Our National Health Care Situation

[Sparko]

Universal healthcare is a winning issue for everyone not voting for chainsaw wielding fascists

[ousdahl]

they at least would have tried

you are both wrong. it's just constant back and forth well yeah but your side nonsense anymore. Health care is so immense, though, everyone gets a piece of the pie.

what’s the ACA if not trying to remedy the problem?

Yet another bone thrown to capital, but at least with a cute name?

Wasn’t it like literally written by insurance companies. And shelved an actual universal/single payer option way early on. And sure I think it nixed shit like being dropped for pre-existing conditions, but hasn’t healthcare since the Affordable Care Act become much LESS affordable overall?

Not to mention the whole idea of a law mandating purchase of a free market private sector product.

[Overlander]

you are both wrong. it's just constant back and forth well yeah but your side nonsense anymore. Health care is so immense, though, everyone gets a piece of the pie.

what’s the ACA if not trying to remedy the problem?

but hasn’t healthcare since the Affordable Care Act become much LESS affordable overall?

Name 1 thing that HASN'T become less affordable in that same time span?

[KUTradition]

you are both wrong. it's just constant back and forth well yeah but your side nonsense anymore. Health care is so immense, though, everyone gets a piece of the pie.

what’s the ACA if not trying to remedy the problem?

Yet another bone thrown to capital, but at least with a cute name?

Wasn’t it like literally written by insurance companies. And shelved an actual universal/single payer option way early on. And sure I think it nixed shit like being dropped for pre-existing conditions, but hasn’t healthcare since the Affordable Care Act become much LESS affordable overall?

Not to mention the whole idea of a law mandating purchase of a free market private sector product.

i don’t know. go find the answer yourself

nobody said the efforts were perfect, just that one side was actually making an effort on the healthcare front

[DCHawk1]

From the Satellite thread:

I had terrific insurance when I was younger and never needed it. Now as a self employed person my insurance is expensive and it's crappy insurance.

So...I know this is an unpopular opinion 'round these parts, but the "A"CA is partly responsible for that.

Before the ACA (as the owner of two businesses but the only "employee" in my state), I bought family insurance on the open market. I had heart surgery in 2009 (and am still eternally grateful to Shirley for the reassurance he provided beforehand) and am, therefore, considered a "high-risk" insuree. I bought a normal family policy for Creamcheese and the kids and a high-risk-pool policy for myself. (38 states had high-risk pools available for people with preexisting conditions before ACA, narrative to the contrary). I paid about $500/month for all of them and about $750/month for myself, $1250 total. Not great, but not bad.

After ACA became law, its preexisting-condition provision ("community pricing") did NOT lower costs for people like me. Instead, it forced underwriters to treat EVERYONE as potentially high-risk. As a result, individual/family rates skyrocketed. Keeping the same coverage would have cost us around $4000/month (an increase of $2750/month, for those of you scoring at home).

Needless to say, we balked at that price. Creamcheese gave up her career as a mom and went back to working for other people, so we could have insurance that didn't cost us almost $50,000/year.

I'm not saying that our old system was great. But the ACA was a sop to the insurance companies and little more. Bipartisan Corporatism is the name of our political game.

Also, for the record, in 2008 John McCain proposed beginning the process of undoing the stupid war-era relic policy that tied health insurance to employment. He was roundly pilloried for doing by EVERYONE. Our health care system is indeed fucked up. The original sin in fucking it up, though, was the war-era policy of wage controls, which made health insurance a fringe benefit that employers could use to lure the best workers.

[Shirley]

Not sure if this is the solution:

US health insurers Humana, Cigna in talks to merge

Nov 29 (Reuters) - U.S. health insurer Cigna (CI.N) is in talks to merge with peer Humana (HUM.N), a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, a deal that could exceed $60 billion in value and would be certain to attract fierce antitrust scrutiny.

The discussions come six years after regulators blocked mega-deals that would have consolidated the U.S. health insurance sector.

After U.S. courts upheld antitrust challenges in 2017, Cigna gave up on a $48 billion deal to acquire Anthem -- now known as Elevance Health. Losing the legal battle also caused Aetna -- now owned by pharmacy chain operator CVS Health (CVS.N) -- to abandon a $37 billion deal to acquire Humana.

[...]

[TDub]

fairly certain is isnt

[Shirley]

fairly certain is isnt

Consolidation resulting in fewer co.s selling health insurance would seem to be anti-competitive.

[TDub]

fairly certain is isnt

Consolidation resulting in fewer co.s selling health insurance would seem to be anti-competitive.

good news they can raise costs even more! and provide less services!

sounds like our taxes. Love it.

[Back2Lawrence]

The airlines have successfully done this in the last 15 years. But, jobs!

[TDub]

we should've never bailed out the airlines. the global shipping needed to remain but we really don't need air travel at the expense of trillions in tax payer money.

If they failed....then fuck it, they fail. I can think of a million other things thay money shouldve or could've gone too.

[ousdahl]

Or, if we DO need air travel at the expense of trillions in tax payer money, then maybe we should just nationalize that shit

[TDub]

we don't...and absolutely not.

Nationalize air travel?

Absofuckinglutely No.

[ousdahl]

OK so let’s just keep subsidizing it while they keep cutting services, cutting wages, and buying back stocks. Yaaay invisible hands.

[TDub]

did I say I supported that? Pretty sure I just said that was dumb and we should've let them fail?

[TDub]

also, for a guy that has spent the last....year? railing against every facet of government and every decision the government has made.....

you sure are eager to hand them control over more and more things.

[TDub]

Air travel is a luxury and unnecessary.

It is not a necessity and it is not a human right.

Don't bail it out, don't subsidize it, don't artificially keep it afloat, and for fucks sake for sure don't nationalize it.

[ousdahl]

How about nationalizing healthcare, then?

[TDub]

Do you read anything posted or do you just post random shit then attempt spin things around into an I gotcha?

If you been reading and following along then you already have my answer.

[ousdahl]

also, for a guy that has spent the last....year? railing against every facet of government and every decision the government has made.....

you sure are eager to hand them control over more and more things.

Well, a big reason I don’t trust the gummint much is because instead of the gummint making things like healthcare or transportation better for our nation, we put most of our resources toward bombs instead.