The Albatross
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News Count Me As Grateful For The Changes Coming In Us Health Care
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The Albatross
VIP Member
Already disputed Politifact. Still waiting for you to answer Deb.
intothelight
Sponsor
Not exactly correct as individual health policies have been available for at least a decade that I know of. But whether or not they were affordable was dependent upon the age and the health of the individual. My whole family has been covered under individual health policy(s) for the past four years.
BloomInWinter
VIP Member
People who have no access to healthcare are not "takers" or living in a "Nanny State." In a nanny state, we'd all be taken care of by compassionate, caring human beings looking out for each other.
I do understand not wanting anything "rammed down our throats" because I felt the same way about two wars. There was far less open debate on those, they were unpaid for, yet the GOP took us there anyway...and took away a budget surplus and plunged us into debt. So we can agree that being forced to fund things we don't care for is a burden we all have to share.
I believe that our great nation was built upon our interdependency on each other. Nobody is free from using taxpayer resources.
Alba, I don't know waht to say about your many comments to me "read it and weep" and "For God Sakes..." etc. other than they really feel like personal attacks. I don't doubt you believe your point of view or your data. I don't doubt that you believe you are right and also that you are a caring person. I do think you have a different value system than I do, and that's fine. But your tone and words don't help me come to the same conclusions you do about the data you present. Also, I will not bother to refute things which are simply an interpretation of numbers which lack the qualitative data.
I'm still happy that Obamacare has arrived.
It's not for those of us who have insurance already, true, but it still benefits us. Yes, our insurance policies will still find a way to gouge us for profit, but that was always true. Our employers can drop coverage for our families and partners...and that was always true. But they can't use more than 20% of our premiums for their own profit. They can't dump us onto the taxpayers when we get sick, as happened all too often before Obamacare. They can't continue to cherry-pick their clients as they are healthy then turn their backs on them if/when they need help, dumping them on our hospitals who pass along the unpaid costs to all the rest of us.
They can no longer issue lifetime limits on our care. Or refuse coverage based upon pre-existing conditions, or our gender.
We have many who need access to healthcare. I believe that is a social and moral obligation. I think we'll find our way to making it work.
Saturday, a dear friend of mine cried when she told me about finally...FINALLY...getting the coverage she has needed for years. A few years back, her hubby of 20 years left her. She was his office manager. He took everything and put all the property in his girlfriend's name. He had lied all these years about paying into her social security. An alcoholic with a serious gambling problem, he ran up credit cards she had no idea he had. He works at our local post office so was able to hide any incoming mail. He quietly removed any marital property that she had brought into the marriage.
The judges here aren't very helpful to women in this community. They are continuing to add 'continuances' to her case.
She is a fellow sufferer of PTSD. She exists now...or did...on less than $1.50 a day in SNAP. Now, that is being cut. She is skeletal and in need of more nutrition but feels ashamed for needing it. She is a survivor of violence and doesn't complain...but I see her walking in the snow and rain (and I pick her up when I can) and I am angry at the number of women living in poverty.
Now, though, she can at least get the medical care she deserves. She was so happy. She's had no tests nor services nor access to medication for far too long. When she was telling me that she got a letter from our state telling her she was automatically signed up...I felt relieved, proud, and hopeful. Whenever we can pull women & children out of poverty, that investment pays us all back...in spades.
Even if it didn't, I believe the morally right thing to do.
My position remains the same. But I do appreciate the discussion.
I do understand not wanting anything "rammed down our throats" because I felt the same way about two wars. There was far less open debate on those, they were unpaid for, yet the GOP took us there anyway...and took away a budget surplus and plunged us into debt. So we can agree that being forced to fund things we don't care for is a burden we all have to share.
I believe that our great nation was built upon our interdependency on each other. Nobody is free from using taxpayer resources.
Alba, I don't know waht to say about your many comments to me "read it and weep" and "For God Sakes..." etc. other than they really feel like personal attacks. I don't doubt you believe your point of view or your data. I don't doubt that you believe you are right and also that you are a caring person. I do think you have a different value system than I do, and that's fine. But your tone and words don't help me come to the same conclusions you do about the data you present. Also, I will not bother to refute things which are simply an interpretation of numbers which lack the qualitative data.
I'm still happy that Obamacare has arrived.
It's not for those of us who have insurance already, true, but it still benefits us. Yes, our insurance policies will still find a way to gouge us for profit, but that was always true. Our employers can drop coverage for our families and partners...and that was always true. But they can't use more than 20% of our premiums for their own profit. They can't dump us onto the taxpayers when we get sick, as happened all too often before Obamacare. They can't continue to cherry-pick their clients as they are healthy then turn their backs on them if/when they need help, dumping them on our hospitals who pass along the unpaid costs to all the rest of us.
