Thanks Obamacare for my 68% premium increase!

Just had our health care meeting at work today. They are going to a high deductable plan which means I have to pay a monthly premium and then pay $5000 deductable before even an office visit kicks in. They tried to sell us a health care savings plan where we put money in a savings account. Really, after the premium increase who has money to have more deductions taken out. Then they told us in 2016 when the cadilac tax kicks in our premiums will go up another 40%. My work environment is not filled with happy employees today.

originally posted by: smithjustinb

originally posted by: StoutBroux

At this point, I don't know what any party can do to 'fix' Obamacare.

Republicans can repeal it if they win in November.

I don't think they will. Simple. It will piss off a lot of people. Too many fingers in the pie. The only way it would even have a chance of flying is if they repeal the WHOLE thing, get new bills in for preexisting conditions and under 26 y/o can opt to stay on their parents plan. But I'm betting it won't happen no matter who gets elected or what they promise.

originally posted by: StoutBroux

originally posted by: smithjustinb

originally posted by: StoutBroux

At this point, I don't know what any party can do to 'fix' Obamacare.

Republicans can repeal it if they win in November.

I don't think they will. Simple. It will piss off a lot of people. Too many fingers in the pie. The only way it would even have a chance of flying is if they repeal the WHOLE thing, get new bills in for preexisting conditions and under 26 y/o can opt to stay on their parents plan. But I'm betting it won't happen no matter who gets elected or what they promise.

I agree, we are stuck with it.

originally posted by: yes4141
$500 a MONTH?!?!? Wow.

I live in England (NHS blah blah, not gonna bore you all) but bloody hell! I had no idea people had to pay that sort of money for their insurance?

Is that very expensive or average?

How the hell do normal people dare set foot in a hospital? Is it a question of "shall I Keep the leg or not go bankrupt?"


I see the increase is huge, but if that's fairly standard then that was a SERIOUS problem as it was!

Expensive or average? That's low actually and that's for the people who actually can afford insurance. For others who can't afford insurance (about 1/3 the country) if they get sick it's a choice between food or medicine and you can forget about seeing a doctor. In my case a simple doctors office visit is more than a months worth of income before the cost of any treatment.

The penalty won't be too bad this year. It's $95. It will be $325 in 2015 and $695 2016. It will still be cheaper for me not to have insurance. I just won't get a tax refund. That won't kill me. Health insurance would.

I just received a letter from my insurance carrier,United Healthcare,that my state will not be renewing their contract with them for the Medicare/Medicaid plan I've had for years.Also,being now permanently disabled,the hours of the unskilled nurses that assist me have been cut as well.My insurance carrier gave me the phone number of a company to call which I've been putting off out of dread.Is it possible one man can destroy an entire country?

It will all hit the fan and the only way to "fix it" will be to hand it all over to the feds as a single payer system

Private/pay per use system
USA life expectancy - 78.8 @ total cost $8, 508 pp

Public/universal system
AUS life expectancy - 82.1 @ total cost $3, 800 pp
UK life expectancy - 81.5 @ toral cost $3, 405 pp
Sweden life expectancy - 81.7 @ total cost $3925 pp
CAN life expectancy - 81.2 @ total cost $4, 522 pp
MEX life expectancy - 77.1 @ total cost $977 pp

Yer. You guys are doing great...

Haha. Suckers.

You're pretty much the Mexican of Healthcare haha. Hell Mexico beats you on ratio alone haha.

You know, the other week my molars swelled up. I walked into a hospital. They sat me down. Knocked me out. Popped them out. I left. Free. I had a hemorrhoid a few months ago. Pow tied off that day! Free.

Did the Seahawks win the superbowl as a team or was it just 1 guy? Can you get more done as a team or solo?

You guys do know your insurance carriers are just jacking up your Healthcare to get everyone to riot about it to try to stop universal health care because it wipes out their profits and keeps people healthy which = no money for them... they are also running a super super super campaign to discredit the rest of the planet at the cost of your lives.

Sometimes I admire the USA... other times though... ... ...

