A last, last chance: Republicans strain for Obamacare repeal

The problem is that healthcare's demand is inelastic. And I hate saying that because it sounds so detached, when what it really means is that when someone is given the choice between suffering and dying or going into medical debt, that's basically extortion. AS it is, insurance gains effectiveness from having a pool of resources to draw on so that it can be tapped into at different times to make sure everyone is okay. The problem with the American system is that that pool is divided into many small pools that don't touch and there's an industry of bureaucrats who take a cut of profit every time paperwork changes hands, driving costs up. There's other factors too, like the AMA essentially being a cartel that has the power to drive prices up as they wish. A single-payer system averts these problems by driving healthcare costs down through eliminating that bureaucracy and cartel system and then the lower prices are more easily covered by a national insurance system.

Yeah, the democrats didn't go far enough with the ACA. They started out by compromising so much in anticipation of the argument that in the end what they passed looking nothing like what they wanted. I understand being angry at that, the system has failed you and me. But the people who take that anger and tell you that you should use it to advocate for a total free market solution are damned liars- and being lied to by a massive complex of liars like that doesn't make you stupid or ignorant either.

And yeah, we gotta pay for it. I'm okay with that. We should really pay for it by ceasing to funnel money into absurd military projects like the F35 and generally cut the military budget, since it's the highest expense we have and we simply don't need most of the spending to say safe since it largely goes into the pockets of contractors. But since that's an unpopular campaign promise, we'll probably get our teaxes raised a bit, and I'm okay with that too because I'd rather have less cash in my pocket and not have to worry about dying as much.

 

Conservatives never met a weapons system they didn't like, because it helps them sleep at night. For them there is no limit how much the Pentagon and Israel should get each year. They don't really care that much about health insurance.

 

I have advocated a single-payer system for years! I'd still rather have health care insurance provided as it used to be when I was a young, working person, but we've got everything so screwed up now that it will never be possible to go back.

A single-payer system would create the single largest customer-base in the world. The government could issue solicitations to the health insurance companies for either three or five-year contracts and let them BID for our business -- winner take all! That would make these companies offer the very best coverage at the very lowest prices, with the fewest co-pays and deductibles, in all 50 states.

BUT, the key is that everyone who participates in the single-payer system must PAY. I mean PAY insurance premiums -- and not iwth "subsidies", "tax credits", or any other kind of welfare handouts!

Anyone who would not PAY to be a part of this customer-base would be free to get health insurance on his own, or, if too poor, to simply go on Medicaid. There would be no further unconstitutional "mandates". Yes, of course, we'd still have to keep Medicaid for all those who don't pay their own way in life. Some of that is most understandable, but a hell of a lot of it is just opportunistic bums and parasites sucking off the government welfare systems.

At any rate, that's my suggestion on single-payer, and there is no doubt in my mind that it would work very, very well. I worked with large, extensive government contracts nearly all my professional life. If that could not work, then we should simply go back to each person selecting and paying for his own health care himself....

 

Single payer is just socialized medicine and income redistribution under a different name

Eventually the pinheads in washington will destroy any slight advantage it might have offered

Over time it devolve into the worst healthcare imaginable

But I also see that obama managed to burn a lot of bridges making it difficult to regain what we once had

 

Socialized medicine is a different thing. That's nationalizing the hospitals. Single payer is nationalizing health insurance.

And anyway, it's ridiculous to give up on any kind of good solution because you'll have to fight to maintain it. If you hate the possibility of any good governance being dissolved you might as well just give up on civil society because it might collapse anyway.

 

Well, thanks to the aforementioned RINOs in the GOP, Gruber's Goobers will be able to continue worshipping at the hooves of their sacred FullRetardCare cow and reaping the divine benefits of its rising costs, diminishing choices, government mandates and the mountain of lies they hold dear.

Enjoy the show - FullRetardCare is working exactly as Democrats planned and the rest of us predicted...

 

Well where is the Great healthcare plan that President Trump campaigned on, it was supposed to provide every American with affordable excellent Health Care.

What happened to that plan did he lose it somewhere.

 

He promised to get RID of Obamacare, but the cowardly RINO, so-called "Republicans" stabbed him in the back... along with all American Conservatives everywhere in this country.

 

Actually, we do care about HI and HC, which is why we don't want the "progressive" imbeciles who passed and support FullRetardCare wrecking our healthcare system.

The problem here isn't that conservatives don't care about HI/HC - the problem is that the only thing "progressives" care about is power.

And THAT is why FullRetardCare is failing as we all told you it would.

But you believed it would save Americans $2500 a year, expand people's choices and let everyone keep their doctors and their HC plans if they liked them, period...



BWAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

SUCKERS.

And the Babeuvian Illiterati's solution to the problems that more government involvement in our HI/HC system created?

MORE government involvement in our HI/HC system.

 

So what is the right plan? I know you don't like the current one. I'm interested in your fixes. You must have them.

