Repealing Obamacare (1 Viewer)

[Rastapopoulos]

 

[MarAzul]

The Republicans ought to quit making this claim. The can not repeal all the harm Obama care has done. They can only stop the dumb ass taxes and ridiculous mandates.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Context:
https://www.axios.com/trump-calls-for-immediately-repealing-aca-if-senate-deal-fails-2450809050.html

 

[Denny Crane]

I think they should let ObamaCare collapse of its own poor construction and let the blame fall where it belongs.

The better thing to do is to just repeal it, period.

Why do we want the government writing checks to the evil insurance mega corporations? That's what ObamaCare is.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

So: anyone here between the ages of 19 and 26 who is currently on their parents' insurance? Well guess what....?

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I think they should let ObamaCare collapse of its own poor construction

Oh don't be modest. The Republicans have worked very hard to undermine it. In fact "Little Marco" was big on this one.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

It's almost as if having a market-based healthcare system is actually inefficient!

 

[Rastapopoulos]

 

[Denny Crane]

Oh don't be modest. The Republicans have worked very hard to undermine it. In fact "Little Marco" was big on this one.

Republicans did nothing that caused all the health care providers to quit in many states.

I see no point in them helping it fall apart when it's doing that just fine on its own.

What's not being reported is the CBO says the senate republican plan will save $325B (about $100M more) and insures 1M more than the house plan.

Or that ObamaCare failed to cover 27M people. A massive expense and running up of the debt to insure less than 1 in 2 who weren't insured in the first place.

 

[UncleCliffy'sDaddy]

Republicans did nothing that caused all the health care providers to quit in many states.

I see no point in them helping it fall apart when it's doing that just fine on its own.

What's not being reported is the CBO says the senate republican plan will save $325B (about $100M more) and insures 1M more than the house plan.

Or that ObamaCare failed to cover 27M people. A massive expense and running up of the debt to insure less than 1 in 2 who weren't insured in the first place.

You absolutely nailed it in three words.....

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Republicans did nothing that caused all the health care providers to quit in many states.

If you read the article you would see that that's not true.

 

[riverman]

You absolutely nailed it in three words.....

beat me to it

 

[riverman]

it's doing that just fine on its own.

as of January 1st 2018 my insurance company will no longer cover my wife or I due to Trump killing Obamacare....they now don't need to...fact check..it's not doing just fine on it's own....many more people will lose the simplest coverage now and the so called savings you talk about will go to a wall in your backyard or military escalation instead of public health.....it's not doing just fine...unless you're really rich

 

[3RA1N1AC]

whatever party runs on single payer is going to get a LOT of crossover support in 2020. People are just so over this shit.

 

[Denny Crane]

If you read the article you would see that that's not true.

I read your spin. You do recognize spin when you see it?

The insurance companies were losing hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars while Obama was president, unconstitutionally making changes to the law (that's congress' job), and they were bailing on the exchanges.

Hard to spin your way out of that. It's called fact. Or Truth. Whichever you prefer.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

I read your spin. You do recognize spin when you see it?

The insurance companies were losing hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars while Obama was president, unconstitutionally making changes to the law (that's congress' job), and they were bailing on the exchanges.

Hard to spin your way out of that. It's called fact. Or Truth. Whichever you prefer.

Over the last few years, big managed care companies like UnitedHealth Group have contributed to the furor over the fate of the Affordable Care Act by saying that important parts of it are fundamentally flawed.

But Obamacare hasn’t been a curse for the managed care companies. Over all, based on their share performance, it has been something of a blessing.

Since March 2010, when the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, the managed care companies within the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index — UnitedHealth, Aetna, Anthem, Cigna, Humana and Centene — have risen far more than the overall stock index. This is no small matter: The stock market soared during that period.

The numbers are astonishing. The Standard & Poor’s stock index returned 135.6 percent in those seven years through Thursday, a performance that we may not see again in our lifetimes. But the managed care stocks, as a whole, have gained nearly 300 percent including dividends, according to calculations by Bespoke Investment Group.


UnitedHealth, the biggest of the managed care companies, with a market capitalization that is now more than $160 billion, returned 480 percent, dividends included. An investment of $100 in the company’s stock when Obamacare was signed into law would be worth more than $580.50 today.

“If Obamacare has been bad for the managed care stocks, why have they performed so well under it?” asked Paul Hickey, a founder of Bespoke Investment Group. “And do they really need to be rescued by Congress?”

The answers are complex but boil down to this: Basically, several analysts on Wall Street and in Washington said, the underlying businesses of the big managed care companies have actually done extremely well under Obamacare. They have run into some problems but are hardly in need of a rescue.

