Health Actuaries: Obamacare Rates Will Soar

Health Actuaries: Obamacare Rates Will Soar

www.everydayhealth.com

Few aspects of the Affordable Care Act are more critical to its success than affordability, but in recent weeks experts have predicted costs for some health plans could soar next year.
Now health law supporters are pushing back, noting close ties between the actuaries making the forecasts and an insurance industry that has been complaining about taxes and other factors it says will lead to rate shock for consumers.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Here we go. The ACA was never about providing care, much less affordable care. This is a thinly disguised bail out of the insurance industry that will provide them record profits . Eventually the public will suffer serious buyers remorse over this boondoggle and demand it's repeal most likely leading to the "holy grail" of a single payer system. That system will give the government unprecedented levels of information about us and total control over who lives and dies.

www.everydayhealth.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Of course. In a country where there really are no rules in place for taking care of your health, the costs to fix people up is going to be astronomical. Its pefectly legal to smoke, eat junk food and sit on the couch all day. Now it becomes illegal to not be financially responsible for that behavior. Kinda like if you removed all speed limits and traffic laws, then of course car insurance would need to skyrocket to cover the resulting mess. Not sure how folks were missing that.

Here is what is going to unfold. People will not be able to afford Obamacare, so they will pay the tax penalty instead. For those who do purchase insurance, they probably will have a pre-existing condition. Healthy people, even if they could afford to buy the insurance, could not afford to use it, with out of pocket expenses. Cost of insurance will go up by ~33%, and this will blow a hole in the budget. Unpopularity with Democrats will soar, and Republicans will retake the Senate in 2014. With a Republican Senate, Obama might be impeached and removed from office, probably based on his kill lists.

Originally posted by DarthMuerte


Here we go. The ACA was never about providing care, much less affordable care. This is a thinly disguised bail out of the insurance industry that will provide them record profits . Eventually the public will suffer serious buyers remorse over this boondoggle and demand it's repeal most likely leading to the "holy grail" of a single payer system. That system will give the government unprecedented levels of information about us and total control over who lives and dies.

trust me you DO NOT WANT THIS. coming from an area that has it, has more than proven how bad it can be. sure "free health care" sounds good but in practice it fails miserably.

in Ontario we have had it for longer than i have been around. when i was young i was proud that we had this type of healthcare where everybody was taken care of without having to worry about insurance or expense. as i grew older the farce of it began to show it's self clearly. just FINDING a general practitioner right now is hard enough that the government had to start up a program to try to find you a doctor. notice i said "try" as they even state that there is a chance they will not be able to find you one. and without a GP you are basically screwed out of the entire system as you always need a GP's recommendation for other health services. sure there are "walk in" services available, but these are pretty much useless on there own, since first off they always seem to have a sign that reads " no narcotics proscribed" (to try to keep people from getting stuff from multiple dr's i guess). next they will not recommend you for other health services, or things like that. really all they are good for is if you do yourself a minor injury you can get in to see them without the couple week wait found in most doctor offices for an appointment. even when you do have a GP you can only deal with one thing a visit (sometimes you get a whole 15 min with the dr). there are even set maximum patients a doctor can even have which is why finding one can be difficult. another reason a dr is hard to find is that doctors have a habit of leaving for areas where they can make more money.

hospital emergency rooms in general only want really bad injuries, for more minor stuff like stitches they want you to go to your own dr or to a walk in clinic. but even so unless it is life threatening (or THEY THINK it is anyway, i almost lost my mother more than once due to this), you can expect to spend several hours before being seen. some hospitals have even had their emergency rooms CLOSED due to cutbacks.

also when the healthcare system finds they are spending too much they tend to cut back on what is covered, in Ontario for example a few years back the cut things like eye exams, physio therapy and chiropractic care (which they only paid a small portion of to begin with). so guess what YOU NEED OUTSIDE INSURANCE ANYWAY to get the care you may need.

need a specialist for a new or recently diagnosed health issue? well you can expect to wait SIX MONTHS to a YEAR to get an appointment in a lot of cases. again due to a shortage of dr's and maximum allowed patients. need surgery? unless again be prepared to wait and then be canceled due to someone having a life or death emergency, so you get to wait even longer. i have known people in SEVERE PAIN who have had to wait well over a year unable to work and stoned out on painkillers while they wait for both specialists and then surgeries.

then there are things like the stories out of the UK about things like in a baby doesn't weigh enough they just let it die without care.

welcome to "single payer health care", where help MAY or MAY NOT be there for you, and you may have to wait to be taken care of.

Examine the medical practices in Latin-American countries where there is almost a glut of qualified physicians practicing. Health care here is affordable and available and many American expats living south of the border will speak favorably of receiving quality care they perceive to be much more personalized and caring. The US should be producing more physicians rather than a more exclusive class of professional.

Neither would it hurt to re-evaluate the regulations and practices of the pharmaceutical industry for the impact that has on US healthcare costs and efficiency.

