I was told by the licensed agent that my application probably would not be accepted, because I answered yes to taking blood pressure medication. Although I answered no to the other 719 questions, my yes to BP meds will do me in. To get medicare you have to be 65, I'm pushing toward 80. I only know one person my era who doesn't take any meds, and he never went to a doctor. Perplexed by her warning, I consulted Dr. Google. He told me that this major health insurer, along with their competition, were reeling under the cost of medical care and the aging demographic. That I can understand, but then why all the advertising? I would like to move to the zip code where the elderly live in perfect health, with no medication.
Thank you John Fetterman for being a front man to end the shutdown. I know that the Democrats wanted to extend the health subsidies, but the consequences of the shutdown were outweighing their good intentions. As a blogger, I'm submitted to irrational partisans who put winning above everything else. They create so much tension that we need a national prescription for political centrists.
I'm not here to be polite or popular
mj adams
ReplyDeleteGood intentions on the part of the Democrats?
The ACA, Obamacare/National RomneyCare, is working precisely as designed…a profit center, NOT a care center. It’s been a sop for Big Insurance since jump street. Have some people benefited?
Sure.
Some have.
It’s an unsustainable system with winners and losers.
“If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor.”
“Your premiums and your copayments will be reduced.”
“The average person will save $2,000 per year.”
As the Biden term was running down somewhere approaching 30 million Americans had zero health insurance and millions more were effectively denied access to healthcare by draconian co-payments on top of high premiums.
The Dem angst is yet another performance piece.
The current situation is bad political theater.
Let us not forget the "Guaranteed Acceptance" life insurance policies for insurance that doesn't pay if you don't live for at least three years after you start paying the premiums
ReplyDeleteWhen I started my last job, I signed up for the company plan for me and my wife. She passed away a year later and when I filed for her insurance, the company informed me that she didn't live long enough. So they cancelled my policy and issued me a refund of the premiums I paid in.
They don't tell you about such details when you sign up however.
It’s hard to believe that you have a blood pressure problem. Your recent posts seem so rational.
ReplyDeleteMy prescription for you?
Go outside and get some exercise in the beautiful Allentown park system. Surely nothing there that would make your blood pressure go up.
We have seen escalating costs of health care that are no longer appropriate compared to incomes of most Americans. If all health care would be self pay, it would collapse the entire industry. That is a symptom that something is wrong.
ReplyDeleteAll the new Government programs since the 1960's have not remedied the situation. It is reported that healthcare is now the biggest at 18% of GDP, another symptom of something amiss.
Insurance by employers, government financed, all third party payers can only lead to increased costs. government enforced schemes to cut costs have not worked, just shifted costs around.
Only real market forces and an effort to reduce costs to providers will ever make a difference.
As for advertising, they are spending lots of money to recruit more people and as you have revealed, those who may need little actual care.
Would the current administration have more use for Obamacare, if they rename it Trumpcare?
ReplyDeleteBoth health networks locally, seem to have more enthusiasm for increasing their real estate portfolios, than accommodating patients. Everywhere you go there is dueling LVHN vs St. Lukes buildings.
"Medicare Advantage".. the biggest scam in all history.. The worse part it is costing Medicare more then it would if there were no such plans. I've chosen years ago for plain old Medicare plus a supplemental policy that fully covers the other 20% (under plan F).
ReplyDeleteI've only come out behind (with what they paid out) 3 years out of 12. Always first class treatment plus my COPD meds for my nebulizer are fully covered. Heaven help us if Trump and Republicans have their way and privatize Medicare and the ACA. It would only get worse. That's not "opinion", it's FACT.
As far as my Part D it sucks. I now have a $560 deductible before they even begin to partially cover any other meds.
Curiously there doesn’t seem to be any over abundance of hospital facilities in S.W. Florida.
ReplyDeleteHealthcare is the one service that most somehow believe they should not have to pay for directly. Everyone is paying, directly or indirectly.
