Re- Obamacare (Rant)

[snot]

Could we please have some understanding/acknowledgement (in the media and elsewhere) that much of the frustration people may have felt in dealing with healthcare.gov has nothing to do with the website or Obamacare and everything to do with the complexity of health insurance as evolved in the U.S.?

I bought Obamacare via the website in late Nov., 2013, and the website was working well at that point. (And it gave me better insurance for less money than I'd been able to get before.)

But separate deductibles for services vs. prescriptions, co-insurance, maximum out-of-pockets – I, and I suspect most of us, had avoided having to understand any of it before, because we either couldn't afford insurance at all, or we just took whatever our employers offered. For me personally, learning about all of that was the hardest part.

And the only reason for most of that complexity is to trick us into paying as much as possible for as little coverage as possible.

I totally understand a concern to include features that discourage hypochondriacs from incurring unnecessary medical expenses that cost us all more. Solution: design a co-pay indexed to personal income/wealth. Let the Kochs pay a billion to remove a suspicious mole.

The point is: single payer.

[Turbineguy]

1. You have to understand

Obamacare had to be fucked up to become law.

We have a tremendous number of people in this country whose livelihood depends on fucking over other Americans.

[Cha]

4. No, it didn't.. it's not fucked up. Yeah, you're right about there are people

whose livelihoods depends on fucking people over but it's not the people who voted for ACA.

[cui bono]

5. It may be better than what was available for most, but it's still fucked up.

It's a for profit system.

It was a deal made with the for profit companies. Single-payer advocates were shunned.

The public option was never fought for, barely ever mentioned.

All of that makes it fucked up. When someone can get coverage and then still not get the medication needed, it's fucked up. We need single payer. Health care, not health insurance.

[sabrina 1]

7. People's lives should never have been 'for profit'. And Public Funds for HC should never have been

allowed to pass through the hands of Private Corporations, who pocket approx. 20% of much needed funds, on their way to pay for that HC.

And NO sick person should have to try to navigate a complex system like this to find out if they can afford to live.

And no one should EVER be forced to pay a fine because they cannot afford HC.

Some people will benefit, a whole lot more will not.

But we know for sure that the Private Corporations will benefit. I guess that's something.

Private Corporations win every time. Money really does talk. That is where we are. What we do about it is up to us.

Single Payer or at least a Public Option. Until that happens, people will continue to die in this great democracy because they are too poor to live.

[Texasgal]

2. Health insurance has always been confusing

It is designed to confuse and bewilder. I think we can all agree that single payer is the way. Until then I encourage people to do some research.

[TBF]

3. The point is: single payer -

Yes, yes, yes!

Du kick and rec.

[Cha]

6. Five Million Strong now.. can only get better.

ObamaCare Pre-existing Conditions

No More Pre-existing Conditions as of 2014

http://obamacarefacts.com/pre-existing-conditions.php

[treestar]

8. Don't the rules imposed by Obamacare directly attack them

trying to "trick us into paying as much as possible for as little coverage as possible?"

And this kind of thing could happen under single payer.

It's an entirely different issue; one that will always exist. There's not going to be total agreement between the payer and the patient, no matter what the system. Single payer doesn't mean everyone will get everything they want all the time with no argument.

[mucifer]

9. The blue dog dems in congress messed up the bill. It should have been much better nt

[Glitterati]

10. snot, let me ask you this.....

I realize that all this bureaucracy is new to a lot of previously uninsured people and I do truly get that a lot of folks are just going to be intimidated by the process of getting medical care WITH insurance.

However, have you ever known something like this to be "easy" to deal with?

Having been uninsured for 30+ years, let me say that fighting for good health care has ALWAYS been a part of my life. It's a battle and a war that one is stuck in at the worst, most difficult times of their lives - when they are sick and frightened.

I can tell horror stories about medical care denied ending with my husband's DEATH. Hell, his cardiologist refused to see him because he wasn't paying the $50.00 he owed him fast enough 2 weeks before he dropped dead in my living room of a massive heart attack.

Even CASH patients have never had it easy getting proper medical care.

Check my history, I'm no Obama cheerleader by any stretch of the imagination, but I do believe that we have to start somewhere.

We're at the beginning point of this and we all have to fight for the improvements and changes needed. But it's a START.

on edit:
I hope the Obama cheerleading squad will just stay the hell away from my post. You sure aren't helping anything by running around screaming "ODS, ODS" while waving your Obama pom poms.

[snot]

11. Dear, all I was trying (apparently ineffectually) to say was,

Re- all the complaints about how deficient Obamacare is, maybe the problem isn't Obamacare; maybe it's that the whole insurance thing is fucked.
Maybe basic health services should be a basic human right. Without any of us having to struggle to figure out deductibles, co-insurance, maximums, etc. Because that is a game that most of us will always lose, or they wouldn't be making us play it.
And we're the ones who are paying for that game.
And if we had single payer, it would all be one. No games.

[Glitterati]

12. Oh, I agree.

As long as the goal is profit, there's always going to be some bean counter trying to maximize profit.

I have no complaints with Obamacare (yet) except the bureaucracy I've already dealt with at Humana. 2 hours on hold, transferred to 8 different departments just to try and confirm I was signed up. THAT'S on Humana, not Obamacare.