Obamacare to increase premiums by 304 percent???

[franklin]

This goes back to my original post, in that the Insurance companies are the real puppet masters here. They have gamed the system, and they are the only ones who profit (literally) off all of this.

Health insurance is like a utility at this point: mature, highly competitive, and reliant on consumption growth to squeeze profit out of a low margin industry. Their angle is about bringing more onto their roles, and covering more stuff as prices get passed along.

Again, it is because the insurance companies are exempt from anti-trust laws. They can set the price and there is nothing anyone can do about it. For example, in Washington State last year, Delta Dental found out that they were covering a dental crown at $650 and Select Health was covering the same crown at $500. So what did Delta do? The raised their premiums and then told Dentists that they would only pay $550 for a crown. A clear violation of anti-trust laws, but insurance companies are exempt from anti-trust laws.

Dentists all over Washington State sent in letters to Delta Dental letting them know they would no longer be providers for Delta Dental. What happened to them? They got letters from the Washington Dental Association telling them that it was illegal for them to do so, as it violated anti-trust laws.

So, in the end, what happened? Delta raised the costs to consumers, lowered the amount of money they paid out to Providers and profits went through the roof.

This is the system the insurance companies have bought themselves through politicians.

So what's the solution? Having the federal govt. knock the hard working doctors and dentists down instead (Obama voter preference)? Do nothing as deep rooted problems keep on keepin on (conservative voter preference)? I don't know how we solve these things with or without government. Although bitching about "rich" family practitioners making $165,000/year after a 12+ year college investment and a minimum of $1,000,000 investment seems the worst starting point to me.

In the end, I think the real problem is people wanting to live 90 years AND retiring at 62. The "problem" isn't about poor people not being able to afford health care (because penicillin is pretty damn cheap), it's about middle class wanting someone else to pay $3,000,000 of their h.c. costs while they sip margaritas in Florida.

Get rid of the early retirement for the rich on the backs of the hard working poor and suddenly this is a non-issue.

 

[♪alt13]

Franklin has raised the most poignant argument thus far.

Boomers are the most self centered generation this country will probably ever see. You all were given one of the best educations in the world but the one you provide for your children and grand children doesn't even break the top 20. You got the voting age lowered for yourselves. War was bad when you were in your twenties but you couldn't wait to get into Iraq. When you were making money and paying taxes you consistently cried out for a government that would spend money it didn't have and you would never accept a tax increase. Now you are getting older you have spent all your money on cocaine and invested the rest in ridiculous get rich quick schemes(pyramid,flipping the same house back and fourth to one another, that African prince who sent you that e-mail). I guess it is about time America balanced her books right after all how are you going to retire with free health insurance if you don't raise taxes on your children. Look in the mirror boomer that person you see in there is going to hell.

 

[Joe Bagadonuts]

Didn't say that. You sure are saying a lot of things for me.

All I said was that 300% inflation of healthcare costs are greatly exaggerated. My experience was that my premium went down.

As I said before, I don't understand the companies that layoff employees to save money on healthcare costs. I do not know what the specifics are in the aca as far as companies providing coverage, or why it would be so expensive. I was speaking to my personal experience. That is all.

Do you work for a large company or a small company? If it's a small company my guess is that your company rating is improving for some reason (maybe some employee families had very high costs in the past but they decreased in recent years and so did the costs. The other reason you think your costs are decreasing is obviously the subsidies. You are a fool if you think that is equivalent to a price decrease. You should be thanking those of us who are paying for your subsidy.

And the fact that you can't understand why a company would make moves to avoid paying healthcare costs for employees shows that you have no clue about the decisions that business owners are faced with.

 

[Deleted member 848]

It's nice living in a country with 30 million people tbh

 

[♪alt13]

It's nice living in a country with 30 million people tbh

Canada isn't a country,bro. It's just a US territory we haven't bothered to claim yet

 

[Stoked]

Canada isn't a country,bro. It's just a US territory not worth bothering with.

Fixed

 

[♪alt13]

SRS dal ask mexico. We don't even want texas, bro. We keep it just because we know they want it.

 

[green]

Health insurance is like a utility at this point: mature, highly competitive, and reliant on consumption growth to squeeze profit out of a low margin industry. Their angle is about bringing more onto their roles, and covering more stuff as prices get passed along.



