Obamacare, Opinions?

[tpunx99GSX]

Besides the Individual mandate What are your opinions of Obamacare?
Please read the bill before forming an opinion, If i find that you havent checked your answer prior to posting i will be very angry and put you in the stockades.
The reason I say besides the individual mandate is that nobody likes paying for things. They like getting stuff but never want to pay for it.
Heres a link to the bill http://www.healthcare.gov/law/full/

[Goat Blower]

Without going through all of that, I will say that I've definitely noticed that our premiums have gone up quite a bit in the last year or two and the amount of things covered has gone down. This was also confirmed last time I was in the doctor's office when the office manager quietly mentioned that certain parts of coverage were getting dropped for basically everybody that pays premiums. That's all I'm going to throw in this.

[tpunx99GSX]

Thats actually been happening for 5+ years. When I worked as a subcontractor for a company about 5 years ago, i needed to get my own insurance. The guy told me the monthly price and my jaw dropped, He stated its because of the amount of claims, Malpractice lawsuits, other lawsuits for insurance companies, and people going to the hospital without insurance and skipping out on the bill, they got their help because the docs are required to treat them.
This is something that the ACA is supposed to reign in by getting everyone covered one way or another.
Two things though: This past month we saw two benefits that actually directly affected my wallet in a positive way. 1) 100% covered birth control YAY and 2) UHG did not meet the 85% rule, so will be sending me a refund of some of my premiums paid throughout the year. (got a letter outlining that this was due to the Affordable Care Act). Still havent received my check yet, but its on its way.
Ive heard conflicting stories on this, but I would think that premiums would go down due to the amount of people entering the system with insurance. I am not sure how fast it will go down, but logic says that the insurance companies are getting a shit load of new business, they should be able to lower premiums or at least stabilize them. as well as the opening of Preventative clinics around the country hopefully people will utilize them and we will be able to keep everyone a bit more healthier.

[A//// Guy]

Insurance has been going up for a long time, a little every year. I dont think that has anything to do directly with obama though. Well see how actual obamacare will affect things over the next few years, but there are a lot of pros and cons to the plan. These bugs need to be worked out.

I still dont know how obama care will be paid for.

[asshanson]

I agree there are some good things about the plan, such as no longer being able to deny people because of preexisting conditions.
I still think people are going to skip out on bills though. Say they do have health insurance now but have to go to the ER, they are still going to max out their deductible or max the out of pocket per year which is still thousands of dollars. I guess at least the hospital is only out a few grand instead of 10k+ though.

[tpunx99GSX]

I still dont know how obama care will be paid for.

See Title IX of the link i provided, listed as Revenue provisions.
Summary from the Title.
"The Act makes health care more affordable for families and small business owners by providing the largest middle class tax cuts for health care in American history. Tens of millions of families will benefit from new tax credits which will help them reduce their premium costs and purchase insurance. Families making less than $250,000 will see their taxes cut by hundreds of billions of dollars.

When enacted, health reform is completely paid for and will reduce the deficit by more than one hundred billion dollars in the next ten years."

[Halon]

That didn't explain how it's being paid for?

While I don't like the idea of government running healthcare, I don't know enough about the plan to really form a strong educated opinion. I do think healthcare was getting out of control the way it was, so I'm pro-change. I hope it ends up being an improvement.

[Speedfreak]

I haven't read the bill, but I have a little insight from the insurance company point of view. A good friend is an exec in one of our big healthcare companies, and is directly working on healthcare reform(both within their organization, and with the US government).

Short version, it may not change how much money comes out of the majority of the populations pocket per year, but it will cover a lot more people who are currently not covered.

Also, premiums have steadily gone up for the last 30 years(likely more), and all our out of pockets will continue on that path until we are all dead.

What changes is what is covered, who is covered, how they are covered etc. Of course this is very general, but when trying to find the silver lining, or the supreme negative when picking his brain.. there are pros and cons to any direction healthcare goes in the USA. None are great, and realistically not a selling point for any potential candidate.

We are all screwed regardless. :)


PS: I've quickly skimmed the political threads thus far, and am shocked by the civility up to this point(except the opening thread of course). ;)

[tpunx99GSX]

That didn't explain how it's being paid for?

While I don't like the idea of government running healthcare, I don't know enough about the plan to really form a strong educated opinion. I do think healthcare was getting out of control the way it was, so I'm pro-change. I hope it ends up being an improvement.

Sorry Halon, The summary i quoted i read it afterwards and said the same thing. but i didnt want to quote all of the different titles.
Basically its paid for by taking the current system, streamlining a lot of the process through electronic records etc, then imposing various fees and taxes (yes i said taxes) on various items such as elective surgery, and high income earners. (over $250k a year). But I recall reading somewhere (not sure if i read it in the actual bill or somewhere else) but they are closing a error where pharmacies were double billing the gov for medicare claims.

I have read the bill once when it came out. And constantly go back to it whenever a story comes out about it to check the validity of the statement. and to be honest, its not as scary of a piece of legislation that everyone is making it out to be. Even if you were to read just the titles then the sections under each title, it actually explains a lot. Then if it peeks your interest, read the section.

[Goat Blower]

Basically its paid for by taking the current system, streamlining a lot of the process through electronic records etc, then imposing various fees and taxes (yes i said taxes) on various items such as elective surgery, and high income earners. (over $250k a year). But I recall reading somewhere (not sure if i read it in the actual bill or somewhere else) but they are closing a error where pharmacies were double billing the gov for medicare claims.



While this is all well and good on paper, there's no way this will actually happen. Show me ONE government program that has gone according to plan without massive overspending, there is no such animal. Medicare, medicaid, welfare, food stamps, the post office and the list goes on and on. This is a spending bill pure and simple and everybody will get taxed, not just "high earners".

While premiums have been increasing, they jumped massively in the last two years. I've been paying for my own healthcare for over 20 years now, I'm pretty good at noticing trends when I'm writing the checks.