Affordable Healthcare Reform Will Never Work Until This Happens

I think they have some good ideas but until someone addresses this issue its not going to work right.
The issue is insurance price gauging. I can but an MRI with 300 cash but if I had insurance it would be 1300. People who have insurance don't realize that some doctors will leach your insurance at the expense of your health. There needs to be regulations on the pricing of procedures.

If someone has an EBT card the grocery store doesn't charge more for food so it doesn't make sense that health care facilities can do it. It is obviously driving the healthcare costs out of the roof and should have been the focus a long time ago.

The price gouging started when hospitals had to treat people even if they didn`t have insurance. the increased prices charged to the insurance companies was meant as a way to off set the cost of treating uninsured people.
Now that everyone has had insurance since 2012 why are the hospitals still allowed to price gouge the insurance companies like that?

a reply to: Tardacus

Because they wrote the ACA along with the insurance co's.Thanks repubs and dems.

IMVHO, the only thing that will reform healthcare, is letting anyone who wants to practice medicine a seat in the classroom.

Only 15% of people who apply to medical school can be accepted.

Yep. That means that 85% of all applicants will be rejected ... qualified or not.

ETA: It's a racket.

a reply to: synthetichuman

Eliminate state insurance monopolies and require healthcare to publish prices. Those two things alone would solve 90% of the problem.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: Tardacus

Because they wrote the ACA along with the insurance co's.Thanks repubs and dems.

Not a single Repub voted for that.

Dems own it.

a reply to: loam

Are you talking about selling insurance across state lines? If so how would that lower costs?

a reply to: GreyScale

No the dem and repubs played grab buns for 2 years debating this crap fest. Then the dems were stupid enough to vote for it.

Hate to tell you this, but they both made this mess. Repubs knew exactly what they were doing. This is a shell game and you seem to be lurking in the repubs VS dems smoke screen. Please realize the politicians are all bags of crap that are already bought.

I was in a serious motorcycle accident about 9 years ago. My bill was 70 grand. I went to pay my portion, which was 5 grand ( my insurance paid the rest). The girls in accounting were snickering and said some people never pay their bills. I said I don't want to pay this either. They replied, You have a job and we know where you live, that's why you have to pay so much, to offset our losses from those who don't pay. Im in California, sanctuary state, and they were referring to citizens of another country who were here illegally. Go figure. That's one of the reasons I voted this election. Ive had enough monkeys on my back. I work in a steelmill, and I work hard, Nuff said

originally posted by: Tardacus
The price gouging started when hospitals had to treat people even if they didn`t have insurance. the increased prices charged to the insurance companies was meant as a way to off set the cost of treating uninsured people.
Now that everyone has had insurance since 2012 why are the hospitals still allowed to price gouge the insurance companies like that?

The problem is the government.

My sister has to have 5 employees to just do billing on her practice. To comply with regulations.

She used to be able to take cash. It was a lot easier for her. Obamacare made that technically illegal.

And BTW, when you say that everyone has had insurance since 2012? You forgot the 20-30 million people that are middle class that lost their insurance because, in my case for instance, I could not afford to go from $174 a month with a $1000 yearly deductible to a $514 a month with a $6,000 yearly deductible. I went to a clinic to get a allergy shot last fall... first time ever but I needed one. I paid cash... I sheepishly explained that I had no health insurance (first time since the 80's for me). The nurse snorted and said that nobody in the clinic had health insurance either and nobody that "works for a living" had it.

Keep one thing in mind... I don't mind working and paying my share in taxes and helping people ( I do search and rescue where I live now) and just letting people live and let live.

But once my own government puts a stranglehold on me financially, I'm going to react. So will others like me.

Which explains what is coming up the 20'th of this month.

a reply to: visitedbythem

Hope all came out OK, that sounds serious.

We are in deep doo doo with medical. The only real way to solve this is to make insurance illegal. Or have very tight cost controls on the medical industry (I don't like the sound of that one), because they reuse to do it themselves.

Anything else is not solving the root problem, and that is a inelastic demand for medical services. They have a captive audience and they know it.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: GreyScale

No the dem and repubs played grab buns for 2 years debating this crap fest. Then the dems were stupid enough to vote for it.

