Obama Care Lite
There is a growing number of republican law makers on the hill who are saying that the repeal and replace of Obama care is looking more and more like Obama Care Lite (ACA). But for me I think most of America is missing some critical points.
First, a part of the new affordable care act is about tax credits to help Americans afford insurance. Here is how I think that works. You pay higher premiums for your health insurance and when you file your taxes you get some of that back in the form of tax credits. So is that not subsidizing the insurance industry? And what keeps the insurance industry from simply increasing premium cost? How does the average working class American afford to pay even more for insurance monthly and then have to wait till tax season to get some of that back? For me that just seems hard to accomplish when most hard working families are living from pay check to pay check with little or no extra money to pay for increase insurance premiums.
And yesterday Republican Jim Jorden (Ohio), said in an interview with Morning Joe that the current proposal for the new AFC is not passable. But he is pushing for a clean repeal of Obama Care. He wants to kill the current plan leaving millions of Americans without any insurance coverage and then work to replace it. That is not what the American people are wanting or asking for.
Another part of the new AFC is to expand the Medicaid program. If you live in the state of Florida you simply cannot find a healthcare provider who will take Medicaid. So what is the value of health insurance if no one will take it? And I have to conclude the reason is Medicaid is underfunded or does not pay prevailing cost of healthcare so the heath care providers simply focus there business on what pays best. Keep this in mind when you start seeing the new AFC plan start to roll out.
26 million Americans depend on Obama Care. If Republican Jim Jorden has his way congress will wipe it out and then try to force congress to approve a replacement. But they do not have a replacement so that means no insurance for 26 million Americans. And the Democrats are united except for Senator Joe Mansion (D-West Virginia) who says he will vote for the right bill if the bill makes since. I agree with that. But nothing that has been proposed so far makes since.
It all boils down to two things. Americans want affordable insurance with reasonable deductibles. There is varying degrees of what people feel are affordable. We all agree that it cannot be free. Someone has to pay for the services. And insurance companies are for profit businesses so they have to make money. The government is trying to regulate the profits of the insurance companies and insurance companies are trying to lobby against that. The healthcare industry is a for profit industry and they are also lobbing to not have restrictions on their services. And it is irresponsible to not have quality heath care for the poor or working poor. It is a "right" of the citizens to expect equal heath care for everyone.
Burney Sanders (Democrat) during the senate hearings said, access to healthcare has to be affordable. It is not enough to say everyone will have access to health care. He said he has access to buy a 10 million dollar home but cannot afford it. That is a good point. It is not enough to say you have access but is the access affordable? Someone working and making minimum wage sees little value in health care that would cost $500.00 a month. You might as well say 5 million a month.
One of the problems with Obama care that the republicans what to do away with is the penalty for not purchasing insurance. I understand the reasoning for putting in the penalty so that more people would purchase the insurance plan and that would drive cost down. The problem was the penalty was about $750.00 and the minimum insurance was about $2,500 a year. So people were just opting to pay the penalty instead of purchasing the insurance. That resulted in no net gain for the insurance companies. Insurance companies need healthy people in the plans to help pay for those that are sick or need health care.
Now I do feel that there are some things that can make the ACA better. I do like the proposal to allow citizens to go across state lines to purchase insurance. This will make the insurance companies more competitive. Also I think citizens should be able to shop internationally for medications as long as the medication is the same as the domestic brand. Many drug manufactures ship the same medication that is sold in the US to other countries and sell the drugs at a fraction of the cost in the US. Sometimes hundreds of times more expensive if sold in the US. The drug companies actually do the same in the US. You can watch major drug companies product dropping into their branded bottles and also the same product dropping into Walmart bottles or generic bottles. And sold at a fraction of the cost for the exact same product. Most insurance companies know this and require pharmacies to use generic brand over the name brand if available.
Donald Trump said it best. This is a complicated business.
First, a part of the new affordable care act is about tax credits to help Americans afford insurance. Here is how I think that works. You pay higher premiums for your health insurance and when you file your taxes you get some of that back in the form of tax credits. So is that not subsidizing the insurance industry? And what keeps the insurance industry from simply increasing premium cost? How does the average working class American afford to pay even more for insurance monthly and then have to wait till tax season to get some of that back? For me that just seems hard to accomplish when most hard working families are living from pay check to pay check with little or no extra money to pay for increase insurance premiums.
And yesterday Republican Jim Jorden (Ohio), said in an interview with Morning Joe that the current proposal for the new AFC is not passable. But he is pushing for a clean repeal of Obama Care. He wants to kill the current plan leaving millions of Americans without any insurance coverage and then work to replace it. That is not what the American people are wanting or asking for.
Another part of the new AFC is to expand the Medicaid program. If you live in the state of Florida you simply cannot find a healthcare provider who will take Medicaid. So what is the value of health insurance if no one will take it? And I have to conclude the reason is Medicaid is underfunded or does not pay prevailing cost of healthcare so the heath care providers simply focus there business on what pays best. Keep this in mind when you start seeing the new AFC plan start to roll out.
26 million Americans depend on Obama Care. If Republican Jim Jorden has his way congress will wipe it out and then try to force congress to approve a replacement. But they do not have a replacement so that means no insurance for 26 million Americans. And the Democrats are united except for Senator Joe Mansion (D-West Virginia) who says he will vote for the right bill if the bill makes since. I agree with that. But nothing that has been proposed so far makes since.
It all boils down to two things. Americans want affordable insurance with reasonable deductibles. There is varying degrees of what people feel are affordable. We all agree that it cannot be free. Someone has to pay for the services. And insurance companies are for profit businesses so they have to make money. The government is trying to regulate the profits of the insurance companies and insurance companies are trying to lobby against that. The healthcare industry is a for profit industry and they are also lobbing to not have restrictions on their services. And it is irresponsible to not have quality heath care for the poor or working poor. It is a "right" of the citizens to expect equal heath care for everyone.
Burney Sanders (Democrat) during the senate hearings said, access to healthcare has to be affordable. It is not enough to say everyone will have access to health care. He said he has access to buy a 10 million dollar home but cannot afford it. That is a good point. It is not enough to say you have access but is the access affordable? Someone working and making minimum wage sees little value in health care that would cost $500.00 a month. You might as well say 5 million a month.
One of the problems with Obama care that the republicans what to do away with is the penalty for not purchasing insurance. I understand the reasoning for putting in the penalty so that more people would purchase the insurance plan and that would drive cost down. The problem was the penalty was about $750.00 and the minimum insurance was about $2,500 a year. So people were just opting to pay the penalty instead of purchasing the insurance. That resulted in no net gain for the insurance companies. Insurance companies need healthy people in the plans to help pay for those that are sick or need health care.
Now I do feel that there are some things that can make the ACA better. I do like the proposal to allow citizens to go across state lines to purchase insurance. This will make the insurance companies more competitive. Also I think citizens should be able to shop internationally for medications as long as the medication is the same as the domestic brand. Many drug manufactures ship the same medication that is sold in the US to other countries and sell the drugs at a fraction of the cost in the US. Sometimes hundreds of times more expensive if sold in the US. The drug companies actually do the same in the US. You can watch major drug companies product dropping into their branded bottles and also the same product dropping into Walmart bottles or generic bottles. And sold at a fraction of the cost for the exact same product. Most insurance companies know this and require pharmacies to use generic brand over the name brand if available.
Donald Trump said it best. This is a complicated business.
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