Oh I am sure that ends up happening for some but a lot of these people have been fine paying BCBS for 10, 20 or 30+ years but this increase is just not affordable. It's not that they dont want to spend a reasonable amount of money, so those people are just gonna put that same amount away that they are used to paying. I will be interested to see the difference in number of people paying the penalty this year to next year.

11/6/2017 12:13:06 PM

Once again BCBS's site and HC.gov don't match in terms of what plans are available. Also, what was mailed to me doesn't reflect what's on BCBS's site in terms of cost and updated coverage. No wonder people get so pissed off and confused.

11/6/2017 5:48:55 PM

Quote :

"Parents of 4-year-old with cancer can’t buy ACA plan to cover her hospital care"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/parents-of-4-year-old-with-cancer-cant-buy-aca-plan-to-cover-her-hospital-care/2017/11/15/a3ba6fb6-c56d-11e7-aae0-cb18a8c29c65_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_vainsurance-display-10p%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.3e59f26c3ab0

11/16/2017 9:10:45 AM

This thread has become my repository of articles detailing the failure of Obamacare. Add another to the list.

The Democrat party continues it's war on small business and jobs.

Quote :

"Up to 250,000 positions may have been eliminated by small businesses seeking to avoid Obamacare’s employer mandate, according to estimates in a new working paper distributed by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Altogether between 28,000 and 50,000 businesses appear to have reduced their number of full-time employees from 2014 to 2016 because of the mandate."

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/businesses-eliminated-hundreds-of-thousands-of-full-time-jobs-to-avoid-obamacare-mandate-2017-11-24

11/28/2017 1:42:34 PM

We really should have a single payer system and decouple healthcare from employment though.

[Edited on November 28, 2017 at 5:58 PM. Reason : ]

11/28/2017 5:55:53 PM

No matter how shitty you think the ACA is (from the right or left), it has illustrated one thing quite clear to me:

We are going to be fighting for a decent healthcare system in this country FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES.

After this recent ruling, I’m convinced more than ever to move beyond the ACA. It’s gonna take 15 years to get it implemented and get over the initial court battles.

From there we will be battling federalist society shithead judges and attorneys general from states that have no one living in them FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES.

12/15/2018 8:14:23 AM

Something like this was always a threat but this is basically the stupidest way they could have gone about it. The legal basis for the ruling is absolute garbage, basically saying if Congress modifies a law, then that entire law becomes unconstitutional. Not only will this be appealed and never reach the SCOTUS, it will undermine future attempts because of just how farcical it was.

Your larger point is correct though, maybe people should have cared 2 years ago when they could have stopped it from happening.

12/15/2018 9:01:55 AM

This ruling will obviously be curtailed or completely overturned.

But shame on the GOP for lying all election season about this. And double shame on the media for reporting it like they were acting in good faith. Guys like Chuck Todd should be shunned from all media.

12/15/2018 10:18:57 AM

Well that's the reason McConnell et al aren't spiking the ball on this. They know if this fight drags out into general election season, it will represent a clear and present danger to the only thing they still have a realistic chance of holding after 2020: the Senate. Protecting the ACA and especially preexisting conditions is the reason they got washed in the midterms, and they won't have a historically favorable map to save them next time.

[Edited on December 15, 2018 at 11:56 AM. Reason : .]

12/15/2018 11:52:59 AM

The upside of ACA being struck down is there would be no need to compromise with Republicans on the next iteration. They've shown their hand.

12/15/2018 12:06:51 PM

^that and they should be actively considering how to insulate a new system from legal challenges. I’m no lawyer and don’t have a ton of insight here, but I’m starting to think the simpler the proposal (overall fewer moving parts) and proposals that engulf the entire population (such that attacking the law puts everyone’s healthcare in jeapardy) would be best at standing up to the federalist society nihilists that seem to be every where in our legal system.

12/15/2018 1:45:29 PM

The Supreme Court already ruled on the legality of the ACA. A Texas Federal District Court can't overrule the SCOTUS. As such, the SCOTUS will simply overturn this lower ruling on their next docket.

12/15/2018 5:45:08 PM

LOL Murrcans think they are something special because they can't come up with/don't want/don't think feasible universal healthcare for citizens.

All the other white people countries have it, and tons of brown and black people countries do too, running the gamut from the worst dictatorships/kingdoms to the most liberal democracies.

But yeah, Merica is special.

Keep it up... while thousands upon thousands can't afford healthcare and suffer terrible consequences, including death.

12/15/2018 9:42:18 PM

A Conservative solution to ACA might be to just pass a law requiring coverage for pre-existing conditions, maintain a cap on premium costs similar to ACA, but skip over all the other provisions in ACA designed to protect the insurance industry (mostly the individual mandate).