For a conspiracy forum that can't even see the shambles your Healthcare system is and the lies being spread by your healthcare providers to stop universal healthcare... its just too funny.

a reply to: redbuzzhat

So, in part you've made a good point about universal healthcare. I'm a proud, patriotic American but here's the rub against it working in the USA:

For the most part, we Americans are F-ing overweight, FAT slobs in extremely poor health. So there I said it. Yep, we have ridiculous rates of diabetes, heart disease, HBP, etc. We celebrate gigantic plates of pig or cow flesh served with cheesy fries, drink big gulps daily so large they would intoxicate and poison small mammals, serve up thousand-calorie desserts after plowing through a bucket of fried chicken. Burgers used to be a main course….now they’re primarily appetizers. We don't just lots of pizza, we stuff the crust with cheese AND bacon. In fact, bacon is just about the only thing that every person in this country agrees on or doesn't argue against. The few Muslims and Jews who have been brave enough to expose the vast bacon conspiracy have been silenced or hauled off in black trucks. We have festivals where bacon is inserted into every possible food combination including ice cream, more bacon and even stuffed hogs. I # you not.

So visit a hospital and do a quick scan of the waiting room and you'll find mostly fat, sick, old people -usually in that order. Someone has to pay for a sick, elderly population that pretty much need blood transfusions to remove all the cholesterol. Well, thanks to a non-existent economy, the healthy younger people needed to support a universal healthcare system are far underemployed, in unrecoverable student loan debt, and now burdened by the beast of Obamacare that has pretty much created a path of destruction for anyone actually working for a paycheck. I won’t even go into detail about the ridiculous cost in food that pretty much encourages people to simply eat sticks of raw butter. In two or so weeks, the country is probably going to flip the facet of our two-facet, one party state in a lame attempt to correct the path of healthcare destruction failing to understand that we’ve already pushed too much of the loaf out to pull the turtlehead back in. One mention of “universal healthcare” by anyone in the “new” Congress will bring about the black trucks and/or assassinations. I would argue that Ebola is more popular in our country than universal healthcare right now.

You know the old adage about a smoker not being able to quit until he/she wants to? Well, Americans have the same problem with beef, cheese, bacon, soda and the like. Universal healthcare could never work here….you have far too many members of the vast bacon conspiracy and not even the latest lettuce-humping generation of hipsters can correct that. The only solution is soylent green but of course there’s no point in making poison from poison.

a reply to: wills120

maybe you should consider what kind of crap they put into all that food you are griping about??
the policies in this country aren't concerned with our health they'd gladly accept universal healthcare if they could profit by it! They allow all kinds of crap in our food because it will make some big corp a ton money if they do!
Heck they accepted the idea of adding flouride to our water just so a few companies could save a few bucks by selling the poison instead of having to dispose of it properly!
if our health is a mess it's only because we've been used as corporate america's toxic waste dump!!!

a reply to: dawnstar

Um, I'm afraid you missed the sarcasm in my post but that's pretty much my point along with a nice case of gluttony.

a reply to: peter_kandra
No healthcare possible in a capitalist society possible?
Nonsense , all western Europe has it.And at a much lower cost.
I pitty you

The banks got bailed out. Now the insurance companies are getting bailed out. The government is the MAFIA putting the strong arm on us for the benefit of corporate fat cats.a Welcome to Parasite Planet.

I know it can seem pretty smug talking another countries healthcare but I really don't mean this to be so.

The problem seems to be that the medical companies (insurance, pharmaceutical etc.) have a seriously good thing going in the US.

The over prescription of serious medication (especially to children!) is squeezing a money sponge, then you have the lobbyists for those companies in Washington having a massive influence on contracts and DEA legislation- in a similiar way to Haliburton et al in the military contracts.



These are the sorts of things which make it seem so murky and frankly, rotten to the core beneath the surface.

If a a third of the population can't afford a doctors appointment or simple healthcare then I'm sorry, but what the hell are those military billions actually defending?!? Whatever it is, if people can't even stay well then it's worthless.