Hate to tell you this, but they both made this mess. Repubs knew exactly what they were doing. This is a shell game and you seem to be lurking in the repubs VS dems smoke screen. Please realize the politicians are all bags of crap that are already bought.

~sigh~

Please tell me what republicans voted for the Affordable Care Act. A link would be nice.

For the record, if you look at my posting history I have pointed out on multiple occasions that progressives run BOTH parties. I understand the issue more than you do, I think. I'm not being partisan about who voted in the Affordable Care Act. I am being factual.

So, on this particular issue if you want to blame a Republican, please feel free to point out which one voted for it.

a reply to: Tardacus

You also forgot "insurance" like Medicare and Medicaid. The government is the provider and can get away with undercutting the true cost of care, so the leftover amount also has to get paid and it gets shifted on to the rest of us.

So, not only do we pay for those who have to be treated and can't pay who don't have insurance, but we also end up paying the leftover amount for those who are ensured by government and government stiffs the providers too by between 20 to 30% or more in some cases.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: visitedbythem

Hope all came out OK, that sounds serious.

We are in deep doo doo with medical. The only real way to solve this is to make insurance illegal. Or have very tight cost controls on the medical industry (I don't like the sound of that one), because they reuse to do it themselves.

Anything else is not solving the root problem, and that is a inelastic demand for medical services. They have a captive audience and they know it.

I prefer a tight restriction on what can be insured. I think there are some things that you do need insurance for -- like cancer or an accident trauma.

But the idea that you should need insurance for a routine checkup or even a broken bone or a baby's birth, is ridiculous. For most people, those are things you should be able to pay for, even if they are things that need to be paid for in an installment plan of some type. They shouldn't be mortgage style amounts or worse.

a reply to: GreyScale

First take a breath and read the first sentence, we agree.

The repubs just helped create this goat screw of a bill. Then the dems were stupid enough to vote for it.

The Repubs were very smart to debate and shape this mess. But then remember they are willing to screw over the entire American population to prove a point that the dems suck. Guess what so do the repubs. They are playing with people lives, financial and medical. And they don't really care, they long ago forgot what they were there to do.

No the dem and repubs played grab buns for 2 years debating this crap fest. Then the dems were stupid enough to vote for it.

Hate to tell you this, but they both made this mess. Repubs knew exactly what they were doing. This is a shell game and you seem to be lurking in the repubs VS dems smoke screen. Please realize the politicians are all bags of crap that are already bought.

Affordable health care won't work because it is drafted by insurance companies!

So it is all about shareholders and not health.

Get rid of the insurance companies than you'll have a system that works.

a reply to: ketsuko
We now have $1000 a month for family of 4 insurance premiums. This is for high deductible insurance.

The problem is that they are mortgage size bills. A baby is a 10,000$ for a perfect scenario.
You are one problem from a mortgage sized bill. And better look out for the peek and charge Dr's, you know the ones who knock on the door and say how are you? Then you get the 180$ tag your it consult fee on your bill.

Get a broken bone, $350 for ex rays, $400 for the Dr. 15 minutes. Then depending on the cast and if there is any ortho stuff, it get expensive in a hurry.

a reply to: seasonal They called my elderly parents after midnight and said, " Your son is here and you need to get down here right away, he is not expected to make it through the night. I had a head injury, my kidneys and liver went offline. I was hemoraging internally. Luckinl they didn't cut me open or I would have died. I left my body for an hour and then there was a miracle. My organs came back online. I was back to work in a steelmill in 31 days. Light duty. Still the doctors were baffled, and everyone else too. Yes Im fine now. Im kicking ass and taking names to this day.
Thanks for asking Bro!

a reply to: GreyScale
Remember Pelosi said " yopu have to pass it to see what is in it" ? They shouldn't have. They were idiots obviously

a reply to: visitedbythem
31 days and back to light duty-you are one tough bird, that had to be some toe curling pain, hats off to you.

Do you remember any strange stuff when you left your body? If so sounds like a great thread.