How's that Obamacare Repeal Working Out For You?

[atanamis]

Also, remove restrictions on health insurance policies that only cover emergencies. Obamacare seems to have criminalized the only legitimate form of health insurance that most people need in the first place. Ideally, we should be able to just pay cash for routine services based on upfront pricing. I should be able to go to a doctor, look at the services provided, and order exactly what I want, paid for upfront in cash no differently than I do any other service. Insurance should come into play when something catastrophic happens. I don't bill my homeowners insurance every time I need to paint the house or hire a pest control guy to come out.

Totally in agreement. In fact, I would also require that anyone entering the country purchase an emergency health care insurance plan, whether coming as a tourist or guest worker. If you can't afford to cover insurance to guarantee that emergency workers get paid for helping you, then you can't afford to be in the US. Failing to have this as a non-citizen should be grounds for deportation.

[apeman]

When does the Burn It All Down start?

This turd belongs to the GOP now. Let them smear it all over themselves.

The GOP proves that it has no ideas, no problem solving desire or skills, no imagination, no guts.

Did they not have a sufficient number of years to come up with anything?

Freaking morons, if they have any brains (in a political, Machiavellian sense), they would have said health care reform comes last, first we're doing tax reform, etc. But they are simply too stupid.

Clubby, what am I missing here?

What you are missing is that the ACA and healthcare itsekf is all wrapped up in the tax code now. No point in passing a tax reform when you dont know what the landscape is going to be a big facet of it.

Thanks

[Martin Hash]

Ba-da-bing!

See healthcare reform is simple if we took it out of the Market. (As everyone knows, I'm a Market guy except when it comes to Natural monopolies.)

[C-Mag]

[atanamis]

Ba-da-bing!
See healthcare reform is simple if we took it out of the Market. (As everyone knows, I'm a Market guy except when it comes to Natural monopolies.)

See, I do think there is plenty of room for markets with health care. Let people choose the doctor that they like for their primary care provider. Give people a financial incentive to find the right balance between utilitarian care and house visits. The market for laser eye surgery and cosmetic plastic surgery has caused costs in both market to drop like crazy. But as you state for emergency care there is a natural monopoly. For people with major conditions there is a baseline of care that should be guaranteed regardless of ability to pay. But markets require honesty in pricing. They require that the buyer be able to get the information needed to make an effective evaluation of their options. Let's use markets where they make sense, and let's use regulated monopolies where they make sense. And for people who just need a subsidy, let's just offer the subsidy and not act like we'd rather leave them to die in the street.

[Martin Hash]

I speak from a sophisticated position, working as a doctor in hospitals & the ER, nobody wants cheap eye surgery, heart stints or knee replacements, and patients don't have enough knowledge or flexibility to make informed choices about doctors.

Kaiser is the ideal healthcare model for most of us, and boutique healthcare consumers can pay through the nose for "choice," just like we're all doing now.

[atanamis]

Well without market incentives you need a highly regulated market then, since you don't have the downward cost pressure that markets create and you don't have the competition that drives productivity, efficiency, and quality. There is a reason why many socialized health care systems tend toward shoddy care, and it is because that is what results from any socialized system that is not carefully regulated (and yes, that includes things like military and law enforcement, neither of which are renowned for their efficiency or productivity). I'm not saying that this is wrong, especially since there isn't a market based system out there I'd look to as a model for health care.

But I really don't see why allowing patients to choose their own primary care doctor to pay ~ $100 to once a year isn't a better model than telling people who they can get service from and what that doctor can be paid for that service. The person who pays the bills is the person any service provider works for, and I'd much rather have my PCP working for me than for the insurance company or the government. And different people do want different things for different prices. I have every intention of paying a concierge doctor to put the medical needs of me and my wife first when we get older, and like the confidence of knowing he doesn't have to see 2k patients /yr to make ends meet. An average concierge doctor has 500 clients who pay about $1.2k each a year for unlimited care. In the end, the doctor makes more and the patient gets better care from an individual who knows their conditions. Is this something everyone wants or can afford? No. Does it continue to make sense to allow multiple models for people who want different things? Absolutely.

[Speaker to Animals]

Yeah, we should eliminate choice in health care like we did with education. People don't know what's good for them..

[Martin Hash]

As long as you're the person who choses the cheap heart valve replacement, I'm okay with "choice."

[Fife]

Ba-da-bing!

See healthcare reform is simple if we took it out of the Market. (As everyone knows, I'm a Market guy except when it comes to Natural monopolies.)

What natural monopolies?