\u201c If Republicans kill ACA subsidies, a couple making $85K will pay $25,000 a year for healthcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s 30% of their income\u2014just to stay alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
This isn\u2019t \u201cfiscal conservatism.\u201d It\u2019s economic violence against the middle class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u202aHealth insurance doesn\u2019t keep 90+ % of the population paying for it alive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Most people in a given year don\u2019t spend anywhere near the amount they pay in insurance premiums.\u202c<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u202aWe joke about men not seeing their doctors. Women may see their doctors 3-4 times a year. If you\u2019ve got children they\u2019re seeing doctors more frequently, but even so an average normal family probably isn\u2019t spending as much as their yearly or even monthly premium.\u202c<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u202aThe question to ask is what does it really cost for a 20 minute visit with a doctor? What do medications actually cost to manufacture? Why can I self pay for a medication and pay $50 for 90 days, but if I put it through insurance suddenly that same medication is $400? Why can I \u201cSelf Pay\u201d for my once a year doctor visit, have a physical + tests & have it cost $800 cash, but my monthly insurance premium per month is $1400? \u202c<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u202aYes, insurance costs are out of hand. Yes, insurance companies are making breath-taking profits not on illness<\/em> but by selling fear<\/em><\/strong>. The fear they\u2019re selling is rising medical costs but they have a hand in driving those costs up by making those actually practicing medicine have to add staff just to deal with insurance billing and coding.\u202c Who are insurance bureaucrats to deny a doctor\u2019s diagnosis?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \u202aThe medical \/ insurance \/ pharmaceutical industry is a snake eating its own tail. That snake gets fatter each cycle but eventually it will eat itself to death.\u202c <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \u202aThis issue isn\u2019t partisan. The issue is continuing to throw money at a system that is fundamentally broken<\/em> and expecting the brokenness to get fixed without looking at or demanding to know why \/ how it\u2019s broken and taking appropriate action to fix it.\u202c<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \u202aACA was presented as an attempt to address the problem. It didn\u2019t work, the math never worked. Congress knew that going in. That\u2019s why they attempted to mandate everyone pay into the system and why they were going to fine people who didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n It failed In part because it didn\u2019t account for economic conditions, and in part because it didn\u2019t account for adherence to ACA rules adding cost and complexity to the practice of medicine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \u202aThe ACA pretty much drove small medical practices out of business. They had no choice but to merge with larger medical groups or hospitals meaning that a doctor hanging out a shingle and seeing patients on his or her own all but disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n The quality of care decreased because now you may see one of four or more doctors none of whom know your name. None of them interact with you as a person and all of them are diagnosing \/ prescribing based on data in your chart, not actually knowing you as a living breathing human being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n Half the time they\u2019re not listening and in some cases it\u2019s questionable if they fully understand what you\u2019re saying due to language barriers. You\u2019re just one of a thousand bodies parading through an office in a given week.\u202c<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \u202aFixing this system isn\u2019t about supplementing it with taxpayer\u2019s dollars. Fixing this system is about bringing it to heel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n One way to start that might be for everyone that can, to stop buying the insurance companies fear. Switch to self pay and then negotiate fair pricing from medical practitioners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n Another possibility is to demand upfront pricing so that a patient knows it will cost X dollars for a procedure. If you see an MD it\u2019s $100 \/hr (And you get their FULL<\/strong> attention, no more playing with their computers<\/em>). Blood work costs X dollars for a comprehensive panel. X-rays? What does it cost for materials+the hourly rate for the technician+the hourly rate for a doctor to look at the X-ray. There was a time when a film X-ray cost $50 flat. Why does where you have any testing done affect the bottom line cost? Just crossing county lines can have a 30% differential.\u202c<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \u202aWhy is it that we all have blood work done, but if you ask them to tell you what your blood type is, they want to charge you another fee? They\u2019re already there, they\u2019ve got the lab, the samples, and the typing cards. Shouldn\u2019t we all know our blood type as a matter of safety?\u202c<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \u202aThese are the kinds of questions that should be asked.\u202c<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n \u202aYou want the government to do something about healthcare? Then have them run audits and accounting to determine the real costs of care. \u202cThen move forward to make changes beneficial to the American people, not the insurance companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n You wouldn\u2019t continue to pump gas into your car from a leaky gas pump, why do people think it\u2019s okay to keep pumping tax dollars into a system that is leaking money like a sieve and providing poor services?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201c If Republicans kill ACA subsidies, a couple making $85K will pay $25,000 a year for healthcare. That\u2019s 30% of their income\u2014just to stay alive. This isn\u2019t \u201cfiscal conservatism.\u201d It\u2019s economic violence against the middle class.\u201d Brian Allen @allenanalysis \u202aHealth insurance doesn\u2019t keep 90+ % of the population paying for it alive. Most people in … <\/p>\n