As opposed to the 2700 pages of the law and 10,000 more on the regs? Oh...ok. LOL
Only you could defend all that while stating it is too difficult to put up a pricelist for the patients to see possible lower costs. No wonder the law doesn't control prices. People on the Left like you offer up every excuse why sensible measures are impossible to enact..LOLube up America! You're about to take it up the ass by Obummercare! Enjoy your fourth!
If it wasn't so fkin sad, it would be funny.
It won't be long before consensual sex between two adults will be criminalized, due to "potential" health risks.
So preliminary data shows that some insurers will ask for big premium rate increases. What is sad about that? These are the very guys I told you about last week – they offered below market rate premium plans in the first two years and what happened? The sick made a beeline for their plans, too few healthy signed up, and these insurers are running a deficit. They say they are shocked, shocked that so many sick signed up but as I also told you last week I suspect they went for market share.
As to America taking in the ass from Obamacare, you seemed to have overlooked that your article says just the opposite – this same “preliminary data” shows
“A study of 11 cities in different states by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that consumers would see relatively modest increases in premiums if they were willing to switch plans.”
I think Kaiser figured a 4% increase, which is certainly less than the insurers would be charging for this coverage if the ACA had never been enacted. And the higher mandate penalty should drive more of the healthy freeloaders into the plans so that will mitigate rates.
So if the Blues are jacking up the price, all you gotta do is switch to a low cost Silver Plan. No, don’t tell me that in one year you have become so attached to your doctor that changing plans would break your heart. I promise you, Jack, that your new doc will give you your prostate exam just as good as your old one.
And btw Jack I think its time for your next exam anyway, so be sure to make an appointment Monday. Someone should take it up the ass for your misleading post LOL. Besides, any pal of Truman Capote should enjoy this procedure
Yeah, what's the big deal here? Simply pay more money for a crappier policy and be happy about it, right?
I can't believe you typed this stupidity without bursting out laughing in the middle of it.
I know the American voters are obviously a stupid bunch, but you didn't really think ALL of us are that stupid, do you?
BTW, My offer for some of that "easy money" on Rick Perry is still open, but you better hurry, I have it on good sources that he is headed to prison any day now. lmao
Went from telling us that premiums would go DOWN to now..."I'f they switch their plan to a shittier one, get a higher deductible, lose their doctor, their hospital, their specialist, their cancer center, have the doctor possibly be much further from their home, increased out of pocket costs...THOSE fortunate people will ONLY see POTENTIALLY a 4% increase in their plans. LOL
Good lord, the Obamacare stepford-ism shown by people like Mari is a fkin joke. Just last week he was agreeing that when the dumbass risk corridors and re-insurance provisions sunset in 2017, rates will skyrocket becuase those aspects kept rates artificially low! Can you imagine the rates today had those two hocus pocus things not been in there in the first place?
And if you read the article, Obama is so fkin scared and his plan is working SO well, he has to rely on the state's insurance commissioners to reduce premiums, something totally out of his control, since he didn't have dick in his plan to reduce costs (I.e. Tort reform, buying across state lines, etc)
I said it before and I will say it again. This law is going down. One way or the other, it's going bye-bye. Wait to you see how Hills "evolves" on this issue over the next 12 months as this time next year, the Slimes will be reporting on 2017 rate increase requests, and they will be staggering.
Tell me who owns KY jelly. I need to buy their stock. LOL
is to "reduce expectations"
So we have gone from "if you like your plan, you can keep your plan" and "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor" to "Why would you want to keep your doctor in the first place" and "if you can't afford your plan, buy a cheaper and lousier plan"
Like I said, I can't imagine Mari possibly typing this without bursting out in laughter while doing so.
Mergers due to the law now creating less competition which will send rates.....? Down, maybe? LOL
Mari will now weigh in on how Obama anticipated this and how it will be good for Mary and Joe Sixpack.