The companies have notched profits — from expansion of Medicaid, for example, and from services aimed at cutting medical costs — while learning how to insulate themselves from parts of the law that have crimped their income. They have diversified, earning money from businesses that include data management, outpatient clinics and surgical services, as well as traditional health insurance.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/18/business/health-insurers-profit.html

 

[Jade Falcon]

The idea that people want the government to control healthcare when they can't even pass a goddamn budget on time is amazing to me. Even more amazing when you consider that the people passing this bullshit are the same moron politicians who are more concerned about Trump's twitter feed than they are about the American people.

 

[Denny Crane]

as of January 1st 2018 my insurance company will no longer cover my wife or I due to Trump killing Obamacare....they now don't need to...fact check..it's not doing just fine on it's own....many more people will lose the simplest coverage now and the so called savings you talk about will go to a wall in your backyard or military escalation instead of public health.....it's not doing just fine...unless you're really rich

This is from 2016, before the election and before Trump could have any effect on ObamaCare.








What a shitty insurance plan.

$1000 for a 50+ year old couple and $13,000 out of pocket before you get much benefit.

For $1,000 a month, you can buy all your prescriptions at market rate, your labs, your doctor visits, etc., and still have lots of money left over.

All you really need is a catastrophic care plan to cover the big bills over $13,000 and you come out WAY ahead.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

I read your spin. You do recognize spin when you see it?

The insurance companies were losing hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars while Obama was president, unconstitutionally making changes to the law (that's congress' job), and they were bailing on the exchanges.

Hard to spin your way out of that. It's called fact. Or Truth. Whichever you prefer.

Health insurance industry rakes in billions while blaming Obamacare for losses
Major insurance companies are enjoying record profits but claim they are losing money under the Affordable Care Act


Record profits
But the claim that corporations are losing money on Obamacare ignores the record-breaking profits and compensation packages that health insurers continue to collect.

Consider UnitedHealth, the nation's largest health insurer that is leaving the marketplace next year. UnitedHealth claims that Obamacare has reduced its 2016 earnings by $850 million. While they might have $850 million less than they wanted, UntedHealth’s profits are still soaring.

In fact, UnitedHealth announced record-breaking profits in 2015, followed by an even better year this year. In July 2016, UnitedHealth celebrated revenues that quarter totalling $46.5 billion, an increase of $10 billion since the same time last year. And company filings show that UnitedHealth’s CEO Stephen J. Hemsley made over $20 million in 2015. To be fair, that is a pay cut. The previous year, in 2014, Hemsley took home $66 million in compensation.

"If you look at our Proxy, the Board lays out in extensive detail, in great detail, the thinking behind both CEO and executive compensation,” UnitedHealth executive Don Nathan tells ConsumerAffairs.

“At his request, Mr. Hemsley’s total compensation is below the median for CEOs in the Company’s peer group,” the proxy statement says, “even though the Board believes his performance has been outstanding."

In other words, Hemsley is far from being the only health insurance CEO making millions of dollars every year.

Sky-high profits
Aetna, whose CEO Mark Bertolini reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission a $27.9 million compensation in 2015, has similarly celebrated sky-high profits. “In 2015, we reported annual operating revenue of over $60.3 billion, a record for the Company,” Aetna recently told investors.

Aetna spokesman T.J. Crawford wrote a brief statement to ConsumerAffairs describing the company's losses under Obamacare: “As updated on our Q3 earnings call last week, we now expect a 2016 pretax loss in our individual products (on- and off-exchange) of approximately $350 million,” he said via email, otherwise directing questions to a company press release.

Thanks to the insurance industry’s combination of record profits in recent years and increasing premiums, people on both sides of the political aisle have criticized the Affordable Care Act as being more beneficial to the insurance industry than consumers, though politicians remain deeply divided on what a good, viable alternative would entail.

“Given this dysfunctional reality under the ACA, it’s remarkable that neither major political party has a plan to truly fix the situation,” wrote Dr. John Geyman, a professor and past president of Physicians for a National Health Program, a nonprofit advocating for a single-payer national health insurance program, in a recent column.

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/new...hile-blaming-obamacare-for-losses-110116.html

 

[Denny Crane]

For reference:

 

[SlyPokerDog]

This is from 2016, before the election and before Trump could have any effect on ObamaCare.


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What a shitty insurance plan.

$1000 for a 50+ year old couple and $13,000 out of pocket before you get much benefit.

For $1,000 a month, you can buy all your prescriptions at market rate, your labs, your doctor visits, etc., and still have lots of money left over.

All you really need is a catastrophic care plan to cover the big bills over $13,000 and you come out WAY ahead.

And the plans currently offered by the House and Senate are going to change that?

 

[Denny Crane]

Health insurance industry rakes in billions while blaming Obamacare for losses
Major insurance companies are enjoying record profits but claim they are losing money under the Affordable Care Act




https://www.consumeraffairs.com/new...hile-blaming-obamacare-for-losses-110116.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucej...ions-of-dollars-after-two-years/#470c5835764c

Insurer Obamacare Losses Reach Billions Of Dollars After Two Years

 

[Denny Crane]

And the plans currently offered by the House and Senate are going to change that?

