Why Blame The ACA?

We hear a lot from the right wing about the increasing costs of the ACA. Of course, since it is a liberal plan why would they not whine, and cry, about it. However, we hear nothing about the increases in drug costs increasing the Medicare Part D prescription plan ( a Republican plan):

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money...10/26/medicare-part-d-premiums-2017/92591684/

"Choosing a prescription drug plan is particularly important for seniors since they tend to be more prone to expensive illnesses compared to younger adults. According to a study from the Kaiser Family Foundation, seniors taking drugs to treat hepatitis C, multiple sclerosis, or cancer can spend anywhere from $4,000 to $12,000 per year out-of-pocket just to take a single drug — and this includes what a Medicare prescription drug plan would cover.

Another recent AARP study, Rx Price Watch, found that average annual prescription drug costs have ballooned from $4,140 in 2005 to $11,341 as of 2013 for elderly Americans."

The Medigap plan (Supplemental plan in which my premium went up 30% this year), another Republican plan::

http://www.freep.com/story/money/bu...-plans-rate-increases-medigap-plans/86747966/

"Rates would jump the most for policyholders under age 65, typically the disabled. Their Legacy Medigap Plan C rates would increase by $192, hitting about $315 per month.

Blue Cross says its current rates do not reflect the actual cost of health care, resulting in big losses that are unsustainable.

“We are bringing our Medigap premiums closer to what competitors charge today," said Blue Cross spokesman Andy Hetzel. "Even with this rate increase, we do not expect to make a profit on Legacy Medigap plans.""

Or the rising cost in Medicare Par B premiums:

http://time.com/money/4517168/2017-medicare-premiums-could-jump-20/

"By law, Medicare Part B premiums must be deducted from Social Security payments for those receiving benefits from both programs. Normally, the Part B increase would be paid out of the increase in Social Security payments due to the COLA. But this can’t happen when the COLA is zero or too small to cover higher Part B premiums.

When this happens, the hold harmless rule prevents Medicare from raising Part B premiums on about 70% of all beneficiaries. However, Medicare must still collect about 25% of overall Part B expenses from the beneficiaries (with the government paying the rest). With most beneficiaries held harmless, it has no choice but to dun the other 30% for the entire beneficiary piece of increased Part B expenses."

A year ago, the absence of a 2016 COLA froze Part B premiums at $104.90 a month for those who were held harmless. The other group, including low-income beneficiaries whose premiums are paid by state Medicaid programs, faced a premium increase of roughly 50%."


Just the ACA, a/k/a "Obamacare".

 

If you want to talk about Medicare D we can. It is a complete joke. I was my grandmother's drug store runner. It just about bankrupted me keeping her in meds, but she needed them and couldn't afford them so on the credit cards they went.

 

So the insurance companies are money grubbing evil entities.............. so the democrats made it law that we must buy from them or pay a fine. Makes perfect sense.

And I'm not whining about the ACA because it was a plan from the dems, I'm whining because I didn't get what was promised by our president. Instead, I lost the coverage I had which included dental, and instead had to replace it with lesser coverage with a higher deductible and pay twice the premium for it. Was I supposed to like that?

 

If Medicare priced the drugs you would have a point.. Since they dont.. You dont.

 

Wait a minute, I've been complaining about higher drug prices in general and not just Medicare's stuff. I had a cholesterol med go from $20 for a 3 month supply to $400 for a one month supply. And a med my son MUST have went from $23 for a 3 month supply to $912 for a 1 month supply. When I inquired about the huge price increase the response was 'due to changes in the healthcare laws..." This is entirely on liberals. Entirely.

Medicare? I should live long enough to use it.

 

Exactly. When evaluating the ACA against at least one of the stated objectives, that being control of skyrocketing healthcare costs, the program is a dismal failure. And "you'll be able to keep your doctor"? A bald faced lie.

President Obama and the Democratic Congress he enjoyed during his first two years in office, they own this fiasco. That's a fact, Jack. Let's see if the Republicans can get an effective tourniquet put in place before we see too much more blood loss...

 

Hopefully you voted for Trump. He addressed the high drug costs in his last thank you America speech.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ll-bring-down-drug-prices-biotech-stocks-fall

 

Hey everyone, what did you buy with the $2,500 per year you've been saving on premiums? How's that working out for you?

 

Obama and the other Libocrat idiots who put Obamacare into law without bothering to read it are not to blame for it?

Then who do I blame for all the lies that President Transparency told us about it? Why can I no longer choose my doctor under Obamacare like I was promised I would be able to? Why is the Obamacare Exchange in Colorado going broke and in imminent danger of collapsing totally? Why have health care costs continue to skyrocket under Obamacare?

And last of all -- where in the hell is the $2,500 per year I was going to save on healthcare every year because of Obamacare?!

The truth? Obamacare never was anything but a big bag of radical Democrat lies, designed to anchor the concept that we needed to provide free healthcare to people who won't or don't provide it for themselves (through "subsidies", which is just another word for WELFARE). And why would radical Democrats do that? To create a permanent supplemental base of Democrat-voters-for-life who are on one variety of handout welfare-for-life....

We already had a healthcare system in place for freeloaders and others on welfare -- MEDICAID!

. This is exactly what the Liberal elite thinks of YOU!

 

They cant "price the drugs"! Thats what the OP is pointing out

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WHAT ? How is this on "liberals" ?

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You you believe in price controls now ?