Unless they don't actually care if all the poor to shrivel up and die. Seriously.

originally posted by: wills120
a reply to: redbuzzhat

So, in part you've made a good point about universal healthcare. I'm a proud, patriotic American but here's the rub against it working in the USA:

For the most part, we Americans are F-ing overweight, FAT slobs in extremely poor health. So there I said it. Yep, we have ridiculous rates of diabetes, heart disease, HBP, etc. We celebrate gigantic plates of pig or cow flesh served with cheesy fries, drink big gulps daily so large they would intoxicate and poison small mammals, serve up thousand-calorie desserts after plowing through a bucket of fried chicken. Burgers used to be a main course….now they’re primarily appetizers. We don't just lots of pizza, we stuff the crust with cheese AND bacon. In fact, bacon is just about the only thing that every person in this country agrees on or doesn't argue against. The few Muslims and Jews who have been brave enough to expose the vast bacon conspiracy have been silenced or hauled off in black trucks. We have festivals where bacon is inserted into every possible food combination including ice cream, more bacon and even stuffed hogs. I # you not.

So visit a hospital and do a quick scan of the waiting room and you'll find mostly fat, sick, old people -usually in that order. Someone has to pay for a sick, elderly population that pretty much need blood transfusions to remove all the cholesterol. Well, thanks to a non-existent economy, the healthy younger people needed to support a universal healthcare system are far underemployed, in unrecoverable student loan debt, and now burdened by the beast of Obamacare that has pretty much created a path of destruction for anyone actually working for a paycheck. I won’t even go into detail about the ridiculous cost in food that pretty much encourages people to simply eat sticks of raw butter. In two or so weeks, the country is probably going to flip the facet of our two-facet, one party state in a lame attempt to correct the path of healthcare destruction failing to understand that we’ve already pushed too much of the loaf out to pull the turtlehead back in. One mention of “universal healthcare” by anyone in the “new” Congress will bring about the black trucks and/or assassinations. I would argue that Ebola is more popular in our country than universal healthcare right now.

You know the old adage about a smoker not being able to quit until he/she wants to? Well, Americans have the same problem with beef, cheese, bacon, soda and the like. Universal healthcare could never work here….you have far too many members of the vast bacon conspiracy and not even the latest lettuce-humping generation of hipsters can correct that. The only solution is soylent green but of course there’s no point in making poison from poison.

Australia has more fat and old people by population. Bam. Think about that. More fat old and smoking people with 1/3 skin cancer rate! And they STILL live longer than the skinnier healthier lower cancer rate cousins in the USA

Again you've been brainwashed to think somehow the fat old and sick areally left to die when in fact it's the opposite. The more fat old and sick people they have the better the system gets. Think of universal healthcare as economies of scale. The more sick and old you have the more you can buy in bulk and treat everyone. How much cheaper is it to buy bulk than individual...

Also, the life expectancy counters your argument. Another proof Americans have been brainwashed into thinking the poor sick or elderly or homeless are left to die.

It's just the USA who let's old sick elderly or homeless die or suffer now in 2014.

spend 5 mins googling universal healthcare in any other country and you'll see you've been blanket covered with propaganda

The easiest way to describe the USA VS every other country on the planet which has universal health care is this.

USA
You buy a single $1000 hammer.
You build a house.
You throw the hammer away.

EVVERY OTHER COUNTRY
The government buys 10,000 hammers for $1,200. Once the production line is set up material costs nothing.
You borrow one for free.
You build a house.
You give the hammer back.
Don't have enough hammers? The government buys another 10,000


Why?

Because the cost is in the initial design and labour. Once you take that out you can mass produce. It's a shame because America gave us the automobile assemble line but couldn't give itself universal health care

Well... at least till now.

Every politician wants to be known for introducing universal health care. It gives you 5 more years of life and you get to brag about it and will be immortalized like the founding fathers in giving everyone freedom, universal healthcare gives people more life. If the founding fathers knew how good medical science and mass production had got they would have included it in the Constitution.

Also in countries where you have universal healthcare the total cost on the system is a minimum 50% less once it's up and running. 50%.... in 30 years time trust me the USA will be going god dam.... we fked that sh!t up for so long...


Oh and you think universal healthcare doesn't have money to spend on research and cure sh!t no one wants to pay for....

www.theguardian.com...

POW. Polish public healthcare cures broken spines.

Beat that.

It's because all those wasted man hours and cost are now funneled into research and development. That $100 for gauss and $1000 for an xray no go into cures instead of medicine.