Sure. riverman could buy the $176/mo catastrophic plan and save $10,000/year out of pocket.

 

[riverman]

The insurance companies were losing hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars while Obama was president

They got more money from me than I got in coverage actually....poor insurance companies, struggling away at the expense of public health..maybe they should restructure or take on pharma .....I pay them monthly and my copay is still larger than the matching contribution...maybe they lost millions in projected profits...but they are not declaring bankruptcy last time I checked

 

[Denny Crane]

They got more money from me than I got in coverage actually....poor insurance companies, struggling away at the expense of public health..maybe they should restructure or take on pharma .....I pay them monthly and my copay is still larger than the matching contribution...maybe they lost millions in projected profits...but they are not declaring bankruptcy last time I checked

They're evil.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucej...nitedhealth-rebounds-with-optum/#55860bfa78cc

Despite $720M Obamacare Losses, UnitedHealth Rebounds With Optum

The nation’s largest health insurance company is pulling back products from public changes under the health law after $720 million losses in 2015 that included $245 million in the fourth quarter “for the advance recognition of 2016 losses.” Those losses were the main driver in a 19% dip in the company’s fourth-quarter profits to $1.22 billion from $1.51 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014.

While UnitedHealth weighs whether to continue offering products on public exchanges in 2017, executives say they are poised to rebound thanks largely to its fast-growing Optum unit, a health services business that provides an array of outpatient centers and offers technology services to providers of medical care as hospitals and doctor practices look for help in managing populations of patients.

 

[riverman]

Sure. riverman could buy the $176/mo catastrophic plan and save $10,000/year out of pocket.

I'm already paying for insurance....what Trumpcare will do is cause me to spend more of my healthcare dollars overseas and drop the local service because it's not competitive...and I want to shop locally for all my goods and services. Ambulance chasing lawyers have caused insurance companies to lose money more than common folk trying to cover their needs ...come January, I'll reapply for my family and adjust.....another thing is many more seniors like myself will opt for early retirement rather than stay in the workforce just for the Medicare benefits....I'll probably retire a year or two earlier than I would have otherwise...

 

[Denny Crane]

 

[Denny Crane]

I'm already paying for insurance....what Trumpcare will do is cause me to spend more of my healthcare dollars overseas and drop the local service because it's not competitive...and I want to shop locally for all my goods and services. Ambulance chasing lawyers have caused insurance companies to lose money more than common folk trying to cover their needs ...come January, I'll reapply for my family and adjust.....another thing is many more seniors like myself will opt for early retirement rather than stay in the workforce just for the Medicare benefits....I'll probably retire a year or two earlier than I would have otherwise...

I think this is nonsense.

You won't spend any healthcare dollars overseas unless you choose to.

 

[riverman]

They're evil.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucej...nitedhealth-rebounds-with-optum/#55860bfa78cc

Despite $720M Obamacare Losses, UnitedHealth Rebounds With Optum

The nation’s largest health insurance company is pulling back products from public changes under the health law after $720 million losses in 2015 that included $245 million in the fourth quarter “for the advance recognition of 2016 losses.” Those losses were the main driver in a 19% dip in the company’s fourth-quarter profits to $1.22 billion from $1.51 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014.

While UnitedHealth weighs whether to continue offering products on public exchanges in 2017, executives say they are poised to rebound thanks largely to its fast-growing Optum unit, a health services business that provides an array of outpatient centers and offers technology services to providers of medical care as hospitals and doctor practices look for help in managing populations of patients.

The cost of medical equipment and medical school for doctors is unreasonable....the cost for a doctor to insure against lawsuits has their hands tied as far as pricing for services as well...TORT reform should be addressed along with huge medical school debts....in some countries doctors are paid like school teachers and firemen.....here they're paid like rock stars

 

[Denny Crane]

The cost of medical equipment and medical school for doctors is unreasonable....the cost for a doctor to insure against lawsuits has their hands tied as far as pricing for services as well...TORT reform should be addressed along with huge medical school debts....in some countries doctors are paid like school teachers and firemen.....here they're paid like rock stars

http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/29/house-passes-medical-malpractice-tort-reform-bill/

House Passes Medical Malpractice Tort Reform Bill

WASHINGTON — The House passed medical tort reform legislation Wednesday that is intended to help lower the cost of health insurance by lessening the burden of medical lawsuits.

Proposed by Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King, the Protecting Access to Care Act (H.R. 1215), the bill passed with 218 yeas and 210 nays. The bill caps medical malpractice lawsuits by restricting plaintiff non-economic damages to $250,000. Juries may not be informed of this limitation.

“The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that passage of King’s ‘Protecting Access to Care Act’ would save federal taxpayers at least $50 billion over a ten-year period. In addition, the CBO has estimated that King’s reforms would lower premiums for medical malpractice insurance by an average of 25 percent to 30 percent,” the Iowa congressman said in a statement.