Big Insurers Keep Winning
Remember when we were promised that ObamaCare would increase competition and keep the insurers under control? Well, this just in:
The three largest insurance companies held an average of 86 percent of customers in the individual market last year, up from 83 percent in 2010, when the healthcare reform act was passed, according to a Monday report from the Government Accountability Office.
Remember, how Obamacare was going to lower costs, give you more options and also allow you to keep your own doctor? How about 0 for 3.
Oh, and I am now paying $14K a year for a shitty bronze plan on the exchange. Thank you, President Obama.
Can we stop calling it “health insurance”? We don’t have insurance. Insurance is a bet against risk. What we have now is more like the meal plan I had in college. Pay a fee at the beginning of the quarter and I get to eat in the cafeteria without paying for each individual meal.
DId you have a 6K deductible on your meal plan, so that you paid at the beginning of the quarter, and then had to pay in full for each meal?
It is health insurance. It pays off about as well as other forms of insurance, which is, when it is to the insurance company’s benefit. It is certainly not health CARE, which is what Obama promised and failed to deliver (thanks to GOP stonewalling).
Moss, that kind of kool-aid swilling will give you diabetes. Obama passed this moronic I mess with all Democrat votes when he controlled both houses; the toothless GOP couldn’t stonewall a damn thing.
Moreover, this stupid lab has not, and will not provide a single new doctor, nurse,or hospital bed, which is where actual care comes from. What the ACA and supporters like you did accomplish was to accelerate bad ideas – eg. mandatory EHR use, ICD-10 – that were already in work, and add to those numerous new expensive mandates that are putting actual doctors and small rural clinics and hospitals out of business. While my the premiums for myself (never made a claim) and my household have gone up over 30% this year, I work with some physicians who have been thrown off their plans completely without warning.
You are on a blind ideological tear, and have no idea what you are talking about, or the effects you have wrought. You’ll feel better by reciting your good intentions, and seeing that misery is now more widespread, but you won’t dare face the truth.
Moss, it must be Bush’s fault as well, right?
You are attempting to paint me with the wrong brush. Obama did a lot wrong, including many aspects of ACA. But every non-GOP President since FDR has tried to fix the health care system, and Obama did something. In my opinion, it’s easily at least 40% better than what we had. It’s not what anyone (except the GOP think tank which created the system for Romney) wanted.
There are a lot of things to blame Bush for. There is a lot to blame Obama for (although the worst things are not being talked about on FauxNews because they are GOP-approved things). But please do not paint me as a party ideologue. If I had my way, Rocky Anderson would be President.
Are you kidding me? When you had your meal plan in college you didn’t have to pay a copay to eat every time. You didn’t have another bill every week for using forks, knives, talk to the cafeteria lady and sitting in the facility.
I don’t recall buying college meal insurance. I do recall buying auto insurance, and when I make a claim there is a deductible I have to pay. That’s insurance. So is this.
I couldn’t agree more! My premium for a high-deductible HSA through Regence/Blue Shield just doubled for significantly poorer pharmacy benefits. I’m up to $19,000 a year for a product I (fortunately) never use.
And there is no global warming because you’re cold, right?
I am indeed sorry to hear that Big Insurance is winning the fight. I knew that would be the case from the moment we didn’t join the Free World and go to single-payer, but I was hoping that ACA would at least be a step away from the Big Insurance table as so many parts of the ACA were at least improvements.
I’m sorry you’re paying more for your health insurance. The statistics say that most of us are paying less, someone has to be the balance. You should contact the GOP — every instance they have presented in the National Media of people who wind up paying more has been fraudulent, maybe you’ll be the person to make their case.
Your liberal friends are just as bad. And almost everyone’s rates are going up. Your stats are wrong. Single payer would just be as bad. Sorry, man, but the only way is a true free market. It is working in Direct Primary Care for me. I get patients cheaper meds, cheaper pathology services and cheaper radiological services.
DPC may be a good thing for some patients and some doctors (and good for them if they can make it work) but it will never address all the healthcare needs of our country. Insurance is still a necessary evil and I do believe our country has a moral obligation to make sure all legal residents can get standard of care treatment for significant maladies such as diabetes and coronary artery disease (but not ED and breastopenia)
We need catastrophic insurance only
I wish that were true, but my office has it’s share of patients who would not get the non-catastrophic care they need if it were not for insurance. For example: Diabetes on basal/bolus insulin routines, Rheumatoids on Enbrel, Barrett’s Esophagus with need for frequent EGD surveillance, Severe COPDer due to alpha-1-antrypsin deficiency on Prolastin, Macular Degenerates getting intra-ocular injections, etc.
Moss, that you see nationalized health care as part of “the free world” explains your perspective perfectly.
I too despise Big Insurance, however … Can you name which of the private insurance companies has the power to subpoena my office records, or impose fines backed by the threat of criminal prosecution? it is frightening and perverse that so many are willing to define ‘freedom’ as the ability to boss doctors and patients around for the common good.