The PPACA Thread Part III - Let's have a healthy debate!

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The PPACA Thread Part III - Let's have a healthy debate!

Sure be nice if someone in Government was working to find ways to fix the problems with the current law. But, why do that? We needed to pass it to find out what's in it and now that we've found out we're taking it in the wallet.

[St. Clown]

Re: The PPACA Thread Part III - Let's have a healthy debate!

Sure be nice if someone in Government was working to find ways to fix the problems with the current law. But, why do that? We needed to pass it to find out what's in it and now that we've found out we're taking it in the wallet.

Has your employer forced you to the state exchange? If so, ouch!

Interesting perusal for the State of MN's official 2016 rate increase release (last year's proposal for this calendar year). Page 12 begins the discussion of the "Effective Rate Review Process," and how the state determines if these are fair rate increases or not.

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The PPACA Thread Part III - Let's have a healthy debate!

Has your employer forced you to the state exchange? If so, ouch!

Interesting perusal for the State of MN's official 2016 rate increase release (last year's proposal for this calendar year). Page 12 begins the discussion of the "Effective Rate Review Process," and how the state determines if these are fair rate increases or not.

No, not yet. But my employer and Blue Cross Blue Shield did stick me with a 37% increase last year. I wonder how much it will be this year?

[FreshFish]

Re: The PPACA Thread Part III - Let's have a healthy debate!

Interesting perusal for the State of MN's official 2016 rate increase release (last year's proposal for this calendar year). Page 12 begins the discussion of the "Effective Rate Review Process," and how the state determines if these are fair rate increases or not.

From your link:

Rates must be justified both in terms of the value of the benefits that consumers receive for their premiums and in terms of the insurance company’s ability to pay expected medical claims costs and fulfill its obligations to the consumers who purchase the company’s plan. By law, rates can be neither excessive (with premium costs exceeding the value of benefits) nor inadequate (with premium income that is insufficient to cover the cost of medical claims).

hmm..sounds familiar, somehow...

In the "Need for Reform" section, several of those proposals are merely a disguised way of saying "Maybe we should go back to what we had before, it seemed to work better."

[The Sicatoka]

Re: The PPACA Thread Part III - Let's have a healthy debate!

Admission that the Utopian vision of Obamacare was naively Utopian, or, the toe-hold excuse for single-payer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/us...-care-act.html

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The PPACA Thread Part III - Let's have a healthy debate!

Admission that the Utopian vision of Obamacare was naively Utopian, or, the toe-hold excuse for single-payer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/03/us...-care-act.html

We'll **** up single payer. America used to do everything better than the rest of the word. Now we do nothing better.

[The Sicatoka]

Re: The PPACA Thread Part III - Let's have a healthy debate!

We'll **** up single payer. America used to do everything better than the rest of the word. Now we do nothing better.

Now hold on. We do something better than the rest of the world: < bleep > things up.

[St. Clown]

Re: The PPACA Thread Part III - Let's have a healthy debate!

From your link:


hmm..sounds familiar, somehow...

In the "Need for Reform" section, several of those proposals are merely a disguised way of saying "Maybe we should go back to what we had before, it seemed to work better."

Yup. People refused to believe us earlier, and there it is in the state's commerce department official release.

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The PPACA Thread Part III - Let's have a healthy debate!

Now hold on. We do something better than the rest of the world: < bleep > things up.

Something to be proud of.

[Rover]

Re: The PPACA Thread Part III - Let's have a healthy debate!

This paragraph of the Times article summed it up well.

Andrew M. Slavitt, the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the administration was taking steps to ensure “a stable, sustainable marketplace” — by increasing payments to insurers for “high-cost enrollees” and by curbing any abuse of “special enrollment periods” by people who sign up for coverage after they become sick. In addition, federal officials are redoubling efforts to sign up young adults.

[Kepler]

Re: The PPACA Thread Part III - Let's have a healthy debate!

This paragraph of the Times article summed it up well.

Andrew M. Slavitt, the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the administration was taking steps to ensure “a stable, sustainable marketplace” — by increasing payments to insurers for “high-cost enrollees” and by curbing any abuse of “special enrollment periods” by people who sign up for coverage after they become sick. In addition, federal officials are redoubling efforts to sign up young adults.

Not to mention The Whole Point.

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The PPACA Thread Part III - Let's have a healthy debate!

This paragraph of the Times article summed it up well.

Andrew M. Slavitt, the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the administration was taking steps to ensure “a stable, sustainable marketplace” — by increasing payments to insurers for “high-cost enrollees” and by curbing any abuse of “special enrollment periods” by people who sign up for coverage after they become sick. In addition, federal officials are redoubling efforts to sign up young adults.

They should have been doing that in the first place. The genie is out of the bottle already.

[The Sicatoka]

Re: The PPACA Thread Part III - Let's have a healthy debate!

In addition, federal officials are redoubling efforts to sign up young adults.

Young people are Teflon coated and Lexan lined; they will never get sick or hurt, they don't need health insurance ... or so they believe.

People don't buy something they don't think they need even if it is a super-marvelous deal. Until the penalty for no insurance is more expensive than the insurance, nothing will change. Put another way, your (Obamacare) carrot is still a carrot; more stick.

[FreshFish]

Re: The PPACA Thread Part III - Let's have a healthy debate!

This paragraph of the Times article summed it up well.

Andrew M. Slavitt, the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the administration was taking steps to ensure “a stable, sustainable marketplace”

um, news flash, we had a stable, sustainable marketplace in the 1980s, before state governments started to add all sorts of coverage mandates. There were association plans (i.e., group pricing for individual enrollees as long as they belonged to an association), high-deductible plans (in 1985 dollars, a $5,000 deductible plan was very very affordable). and we had the most effective form of "single payor" anyone could ask for: the patient him/herself was the single payor, then filed paperwork with the insurance company for reimbursement. Major medical insurance and hospitalization insurance were two different kinds of policies, if you wanted, you could get great medical coverage and a high-deductible hospitalization policy (perfect for young people, cover sickness and illness and self-insure for accidents).

State mandated coverage distorted the marketplace, making everyone pay more for niche coverage that only a few people would actually use. And having insurance companies and providers communicate directly removed an essential cost-control element: once you stop seeing the bill, you stop questioning why certain things cost so much.

and of course, once state mandates started distorting the market, then states started adding even more mandates to address market distortions, and so on....



Funny part is, the biggest marketplace distortion was a relic of World War II wage and price controls that left fringe benefit spending uncapped. If self-employed and corporate-employed people had equal tax treatment on premiums....




Did anyone every look closely at itemized hospital bill at checkout? a family member in the past couple of years had a hospital stay, and two acetaminophen tablets were $10. Hospital is happy, insurance company doesn't care one way or the other, patient is just relieved to be discharged and doesn't look closely.....

[The Sicatoka]

Re: The PPACA Thread Part III - Let's have a healthy debate!

... a family member in the past couple of years had a hospital stay, and two acetaminophen tablets were $10.

You got a bargain. Not kidding. (Opinion based on father's final hospital bills circa 2011.)