People Can't Afford To Use Their High-Deductible Obamacare Coverage

[Auburn85 432]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/03/23/mary_katherine_ham_under_obamacare_people_are_getting_coverage_they_cant_use_because_its_too_expensive.html

 

 

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Federalist senior writer Mary Katharine Ham debates CNN's Chris Cuomo during a Thursday morning health care discussion 'New Day.'

“Well, you can be nasty about it or you can listen to me,” Ham replied after Cuomo rebuked what he called a “cheap” answer about Obamacare’s “essential health benefits.”
 

MARY KATHERINE HAM: This is also an arbtrary date -- it does not have to be today...

You sir are paying for pediatric dental even if you don't have children. That is a problem. 

CHRIS CUOMO: There's a reason right? Everything has a reason.

HAM: Because liberals love federal power. 

CUOMO: You can be cheap about it, you're making your choice. 

HAM: You can be nasty about it or you can listen to me...

These things bring up prices. I am a single mom of two who has lost three or four plans since Obamacare passed -- I was told I would not, that was a lie. When I said I could lose my plan, people said I was a liar. I have had 160% increase in my premiums and a 300% increase in my deductible. 

People are getting coverage that they can not use because it is too expensive, we have to do something about that. one way to deal with that is cutting some of these "essential health benefits" are not essential. You could give people more flexibility to have slightly less expensive and slightly less comprehensive plans, which is what many young people would like to buy.

 

 

[Auburn85 432]

https://mediamatters.org/video/2017/03/24/cnns-mary-katharine-ham-bare-bones-junk-plans-were-better-plans-under-obamacare/215803

 

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JOHN KING (HOST): To my friend from The Federalist, that's the argument Republicans are trying to make. That these should be state decisions, that that's the way the founders wanted it. Their problem is, number one, the employee-based system creates a structure that makes it hard to do that, and number two, Obamacare passed.

MARY KATHARINE HAM: Yes. One, there are already mandates on a state basis, so that part, I think, we need to make clear. A conservative state like Texas, for instance, has 60-plus mandates on what you should have in it. This was another layer that is a federal mandate, and the argument from the right-of-center is that federal mandates are not the only way to get people care, and, in fact, mandating a really heavy set of benefits that has to go in every single plan allows for no flexibility on the state level, allows for no flexibility for people who want to buy a more low-maintenance plan, not a bare-bones plan, because there's not a world in which -- I was on those bare-bones junk plans, turns out they were OK compared to what I have now.

[...]

People in the middle class, especially in the individual market, who have sky-high premiums and sky-high deductibles, who basically have unusable insurance, they would like to be able to buy something with fewer benefits, they would like to buy something that's more catastrophic, and that just doesn't exist anymore.

 

 

 

[TexasTiger 12,782]

Time to fix it. Who's in charge? Who knows how to deal? Who knows how to govern?

[Mims44 1,863]

These things bring up prices. I am a single mom of two who has lost three or four plans since Obamacare passed -- I was told I would not, that was a lie. When I said I could lose my plan, people said I was a liar. I have had 160% increase in my premiums and a 300% increase in my deductible. 

 

She should have said Single Working mom, then people wouldn't have called her a liar.

[SaltyTiger 7,757]

1 hour ago, TexasTiger said:

Time to fix it. Who's in charge? Who knows how to deal? Who knows how to govern?

 Are you saying no fix needed Tex? 

[TexasTiger 12,782]

27 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

 Are you saying no fix needed Tex? 

Hardly. Read again. You voted for the let's make a deal guy. Let him get to work for a change. Bipartisan fix.

[alexava 6,972]

14 hours ago, TexasTiger said:

Hardly. Read again. You voted for the let's make a deal guy. Let him get to work for a change. Bipartisan fix.

The greedy, selfish, " let's make a deal guy" who boasted in his book about lying and telling people what they want to hear. Then thee weeks ago explained that "nobody knew how complicated healthcare could be"? I am waiting for voters to start looking in the mirror and taking responsibility for electing a effing fraud when they had all the gd signs to avoid it. Yes this is the smacktalk forum, I hop.

[Auburn85 432]

Make no mistake, it was a victory for ALL Americans. Even if you had to pay the fine, it was still a victory.