At least the east coast Slimes and west coast Slimes quickly coming to realization of just how bad this law is. Too bad they had to weight to the July 4th weekend to let an already inattentive public from noticing. LOL
yes, u can keep you doctor, and i will save you $2500 per family......say what?
In my opinion, the ACA has done nothing to repair a health insurance model that was already broken pre-ACA. Imagine shopping for groceries where none of the prices are marked for anything and a third party insurance company promises to get you the best possible prices on the things you purchased. This model is at the heart of why our health care costs are double those of any other developed country with universal healthcare. We must get the real health care costs out in the open, where we can assess them and decide as a society how to reward the providers, device manufacturers, big pharma, etc.
Mari will now weigh in on how Obama anticipated this and how it will be good for Mary and Joe Sixpack.
At least the east coast Slimes and west coast Slimes quickly coming to realization of just how bad this law is. Too bad they had to weight to the July 4th weekend to let an already inattentive public from noticing. LOL
That has ALWAYS been my issue with ObamaCare, it does no REFORMING whatsoever, does nothing to increase competition, does nothing to reduce costs, fraud etc. All it does is make big, unrealistic promises that common sense alone should tell any rational person are simply impossible to fulfill.
Just how the hell are you supposed to insure EVERYBODY, regardless of any preexisting conditions, create a huge government bureaucracy to administer it, do nothing to reign in the actual cost of healthcare, and do it without huge increases in premiums. It just can't be done.
Yes HONDA, I agree with you completely here.
what it is going to cost. If he is vague, move on to the next doctor. The market takes care of this problem in the first instance.
Or you can go on-line and check out the “price menu” for common medical services. Need a cholesterol test? It is $65 bucks at Walgreens. Need a physical? $69 Of course ,if you have health insurance, it is “free.”
The ACA was never intended to impose mandatory price disclosure. That is handled by state law. For example, California requires hospitals to post prices for the top 25 most common procedures and to disclose, on request the price for the services you happen to need.
The CMS also maintains a master database of what hospitals charge Medicare and Medicaid and what these programs pay. So you can comparison shop this way.
So, while you are right that not knowing the price of a medical service is a bad idea, it is kind of silly to blame this on Obamacare. Obamacare won’t fix your car either. More regulation is not the solution to everything
ObamaCare fixes nothing, it only shifts the burden on who pays for it, while adding billions of dollars in "postage and handling" in the form of the giant bureaucracy necessary to administer it.
Stupid people were sold a bill of goods by a snake oil salesman that ObamaCare would fix everything, virtually every promise made by ObamaCare has been proven to be a lie, why anybody is surprised is the only thing surprising to me.
What other service doesn't give the customer a bill, doesn't have a rate chart present? Jiffy Lube and McDonalds do it but doctors can't? Hog wash.
One way to cut costs is to price shop. Price shopping is much easier to do when there is clearly posted rates. If a doctor knows people are well informed about pricing it makes it more difficult for him/her to slip one by the goalie and when he hears he lost patients over his price all the more reason for him to keep an eye on price.
How in the world with all the shitty regulation in Ocare you favor could you be against this one that wouldn't cost the doctor any more time or money than $20 for a sign and a piece of copy paper per patient
The amount charged to customers with health insurance, and the amount charged to those idiots who go bare. The insurer lays downs the price that the doctor can charge to be on the network. He is going to charge more to the idiots.
On top of that, prices vary depending on the patient’s condition. So the “hogwash” is your analogy to hamburgers and lube jobs (the prices for which which btw is NOT mandated by fed law). Requiring the doctor to list prices beyond the 25 most common procedures (which is sometimes mandated by state law) requires the doctor to list prices depending on who the insurer, and make exceptions depending on the patient’s condition.
You end up with a fairly burdensome and confusing requirement without any evidence that it would lower health care costs. Maybe that's why even your beloved Republican Health Care Plan does not require national price disclosure. LOL
As opposed to the 2700 pages of the law and 10,000 more on the regs? Oh...ok. LOL
Only you could defend all that while stating it is too difficult to put up a pricelist for the patients to see possible lower costs.