Originally posted by Erongaricuaro
Examine the medical practices in Latin-American countries where there is almost a glut of qualified physicians practicing. Health care here is affordable and available and many American expats living south of the border will speak favorably of receiving quality care they perceive to be much more personalized and caring. The US should be producing more physicians rather than a more exclusive class of professional.

the same is true in other "third world" nations as well. here in the Philippines medical care is some of the best i have seen compared to both Canada and the US.for one thing doctors seem to care, unlike in Canada and the states. my mother who had been treated by doctors and hospitals in all three countries preferred and trusted the Philippines health care to the others. so much so that she wanted me to come and be treated as my problems had not been adequately dealt with in Canada. first by doctors saying everything would heal and not having me go to specialists. and after leaving those doctors spending over a year trying to find a new one.

now after spending a lot of years in pain i have a start on if not healing at least dealing with it since the injury is old and won't heal on it's own thanks to not being dealt with properly under the "free health care" back home. i could have had an appointment with a specialist THAT DAY after the doctor told me i needed to go, had i wanted to wait awhile. at home once the doctor recommended me it would have been several months wait for the same thing. another big difference is unlike both in the states and Canada, I get a copy of test results without begging a doctor for a peek at such "secret" doctor only stuff.

one thing my mother noticed was that in the Philippines the NURSES seemed to know more about her main medical issue than the SPECIALISTS she had seen in North America. the amusing part to that is that she was the ONLY known primary case for her issue in the Philippines. yet when she first came and spoke to the doctors and nurses to make sure they knew how to deal with it after all the problems she had in hospitals in North America that almost led to her death a few times. they not only ALREADY KNEW about it but were able to talk to her about the same stuff right then that the SPECIALISTS back home would have to look up and answer on her next visit. now how is it that NURSES had that knowledge at hand when SPECIALIST DOCTORS at home would have to look up? not only that they were INTERESTED in it and wanted to know MORE ABOUT IT. that right there says something. a lot of doctors in North America are only in it for the money, here they are in it because they truly want to help people. that makes a HUGE difference.

personally i think it's rather unfortunate that i ended up having to go to another country to get the care i could not get under a "single payer health care system" like it looks like the US could be heading towards. one of the main reasons i have been against the whole "obamacare" thing as it looked like it would lead to a single payer system in the end.

Corporate Fascist, simple as that.

Look behind the curtain at who the motivational principalities are for socialist healthcare system, and you'll find a bunch of insurance industry CEO's, same ones who passed laws for mandatory car insurance

I really want to feel bad for you, but you've obviously not experienced American health care.

Originally posted by generik
...just FINDING a general practitioner right now is hard enough that the government had to start up a program to try to find you a doctor. notice i said "try" as they even state that there is a chance they will not be able to find you one.

It's not terribly difficult to find a doctor in the US. That depends on where you are of course. A major metro area has lots of doctors, depending on which part of the city you live in.

and without a GP you are basically screwed out of the entire system as you always need a GP's recommendation for other health services. sure there are "walk in" services available, but these are pretty much useless on there own, since first off they always seem to have a sign that reads " no narcotics proscribed" (to try to keep people from getting stuff from multiple dr's i guess). next they will not recommend you for other health services, or things like that. really all they are good for is if you do yourself a minor injury you can get in to see them without the couple week wait found in most doctor offices for an appointment.

This happens in the US as well. Your private insurance won't cover a procedure or a visit without the written consent of your primary doctor (GP). Most specialists would recommend you visit your primary doctor first also.

even when you do have a GP you can only deal with one thing a visit (sometimes you get a whole 15 min with the dr). there are even set maximum patients a doctor can even have which is why finding one can be difficult. another reason a dr is hard to find is that doctors have a habit of leaving for areas where they can make more money.

It's pretty common for a doctor in the US to spend 10-15 minutes with a patient, the more patients they see in a day, the more money they make. A doctor here in the US will also leave areas for places where they make more money...so much so that small communities have taken to paying for a doctors student debt in order to bring them to their communities.

hospital emergency rooms in general only want really bad injuries, for more minor stuff like stitches they want you to go to your own dr or to a walk in clinic. but even so unless it is life threatening (or THEY THINK it is anyway, i almost lost my mother more than once due to this), you can expect to spend several hours before being seen. some hospitals have even had their emergency rooms CLOSED due to cutbacks.

In the US, any emergency room will take you at any time. However, expect a $5,000-$10,000 bill in the mail if you don't have insurance. If you do have insurance (really good insurance), you'll face a $500-$1,500 bill. Even if you were only seen for 20 minutes. Health care is a major industry in America. By major industry I mean they make a LOT of money. So much money that it's not uncommon for hospitals and doctors to knock off 50% of your bill and still make a profit.

There's a lot of reasons for this that I won't go into right now.

also when the healthcare system finds they are spending too much they tend to cut back on what is covered, in Ontario for example a few years back the cut things like eye exams, physio therapy and chiropractic care (which they only paid a small portion of to begin with). so guess what YOU NEED OUTSIDE INSURANCE ANYWAY to get the care you may need.

Very few insurance plans cover eyes, teeth and health in the US. Again, you won't get physical therapy or chiropractic unless your primary doctor recommends it anyway. It's a common practice for hospitals to greatly inflate their costs so they will rarely spend too much money.

need a specialist for a new or recently diagnosed health issue? well you can expect to wait SIX MONTHS to a YEAR to get an appointment in a lot of cases. again due to a shortage of dr's and maximum allowed patients.

Here's where things are drastically different. I've never waited more than six weeks for a surgery, nor have I ever known anyone to wait longer. At the same time though, you're expected to pay upwards of $20,000 for minor surgeries without insurance. With insurance you're expected to pay $2,000. Once again, you can negotiate the price down.

welcome to "single payer health care", where help MAY or MAY NOT be there for you, and you may have to wait to be taken care of.

I would love to have a single payer system in America. You don't seem to grasp the problem of personal debt that Americans have. One doctors visit could lead to decades of financial stagnation for an individual. You don't have that problem. You should feel fortunate.

Sadly I read this news a way back, up to 80% for some people, let no forget that while you can not be deny because preexisting conditions you will still pay more. Health Plan Costs For Obese And Smokers Could raise also due to giving this choice to employers.

So yes Obamacare is going to prove to be the mammoth piece of crap that we here in ATS has been telling about since it was passed.

Now remember people this will only affect the working class that is after all the ones to be targeted to begin with.

But without a big amount of healthy and able younger group its going to fail.

that would be just perfect if there were millions of people injured by next year

but then who will be able to pay for it