Will there be an uproar when Obamacare is repealed?

[Thump553]

Assuming retirement at age 65 (I'm only a few years away) I sat down the other day and penciled out what dumping ACA (with no viable replacement) and bumping the SS/Medicare age out two years will cost me, and I came up with a figure between $80-100k. And if the GOP replacement plan is what I expect my wife and I won't have health coverage for roughly two years-or have a plan riddled with coverage holes, $20,000 annual deductible and costs more than our mortgage. I'm middleclass/lower middleclass in income and both of us are in excellent health.

All to help out the billionaires-as enabled by deceived morons. I'm not a happy camper.

The best possible solution would be a relabeled ACA (got to have Trump's name on it) with minor changes and corrections to it-something that would have happened if the GOP actually participated in the legislative process in the first place. This could have, after all it essentially is a Romneycare clone.

Odds are though we will end up with the useless plan Trump's HSS nominee has been promoting (eliminate state regulation of insurance, malpractice litigation essentially eliminated, etc)-in short, nothing of any real value.

Since the election I've talked with a number of hospital, insurance and healthcare executives. All are in full panic mode and report that essentially all hiring and future expansion projects are now frozen-at best.

 

[SheHateMe]

Of course the people that support Obamacare will piss, moan, cry and roar after it's repealed. Everyone else will be happy.

I guess all those fat, white, and poor people who think they're Republicans will be crying too...especially when they find out they are going back to being denied due to their Diabeetus and congestive heart failure.


Me on the other hand....this dirty brown-skinned libruhl who got free "stuff", an ObamaPhone and welfare from Obummer will be just fine.

 

[IronWing]

You so funny....you stoopid funny!

He's right though. The only reason for the individual mandate is to preserve the private insurance industry. It's a retarded approach to providing universal healthcare.

 

[jackstar7]

He's right though. The only reason for the individual mandate is to preserve the private insurance industry. It's a retarded approach to providing universal healthcare.

But wasn't it the concession that was borne of the Heritage Foundation and originally championed by R's?

 

[DarthKyrie]

He's right though. The only reason for the individual mandate is to preserve the private insurance industry. It's a retarded approach to providing universal healthcare.

The individual mandate was put in place because everyone will need healthcare at some point.

 

[OverVolt]

Boy, you repeat this lie a lot.

Because I worked in 3 hospitals that were part of 3 major hospital networks and it was true for all of them?

It was also true for the 4th hospital system in the area I just never worked there myself but last I heard their doctors were taking a paycut over EHR's.

They are trying to shift costs all over the place but ultimately FFS health insurance plans always end up with the tab. The AMA is strong and won't stand for it.

 

[OverVolt]

Is that why hospitals want the ACA to stay in place?

Because all the money they just spent complying with the law will now be a sunk cost.

I see you are an expert at being a blunt tool.

 

[OverVolt]

The individual mandate was put in place because everyone will need healthcare at some point.

The individual mandate is an income tax no matter what you name it.

 

[Fenixgoon]

my theory: there will be an uproar of cheers if it is initially repealed.

once the repeal goes into full effect, there will be an uproar as people are denied the services/coverages provided through the ACA.

 

[Meghan54]

The individual mandate is an income tax no matter what you name it.

Then please refute the logic of this:

There’s a joke among insurers that there are two things that health insurance companies hate to do — take risks and pay claims. But, of course, these are the essence of their business!

If they do too much of either, they will go broke, and if they do too little, their customers will find a better policy. This balancing act isn’t too hard if they have a pool sufficient to average out the highs and lows. Employee-sponsored insurance has fit this model fairly well, providing good stability and reasonable predictability. Unfortunately, the market for individuals has never worked well.

Generally, this model forces insurers to take fewer risks so that they can still make money. They do this by excluding pre-existing conditions and paying fewer claims. In such a market, fewer people are helped, and when they are able to get insurance, they pay a lot more for it than if they were part of an employee-sponsored plan.

The Affordable Care Act changed all of this. Companies were required to stop doing these bad things. In exchange for taking on substantially more risk of less healthy patients, they were promised more business by getting access to more potential customers.

The federal government offers subsidies to help pay the premiums for consumers whose income falls below a certain level. The law also stipulates that all people must be covered, or they face a penalty. This so-called individual mandate also guaranteed business for the insurance companies, because it led healthy people into the risk pool.

To entice insurers into the market, the ACA also offered well-established methods to reduce risk. For example, it built in protections for insurers who enrolled especially sick people. It also provided backup payments for very high-cost cases and protected against big losses and limited big gains in the first three years.