ReplyDeleteMike, Anyone wishing for, or demanding national health care has no idea how bad national health care is in countries that have it. As you know my wife is a French National, all her family still lives there. Both her parents/seniors died of easily diagnosed cancers. Screening is not part of the program for older folk. My father in law, seeing a doctors for years with prostate issues was never offered prostate cancer screening. He died of prostate cancer. When I found out about this, I was outraged, my inlaws much less so. Don't you know, that is just how it is they shrugged. The government bureaucrats who make the rules for national health care understand health care costs skyrocket in the final decades of life. In other words giving them a few more years is just too expensive. One can read stories about Canadians being encourage to commit suicide if they have serious medical or psychiatric conditions such as depression. England as the ironically named NICE Board that decides for everyone the cost effectiveness of medicines, and treatments. It admits to rationing care to keep costs down. If you are traveling overseas and need hospital care for anything serious, it is wise to get back to America if you can. I have been inside French hospitals, you don't want to be there. In out own country Medicare, national health care for the poor is fast bankrupting the country. Costs for this have soared costs soar annually and are up again this year because the "Temporary Biden Covid subsidy" was cynically timed to expire right before congressional elections this year. They could have made the subsidies permanent but chose not to, why? The answer is simple, they wanted to use the subsidies to continue to hide the exploding costs of health care, their health care plan. As well, it's no secret to anyone that the system is rampant with fraud. Why? Because the government runs it. Finally, health care costs started rising when managed care entered our system. It bureaucratised private health care, instead of going to your own doctor, who may have had a receptionist/secretary/billing person all rolled in one, you now see a team of people managing the manage care related paperwork. Obama Care, also ironically named he "Affordable Health Care Act" resulted in escalating health care cost further. In may areas of the country there is no choice over providers or coverage. The free market/competition is eliminated. What effect does that have on costs and quality? Mike you like position yourself as an independent, but you increasing sound like a lemming for the left. It is my recommendation to anyone who believes the government can run anything better or cheaper than the private market to do some research.
ReplyDelete"anyone who believes the government can run anything better or cheaper than the private market to do some research."
DeleteThe average private plans average around $500 a month for an individual under 65. Competition isn't resulting in anything much better. Most of those plans have their own preferred providers and have high deductibles on top of that. If you have a better idea or a specific plan I'd like to hear it.
As with any insurance doctors would still need the same overhead costs. Government or no government.
Are you suggesting a pay-as-you-go cash option?
scott@1:08: I know you can't conceive of this, but this post is neither left or right, Democrat or Republican....It is about medicare, which dates back to 1965. Likewise, although many of the public figures I criticize are Republican, it's not because of their party, but because they're currently in office.
ReplyDeleteActually Mike I did " conceive" what you wrote which was, "They create so much tension that we need a national prescription for political centrists." That seems like a thinly veiled plea for single payer/national health care plan. If you want a more centrist plan, the last place you should look for it is the Party that passed ObamaCare. To paraphrase Obama, it gets America one step closer to our goal of single payer. Hence my warning to you, be careful what you wish for. If you could see past your tiresome non stop Trump hating you would understand the Republicans want to return health care to the private sector for those not on medicare or medicaid. The insurance companies will fight that as, unlike health care consumers they have made out like bandits under the affordable care act.
DeleteIn an effort to extend the Biden subsidies the ObamaCare party took the drastic step of shutting down the government. They knew they would never prevail, they were merely attempting to transfer the blame of rising health care costs from themselves to the party that opposed ObamaCare. They should have remembered Obama's words, "elections have consequences". Rising prices on everything cost them the last election. Their attempt to pin their own guilt for rising cost on the Republicans was very transparent and cynical. America saw through it, so they caved. Never doubt for a moment, they will make single payer the law of the land when they again hold all the power. So perhaps centrist do have a place to look if they only had eyes to see.
Scamming the taxpayers is 'good intensions"?
