Obamacare fail! Affordable Care Act not so affordable.

100% correct.......think of it......the medical insurance companies hold approximately 7% of the total economy..........what a sweet way to off-set the deficit? hostile corporate take over................that's all this was

http://seekingalpha.com/article/475161-is-the-u-s-healthcare-system-an-economic-bubble

 

Transfer of Wealth Extraordinaire............................President Obama

I'm coining that......LOL

Hope and our Change,,,,all of it.......

Remember Him? White House adviser......

Advising who?

 

Seriously Folks, are there many people that doubted that the transferring of wealth was what this man was all about?? The Liberals prayed for it, the Conservatives warned about it,,,,what's left?

It just came to pass,,,that's all...

 

At least Obama is good for a laff. No more stale chimp jokes for this president and his magic healthcare law.

[video=youtube;kodcKUkd2Rg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kodcKUkd2Rg[/video]

 

Did they tick off Alec too?

 

Contrary to the lies of the delusional right wing America haters, Obamacare is a success:


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/29/opinion/krugman-obamacares-secret-success.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1&



Obamacare’s Secret Success

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: November 28, 2013



The law establishing Obamacare was officially titled the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. And the “affordable” bit wasn’t just about subsidizing premiums. It was also supposed to be about “bending the curve” — slowing the seemingly inexorable rise in health costs.


Much of the Beltway establishment scoffed at the promise of cost savings. The prevalent attitude in Washington is that reform isn’t real unless the little people suffer; serious savings are supposed to come from things like raising the Medicare age (which the Congressional Budget Office recently concluded would, in fact, hardly save any money) and throwing millions of Americans off Medicaid. True, a 2011 letter signed by hundreds of health and labor economists pointed out that “the Affordable Care Act contains essentially every cost-containment provision policy analysts have considered effective in reducing the rate of medical spending.” But such expert views were largely ignored.

So, how’s it going? The health exchanges are off to a famously rocky start, but many, though by no means all, of the cost-control measures have already kicked in. Has the curve been bent?

The answer, amazingly, is yes. In fact, the slowdown in health costs has been dramatic.

O.K., the obligatory caveats. First of all, we don’t know how long the good news will last. Health costs in the United States slowed dramatically in the 1990s (although not this dramatically), probably thanks to the rise of health maintenance organizations, but cost growth picked up again after 2000. Second, we don’t know for sure how much of the good news is because of the Affordable Care Act.

Still, the facts are striking. Since 2010, when the act was passed, real health spending per capita — that is, total spending adjusted for overall inflation and population growth — has risen less than a third as rapidly as its long-term average. Real spending per Medicare recipient hasn’t risen at all; real spending per Medicaid beneficiary has actually fallen slightly.

What could account for this good news? One obvious answer is the still-depressed economy, which might be causing people to forgo expensive medical care. But this explanation turns out to be problematic in multiple ways. For one thing, the economy had stabilized by 2010, even if the recovery was fairly weak, yet health costs continued to slow. For another, it’s hard to see why a weak economy would have more effect in reducing the prices of health services than it has on overall inflation. Finally, Medicare spending shouldn’t be affected by the weak economy, yet it has slowed even more dramatically than private spending.

A better story focuses on what appears to be a decline in some kinds of medical innovation — in particular, an absence of expensive new blockbuster drugs, even as existing drugs go off-patent and can be replaced with cheaper generic brands. This is a real phenomenon; it is, in fact, the main reason the Medicare drug program has ended up costing less than originally projected. But since drugs are only about 10 percent of health spending, it can only explain so much.

So what aspects of Obamacare might be causing health costs to slow? One clear answer is the act’s reduction in Medicare “overpayments” — mainly a reduction in the subsidies to private insurers offering Medicare Advantage Plans, but also cuts in some provider payments. A less certain but likely source of savings involves changes in the way Medicare pays for services. The program now penalizes hospitals if many of their patients end up being readmitted soon after being released — an indicator of poor care — and readmission rates have, in fact, fallen substantially. Medicare is also encouraging a shift from fee-for-service, in which doctors and hospitals get paid by the procedure, to “accountable care,” in which health organizations get rewarded for overall success in improving care while controlling costs.

Furthermore, there’s evidence that Medicare savings “spill over” to the rest of the health care system — that when Medicare manages to slow cost growth, private insurance gets cheaper, too.

And the biggest savings may be yet to come. The Independent Payment Advisory Board, a panel with the power to impose cost-saving measures (subject to Congressional overrides) if Medicare spending grows above target, hasn’t yet been established, in part because of the near-certainty that any appointments to the board would be filibustered by Republicans yelling about “death panels.” Now that the filibuster has been reformed, the board can come into being.

The news on health costs is, in short, remarkably good. You won’t hear much about this good news until and unless the Obamacare website gets fixed. But under the surface, health reform is starting to look like a bigger success than even its most ardent advocates expected.



Every patriotic American rejoices to see more American lives and money saved thanks to Obamacare.

 

In the real world, in the United States of America, the last three years have seen the smallest increase in medical costs since the government began tracking medical costs 50 years ago.
Some people, like the president of Kaiser, who should know something about health care costs, feel that ObamaCare is responsible for some of the savings.
The piece of ObamaCare that promises the greatest savings, has been blocked by the GOP, but that will resolve itself shortly, due to the nuclear option.

The reality is that with respect to the cost of healthcare, ObamaCare has been a success.

 

So we should rejoice that big insurance companies are making less profit while many American taxpayers are paying double for less coverage?

Gotta luv that liberal logic.

 

"A comparable plan"?
You mean they were both called "insurance".
But one could deny coverage for pre-existing conditions, saying "comparable" without disclosing the details is like comparing the cost of a ferrari to a fiat, and calling them comparable because they are both cars made in Italy.