 

Not my call. I was just pointing out that Trump is on the side of negotiating prices on drugs.

 

I wanted to quote this entire response from you, because I notice you left one thing out, the part where the "ACA" was supposed to fix all these issues, you know, like they said it would? in fact, they said americans would be "SAVINGS THOUSANDS PER YEAR" with the ACA... yet here you are, blaming republicans because the democrat fix failed to live up to the promises it made to americans who put trust and faith in the democrats...

so while you sit here and try to blame republicans, if these issues are so bad, why didn't democrats fix them when they had the chance? well they promised to fix them I guess, but it turns out all they did was amplify and compound many issues and now its worse for middle class americans who are picking up the tab, when they were the ones promised the most benefit and savings... so once again, why are you blaming republicans for what democrats "fixed" with the ACA???

have you been brainwashed that much that you're sitting here trying to blame republicans, for what democrats made worse? seriously?

P.S. you're drinking too much of the kool-aid, don't you know that much sugar is bad for you? or do you need the sugar tax passed to learn that?

 

Yep. We can certainly blame ACA.

"How Does the Affordable care Act Affect Medicare Part D
ObamaCare (the Affordable Care Act) helps to close the Medicare Part D donut hole and keep Medicare Part D affordable, sustainable and working for seniors."

http://obamacarefacts.com/medicare/medicare-part-d/

 

Any time government gets involved the market gets distorted, there are unintended consequences, and the people suffer.

And the only solution is a massive tax increase to keep the program going.

 

and yet, the other poster was just complaining about all the increased costs and problems... so how's that working out for us?

either I accept its fixed like you assert, or I accept the OP who says its clearly FUBAR... but you can't have it both ways...

so once again, if things are as bad as the OP stated, and democrats said the ACA would solve all our woes, why hasn't the ACA solved all the woes the OP has pointed out that he's not attempting to blame republicans for? I'm not giving republicans a pass, they clearly did things that benefited drug companies, in fact democrats back then voted for some of those very things too, so they never got a pass, but if the ACA was the solution that was going to solve all these issues, why are they now worse according to the OP?

did anyone forget all the democrats who voted for the bills the republicans get blamed for? or let me guess, selective-vote memory?

(its almost like the idiots who blame republicans for the wars, then ignore the democrats who voted yes for it also, only 1 senator voted no)

 

In order to get the drug companies on board, the ACA took a long list of generic meds and pulled them off the market for "re-certification". I was taking a gout med called Colchicine which cost about $0.8 cents a pill, it was one on the list. The brand names didn't need "re-certification". My cost went from $0.8 cents a pill to $4.52 a pill. Thanks Obama Care.

 

It appears that the pharm co's was a big campaign contributor for the ACA for this type of gouging of consumers.

 

[video=youtube;_o65vMUk5so]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o65vMUk5so[/video]

 

First you had to understand the point, and you don't.

ALL forms of health insurance are rising, and it matters not who started the program. As to the drugs, when Epipen increases their price for a drug 400-600%, and the CEO receives a 200-300% increase in salary (and it is most drug companies, not just Epipen) a rational person would think something was skewed. When a hospital increases the cost of a room 400%, and the CEO sees an increase in salary, one would think something is not quite correct.
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As I said, my supplemental plan (introduced by Republicans in 2006) increased by 30% this year. Last year it was 20%. Had nothing to do with the ACA.

 

Yet ACA was supposed to lower costs and it did no such thing..... Dont be a Gruberite.

 

I would actually like to see a source for that. In the meantime, you might want to read this. It apples to all drugs:

http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2016/...siting-medicare-part-d-and-hepatitis-c-drugs/

 

It would have lowered the costs if all had cooperated. However, we know who didn't, don't we.

BTW, Medicare Parts D through N was supposed to lower costs for the elderly, and disabled. Guess what happened?

 

I didn't get back in time to edit my other post, but you might want to read this. Sounds like the drug manufacturing is gouging you.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-surge-is-a-side-effect-of-fda-safety-program

"That’s just one of the side effects of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration plan to encourage testing of medicines that have been around longer than the modern FDA itself, and so have never gotten formal approval. Companies that do the tests are rewarded with licenses that can temporarily give them monopoly pricing power as most rivals are eased or kicked off the market. The result has been a surge in the cost of drugs used in treatments from anesthesia to heart surgery and eye operations.

It can bring big paydays for the producers. URL Pharma, the small Philadelphia drugmaker granted rights over colchicine, was bought for $800 million by Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. in 2012. Asia’s biggest drugmaker has since brought in $1.2 billion in revenue from the branded drug, Colcrys, which went on the market at a wholesale price of almost $6 a pill. Takeda says testing for FDA approval made the drug safer.

But patients and hospitals are feeling the pinch, and politicians have begun to notice. Hillary Clinton’s recent promise to address the issue sent pharmaceutical stocks plunging. Critics say the FDA plan lets entrepreneurs make windfall profits on drugs where there was never much concern about safety or efficacy."

 

Let me guess. . . . The reason you believe this is because it comes from a trusted conservative source with NO bias towards the ACA?

The FDA and greedy CEOs of pharmaceutical companies share ALL of the blame for inflated drug prices. . . . Yet Republicans aren't helping by being against negotiated cost reductions. Just wait and see what happens to drug prices when the ACA is repealed and MILLIONS lose their insurance. . . . Medical necessities DO NOT adhere to the law of supply and demand.