One of the biggest reasons the cost of health care in this nation has skyrocketed, and made the United States by far the most expensive industrialized nation in which to get health care, is corporate greed. Unlike every other country, which have outlawed the very concept of a for-profit primary care system, the American health care industry has been based on a fatally flawed model from the start - they are an industry which can only make a profit by denying its customers the very thing that they pay the industry for. By denying coverage, the industry profits.
The Health Care Reform Law does not solve the problem. But it does force the industry to change their m.o. and actually spend most of their money on the service they are supposed to provide, and that is a very, very good thing. This year alone the American public will receive more than a billion dollars in rebates because of this provision.
The real game-changer in "Obamacare". Good thing or bad thing?
Heptarch
2012/07/04 13:39:10
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Please read the entire article before commenting. It's just a couple of pages, but it's vital you understand why it's important before commenting. Thanks.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2011/12/02/the-bomb-bur...
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2011/12/02/the-bomb-bur...
Top Opinion
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ProudProgressive 2012/07/04 13:54:37
That won't happen any time soon, if ever.
You need to get the facts and stop believing the Liberal talking points.
I know that the Liberals want it to be a penalty.... but it's a TAX along with 21 other TAXES contained in Obamacare....
You are following the sheep path built for You by Obama and the Progressives, that's alright, it's Your right to be gullible if You choose to be.
No chooses to pay this TAX, it is assessed if the people fail to by MANDATED health insurance. From the get go the bill used the IRS to administer and enforce the Obamacare TAX. Give me a break and go try to convince some simple minded person that this isn't a TAX..... BS.
Medicare, as it stands, uses all the resources of the federal government without counting it as an expense; further Medicare is loaded with fraud whish costs $billions yearly and is not counted as "cost", this fraud would not exists if the plan was private.... the cost of fraud is caused by the inept management of government. I guess it's all relative.
The trustees’ summary listed total Medicare expenditures of $522.8 billion for 2010, of which $7 billion was characterized as "administrative expenses." That works out to 1.3 percent"
And later,
"For the private insurance market, we turned to a 2008 study by the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan number-crunching arm of Congress. CBO cited data, compiled by the McKinsey Global Institute, that estimated administrative costs for private insurers at 12 percent"
The reality is that there are some things Government is very good and efficient at, like taking money from one entity and transferring it to another. When it comes to the task of carrying out a function that resembles insurance, it's very efficient.
Now, if you measured operational efficiency, you'd probably find better performance at a private hospital than a VA hospital. But Obamacare doesn't set up government hospitals or clinics -- it uses private sector healthcare delivery.
http://www.politifact.com/tru...
I think that if the Feds ever got smart enough, they would hire accountants and others by the 10's of thousands to combat fraud to follow up on virtually all claims as the cost to pay them salary and benefits would never equal the cost in fraud and in fact yield great savings. I would imagine here the cons would shun this idea as nothing more than an expansion of a government agency. But do we have room in jail for these fraudsters? No but US incarceration and punishment rates is another subject altogether.
This country has a long way to go...
Just like the GSA trips on the taxpayer dime, the feeling of entitlement by the government employees and the corruption and waste that is condoned by leadership.
It's not the government's money darn it; it's the peoples money.
Basically, insurance companies collect your money through premiums, but you do not instantaneously get sick. Rather, you get paid back the money when (and if) you get sick. Now, the profit margin from taking peoples money and giving it back to them to pay for costly expenditures is actually much smaller than you think. However, the fact that insurance companies get to bank this money in the "in-between" time of you paying and you needing a payout is known as the "float". And what do you do with fairly large sums of money when it's lying around? Invest! And there's the profit mechanism for insurance companies. It's that they invest the premiums between payouts to reap profits.
Mandating more efficient overhead is largely irrelevant. Keep in mind that now that all Americans are mandated (read: taxed) into buying Health Care, it means more and more people will be buying Health Insurance that won't be needing a payout any time soon (essentially fairly healthy people). This drastically expands the "float" and allows Health Insurance co...
Basically, insurance companies collect your money through premiums, but you do not instantaneously get sick. Rather, you get paid back the money when (and if) you get sick. Now, the profit margin from taking peoples money and giving it back to them to pay for costly expenditures is actually much smaller than you think. However, the fact that insurance companies get to bank this money in the "in-between" time of you paying and you needing a payout is known as the "float". And what do you do with fairly large sums of money when it's lying around? Invest! And there's the profit mechanism for insurance companies. It's that they invest the premiums between payouts to reap profits.
Mandating more efficient overhead is largely irrelevant. Keep in mind that now that all Americans are mandated (read: taxed) into buying Health Care, it means more and more people will be buying Health Insurance that won't be needing a payout any time soon (essentially fairly healthy people). This drastically expands the "float" and allows Health Insurance companies to invest more and more money. It also makes the idea of having 80% of coverage go to medical expenses easier because Health Insurance companies now have more dispensable income from individuals that need little to no medical expense coverage.
I don't see it that way. I see people like you advocating that private enterprise can freely abuse its customers without any repercussions. And when you realize that we're talking about the health of America, I think it's reprehensible to allow corporations to abuse those customers.
"ESPECIALLY when one cannot bother to seek out other remedies first."
What do you mean by this? I'm sincerely curious.