Most insurance carriers would have to either shutdown, or find other ways to save on costs. It would be disastrous for a few years, but I think could maybe reach a steady-state point, probably not much worse than the pre-ACA marketplace.

[Edited on December 15, 2018 at 10:03 PM. Reason : ]

12/15/2018 10:02:53 PM

I mean, the individual mandate was literally the most "conservative" part of the ACA. Personal responsibility! The rest of it is basically using tax dollars to subsidize health insurance and regulating the shit out of the industry, about as liberal a solution as you can get. Increase subsidies, expand Medicaid in every state, and replace the mandate with automatic enrollment. Then we'd have something very close to the Swiss system, which is consistently rated as the best in the world.

12/17/2018 11:39:17 AM

I helped my gf shop for insurance on the exchange this year and wow is it complete garbage. It's gotten so much worse than when I used it ~4 years ago. Almost no plans will cover specialists or ER visits before your deductible. And I'm in a pretty good state (I think?), Colorado.

[Edited on December 17, 2018 at 12:00 PM. Reason : .]

12/17/2018 12:00:18 PM

Here in NC, the cheapest Silver plan I saw was $682 a month. That is a lot of healthcare right there.

12/17/2018 6:24:06 PM

That's about what my plan cost, which was basically the same cost for a similar plan before

12/17/2018 6:26:07 PM

^^ What if you paid that same amount but basically all your healthcare needs were covered, and you could choose any care provider?

That's essentially single payer. Doesn't make sense anyone would be against that...

12/17/2018 10:45:52 PM

It makes sense to be against it if you're a hospital or an insurance company and you're paying a lot of money to politicians.

12/17/2018 11:30:02 PM

I had to sign up for COBRA for a month as I moved to a new job and it was only $380 to extend my current coverage. It was pretty a great Aetna PPO plan.

I’m now playing around $280 a month for medical, dental and vision as my employer covers 50%. Whatever New York is doing the costs are better than they were 12 years ago.

12/18/2018 7:13:25 AM

Quote :

"^^ What if you paid that same amount but basically all your healthcare needs were covered, and you could choose any care provider? That's essentially single payer. Doesn't make sense anyone would be against that..."

Anyone can make up things. Does not an argument make. Keep in mind that our government is beholden to the AMA, so it is entirely plausible that full single payer would wind up costing even more and covering less. After-all, right now insurance companies are working hard to get their customers to go see nurse practitioners because they're cheaper. Full on single payer may be written to require everyone see a full MD every time because doctors really hate having to compete for jobs with nurses...they mean, nurses can't provide the quality of care every instance of a cold deserves. Only, there aren't enough MDs to go around, so while everyone goes to see an MD for their seasonal allergies little timmy died on a waiting list for his cancer treatment.

Don't pretend you will be in charge of writing the law you desire. You need to realize that your desired law will be written by Donald Trump or someone just like him.

12/18/2018 8:45:19 AM

You think Donald Trump or someone like him is going to write a Medicare for all bill.

12/18/2018 9:50:17 AM

Lol, wat.

12/18/2018 9:59:35 AM

lol Trump can't even write his own name. His signature looks like a broken spirograph.

12/18/2018 10:21:03 AM

Trump wins elections, and people that win elections write the law. It was Nixon that gave us medicare in the first place. I'm sure Trump would love to write the next healthcare reform law. If he wins re-election, I suspect he will wind up "reforming" healthcare. Well, he'll have people write it for him, what the actually policy he proposes will be kinda escapes me, but I'm damn sure it won't resemble anything anyone here would like to have happen.

12/19/2018 10:35:21 AM

What a ridiculous point

12/19/2018 11:05:44 AM

spicy hot dumb take alert

12/19/2018 11:07:40 AM

Quote :

"It was Nixon that gave us medicare in the first place."

No, that would be Johnson.

12/19/2018 2:04:30 PM

That's right. Nixon merely reformed Medicare in 1972. Hey! I bet Trump is gonna reform Obamacare in his second term

12/20/2018 4:37:39 PM

Not sure if Nixon is the comparo you want for Trump fantasies right now, but hey, whatever gets ya from 6 to midnight.

12/20/2018 4:51:49 PM

You guys really don't need to engage with a point that dumb/bad faith.

Obviously Trump winning a 2nd term isn't part of a plan for people that want single payer.

12/20/2018 11:07:41 PM

Looks Like This Obamacare Program Has Led to More People Dying:

Quote :

"The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and conducted by by researchers associated with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical and Harvard Medical School, looked at hospitalizations between 2005 and 2015. It found that "30-day post-discharge mortality"—the number of people who died within a month of leaving the hospital—increased for heart failure patients after the readmissions penalty program was implemented."

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2719307

12/28/2018 2:22:31 PM