Obamacare Is Not About Healthcare

Elaina F. George, MD is a speaker for a conservative political group. Her comments are political and nearly all not true. There are plenty of problems with the law that will need to be fixed but almost none of the conservative propaganda is real.

Why don't you mind insurance company bean counters, who get bonuses for saving the company money, making health decisions for you?

It is also about the keeping healthcare costs down. I saw in a news item earlier today about the actual price of bag of saline. It is about 44 cents. By the time the hospital gets done with their mark up, you get charged about 90 dollars. Oh, you wanted that plugged into your arm, that will be about another 125 dollars.

Goofproof wrote: Point missed USPS is losing money, UPS AND FEDEX are making money, even more by farming out delivery to the USPS, so the tax payers lose even more $$$.

The Post Office doesn't receive any government subsidy. They do get some benefits, such as the ability to borrow money and not pay any taxes, but on the other hand Congress forces them to provide costly service, like Saturday delivery, etc. No tax "payer dollars" keep the USPS going.

BobHale wrote:Elaina F. George, MD is a speaker for a conservative political group. Her comments are political and nearly all not true. There are plenty of problems with the law that will need to be fixed but almost none of the conservative propaganda is real.

Why don't you mind insurance company bean counters, who get bonuses for saving the company money, making health decisions for you?

+100

There are enough blatant falsehoods in this to expose it as total propaganda.

I don't have time or energy to address everything, but some examples:

All working Americans must submit proof of insurance or enter an "exchange." Exchange participants must submit their tax return, Social Security number, employer's tax ID, bank account information, address and telephone number. If one changes jobs and ends up pricing out of the government supplement, the government will want its money back. Either say goodbye to tax benefits or say hello to working as little as possible to remain eligible for assistance.

One needs proof of insurance (or a waiver) to avoid the tax/fine. For those using the exchange just to find insurance (not for the subsidy) there should be no complicated form. The Romneycare Exchange in MA only requires birthdate and zip code, not even a name, to get linked up. If you want a subsidy, of course, it gets more complicated; we'll find out how much more in a few weeks. The subsidy is based on the previous year's income, but then must be adjusted if the real income is higher. The change is mostly gradual, the only issue might be people right at the cutoff point.

Under the guise of efficiency and savings, physicians and patients are encouraged to get on the electronic medical record bandwagon. It creates a treasure trove of private medical information mined by government agencies that include the Department of Health and Human Services, IRS, and FBI. Can the NSA and CIA be far behind, if they aren't in the loop already?

Yes, of course the right wing would attack one of the few things that can actually create a significant saving, not to mention save lives. Recently I had a test where the doctor said, "Its probably nothing but we'll retest in six months to see if it changes," to which I said, "didn't I have that test last year (at a different facility)?" Unfortunately, they couldn't find the older test, so now I'm waiting to do the followup.

Employers will no longer be able to write off employee coverage as a business expense, making them more likely to drop coverage altogether.

False. For the most part this deduction is not changed. There is a small business tax credit that pays up to half of the health care costs for a small company (25 employees or under, average pay under $50K).

ObamaCare's "silver" plan will have a monthly premium, but individuals must also pay $2,000 out-of-pocket before the insurance kicks in. Imagine a minimum wage worker or family having to pay into the system while also owing $2,000 dollars annually just to access it. It will decrease participation by posing the difficult decision of seeing a doctor or paying bills.

More nonsense. The deductible is usually pointed to as a way to prevent people from "nickel-and-diming" the system. However, the silver plan is just the baseline used to establish the level of subsidy. People are free to chose other plans, and in fact can probably get a bronze plan with the same cost but lower deductible. For all of the "total socialist takeover" nonsense, the exchange is essentially the same as the offerings from a large company's employee plan: people are given a number of choices from local insurance companies, there will be (for some) a subsidy, beyond which they pay out of pocket.

EDIT: I forgot one important detail: Annual preventative care plus up to three doctor visits a year are exempt from the deductible. This makes the example given total bogus!

--and the repubtards keep drinking the Kool Aid!

Boyce

I guess you know so little about Obamacare that you are unaware that you will still be getting insurance through insurance companies. The insurance companies will not be as free to deny and drop you as before.

The government will not be taking care of us.

Did a post by Boyce involving Home Depot just vanish? I was going to reply and it was gone. I couldn't have imagined it, could I?