I think the greatest thing about universal healthcare is fear. No one has fear. We're fearless. We do more because we don't have a fear of being left out. We don't have the fear of not getting treated. We don't have a fear of failing.

Now we can ride faster. Fly harder. Swim further. Climb higher because we know if we mess up it doesn't matter. There's a whole country behind us saying 'it's cool bro, I got back. Literally. Your broken spine. I got a fix.' Thanks universal healthcare!

It's pretty good. Just saying.

originally posted by: redbuzzhat

originally posted by: wills120
a reply to: redbuzzhat

So, in part you've made a good point about universal healthcare. I'm a proud, patriotic American but here's the rub against it working in the USA:

For the most part, we Americans are F-ing overweight, FAT slobs in extremely poor health. So there I said it. Yep, we have ridiculous rates of diabetes, heart disease, HBP, etc. We celebrate gigantic plates of pig or cow flesh served with cheesy fries, drink big gulps daily so large they would intoxicate and poison small mammals, serve up thousand-calorie desserts after plowing through a bucket of fried chicken. Burgers used to be a main course….now they’re primarily appetizers. We don't just lots of pizza, we stuff the crust with cheese AND bacon. In fact, bacon is just about the only thing that every person in this country agrees on or doesn't argue against. The few Muslims and Jews who have been brave enough to expose the vast bacon conspiracy have been silenced or hauled off in black trucks. We have festivals where bacon is inserted into every possible food combination including ice cream, more bacon and even stuffed hogs. I # you not.

So visit a hospital and do a quick scan of the waiting room and you'll find mostly fat, sick, old people -usually in that order. Someone has to pay for a sick, elderly population that pretty much need blood transfusions to remove all the cholesterol. Well, thanks to a non-existent economy, the healthy younger people needed to support a universal healthcare system are far underemployed, in unrecoverable student loan debt, and now burdened by the beast of Obamacare that has pretty much created a path of destruction for anyone actually working for a paycheck. I won’t even go into detail about the ridiculous cost in food that pretty much encourages people to simply eat sticks of raw butter. In two or so weeks, the country is probably going to flip the facet of our two-facet, one party state in a lame attempt to correct the path of healthcare destruction failing to understand that we’ve already pushed too much of the loaf out to pull the turtlehead back in. One mention of “universal healthcare” by anyone in the “new” Congress will bring about the black trucks and/or assassinations. I would argue that Ebola is more popular in our country than universal healthcare right now.

You know the old adage about a smoker not being able to quit until he/she wants to? Well, Americans have the same problem with beef, cheese, bacon, soda and the like. Universal healthcare could never work here….you have far too many members of the vast bacon conspiracy and not even the latest lettuce-humping generation of hipsters can correct that. The only solution is soylent green but of course there’s no point in making poison from poison.

Australia has more fat and old people by population. Bam. Think about that. More fat old and smoking people with 1/3 skin cancer rate! And they STILL live longer than the skinnier healthier lower cancer rate cousins in the USA

You even mention how cheap easy and plentiful food is! That's what universal healthcare is! But instead of food it's healthcare! Mass production and economies of scale! I mean it's a PERFECT example of an industry the USA has that's used mass production and economies of scale to give everyone access to cheap plentiful food. Imagine that but with healthcare because that's what it's like for every other country! Cheap plentiful healthcare

Again you've been brainwashed to think somehow the fat old and sick areally left to die when in fact it's the opposite. The more fat old and sick people they have the better the system gets. Think of universal healthcare as economies of scale. The more sick and old you have the more you can buy in bulk and treat everyone. How much cheaper is it to buy bulk than individual...

Also, the life expectancy counters your argument. Another proof Americans have been brainwashed into thinking the poor sick or elderly or homeless are left to die.

It's just the USA who let's old sick elderly or homeless die or suffer now in 2014.

spend 5 mins googling universal healthcare in any other country and you'll see you've been blanket covered with propaganda

The easiest way to describe the USA VS every other country on the planet which has universal health care is this.

USA
You buy a single $1000 hammer.
You build a house.
You throw the hammer away.