[Auburn85 432]

19 hours ago, TexasTiger said:

Time to fix it. Who's in charge? Who knows how to deal? Who knows how to govern?

Democrats and anyone else who work with Donald Trump would be normalizing a Fascist.

[TexasTiger 12,782]

1 hour ago, Auburn85 said:

Democrats and anyone else who work with Donald Trump would be normalizing a Fascist.

If he's willing to sign a good law, Dems should work with Republicans on good legislation and give him the opportunity. At the same time, call him out on everything that warrants it.

[Auburn85 432]

Going to go out on a limb and say this guy is going to be hard to get future support from:

 

At least he is consistent and he continues the refusal to normalize Trump.

[TexasTiger 12,782]

56 minutes ago, Auburn85 said:

Going to go out on a limb and say this guy is going to be hard to get future support from:

 

At least he is consistent and he continues the refusal to normalize Trump.

If Trump would sign a bill Ted supports, he'd take it. You don't refuse to legislate because the President is a moron.

[SaltyTiger 7,757]

8 hours ago, alexava said:

The greedy, selfish, " let's make a deal guy" who boasted in his book about lying and telling people what they want to hear. Then thee weeks ago explained that "nobody knew how complicated healthcare could be"? I am waiting for voters to start looking in the mirror and taking responsibility for electing a effing fraud when they had all the gd signs to avoid it. Yes this is the smacktalk forum, I hop.

Calm down Alex. Three deep breaths and exhale slowly. Breath through the nose when inhaling. Now, take a walk around the block. Notice the birds. 

Feel better now don't we?

[alexava 6,972]

5 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

Calm down Alex. Three deep breaths and exhale slowly. Breath through the nose when inhaling. Now, take a walk around the block. Notice the birds. 

Feel better now don't we?

You're good. I would have to pay a 30$ Copay  to get that kind of therapy normally. 

[AUFAN78 3,889]

On 3/25/2017 at 6:45 PM, TexasTiger said:

Time to fix it. Who's in charge? Who knows how to deal? Who knows how to govern?

Or we can just continue to allow millions to lose their plans and/or doctor and let the entire plan crumble. I'm quite certain Americans know who owns the plan and who will be responsible for its failure if in fact that happens.

[TexasTiger 12,782]

12 minutes ago, AUFAN78 said:

Or we can just continue to allow millions to lose their plans and/or doctor and let the entire plan crumble. I'm quite certain Americans know who owns the plan and who will be responsible for its failure if in fact that happens.

Works better in blue states where repugs aren't sabotaging it. Republicans control all levers of power and polls show most folks want it fixed. Republicans will demonstrate they are incapable of governing. Their call. They own it now.

 

 

 

Brit Hume‏ @brithume

Political reality: the GOP majority, after trying and failing to undo it, now owns Obamacare as it gradually collapses. On them now.3:09 PM · Mar 24, 2017 from Florida, USA

[SaltyTiger 7,757]

37 minutes ago, alexava said:

You're good. I would have to pay a 30$ Copay  to get that kind of therapy normally. 

worry not my friend. i have a deal worked out over this type situation.

[AUFAN78 3,889]

Just now, TexasTiger said:

Works better in blue states where repugs aren't sabotaging it. Republicans control all levers of power and polls show most folks want it fixed. Republicans will demonstrate they are incapable of governing. Their call. They own it now.

No, they don't own it. It is called Obamacare for a reason. Not a Republican plan and most with a modicum of intelligence understand this. Of course most want it fixed. It is a piece of $#@%. Democrats will continue to own it until it either is replaced or crumbles. Personally, I'd love to see bi-partisan work on a replacement plan, but until Obamacare is on the verge of crumbling, I don't see any hope of democratic support for anything. 

[homersapien 11,337]

13 minutes ago, AUFAN78 said:

No, they don't own it. It is called Obamacare for a reason. Not a Republican plan and most with a modicum of intelligence understand this. Of course most want it fixed. It is a piece of $#@%. Democrats will continue to own it until it either is replaced or crumbles. Personally, I'd love to see bi-partisan work on a replacement plan, but until Obamacare is on the verge of crumbling, I don't see any hope of democratic support for anything. 