They can no longer issue lifetime limits on our care. Or refuse coverage based upon pre-existing conditions, or our gender.
We have many who need access to healthcare. I believe that is a social and moral obligation. I think we'll find our way to making it work.
Saturday, a dear friend of mine cried when she told me about finally...FINALLY...getting the coverage she has needed for years. A few years back, her hubby of 20 years left her. She was his office manager. He took everything and put all the property in his girlfriend's name. He had lied all these years about paying into her social security. An alcoholic with a serious gambling problem, he ran up credit cards she had no idea he had. He works at our local post office so was able to hide any incoming mail. He quietly removed any marital property that she had brought into the marriage.
The judges here aren't very helpful to women in this community. They are continuing to add 'continuances' to her case.
She is a fellow sufferer of PTSD. She exists now...or did...on less than $1.50 a day in SNAP. Now, that is being cut. She is skeletal and in need of more nutrition but feels ashamed for needing it. She is a survivor of violence and doesn't complain...but I see her walking in the snow and rain (and I pick her up when I can) and I am angry at the number of women living in poverty.
Now, though, she can at least get the medical care she deserves. She was so happy. She's had no tests nor services nor access to medication for far too long. When she was telling me that she got a letter from our state telling her she was automatically signed up...I felt relieved, proud, and hopeful. Whenever we can pull women & children out of poverty, that investment pays us all back...in spades.
Even if it didn't, I believe the morally right thing to do.
My position remains the same. But I do appreciate the discussion.
intothelight
Sponsor
Just received the renewal quote for the individual policy that is currently in place for my husband and children. The premium increase is $48.97 per month, or approximately 10%. There was no increase on the dental portion. This is a big increase but not a bad as I had heard with some projections.
Just waiting to see what unfolds with the exchange and whether or not there is affordable coverage as a small business. Me....umm...not sure what is happening and a little nervous has the high risk state fund I am in will be dissolved as of 01/01/2014. My current coverage runs me $649 a month and considering that my one prescription is $7,500 a month, the insurance is a bargain. Yes, my coverage is separate from the rest of my family as I could not afford the premium to cover myself and my family. They would have set the rate based on my health, but thank goodness our state had the foresight to plan for situations like this.
Just waiting to see what unfolds with the exchange and whether or not there is affordable coverage as a small business. Me....umm...not sure what is happening and a little nervous has the high risk state fund I am in will be dissolved as of 01/01/2014. My current coverage runs me $649 a month and considering that my one prescription is $7,500 a month, the insurance is a bargain. Yes, my coverage is separate from the rest of my family as I could not afford the premium to cover myself and my family. They would have set the rate based on my health, but thank goodness our state had the foresight to plan for situations like this.
intothelight
Sponsor
The saddest thing about all of this is, there were plenty of other models based on a sliding fee, that could have filled the gap for the uninsured. But then, these were all common sense models and wouldn't have stood a chance. :(
D
Deleted member 6617
Tried unsuccessfully today to get into "SHOP" and see plans and prices for small business. Apparently still some glitches, or just an overload. Curiosity will have to wait.
intothelight
Sponsor
I am one person who is getting more frustrated as I learn more about this plan.
1. I can buy coverage next year with a premium that is 1/2 the cost of the exchange premium. It is IDENTICAL coverage. Why is premium outside the exchange 1/2?????
2. Even though the premium is 1/2 the exchange, the exchange premium will cost my family $2,500 less because of the subsidy. Subsidies only apply to exchange coverage. Where is the incentive to obtain coverage outside the exchange?
3. If the government is going to subsidize, why wouldn't they require everyone to get "best price" and then subsidize that? In my own case, it would be a $2,500 subsidy, versus an exchange policy subsidy of $7,000. $4,500 is a huge difference and spread that among the population and you get the idea.
Yes, this plan scares the hell out of me, just based upon my own microcosm of personal experience on day 1. Think about the points above and multiply it across the nation. When you do away with free markets and competition, you invite inflation, mismanagement and abuse.
Don't even get me started on the SHOP. I'll post about this from a small employer perspective and I think even that will be shocking. All business should be required and encouraged to provide health insurance. Right now, large employers are dumping employees into the exchange as it will just pad the bottom line. Let the taxpayer bear the burden.....something is so wrong with this.
Oh and don't think that I don't support healthcare for everyone and supported many of the changes that were brought about by the ACA. Ask me what exclusions did to me personally over the past year with treating cancer and if pre-existing conditions were still excluded, I don't know what kind of mess I would be in.