So what's the solution? Having the federal govt. knock the hard working doctors and dentists down instead (Obama voter preference)? Do nothing as deep rooted problems keep on keepin on (conservative voter preference)? I don't know how we solve these things with or without government. Although bitching about "rich" family practitioners making $165,000/year after a 12+ year college investment and a minimum of $1,000,000 investment seems the worst starting point to me.

In the end, I think the real problem is people wanting to live 90 years AND retiring at 62. The "problem" isn't about poor people not being able to afford health care (because penicillin is pretty damn cheap), it's about middle class wanting someone else to pay $3,000,000 of their h.c. costs while they sip margaritas in Florida.

Get rid of the early retirement for the rich on the backs of the hard working poor and suddenly this is a non-issue.

I agree with a lot of what you said above. One thing is to take away the exempt status of insurance companies from anti-trust laws. There is so much price fixing going through insurance companies right now. Another is to make things even more transparent. Let's see where each politician gets his money from. And if that means that you lose some of your money because they are playing both sides...then so be it.

BUT, at the end of the day, the last two paragraphs is what is going to save/kill us. IF we can decide we want to work together for something greater, we can do great things. IF we continue down this path of "I'll get mine" then we are screwed.

 

[green]

It's nice living in a country with 30 million people tbh

This makes me so angry. I am so sick of countries that sit around and bag on America because they don't sink any money in their military so they can pay for social programs (which I agree with). The problem I have is this: The second you have any trouble you expect our military to step in and protect you. I'm so done with all of that.

I am becoming more and more of the opinion that we need to go back to pre-WWII attitudes...shut down our borders, tax everything that comes in from overseas up the wazoo, and protect ourselves. Save our money for our people. Let the middle east and Africa police themselves. They don't want us there anyways. Tell the rest of the world that we will continue to participate in the UN, but we will only match dollar for dollar whatever the highest contributing country puts in (for example, if Great Britain puts in 5 million and France does 6, we will do 6 as well).

If we did that, the rest of the world would be BEGGING us to come back within 6 months and the US would go back to being BY FAR, the most powerful nation in the world.

 

[moevillini]

heyhey

Franklin has raised the most poignant argument thus far.

Boomers are the most self centered generation this country will probably ever see. You all were given one of the best educations in the world but the one you provide for your children and grand children doesn't even break the top 20.

hold on there, do you know for a fact that the boomer generation is the majority in Congress and the Senate? I think a fair number of them were born after 1964....

if I can, I'll try to do a little bit of research on that

EDIT: OK, here's a little bit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_United_States_Senators_by_age
As of September 25, 2013, 2 senators are in their 80s, 20 are in their 70s, 37 are in their 60s, 30 are in their 50s, and 11 are in their 40s. (10 were born after 1964, and one was born Nov 1964)

 

[Deleted member 848]

This makes me so angry. I am so sick of countries that sit around and bag on America because they don't sink any money in their military so they can pay for social programs (which I agree with). The problem I have is this: The second you have any trouble you expect our military to step in and protect you. I'm so done with all of that.

I am becoming more and more of the opinion that we need to go back to pre-WWII attitudes...shut down our borders, tax everything that comes in from overseas up the wazoo, and protect ourselves. Save our money for our people. Let the middle east and Africa police themselves. They don't want us there anyways. Tell the rest of the world that we will continue to participate in the UN, but we will only match dollar for dollar whatever the highest contributing country puts in (for example, if Great Britain puts in 5 million and France does 6, we will do 6 as well).

If we did that, the rest of the world would be BEGGING us to come back within 6 months and the US would go back to being BY FAR, the most powerful nation in the world.

Sever connections with Canada? So the US can axe its main oil, and water-resource for the coming years?

Yup, we all know that's never gonna happen. Gonna keep enjoying my healthcare and cheap education in the mean-time. Thanks Merica

 

[Stoked]

Sever connections with Canada? So the US can axe its main oil, and water-resource for the coming years?

Yup, we all know that's never gonna happen. Gonna keep enjoying my healthcare and cheap education in the mean-time. Thanks Merica

We have enough of our own if we'd just use it.