No wonder the law doesn't control prices. People on the Left like you offer up every excuse why sensible measures are impossible to enact..LO
that charged to an insured patient. The third choice of patient, the uninsured with no cash gets charged even more I'd guess since those charges accrue to the account that becomes overhead and a tax write off.
-- Modified on 7/6/2015 1:17:29 AM
.......in healthcare costs. An expat friends father needed major knee surgery and wanted it done in the U.S. So they asked me to inquire about the total upfront cost for the surgery. I got butkus from the department responsible for medical charges, they wouldn't give me a total upfront cost. Anyhow he came over, had the surgery, and ended up with all kinds of major health complications. He was in the hospital for almost a year, they had no health insurance, and were writing large checks to the hospital every month. The hospital found an easy mark and took them to the cleaners IMHO. I figure the total hospital cost for his 11 month sojourn in the hospital was easily just above $1 million.
Or you can go on-line and check out the “price menu” for common medical services. Need a cholesterol test? It is $65 bucks at Walgreens. Need a physical? $69 Of course ,if you have health insurance, it is “free.”
The ACA was never intended to impose mandatory price disclosure. That is handled by state law. For example, California requires hospitals to post prices for the top 25 most common procedures and to disclose, on request the price for the services you happen to need.
The CMS also maintains a master database of what hospitals charge Medicare and Medicaid and what these programs pay. So you can comparison shop this way.
So, while you are right that not knowing the price of a medical service is a bad idea, it is kind of silly to blame this on Obamacare. Obamacare won’t fix your car either. More regulation is not the solution to everything.
about 5 seconds of looking that the average cost of a total knee replacement is about $30,000. You would then study the literature further to determine the cost in specific locations and facilities. That is about as good as you can expect to get when you are asking for a third party.
Once the surgeon did a pre-opt exam on your friend, he would then be able to give you a firm bid for the procedure.
Your problem was that you inquired at the wrong place and then gave up.
When I wrecked my knee playing basketball, I was more concerned about the quality of the surgeon than the cost, but my doctors did give me quotes for
ACL reconstruction;
Or scoping my knee;
Or just stop playing basketball.
I took the third option. But the point is that the information is out there. You have to do a little work to get it but there are so many different medical procedures, and they differ so much depending on the condition of the patient, that it would be absurd to mandate a complete price list from health care providers beyond that already imposed by state law
So the big health care companies are being greedy assholes again by wanting to raise premiums.
I know let's blame the one person who tried to help people get coverage and fight to bring rates down.
We are to stupid to see the real problem is these greedy healthcare comapnies still trying to screw the American people for every last dollar.
They are already making high profits.
Just think when you hear the GOP scum talk about free business enterprise and letting the markets set the prices.
What they really mean is screw everybody in this country and only look out for the top earners who can afford our outrageous prices.
If you think this is a lie or some made up liberal bullshit.
Then take a look at big business and how the GOP operate in this country against the American people!
Thanks Jack and the other GOP clown show for your jokes again! Lol
If it wasn't so fkin sad, it would be funny.
I've always known insurance companies are greedy, which wasn't an issue until the government mandated that everyone obtain HI. The person who signed this into law deserves the blame.
..... Please, someone, anyone who has always had pre-ACA individual health insurance from any major carrier - name the year for me when you didn't see an increase in health insurance premiums. Please name one? You can't!
Here's an example: My sisters family health care insurance costs, pre-ACA, went from an introductory rate of $356/month to $3678/month. This occurred within a time frame of 18 months.
If it wasn't so fkin sad, it would be funny.
Thats a straw man argument. You are VERY quickly forgetting Obamas bullshit promise about the premiums going DOWN. This is classic moving of the goal posts.
Once one lie is exposed, libs run to "well, it was this way before Ocare too." R's argued that there weren't any cost saving measures and libs screamed that R's were just trying to sabotage the law with the public.
Well...who turned out to be right??????
-- Modified on 7/5/2015 5:25:20 PM
Not in months as you idiots claim!