 

The answer at this point? Single-payer -- but a single-payer system where all participants actually PAY premiums, without "subsidies", "tax credits", or any government handout welfare of any kind. The welfare crowd would get put on Medicaid, which is all they should receive....

 

So you think we're going to get single payer healthcare? Because I do too at this point.

 

I do have my fixes but you won't find them in Washington where Democrats and too many Republicans don't give a damn about the promises they made to the American people.

Our self-serving, unresponsive government at work...

 

What we once had, before the ACA, was skyrocketing health care costs, and the continual rise in the tens of millions uninsured whose medical expenses were routinely dumped on the American taxpayer.

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Under the law, the number of uninsured non-elderly Americans decreased from 44 million in 2013 (the year before the major coverage provisions went into effect) to 28 million as of the end of 2016. The rate of increase in insurance premiums has, at least, slowed.

The GOP has amply demonstrated its impotence in confronting and assuaging the untenable national plight. Pressure from the profiteers and from the dogmatic ideologues preventst its taking the sensible steps to accomplish Trump's stated goal of covering "everybody!" at "lower cost!" as advanced nations have all achieved.

 

I don't see that as a conservative/libertarian answer, Pollycy.

A single-payer system is invariably going to require the government power, control and mandates that we oppose.

 

I am asking because I'm genuinely interested in what people propose for fixes. I agree that our government is self serving and unresponsive. I think everyone would and should agree with that. But what specific fixes do you think they should be making?

 

Something FullRetardCare failed to remedy...

...and the Left's answer was to dump even more costs on taxpayers by forcing them to hand out even more cash to even more freeloaders AND government bureaucrats on top of that.

Under the law, Democrats stripped Americans of the existing freedom to decide for themselves whether to purchase HI or not (one of the many choices Americans lost under FullRetardCare) , primarily because they sought to rob young, healthy Americans who didn't need to purchase HI to pay for their power grab/wealth redistribution/entitlement-based vote-buying scheme. Despite their empty promises that "progressives" lapped up with credulous zeal, preying on one of the most vulnerable segments of our society - the young - they still failed to get everyone insured, just as they have failed to get everyone to drop their existing HC/HI plans and enroll in FullRetardCare.

Yet, contrary to Obama & Co.'s promises, costs are still going up instead of coming down.

Actually, the GOP had nothing to do with the Democrats' impotence confronting and improving the untenable national plight (i.e., FullRetardCare). However, Democrats do want Republicans to fix and fund their incompetence.

Achieved through lower quality care, higher taxes, people going outside the incompetent state-run HC system to obtain prompt care, denying others treatment, etc..

To top it all off, Americans are supposed to gullible enough to believe that the "progressive" statists who want even more power and control over every aspect of our existence are being "altruistic" by robbing us of our freedom, income and control over own healthcare and healthcare decisions. The Babeuvian Illiterati and its delusions are truly a marvel to behold...

 

I appreciate your genuine interest and I'm glad you share my assessment of our government, so I'll entertain your request with a brief and general answer since I don't presume or pretend to know everything there is to know about healthcare. However, I do know what I would like to see in relation to us, our government and our HC system:

I will start by pointing out that there is no "fixing" ObamaCare. As Harry Reid confessed it was enacted to advance the Left's goal of handing control of our HC system, and with it our own control over our individual HC decisions, to Washington. Not only do the problems in the "progressive" power grab masquerading as "healthcare reform" have to be addressed, its entire trajectory has to be reversed. First and foremost, the individual mandate has to be abolished. After that, the mandates on businesses and other groups have to be abolished, that includes the mandates on what coverage Americans have to buy. Those decisions have to be left to individuals to determine for themselves based on their own needs, income, expenditures, etc.. In short, we have to pry the Democrats' meathooks out of our lives, preserve our individual control over our HC and stop ceding more power over to the government.

To make a long story short, "fixing" ObamaCare begins with FULL repeal. After that, bipartisan negotiations can begin (or not) on a plan that addresses the problems that most Americans are facing in relation to healthcare - cost, access, pre-existing conditions, etc. - while enabling them to maintain individual control over their own HI/HC decisions in accordance with their own needs instead of having the government control and dictate those decisions to us in accordance with the government's needs. I think the problems I mentioned above could have been addressed if Democrats were more interested in our needs instead of their own, and I still think they can be addressed without enacting some massive government program that is only going to expand the size, expense and power of government. Another argument for full repeal, which is something Rand Paul suggested, is that it will force both parties to the negotiation table where there's a chance the two parties can hammer out a compromise solution that the vast majority of Americans across party and ideological lines can live with. There's no way to make everyone happy so there's no point in pretending that Washington can.

