Thursday, January 5, 2017

Ignorance and not caring about others: two biggest political problems facing Obamacare

There are two political problems with Obamacare (also known as the Affordable Care Act or ACA): One, that 80% of our population think that they have acceptable health insurance coverage, so why be concerned about the other 20%  (the moral aspect of this not withstanding) and the other is sheer ignorance of the benefits both the 80% and the 20% get thanks to the provisions of  the ACA (Obamacare). Even some do not realize Obamacare and their ACA benefits are the same and that Obamacare is the ACA nickname. It reminds me of the ignorance of some Tea Party supporters early in their movement who held signs up "don't let the government take away my Medicare", swallowing  falsehoods that Obamacare would have done that and ignorant that Medicare was a government program.

 Nonetheless, a recent poll revealed only 18% of those surveyed wanted total repeal.  A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll: favorable s for Obamacare beat unfavorables. GOP claims that they have a public mandate to repeal is a bluff. Nonetheless,they are planning to repeal Obamacare, baiting and switching you at best for a lessor plan or, at worst , no replacement plan. Partial repeal as advocated by Trump's HEW nominee would add 18 million to the uninsured and over years, 30%. Premium prices would soar, per the Congressional Budget Office.

  It appears that pre-existing conditions and keeping kids on parents insurance until age 25 will survive if there can be an adequate means found to finance insurance of coverage of pre-existing conditions. Private insurers can continue to charge you extra for kids on your policies, with or without Obamacare. Financing pre-existing condition coverage has an enormous stumbling block in itself because it is the healthy participants that pay for the sick in both the private sector and the public one. That is a fact of mathematics  applied to any insurance plan.  That any mandate requring all eligible to pay into the ACA or face a fine will only shrink the number of healthy paying in resulting in undermining financing ability to cover pre-existing conditions.

However, here  is why I am such an advocate of Obamacare. Within my own circle and  family, let me disclose personal examples of what they would lose with repeal of Obamacare or with substandard, inadequate replacement of it.See if you fit into any of these situations:
A partially disabled friend for the first time could get proper medical attention for a chronic medical problem since he qualified for expanded Medicaid provided by Obamacare. My self employed son whose income level was too high for a subsidy still got coverage at much lower cost and much better coverage with free annual checkups and cancer screenings than before Obamacare. My daughter is contemplating leaving employment with employer insurance and will not have to go health insurance naked when she enters the private sector and starts a new business. She can get affordable health care coverage via Obamacare, probably made affordable by a subsidy because of her greatly reduced income while starting up the business. A daughter, breast cancer survivor with employer insurance, can now get mammograms and annual checks ups without high copays, and she does not have to worry anymore about life time caps on benefits. Because of the cost savings and the ACA to Medicare resulting my drug donut hole is covered and my Medicare has a 12 year extended life to 2029 and I, too, do not have copays for annual physicals and cancer screenings as I once did.

The question will be how many of these benefits will become part of Trumpcare? Would removing these standards and benefits required now of all insurance, public or private, give you "better" insurance? Or will you be back to the financial hardships of inadequate insurance and having to pay more out of your own pocket.

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https://www.cbo.gov/publication/52371
"CBO and JCT estimate that enacting that (Rep Tom Price's) legislation would affect insurance coverage and premiums primarily in these ways:

  • The number of people who are uninsured would increase by 18 million in the first new plan year following enactment of the bill. Later, after the elimination of the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid eligibility and of subsidies for insurance purchased through the ACA marketplaces, that number would increase to 27 million, and then to 32 million in 2026.
  • Premiums in the nongroup market (for individual policies purchased through the marketplaces or directly from insurers) would increase by 20 percent to 25 percent—relative to projections under current law—in the first new plan year following enactment. The increase would reach about 50 percent in the year following the elimination of the Medicaid expansion and the marketplace subsidies, and premiums would about double by 2026. "



http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2017/01/03/ama-to-gop-lay-out-obamacare-replacement-details-to-americans/#7597f3a33186

http://arstechnica.com/science/2017/01/under-tom-prices-aca-killing-plan-18m-lose-insurance-and-premiums-rise/

https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2416

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/09/27/poll-obamacare-vs-affordable-care-act/

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/brink-repeal-obamacare-has-never-been-more-popular-n707806

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