In the real world, the increase in medical costs over the last three years have been the smallest increases since medical costs have been tracked.
So every anecdote, about an insurance policy that costs more is just that, an anecdote.
I myself was offered a variety of policies, one of which cost 5 times as much as the other, both had zero deductible and the less expensive plan even had a lower co-pay.
The difference, one was HMO Blue and I need to choose a doctor from their network, and I need a referral from an in network doctor to have coverage out of network, both covered emergency care anywhere in the world.
But the more expensive plan allowed me to go to any doctor anywhere in the world without pre-approval.
Both plans covered the same procedures.

 

The reason why healthcare costs have decreased is because people are not getting healthcare due to increasing high deductible plans.

 

I seriously doubt that you can choose a plan with no deductible without paying over $800 in premiums per month.

 

They hired him,,,then fired him,,,,LOL I think he had one show......He was caught making a gay slur in an argument, then screamed at some reporter.

Now,,whoda guest it ,,,,hahahahahah,,The people that care........LOTS!

 

Who do I believe, you or the president of Kaiser?

- - - Updated - - -

I just did...but it's a group plan, but so was the plan with the $3000/mo premium.

 

Too soon to tell about actual health care costs. However, people are paying more for less right now. It is happening to millions of Americans across the country.

 

No, that's not what's happening, overall health care costs are up 3 to 4% , that's one of the lowest increases in the last 50 years.
And there are more people getting better coverage for less, than there are paying more.

A number of cost containment measures have gone into effect, however, what is expected to be the most effective cost containment device, the Independent Payment Advisory Board, has been unable to function as all appointments to the board have been filibustered by the GOP to this point.
However, with the nuclear option in place, the board should be appointed and begin it's work shortly.

ObamaCare will work, that is why the GOP has so strongly opposed it.

 

Where is your source for this? All I hear, and have personally experienced, is big increases in health insurance costs, specifically due to the ACA. I had a private plan through BCBC that had a premium of $441/month. In January, it is going up to $851/month. I am not continuing with them. Their letter specifically said that it was because of provisions in the ACA.

Millions more may lose their coverage by 2014: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...ion-predicted-tens-millions-would-lose-plans/.

 

My BCBS family plan went from $500/mo to $1800/mo, but that was in 2005, so I don't blame ObamaCare.
Plans get dropped, prices increase, and one way to get people off a plan is to charge a whole lot more for it, and most of them move on their own.
That is something that always happened, it just wasn't hyped by the right wing noise machine.
In the real world, since ObamaCare was passed, we have had the three smallest increases in the last 50 years.
The cost curve has been bent, and people like the president of Kaiser attribute a lot of that to ObamaCare, and the biggest cost savings provisions haven't gone into effect yet, as they have been blocked by the GOP, however, the nuclear option will allow even greater savings to be realized.

When are you going to realize, the people lying about ObamaCare are John Boehner, Newt Gingrich, Paul Ryan and FOX news.....

 

If you want to call a reduction in Medicare and Medicaid fee schedules and private insurance companies now applying everything to deductible as cost savings the ngo ahead but it is still screwing us.

 

I'm just stating the facts, and pointing out the opinions of experts.
And arrayed against this is a number of right wing slogans, and opinions of right wing politicians who know nothing about health insurance.
In another thread I pointed out that in all the words that have appeared in this forum, there hasn't been a single cogent, fact based argument against ObamaCare that has been presented. OTOH, Examples of successful, popular, individual mandate health insurance laws have been delivered over and over again.

If your opinion that ObamaCare will fail is based on anything other than "Obama" please state it...
Not just a slogan, hard data, maybe an example of an individual mandate that failed and was repealed because it proved unpopular.
Otherwise, face it, you're just cheerleading....

 

I am happy for you but calling me a liar does not make what i said untrue. The 2013 quote included pre existing conditions and the 2014 plans no longer pay for anything until the deductible is paid.

This law has forced an increase in premiums across the board. All it has done is set a minimum coverage that can be offered and forced you to buy it. And the final step was to take the responsible people which most likely already had insurance and screw their plans up, make their costs go up AND make them help pay for everyone else's plans.

How anyone would want the government to control their life is beyond my rational thinking abilities.

 

The problem with Obamacare is the law does not do enough to regulate the cost that insurance companies pay that justifies high cost of premiums.

 

The only reason why it won't fail is because the majority of the population is healthy and wouldn't get the experience of how bad their insurance really is. People do not have a clue how little insurance companies pay on claims. It doesn't justify the premium rate and it should be much lower. I know I work in the Medical field dealing with insurance companies every day and all they do is lie to you and try everything to get out of paying on claims at all.

 

Well, BCBS made it clear in my letter that the increase was due the provisions in the ACA. As far as telling how good/bad Obamacare will be, it will take some time. I don't think it will turn out well. Anything government-run is full of fraud, corruption, and costs the taxpayers way too much.

 

Its only working for those that qualify for Medicaid. Beyond that taxpayers and those currently insured lose.

 

In the last 3 years medical costs have decreased? Show me the statistics you base that on as I simp]y don't believe it. My husband is a doctor and I have been in health care administration including the V.A. for over 36+ years. Our cost of providing care have increased. As has it increased for most. That means the cost of healthcare has increased. If you mean the governments cost of paying for the treatment and equipment provided to Medicare and Medicaid patients has decreased; that may be true. But only because they have not been paying the true "cost" to providers of care, equipment and other services the patients are provided. That won't last much longer. Private providers are businesses and we must make a profit and deserve to make a profit equal to level of care we provide. Medicare pays less than $200.00 for an amputation and subsequent follow-up care including all supplies, such as debriding the wound site, changing dressings, prescribing medications for up to 3 months. Not worth it in my opinion as after the cost of doing business, we make no profit. You want to work for free?