada and they are happy with their system. If you don't like the fact that it may take a month to get in to see someone, you pay extra and get on the short list. Ireland is also ranked higher than ours for their medical. My in-laws have family friends over there and they had a terrible experience where a family member was basically sent home to die... but if you look into their insurance, they have secondary health insurance to get you the "full" insurance that covers everything. So who's fault is that if you are sent home with a "sorry, we can't help you" as it's not covered or is it your own fault because you didn't take out the secondary insurance? Personal responsibility? There is always going to be times the system isn't going to work and we all need to accept responsibility in that. But having people who aren't well off paying $9,000 for a test they can't afford because the health insurance companies drove that $1,000 price tag up is ridiculous. NOTHING is going to be perfect, but before the ACA... asked a friend if he was happy about paying 20% more per year in payments. It was a broke system before the ACA. The ACA... it's broke too, but we're in my mind going in the right direction. Lets make what we have better and stop just wanting to change it because it has Obama's name associated with it. Politics at it's worst if you ask me. Our government needs to be for the people and the stock markets will continue to go up as the middle class gets stronger as that is what drives our economy. If we keep screwing over the middle class, what do we have after that?

@sideseatdriver... sounds solid enough. How to do it all... who knows. I'm not saying the ACA has to stay... I'm saying the ACA was a start. The issue though is how to deal with Insurance companies as they are "for profit" and should be, but maybe if you have something as a competitor to them like you said... NY was looking at expanding Medicaid to everyone as a "base" medical. The F'd up part of that is my daughter had moved out of the house and according to the ACA rules in NY, had to go on Medicaid. Here I was with a wife and 2 kids paying almost $20K a year for medical on the ACA and she wasn't paying a dime AND had better medical. So hell yes, I'll jump over to Medicaid.

I don't have an answer, I just know what we have sucks and what we had sucked more... so all we can do is push forward and the entire congress is turning it into a political nightmare with no other reason than they want to make the other side look bad. Trump doesn't know how to fix crap as he just puts pressure on congress and assumes they will do what is correct when both sides can't manage their way out of a paper bag. Then in Trump style he gets involved and screws it up even more. I guess the one positive in it all is if the entire system is screwed up so bad that they have to rebuild it all... just a shame it would have to come to that over petty BS.

i think one of the big pieces that is missing in the reform is the doctors and hosiptals. New clinics and offices are popping up on every corner. None of our local physician groups is keeping salaries and bonuses frozen like my salary has been for 4 years - nope, double digit salary increases and 6 digit bonuses.

Why is it that a doctor will discount his/her services 90% for their physican owned insurance plan then give a 60% discount to company A and a 40% to company B and a 20% to company C meanwhile Medicare can call bullshit and say the cost of the service should be at a 95% discount. And dont forget tgey get to charge 160% for those with no insurance and then write it off as a charitable event and its now excluded (and then some) from taxation

How do you break down the whole medical insurance deal and rebuild?? I know several docs that have retired instead of fighting the insurance companies. There is not that much money left to be made anymore. It's stopping at the insurance companies and not trickling down. So you fix it by shaking it up. Like him or hate him that's what Trump is doing and you know if there was just another politician in the office of President it would be business as usual. I look forward to see what the next three years bring.

All good things. I'm fat... should I pay more for my healthcare because of it? I pay more for my life insurance... I'd say yes, but just like my life insurance, I can go back and get the discounts once I loose weight. But what do you do with people that have medical issues that cause them to be fat? It's a never ending if... This is the reason I believe in one medical that covers say major medical and basic checkups and then you can choose the insurance over that.

Does it make it right that medication costs hold you for ransom? Nope... how to fix? I guess a dart board is as good of a start than any as I have no clue. Businesses have a right to develop their drugs and make good money off to them, but how to control the cost over 5-10 years down the line when they can hold your life for ransom...

@Spudinator ... I am NOT for government oversight and I want the government to generally stay out of my life. But yes in deed... how do you do that. If folks remember as I do the oil companies driving up gas prices over $4/gal in GWBush times... even though they were making record profits they kept saying it wasn't them. BS. They have the country by the balls and can do what they want. Hell, I can't even change my diesel engine over to burn vegetable oil due to government regulations and they force you to have no other option but to buy overinflated gas and pay the state taxes on it. I can't even rent out a room in my home without issues and oversight.

Quote from SaltyClownNY

@Spudinator ... I am NOT for government oversight and I want the government to generally stay out of my life. But yes in deed... how do you do that. If folks remember as I do the oil companies driving up gas prices over $4/gal in GWBush times... even though they were making record profits they kept saying it wasn't them. BS. They have the country by the balls and can do what they want. Hell, I can't even change my diesel engine over to burn vegetable oil due to government regulations and they force you to have no other option but to buy overinflated gas and pay the state taxes on it. I can't even rent out a room in my home without issues and oversight.

You are right. Government is what's f'd up this whole thing to begin with so how can we depend on them to fix it. You put all the government on our healthcare and our retirement and see those guys get on the stick to fix it for all. They've done a pretty good job for themselves. Politics was not suppose to be a career but that's what has happened.

As far as your diesel (I have just done a delete on my 2011 F250) looks like your first problem is you live in NY. Beautiful city to visit and I can say honestly some of the nicest people I've met but government oversight is horrible. What is it now $14 a pack cigarettes and nothing more than a 16 oz drink at a fast food joint.

I sold that $4 a gallon diesel because I was in the convenience store business and we didn't make it but you are right the oil companies made historic profits. People couldn't yell at them so they yelled at us. We were more dependent on foreign oil then than we are now so hopefully if things change in the Middle East it won't be quite so bad. I personally would be willing to pay $3-$4 a gallon if we only refined and sold domestic oil but that won't happen in my lifetime.

We have too many problems and I have too little time left on this earth so I hope we educate our children enough to learn from the past and make a better future but that my friend is another total debate.

I've said all along that if you put Congress on Medicare and Social Security we won't ever have a problem with either program!

And they need a 401k too!

...........

.

LOL... @Orangeman... Congress aren't idiots. They are living high and on the people. They know exactly what they are doing and getting all the perks. WE are the idiots!

As far as Congress and benefits. Not sure if anyone looked into exactly what they get, but I did many years ago. I actually had better benefits than they did in the job I had at the time. They actually chose their medical just like you do in most jobs, but they were good packages and they had a selection of many different ones. What I think we need to do is that they need to go on whatever they replace the ACA with and they have to stay on it. THAT is how we fix medical in this country... whatever they come up with in the next year is what they get moved to.

Quote from SaltyClownNY

As far as Congress and benefits. Not sure if anyone looked into exactly what they get

.

Starting Jan. 1, 2014, House and Senate members, and their staffs, can only obtain employer-subsidized, private coverage through the exchanges established under the ACA. The exchanges, or marketplaces, were designed for those who purchase their own insurance and small employers. For a full discussion of current health insurance options for members of Congress, see the 2015 Congressional Research Service paper “Health Benefits for Members of Congress and Designated Congressional Staff.”

.....

.

Quote from Bill Martin

For all those that accuse Trump of being a racist could you please explain this:

Easy to explain, now he's a Republican.

BTW I support the President.