The Obamacare Decision–TB’s Ten-Cent Analysis

Yeah that’s a good point Wit. In 2008, a world wide study was done by a group of investigators called CONCORD. They did a 5 yr study on breast, colon, rectal, and prostate cancer. Interestingly enough, The U.S. had the highest survival rate. To your point, their data showed it’s highly likely that those on private insurance had the highest life expectancy, with medicare patients in the middle and uninsured and medicaid at the bottom. This was life expectancy overall, not just cancer patients. Switzerland had very good health outcomes. Yes, they have universal healthcare. But it is private sector, market based universal coverage. Much of there data results positively for those on some kind of private sector insurance as opposed to that of something like European centrally planned coverage.
I think the U.S. should be able to do something like that. It just requires both sides to give in a little. Maybe get the best of both worlds.

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I will wade into this discussion only because what Mac said sounds so much like something I said back in 2008 (great minds), “Bottom line for me is no one should suffer from, say, cancer because they don’t have money. Put another way, money should not be the impediment to proper medical treatment. I understand the ER is always there for emergencies. But you don’t go to the ER for leukemia.”

I’m all ears for how we get to that point.

“Don’t believe them when they tell me there ain’t no cure. The rich stay healthy. The sick stay poor.” U2, God Part II.

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Just thought this was an interesting thing to share with the MTGU about this topic. I’m a big fan of factcheck.org.

http://factcheck.org/2012/06/romney-obama-uphold-health-care-falsehoods/

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Very well put.

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Here’s what I gathered from all these comments from my wiser elders of the MTGU: we’re all fucked.

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My insurance is affordable but it is probably a little different than most. My wife has epilepsy and thus my needs are probably more than yours. For instance among other things, She requires a surgery every 5 yrs to replace a battery in a gadget implanted in her neck. Used to be 10 yrs. The govt already is involved by now requiring the Dr’s to use a different battery. One that only lasts 5 yrs. According to the dr’s, there will be many more hassles due to obamacare. SO right there, my costs will go up. And the insusrance will go up eventually to a pt where it will be unaffordable. The super rich will still have private med care like they do in Europe or Canada or Cuba. People seem to not know this. all these rich celebs and Buffet types who support it will still get the med care they want when they want. They will just pay for it. The point of the dumbassedness of how this plan works is to get everyone else under a govt plan.

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Smiley, your medical costs, like mine, are affordable because we have dodged major medical problems. I have said before my #1 problem with our medical system is that a man can work his whole life, pay his dues and have a kid come up with cancer and it puts him in the poor house. Whatever our system, that simply should not be allowed to happen.

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I’ve been working for 17 years now. Every year, my insurance costs have gone up, my co-pays go up about every other year and my deductibles go up, all of this at a rate far above inflation.

Under Obamacare, I expect this to continue, but I don’t believe it will get any better or worse. The argument that “our rates will go up under Obamacare” is thus specious in my experience. Yes, they will go up. But that’s nothing new. The failure of Obamacare is that it doesn’t arrest the growth of insurance company power and their corresponding role in our ever-increasing health care costs.

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I dont care if someone makes money out of it. If I get what I need reasonably. I get that now. I know every body does not. I have immediate family that does not. Single payer wont do it. But insurance companies need some regs too. They can still make money. Millions. This act will make my insurance go up. No doubt. That is its purpose too. I definitely do not want to be under a govt plan if avoidable. In Europe 135000 elderly deaths per year can be directly attributed to care being delayed or not given because they are elderly. I have a fire academy buddy in Canada who will vehemently vouch for how shitty theirs is. I know it can be done better here. After watching and reading news today, I am also fearful the repubs are going to screw this chance up to oust the assclown. Yeah, i know they have sucked too. But I am willing to give someone a chance and hope to be pleasantly surprised. I would have even been willing to listen to another dem option for president too. I dont want the current admin out just cuz they are dems. I know there are few differences deep down in today’s climate. I look at all the other crap that many just hide their heads in the sand about.

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Good points Smily and Mac.

There are definitely some free market reforms that could be made, primarily in my mind, removing the antitrust exemption for insurance companies which allows them to fix prices and carve up no-compete zones. The Republicans have stopped those efforts cold.

Going the single payer system would lower costs by instituting de facto price controls and bringing every citizen into the pay pool. I’ll be candid–we aren’t ready for that overnight not only in a cultural sense, but because we have too few docs.

Here’s the problem with the status quo. Docs give care. Patients need care. Docs need to be paid. Enter the insurance company–the middle man who does nothing to help the patient’s health. They need to make more money than the docs AND support an infrastructure of tens–hundreds of thousands of corporate bureaucrats.

A single payer system would still have the paper pushers, but at least one part of the cost problem–hundreds of millions for stockholders and more hundreds for CEO’s and vice presidents would be removed from the equation.

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