The CBO weighs in on Republicancare

[PorterRockwell]

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/5055395-155/washington-post-editorial-the-cbo-reveals 

[SkinyUte]

Here, I’ll just sum it up for you and save some time.

Rich: Congratulations, you’re good!
Poor: Congratulations, you’re fu*ked!
Sick: Good luck dying quickly (and broke)!

[PorterRockwell]

You should have prefaced that with a spoiler alert

[gUrthBrooks]

The problem is we’re running out of other people’s money and our own money. What other industry has the luxury of providing you service and then telling you the costs long afterward with a wide open invoice? We’ve standardized deductibles and such, but not costs for services. 

[ironman1315]

THIS!^ It is so damn dumb medical companies can do this. Tell me what I am paying up front ass holes!

[Utah]

That’s the insurance companies and the administrators. Let me give you a dumbed down version of what happens:

The insurance companies look at the most commonly used codes (procedures). They reduce payment on those.

The administrators look at that, then look what isn’t covered, and find out how to bill that out. For example, if Dr A does an exam, they get $35 and no copay from the patient. BUT, if Dr. B, who is a specialist and not contracted with the insurance company, does the exam, they get $35 from the insurance company AND can bill you for an extra $50. So, what do they do? Have Dr. A refer you to Dr. B, because he is a specialist, Dr. B charges you $85, and Dr. A get a kick back in a bonus or profit sharing.

EVERYONE WINS!!!!

It also doesn’t help that there are 5 insurance companies who own all the insurance, and they have different prices on all their plans. For example, they might pay out $20 for an exam with one level, $30 for an exam on another level.

So, not only does the patient not know the cost, neither does the Dr.

There is so much money in the US tied up in medicine. It’s sick. It’s wrong. A few profit while the majority suffer, and the right wants to exacerbate the problem.

The government is a tool for the American people. The government isn’t always the best tool for every job. BUT, in this case, we are so dumb for not using it. So Dumb. We are being screwed over big time.

[Utah]

Easy fix. Look at what Germany is doing. Copy that. Done.

Problem with that, is the insurance companies are making too much money and the politicians are making too much money off the insurance companies.

Before my career, I was anti-government healthcare. Now, what we have here is a farce. If Americans really knew what healthcare was like in other countries, they’d revolt. We are being screwed so badly here, it’s a joke. It’s shocking the amount of misinformation and fear there is around single payer/government sponsered healthcare.

[ironman1315]

And it doesn’t have to be just single payer even. If you can afford more insurance than what the government provides I say take it and let people take it.

[Utah]

Germany has a sick fund. Everyone pays 8% into it. When you get sick, you go to the Dr and get help. Pretty simple.

If you make over $72,000, you can opt out and go get your own insurance.

Pretty simple stuff. The government works with the sick fund (doesn’t control it) to help negotiate prices and keep the cost down.

Most of our medical advances are coming out of Germany right now. They are light years ahead of us in medical care (why do you think all the athletes are headed over there every offseason).

We are in the dark ages right now. We are too smart for this.

[UtahFanSir]

That does not comport with what Paul Ryan is saying. And we know he is a compassionate, basically a good guy, working his guts out to make America great again. Just ask him. He’ll tell you. He knows what’s best.

[PorterRockwell]

question is whom is Paul Ryan working his guts out for? not his constituents.

[Puget Ute]

Of course he is working for his constituents. You can also be one of his constituents if you give him $20k.

Otherwise GTFO.

[Puget Ute]

The CBO breakdown has an interesting dataset.

(This is off the top of my head) A 64 yr old making $24,700/yr currently pays ~$1700 under the ACA. After the ACA is repealed and AHCA goes into effect, that same person will pay $12,600/yr for health care (until turning 65 and going on Medicare).

Meanwhile a 64 yr old person making $1,000,000 per year will get a $12,600 tax cut.

So a person who can least afford it gets a 640% increase in health insurance costs, while the person making $1M gets a meaningless tax break (almost a roundoff error).

[SkinyUte]

Pretty sure that’s working as intended.

As mentioned above, Ryan is working for his primary constituents.

[Author]

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