These steps worked well in establishing a stable market for Medicare drug plans when this program started under President Bush in 2006. Competition there is vigorous, rates are lower than estimated and enrollees are satisfied. In other words, the market works well.

But when the time came to pay up for risk reduction in the Obamacare exchanges, Congress reneged and paid only 12% of what was owed to the insurers. So, on top of the fact that the companies had to bear the risk of unknown costs and utilization in the startup years, which turned out to be higher than they expected, insurers had to absorb legislative uncertainty of whether the rules would be rewritten.

It is no wonder that this year they have dramatically increased premiums, averaging 20%, to compensate for the extra risk they didn’t factor into the original lower rates. In contrast, underlying health costs are rising at about 5%.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Republicans didn't want Obamacare, they didn't vote for Obamacare and yet you blame them for the Obamacare failure because they didn't help in their own screwing. It fits to me.

The republicans are to blame! They did nothing while Obama was in office.....and that was no accident! They purposely set out to do nothing!!

 

[trenchfoot]

I find it rather sad that the only reason the ACA is being "repealed" may be because Obama's name is associated with it.

Sure, it could have been a much better plan "IF" the GOP was sincerely interested in providing the nation with real affordable health care, but if I recall, they were adamantly opposed to ANY form of a federally sponsored health care plan, yet had no plan of their own other than to allow the steeply rising costs of health care go unabated.

So now that the GOP is faced with not only their myopically induced mission of repealing the ACA, they are now forced to come up with a "better plan" that will allow them to save face and get re-elected.

The profound irony of it all is that the GOP could have avoided this strangely conflicting scenario of theirs if only they had simply worked with the Dems eight years ago and come up with a feasible plan that ALL Americans could have been benefiting from for many years now.

This idiotic plan to obstruct at all costs any and all legislation that could/would have helped the nation prosper across the board has hurt the working class and the poor for eight years and yet has benefited the very wealthy quite handily.

If this is what the GOP had in mind as a worthy cost for keeping the nation from acquiring better health care for all and a much better shot at improving the lives and livelihoods of the working class, then yeah, their plan worked marvelously well.

Now that they again have complete control of gov't, I really do hope they don't stick with that agenda of theirs where the only folks that should acquire more wealth are those that already have more than enough wealth to corrupt our politicians even further.

 

[JSt0rm]

large bills like that one always need supplementals to fix portions of the law. The republicans decided to not do that.

 

[SNC]

Just imagine if the government were to be able to change how every business was run. Why is it that healthcare is on the table.

 

[K1052]

Just imagine if the government were to be able to change how every business was run. Why is it that healthcare is on the table.

Because the people want it on the table and the government has broad authority to intervene in business (and pretty much always has).

 

[ModerateRepZero]

There's going to alot of conservative tears once they figure out Obamacare = Affordable Care Act.

http://imgur.com/gallery/rWIhcx6

 

[rudder]

Yes there will be an uproar if it is repealed without a replacement. Once you start an entitlement program it is not easy to take it back. Hopefully the republicans are smart enough to have a comprhensive plan to replace obamacare first. But it is congress we are talking about and they rarely do anything logical.

 

[SNC]

Because the people want it on the table and the government has broad authority to intervene in business (and pretty much always has).

To the extent that they are involved with Insurance, I don't think so. Imagine if there was a law requiring Ford to make a car exactly like all the others but at a 50% discount for those who make less than 40% of the poverty level. I'm sure that would go over well.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

To the extent that they are involved with Insurance, I don't think so. Imagine if there was a law requiring Ford to make a car exactly like all the others but at a 50% discount for those who make less than 40% of the poverty level. I'm sure that would go over well.

A policy to keep you alive is not comparable to a car purchase.

 

[SNC]

A policy to keep you alive is not comparable to a car purchase.

Where does one buy this miraculous policy that keeps one alive? But since we're bloviating, is not transportation a necessity for some to get to work so that they can feed themselves and keep a roof over their head ergo keeping one alive?

At the point you start taking money from one person to support the bad choices of another, some people might have an issue with that. NOW that said, I actually PERSONALLY am in favor of a single payer system, politically and financially it goes against just about everything I believe.
Create a system that covers conditions out of the control of the patient and i'm fine with it. If you smoke, do drugs, drink heavily, eat fast food more than twice a month, partake in activities known to cause injury like sport, skiing, racing and on and on, and you need care you pay for it.
I am fine helping pay for a kid with cancer or other issue, I am not ok with the billions spent treating fat people because they would rather stuff their face then walk a mile on a treadmill or the lifelong hospital bill for a stupid fuck that had to much to drink and because he ran into and killed a family of four is now disabled and requires around the clock care. Just as the trump supporters are squawking about elections have consequences, so do choices.