The federal government has no constitutional authority to set up a healthcare insurance plan - it has no authority to have much of anything to do with health care. It SHOULD be a state and local issue - according to the Constitution.
Half the nation did not WANT this monstrosity, but it was bulled through accepting NO input from the opposing party who spoke for half of America.
When we begin to toss away the Constitution, we no longer have a constitutional representative government - so what DO we have? What we are DANGEROUSLY close to is a dictatorship, fully staffed by Marxists, who don't have a clue what they are doing OR they know exactly what they are doing and it profits ONLY them.
Other remedies to address first? Tort reform for one. So much, so VERY much is added to medical costs because of the obscene lawsuits these ambnulance chasers rely on. Huge judgements, of which the lawyer gets MOST and the persons suing get little. The insurance rates for doctors, nurses, hospitals, nursing homes, day care centers, pharmacies, drug companies are not astronomical for ONE big reason : lawyers out of control and greed of Americans who believe all the sh** that comes do...
The federal government has no constitutional authority to set up a healthcare insurance plan - it has no authority to have much of anything to do with health care. It SHOULD be a state and local issue - according to the Constitution.
Half the nation did not WANT this monstrosity, but it was bulled through accepting NO input from the opposing party who spoke for half of America.
When we begin to toss away the Constitution, we no longer have a constitutional representative government - so what DO we have? What we are DANGEROUSLY close to is a dictatorship, fully staffed by Marxists, who don't have a clue what they are doing OR they know exactly what they are doing and it profits ONLY them.
Other remedies to address first? Tort reform for one. So much, so VERY much is added to medical costs because of the obscene lawsuits these ambnulance chasers rely on. Huge judgements, of which the lawyer gets MOST and the persons suing get little. The insurance rates for doctors, nurses, hospitals, nursing homes, day care centers, pharmacies, drug companies are not astronomical for ONE big reason : lawyers out of control and greed of Americans who believe all the sh** that comes down the pike through the warped media and warped DNC. And I do not rule out the RNC, but they aren't as wrong or as rabid as the DNC.
Will there ever be tort reform? Of course NOT. Why? Congress is mostly lawyers and they don't really eat their own.
Another remedy would have been to approach health insurance companies and found some middle ground for those with less income. Both insurance companies and doctors will work with people willing to be honest and straightforward. I know that from experience.
I suggested at least a partial remedy that took it totally out of government's hands (before Obamacare) here on SH, that we work together to privately provide health insurance for those who try but who truly cannot afford it. I offered to sponsor one family and provide their annual insurance payment and urged those in America who could afford to do the same or less or better, do so also. We could have done this, made it a charitable donation, and money would have been spent so much more effectively and generously than to provide grants for studying the bowel habits of earth worms. Care to guess how many thought that would be a good idea? NONE. I've reiterated it a couple of times since then, and have been told all the negatives that COULD happen. No positives.
Ergo, when it comes to the left, I've run out of compassion and I've run out of patience. They don't want health insurance or any other solutions except more control over people's lives.
That's why my response was so cursory. There's no point in engaging you when all you've got are right wing talking points.
You also don't recognize that the world is changing around you and any nation who wants to be on top had better change with it or die a slow, prolonged death.
"That difference is destroying our nation."
What's destroying our nation is the black and white attitude in politics liek the one you're showing. People who disagree with you aren't your enemy how want America to fail. They simply have different ideas about how America can succeed.
The left, demanding more and more and more change , is flirting with civil unrest to put it mildly.
We're not talking about a complete overhaul of the governmental structure here. We're talking about one industry. You can socialize one industry without becoming a Marxist Socialist country. We've had portions of the economy socialized for well over a hundred years now and we haven't imploded.
"why would any civilized and half intelligent society want to force feed it again and again to the people?"
Because socialized medicine works.
"When a society has been exceedingly successful for decades, why do people want to change it?"
Because the world is changing. You can't continue to be successful if your methods are outdated and you refuse to change.
"Had it been left alone by politicians we would still have a vibrant, work filled, decent country."
No. Had it been left alone by the government management would have continued to abuse and exploit its workforce like the robber barons of the late 19th and early 20th c.
"The left, demanding more and more and more change , is flirting with civil unrest to put it mildly."
Why do you refuse to acknowledge that the world is changing around us? Do you really think we can stay on top if we don't change with it?
Of course they can. They issued Dred Scott, didn't they? But I'll take their opinion on it over yours and the rest of the right wing fire eaters any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
When you say most Americans did not want this. Well, here is my response to you.,.. most Americans flat out had no clue what was even in the bill. They heard it was something to be afraid of, and most of them were so inept, they did not bother to find out what was IN the bill. They just fell for the propaganda BS and ran crying with the rest of you nuts.
Read the damn thing, tell me then why you feel that insurance companies SHOULD be allowed to drop you at will? Why should you be denied coverage? Why should children who get diagnosed w/ a serious illness be dropped? Why should the insurance companies be allowed to decide you no longer qualify for their care? Why should the insurance companies make decisions about your care and life, instead of you and your doctor? Why should someone fighting to survive with cancer, have to spend the rest of their lives, literally, fighting w/ insurance companies? Why should someone lose their home because they got sick? I could go on and on... but how about seeing if you can answer why you support corrupt insurance company practices?