What I am objecting to is how the program was structured and implemented. There are so many better options, and both the Democrats and Republicans should be ashamed. Mostly for not working together for the best solution as how to create the markets necessary to meet the needs so that all American's could be covered. Believe it or not, it could have been done without increasing the deficit and without putting the burden on the back of the tax payers.
1. I can buy coverage next year with a premium that is 1/2 the cost of the exchange premium. It is IDENTICAL coverage. Why is premium outside the exchange 1/2?????
2. Even though the premium is 1/2 the exchange, the exchange premium will cost my family $2,500 less because of the subsidy. Subsidies only apply to exchange coverage. Where is the incentive to obtain coverage outside the exchange?
3. If the government is going to subsidize, why wouldn't they require everyone to get "best price" and then subsidize that? In my own case, it would be a $2,500 subsidy, versus an exchange policy subsidy of $7,000. $4,500 is a huge difference and spread that among the population and you get the idea.
Yes, this plan scares the hell out of me, just based upon my own microcosm of personal experience on day 1. Think about the points above and multiply it across the nation. When you do away with free markets and competition, you invite inflation, mismanagement and abuse.
Don't even get me started on the SHOP. I'll post about this from a small employer perspective and I think even that will be shocking. All business should be required and encouraged to provide health insurance. Right now, large employers are dumping employees into the exchange as it will just pad the bottom line. Let the taxpayer bear the burden.....something is so wrong with this.
Oh and don't think that I don't support healthcare for everyone and supported many of the changes that were brought about by the ACA. Ask me what exclusions did to me personally over the past year with treating cancer and if pre-existing conditions were still excluded, I don't know what kind of mess I would be in.
What I am objecting to is how the program was structured and implemented. There are so many better options, and both the Democrats and Republicans should be ashamed. Mostly for not working together for the best solution as how to create the markets necessary to meet the needs so that all American's could be covered. Believe it or not, it could have been done without increasing the deficit and without putting the burden on the back of the tax payers.
The Albatross
VIP Member
No one on this thread has attacked you. I on the other hand have had some personally attacking comments not once but twice. Being told "Oh... not another one of those government paranoids" and then being told I'm a dying breed. So I would suggest, no one has been "attacked" on this thread. Not even Heidi's comments to me... though it was inflammatory and condescending if not abusive.
Maybe I was condescending as well, though I still wonder what you expect to do to meet federal commitments with respect to revenues in the face of a long term projected shortfall... for the next 2 plus decades. For that, I'll apologize if you'd like me to, though it is clear we are on two sides. You the humanitarian, me the economist.
Maybe I was condescending as well, though I still wonder what you expect to do to meet federal commitments with respect to revenues in the face of a long term projected shortfall... for the next 2 plus decades. For that, I'll apologize if you'd like me to, though it is clear we are on two sides. You the humanitarian, me the economist.
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Individual health care policies can deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. Pre-existing conditions can cover a VERY wide scope. Coverage can be denied for any reason including risk factors. That has left many people with literally no option.
Hugely important! Individual health care policies do not come with the same protections as a group policy. If you have a problem that comes up while you're on individual health care your coverage could be denied.
I see we overlapped on points. The big change here is the change to the pre-existing conditions. And that is so awesome.
I think people are willing to pay for health care. I think people are just grateful to have an option. If they need to raise premiums in the future I think people will be receptive to that as long the costs isn't prohibitive.
Hopefully the kinks (if there are kinks) can be worked out in the future. But it is annoying how people can't try to come together on this and try to make this work.
In the meantime I can't tell you how much this is going to mean for some people. I understand some health insurance premiums are going to go up but in a way maybe health care insurance premiums have long been subsidized by all those people who were denied coverage and were having to pay with their lives. Not to be dramatic or anything.
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I'm always having to fight my insurance company to get the medication my doctor prescribes to me. This situation often frustrates even the health care professionals. Doctors determine the level of care their patient need (not the insurance companies) and yet insurance companies can refuse to pay. Presently I get a fraction of the medication I need for my migraines.This has been an ongoing battle the entire duration of group health coverage.
Every time I'm in the pharmacy the line is backed up while the pharmacy techs are on the line with insurance companies trying to find out why someone's insurance coverage isn't going through.
Of course this is besides the point since we are not going to a socialized health care system.
I'm just making the point that insurance companies can be very bureaucratic and difficult to work with.
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I, for one, would be quite a bit more favorable toward Obamacare if they had even stopped to consider the objections being raised about religious freedom. I am being REQUIRED to pay for something I view as taking the life of an innocent child. I believe it is psychologically damaging to the mother.
Yes, I'm one of those religious NUTS....oh wait a minute....I looked at it from a scientific viewpoint BEFORE I was a religious NUT and came to the same conclusion.
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