 

[Mai72]

Yes there will be an uproar if it is repealed without a replacement. Once you start an entitlement program it is not easy to take it back. Hopefully the republicans are smart enough to have a comprhensive plan to replace obamacare first. But it is congress we are talking about and they rarely do anything logical.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cn...w/index.html?client=ms-android-hms-tmobile-us

Trump wants Obamacare repealed the first DAY he's in office. THE FIRST DAY! The House/Senate want to wait. To think this through. They are probably scared shi*less because many people like parts of Obamacare. 20 plus million Americans! Trump has said "healthcare for all." It's going to be cheap, etc. smh.

Congress is known to take things slooooow. You have an incoming president who has zero patience He wants to get the ball rolling on immigration, tarrifs, bringing jobs back, and terrorism, the first day he's in office. Not in a year. 2 years. He wants it NOW!! NOW! NOW! NOW!

I give it a week before Trump starts to go after Congress for being cowards. I bet that the Democrats and the Republicanis both rally against Trump. He might even be impeached. I wouldn't be surprised.

It's going to be a once in a life time presidency. This is a period of time that could be a very dark period in American history. Or, maybe we'll just be the laughing stock. Either way, it's going to be both interesting and scary.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Where does one buy this miraculous policy that keeps one alive? But since we're bloviating, is not transportation a necessity for some to get to work so that they can feed themselves and keep a roof over their head ergo keeping one alive?

At the point you start taking money from one person to support the bad choices of another, some people might have an issue with that. NOW that said, I actually PERSONALLY am in favor of a single payer system, politically and financially it goes against just about everything I believe.
Create a system that covers conditions out of the control of the patient and i'm fine with it. If you smoke, do drugs, drink heavily, eat fast food more than twice a month, partake in activities known to cause injury like sport, skiing, racing and on and on, and you need care you pay for it.
I am fine helping pay for a kid with cancer or other issue, I am not ok with the billions spent treating fat people because they would rather stuff their face then walk a mile on a treadmill or the lifelong hospital bill for a stupid fuck that had to much to drink and because he ran into and killed a family of four is now disabled and requires around the clock care. Just as the trump supporters are squawking about elections have consequences, so do choices.

Its still not comparable. A car is a thing or an asset, health insurance is not a physical thing.
Related do you honestly believe someone who could not afford healthcare on their own would be just as healthy as someone who has it provided to them by insurance because you know consequences?

 

[SNC]

Its still not comparable. A car is a thing or an asset, health insurance is not a physical thing.
Related do you honestly believe someone who could not afford healthcare on their own would be just as healthy as someone who has it provided to them by insurance because you know consequences?

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking. A car is far from an asset. I went 20 years without insurance when I needed care I payed for it, even now that I have coverage I tend not to use it. So I'm not sure what having insurance has to do with being healthy. Now if you want to talk about personal choices affecting one's health, I can get onboard. Having insurance has zero to do with being healthy.

 

[ivwshane]

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking. A car is far from an asset. I went 20 years without insurance when I needed care I payed for it, even now that I have coverage I tend not to use it. So I'm not sure what having insurance has to do with being healthy. Now if you want to talk about personal choices affecting one's health, I can get onboard. Having insurance has zero to do with being healthy.

Having insurance has to do with being unhealthy, whether that's due to ones own actions or not. Society as a whole benefits from being healthy, therefore it is the interest of the united states to have healthy citizens and therefore it is a constitutional duty for our government to address such issues. The debate is how does government achieve this. The competing answers are, through capitalism or via government run health care. Every industrialized nation has figured out what the answer is.

 

[Mai72]

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking. A car is far from an asset. I went 20 years without insurance when I needed care I payed for it, even now that I have coverage I tend not to use it. So I'm not sure what having insurance has to do with being healthy. Now if you want to talk about personal choices affecting one's health, I can get onboard. Having insurance has zero to do with being healthy.

A car is normally a liability, but if it's getting you to money such as a job then would it be an asset? Or, what if you're in sales and you have to go meet potential clients. Then it could be considered an asset.

I'm with you on personal responsibility. It needs to be drilled in all areas of our lives: health, financial, career, relationships, etc. The problem is we've gotten to the point that people are pointing fingers at everyone but themselves.

I take care of my health. I do this before anything else because it's that important. I wake up at 4am 5 days a week so I can go to the gym at 4:30am. Been doing this for a while now. I also try to eat nutritiously. We have an epidemic of Americans who don't give a f*ck. They have this it's not my fault attitude.