EVVERY OTHER COUNTRY
The government buys 10,000 hammers for $1,200. Once the production line is set up material costs nothing.
You borrow one for free.
You build a house.
You give the hammer back.
Don't have enough hammers? The government buys another 10,000


Why?

Because the cost is in the initial design and labour. Once you take that out you can mass produce. It's a shame because America gave us the automobile assemble line but couldn't give itself universal health care

Well... at least till now.

Every politician wants to be known for introducing universal health care. It gives you 5 more years of life and you get to brag about it and will be immortalized like the founding fathers in giving everyone freedom, universal healthcare gives people more life. If the founding fathers knew how good medical science and mass production had got they would have included it in the Constitution.

Also in countries where you have universal healthcare the total cost on the system is a minimum 50% less once it's up and running. 50%.... in 30 years time trust me the USA will be going god dam.... we fked that sh!t up for so long...


Oh and you think universal healthcare doesn't have money to spend on research and cure sh!t no one wants to pay for....

www.theguardian.com...

POW. Polish public healthcare cures broken spines.

Beat that.

It's because all those wasted man hours and cost are now funneled into research and development. That $100 for gauss and $1000 for an xray no go into cures instead of medicine.

I think the greatest thing about universal healthcare is fear. No one has fear. We're fearless. We do more because we don't have a fear of being left out. We don't have the fear of not getting treated. We don't have a fear of failing.

Now we can ride faster. Fly harder. Swim further. Climb higher because we know if we mess up it doesn't matter. There's a whole country behind us saying 'it's cool bro, I got back. Literally. Your broken spine. I got a fix.' Thanks universal healthcare!

It's pretty good. Just saying.

originally posted by: ausername

originally posted by: arjunanda
Hey AV, It should have been apparent to everyone that this was just another Big Government Tax Scam. It has been The IRS that has been administering this from the beginning, that alone should've given people a clue as to what it was really all about.

Peace

Arjunanda. a reply to: AuranVector

Actually it is ultimately a socialist wealth redistribution plan. Forcing those who can pay to pay more, in essence forced to pay for those who can't or are on subsidized plans. Insurance companies also must provide coverage to those with preexisting conditions, you have to offset those costs as well.

Unfortunately the middle class will ultimately shoulder the majority of this compulsory burden.

Just to clarify..."those who can pay more"? It is a bit beyond that. It doesn't take into account what someone can actually pay, it simply raises their cost without consideration for their situation. This isn't hitting the 1%...or at least not ONLY the 1%. This is hitting many middle-class individuals.

All I can do is say it again. Obama and his type (dem, progressive, liberal, etc.) are liars. If you chose to believe them...you deserve what you got. If you didn't...look at your neighbor who did. They made this possible because they were too stupid with YOUR MONEY to realize that this bunch of crooks is out to make everyone dependant upon government. That is how a TYRANT works. Take everything from everyone...give some back and pretend they are helping you. VOTE THESE PEOPLE OUT OF OFFICE!!!

originally posted by: gentledissident
The penalty won't be too bad this year. It's $95. It will be $325 in 2015 and $695 2016. It will still be cheaper for me not to have insurance. I just won't get a tax refund. That won't kill me. Health insurance would.

Just want to clear this up, the penalty is not just $95.
The penalty is 1% of your yearly income on anything exceeding the "tax filing threshold".

So for example filing single making 35k a year the penalty is $249 in 2014, $494 in 2015 and $695 in 2016.

So please do not spread a false rumor that the penalty is only $95, that is not going to be the case for many people. Yes people will qualify for the $95 penalty but to get that low penalty you have to make less than 20k a year. Which means if your making more then about $9.80 an hour your penalty will be more then the touted $95.

originally posted by: Bearack


Raising the minimum wage would also reduce the amount of HC subsidies they would qualify for.

Yup, and I think they want as many people as possible DEPENDENT on the gov't.

Did some of you people never have health coverage before this or something? It has varied from state to state and gone up EVERY year and has for over a decade and a half now, along with deductibles and contributions, since we've started having to chip in for it and it has become transparent to us, with or without Affordable Healthcare. It simply amazes me that what was pretty much a standard (rates and deductibles going up every year, sometimes astoundingly) are now all of a sudden all Affordable Healthcare's fault.