It's the law of the land.

Whatever deficiencies it has are the responsibility of the "governing" party to recitify.

[AUFAN78 3,889]

1 minute ago, homersapien said:

It's the law of the land.

Whatever deficiencies it has are the responsibility of the "governing" party to recitify.

Doesn't negate Democrats own the plan.

[homersapien 11,337]

5 minutes ago, AUFAN78 said:

Doesn't negate Democrats own the plan.

Fine.  But the Democrats don't have the power to force changes.

So, now what? 

[AUFAN78 3,889]

4 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Fine.  But the Democrats don't have the power to force changes.

So, now what? 

It's called by-partisanship and I'm quite certain dems have the potential to set aside ideology for the greater good of our country. Same should be said for Republicans. But as I stated previously, I don't see it happening until Obamacare is on the verge of collapse.

[TexasTiger 12,782]

1 hour ago, AUFAN78 said:

No, they don't own it. It is called Obamacare for a reason. Not a Republican plan and most with a modicum of intelligence understand this. Of course most want it fixed. It is a piece of $#@%. Democrats will continue to own it until it either is replaced or crumbles. Personally, I'd love to see bi-partisan work on a replacement plan, but until Obamacare is on the verge of crumbling, I don't see any hope of democratic support for anything. 

Stay ignant. It was a Heritage hatched program that was Romneycare before it became Obamacare. Now there's only one party that can change it. You're a typical modern day Republican-- just wanna bitch and whine, and never be accountable.

[TitanTiger 20,460]

1 hour ago, AUFAN78 said:

It's called by-partisanship and I'm quite certain dems have the potential to set aside ideology for the greater good of our country. Same should be said for Republicans. But as I stated previously, I don't see it happening until Obamacare is on the verge of collapse.

The Republicans have majorities in both houses and a GOP president who will sign it.  They don't need a single, solitary Democrat vote to "fix it."  They just need some actual ideas instead of bumper sticker slogans.

[homersapien 11,337]

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/27/15072940/american-health-care-free-market-cheap

 

Paul Krugman has a column today offering Republicans some advice for how to improve Obamacare. This paragraph is worth calling out:

One important answer would be to spend a bit more money. Obamacare has turned out to be remarkably cheap; the Congressional Budget Office now projects its costto be about a third lower than it originally expected, around 0.7 percent of G.D.P. In fact, it’s probably too cheap. A report from the nonpartisan Urban Institute argues that the A.C.A. is “essentially underfunded,” and would work much better — in particular, it could offer policies with much lower deductibles — if it provided somewhat more generous subsidies. The report’s recommendations would cost around 0.2 percent of G.D.P.; or to put it another way, would be around half as expensive as the tax cuts for the wealthy Republicans just tried and failed to ram through as part of Trumpcare.

Let’s state the obvious: Republicans will not hear “spend a bit more money” as friendly advice when it comes to Obamacare. But to an extent I don’t think they appreciate, “spend a bit more money” is necessary for their health care goals, too.

Republicans in particular, but Americans in general, are confounded by an unusual dynamic in health policy: The health care systems that spend the least rely on government the most. This is difficult for Americans to grok because anti-government rhetoric takes as a given that government services cost more — we’ve all heard the stories of Pentagon procurement gone awry, or some agency somewhere spending absurd sums on pencil trays.

But in health care, the cheapest, highest-performing systems all do the same thing — they let government set prices centrally. That’s true in the UK’s absurdly inexpensive, and fully socialized, health care system; but it’s also true in the Singaporean system, which conservatives often hold up as a model.

Hell, it’s even true in the American system! Medicare and Medicaid pay much less for health services than private insurers. That’s one reason Obamacare relied so heavily on the Medicaid expansion — Democrats couldn’t afford to subsidize private insurance for everyone who needed it, and so they turned to the cheaper insurance Medicaid offered. Even now, the part of Obamacare that needs more money is the part based on conservative ideas — the regulated marketplaces where people buy private insurance.

The downside: price regulation can cut innovation, freedom

..........Read the rest of the article at: 

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/27/15072940/american-health-care-free-market-cheap