In the end, I want to see as little government involvement in our HC affairs as possible. It does have role to play in programs such as Medicare and Medicaid but it doesn't need to be interfering in the average American's affairs, and that is precisely what Democrats set ot to do with O'Care. We don't need government running our lives, imposing its priorities over our own, getting between us and our doctors, determining what care we can receive and when we can obtain it, dictating what HI policies we have to buy, forcing us to purchase HI, etc.. Counter to what many in Washington contend, I don't think the government has the authority or an obligation to 1) ensure that everyone has HI and 2) provide healthcare to everyone. We can help the needy, but we don't need to cede our individual rights and responsibilities to the state/government/public officials. Ultimately, that is the disaster I want to prevent here.

 

Thank you for your well thought out and very detailed answer. I appreciate the time you took to write it.

The only part I don't agree with is the "full repeal" of the ACA. There are too many parts to the ACA that have great merit for everyone in the country. They should remain in place, and the parts that don't work and won't work (or are unsustainable or too costly) need to be ripped out and ripped apart. I agree with most of what Senator Paul says but I disagree with that part.

I also completely disagreed with the ACA idea that people should be forced to buy a third party service, like healthcare insurance. When that was discussed and rolled out, I immediately had a knee jerk reaction that it was a slippery slope. Where does that stop? I completely disagree with anyone who say the government has the right to compel people to purchase something. Taxes, yes I get that. They have to extort taxes from us. But force us to buy a product or service from a company? Unbelievably dangerous.

I think if they can't come up with a compromise that appeals to most Americans, because as you correctly say they can't please everyone, then there's something very dark around the corner, and that's single payer healthcare, something that I am very much opposed to.

 

I wish I could get in a 'healthcare time-machine' and dial it to go back 40 years ago to 1977, when medical services insurance companies covered all your sickness, injuries, etc., with no 'co-pays' and 'deductibles', and, was paid for by being part of your employment compensation. In other words, you worked for it, and you earned it. But, now that's fantasy.

We've got to live in the miserable, socialism-infested reality of 2017, where people on one form of welfare or another make up over 50% of our population -- complete with the ability to VOTE.

What else can we do? The welfare crowd is demanding every kind of 'free-stuff' imaginable from the government because they got SO MUCH of it under their wonderous ex-prez "Messiah". What they want is 'cradle-to-grave' welfare handouts, and that includes free medical services and medicine. I know single-payer is not the ideal solution, but it may be the only one that can work as long as the parasite-class keeps the right to vote....

 

CBO's "scoring" on Healthcare has a worse track record than the Fake News Polling that called for a Hillary Landslide.

 

That would probably explain why the Republicans are so afraid to have their plan scored before the vote. And just so you know the call for a Hillary landslide was way before the Comey statement and the Russian leaks. Polls immediatly begore the election were almost a statistical tie.

 

Gee and when you said welfare crowd I thought you were talking about corporations. You know the ones that pay no taxes and the ones that get all the special tax breaks.

 

CBO is hamstringing congress.

Newt was the first Speaker in a Generation to push a balanced budget through Congress and he was the first in a Generation when he did it. He truly has a remarkable record in this, unequaled in the lifetimes of all of us:

Newt Gingrich says CBO should be abolished after ‘profoundly dishonest’ report
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And were he Speaker, he would follow through on this:

“I want to get your thoughts on the scoring by the CBO on the GOP health care bill,” MacCallum asked, “Do you like it, or not?”

“They should abolish the Congressional Budget Office,” Gingrich said. “It is corrupt, it is dishonest, it was totally wrong on Obamacare by huge huge margins. I don’t trust a single word they have published and I don’t believe them.”

“But the head of it is a Trump appointee,” MacCallum objected, “and in many ways I think people miss, people maybe misjudge what they’re supposed to do. I mean their job is to figure out whether or not this is something that can get through on reconciliation. Not to make a judgement about the whole bill.”

“I could care less,” Gingrich answered. “No. They lie, let me be very clear. Let me be very clear. OK, I helped balance the budge four straight times the only time in your lifetime. We fought the Congressional Budget Office every time.”

“When Obamacare came out,” he explained, “they used the architect of Obamacare as their advisor on how to score Obamacare, and their scoring, you go back and look at it, it is a totally dishonest, disgustingly wrong, and it is, that whole thing should be abolished.”

They should replace it by putting it out to bid and having three to five professional firms score these things. Nobody has an exact score, it’s not possible. Even tonight, Dr. Tom Price, the Secretary of Health and Human Services pointed out there are whole sections of this bill they didn’t score.

“So I really do think it’s disgusting,” he concluded. “And I’m really disappointed that the Republicans haven’t abolished the Congressional Budget Office, because it’s so profoundly dishonest.”

A Real Speaker

https://www.google.com/search?q=New...=chrome..69i57j69i60&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

One can always judge the honesty of a post by who the post blames. Republicans will blame Democrats and Democrats will blame Republicans but the simple fact is that the system was a disaster before the ACA and is still a disaster and will continue to be a disaster should the ACA repeal suceed. There is zero evidence thst either party has any interest in fixing the system and overwhelming evidence that both parties really seek only to use healthcare as a political advantage over the opposing party.