ReplyDeleteTrump has the right idea. Healthcare vouchers to US citizens with SS numbers. Let them shop for best services. Same should be done with education spending. Vouchers in the name of students, only to be used for education at accredited schools, including parochial, Yeshivas, and yes, madrassas.
ReplyDeleteScott @2:43: centralist as in not so partisan
ReplyDeleteReally, I know people in both parties that are.
DeleteIn the current system both corrupt establishment political parties are inherently lockstep.
ReplyDeleteVote all you want, institutions like the Pa. Democratic Party are built to be resistant to change. They are deeply and fundamentally anti-democratic.
The current approval rating for Congress is just below 25%. Somewhere around 95 percent of incumbents are reelected.
ReplyDeletemj adams
ReplyDeleteSee the Princeton University study on democracy, 2014. Neither House of Congress gives a tinkers damn about what their average constituent thinks.
Democrats good intentions? You are not well informed here. The end of the subsidies were an element of the Democrat plan in the ill named "Inflation Reduction Act" of 2022. They removed the subsidies under more difficult economic times than the present. If their plan was to make the end of the subsidies an issue when the "crap hit the fan" this year, per the legislation then shame on them, but even greater shame on the foolish person buying their game. I am trying to be polite, but if not, at least I am factually accurate than your post. The "stay off my lawn" tones are quite apparent Mr. Molovinsky.
ReplyDeleteThe country is ready for national healthcare. Just do it. We can implement a model where private providers still compete for patients whose care is funded through the government. Yes, 5-10% will still choose to purchase care privately in the private market and that is not necessarily a bad thing. It will take pressure off of the public system (no different than private school). We should roll it out by lowering the Medicare ago by 10 years at a time. By the time you get down to 45 that will account for the vast majority of healthcare spending . This model will give the market time to adjust and give time for insurance professional to pivot their careers.
ReplyDelete"The 2024 World Index of Healthcare Innovation (the Index), conducted by the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP), is a comprehensive comparison of healthcare systems in high-income countries and ranked the United States in 7th place among the world’s healthcare systems. The Index finds that the United States is the global leader in scientific advancement but that our healthcare system ranks the worst in terms of fiscally sustainability.
ReplyDeleteThe Index evaluated the national healthcare systems of 32 high-income countries on four key dimensions: quality, choice, fiscal sustainability, and science and technology. Those categories were chosen to examine not only the quality of each healthcare system, but also the ability of that system to improve over time through scientific and medical advances.
The Index finds that the top four national healthcare systems — Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, and the Netherlands — have all achieved universal coverage in part by relying on private insurance. Those countries empower patient choice and allow private insurers to innovate without delays from political or regulatory inaction. In addition, those systems tend to be more fiscally sustainable because subsidies are phased out for wealthier patients.
"Ultimately, the United States ranked 7th overall, a result of excellent scientific advancement (1st), good quality (14th), moderate choice (6th), and poor fiscal sustainability (32nd, which is last). Such rankings allude to the nation’s relative strength in research and development along with its struggle to control rising spending on healthcare." https://www.pgpf.org/article/us-healthcare-system-ranks-seventh-worldwide-innovative-but-fiscally-unsustainable/ Researching, Switzerland seems to have a good plan: "Switzerland's mandatory health insurance is provided by private, non-profit insurance companies that are required by law to accept everyone for basic coverage and cannot make a profit on it. These companies, known as "sickness funds," must use any surplus funds to lower premiums or improve benefits, not to pay shareholders. However, they can operate for-profit on the supplementary insurance plans they offer in addition to the mandatory basic coverage." Will we ever see any kind of Healthcare that makes sense? As with most problems, don't believe we will see any significant changes with anything including healthcare until we limit the amount of slush funds for political campaigns.
The U.S. has the best government money can buy.
DeleteThe Swiss live in a small, ethnically homogeneous, wealthy country with an exceedingly high standard of living and virtually zero illegal or unvetted immigrants.
ReplyDelete