Health Insurance Reform: Predictions

[fullflavormenthol]

ETA: Sorry, I'm just LMAO at the right wingers who are acting as if this is the end of all things.

I went so over the top on my bit, that yours seems down right plausible. I am actually reminded of every other big piece of legislation that has ever been passed in my lifetime. I would be more shocked if it wasn't the apocalypse.

 

[Sword_Of_Truth]

And yet, for all our addiction, the US remains a major economic power. Almost every major economic power in the world has some form of government health care for its citizens. Maybe it's not an addictive drug like heroin. Maybe it's an addictive drug like food.

Not with that debt bomb you're sitting on top of. I've seen what happens with my own eyes with things like this.

His government took a knife to funding for arts and health programs, going so far as to demolish hospitals, laying off thousands of nurses, and selling off the provincial public access broadcaster to private interests. Klein's social and environmental views were seen by opponents as uncaring. Supporters argued in response that Klein was merely choosing appropriate priorities for limited government funding.

I was there the day my roommate was in for a colostomy bag install due to ulcerative colitis. I held his hand as the nurses wheeled his gurney out of the hospital ward into a triple occupancy room and the orderlies padlocked an entire floor shut behind us.

And this was what led to a relatively happy ending. We had rationing, we had deaths occur because something that had been cut wasn't there when someone needed it and we had Ralph Klein accused almost literally of murder for it (though I can't quite speak for the NDP on that, they were always a tad looney). But we got our debt our debt fully paid off (and like a bunch of idiots we're back to deficit spending again).

Unlike Alberta, Americas debt is proportionally far larger. And unlike Alberta, the USA isn't a relatively small population sitting on top of a bajillion barrels of black gold. This mega expensive new entitlement you addicts have voted yourselves is just one more thing you are going to have to slash and burn (along with whatever else you're frittering away your treasury on) someday just as we did, or you will watch your nation die.

it will become a part of the fabric of America that no politician will dare oppose with impunity.

Certainly not with impunity, no. Ralph Klein will tell you that. though was able to do it. Just as some future US president will be forced to do.

 

[WildCat]

Interesting. What do you think the case would be without this healthcare reform legislation?

Premiums rise a bit slower, and coverage stays pat at 87% or so.

But I think a great many of the currently uninsured will have insurance of one sort or another.

I'm having a hard time figuring how that will happen under this bill. Do you know there's not even a penalty for not buying insurance if the premiums are greater than 8% of your income?

How is this going to encourage people to buy insurance? Do you think it's people making $90,000/year who don't have health insurance?

You can't even deduct the premiums from your income, so those without employer-provided coverage will still be subsidizing the premiums of those who have it.

 

[332nd]

I went so over the top on my bit, that yours seems down right plausible. I am actually reminded of every other big piece of legislation that has ever been passed in my lifetime. I would be more shocked if it wasn't the apocalypse.

Except for a few minor Clinton Uproars, Bush getting elected and this are the only "Wait... What?" "Apocalypse" moments on this scale for me. Granted i've read about such insanity, but actually seeing it is something else...

 

[psychictv]

It will be hated and reviled for a little while, then, like Medicare and Social Security, it will become a part of the fabric of America that no politician will dare oppose with impunity.

Yep. And in 7 years when we no longer have a black President, the teabaggers will crawl back into their caves and completely forget what they were supposedly mad about.

 

[Cain]

Doom.

 

[Leif Roar]

Not with that debt bomb you're sitting on top of. I've seen what happens with my own eyes with things like this.

Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion?

 

[Sword_Of_Truth]

Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion?

NDP leader Pam Barrett claimed a near death experience in her dentists chair (I don't recall her trying to blame the Klein health care cuts).

Is that close enough?

 

[Sword_Of_Truth]

Yep. And in 7 years when we no longer have a black President...

...Obamas deficits will have added 15 trillion dollars to the national debt.

We will know then if race was all the tea party was worried about, won't we?

 

[Leif Roar]

NDP leader Pam Barrett claimed a near death experience in her dentists chair (I don't recall her trying to blame the Klein health care cuts).

Is that close enough?

Huh? What point are you trying to make here?

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Place your predictions here. We can revisit these posts in 2015 to see if they come true.

With or without this health care bill, health care costs are going to continue to rise substantially. By the 2014 election, Republicans will be blaming Democrats for the rising cost of health care.

Insurance companies will figure out how to game the system long before the government does. Many people still end up not getting the health care that they need. Insurance company profits rise significantly, although much of the profit gets hidden or even reported as losses. This drives up government costs. Democrats agree that the health care system is not working, or even “broken”, and needs to be fixed. Republicans point to increased spending (due to rising health care costs that would happen anyway) and the problems with health care and being over budget (due to insurance companies scamming the system and finding the loopholes) and blame it all on the Democrats (who even admit that health care isn’t working). This is why we needed a public option or single payer system.

My understanding is that many provisions don’t even kick in until 2014. With all of the changes, it will take time to close al the loopholes and fix all the problems. Because it was a partisan bill, Republicans will point out every single little flaw that occurs, and make every effort to prevent the Democrats from being able to pass legislation to fix the loopholes and problems, and then the Republicans will claim that the health care reform initiated by the Democrats was a failure.

Welcome to partisan politics where Republicans band together for “government always fails” and “our way or no way” regardless of the effect of the American people.

 

[Sword_Of_Truth]

Huh? What point are you trying to make here?

You were talking about spaceships. The closest thing I could thing of to that but still on he topic of the health care wars was one of the more bizarre episodes to come out of the fight over Alberta health care in the 90s. In the post you responded to, I was describing how the opposition all but accused the ruling party of murder for cutting health care to fight deficit spending.

 

[Travis]

I predict I will be able to get health insurance for the first time since I was dropped and blacklisted in 2002.

 

[KoihimeNakamura]

I also predict that DA is sadly right.

 

[DC]

more insurance companys, alot more, like we had here.

 

[WildCat]

This is why we needed a public option

I'm still waiting for someone to explain how a public option reduces health care costs. It's like claiming that $70,000 BMW would be affordable, if only you could get a government loan instead of one from the bank.

Why do so many people think the problem is insurance, and not the unsustainable cost of actual health care? You're attacking the symptom, while the disease goes untreated and is getting worse.

 

[WildCat]

I predict I will be able to get health insurance for the first time since I was dropped and blacklisted in 2002.

What do you think you'll be paying per month? What's the most you can afford?

 

[Thunder]

health care costs are subject to supply and demand.

now that millions of more Americans will be able to go to doctors and hospitals, more doctors and hospitals will be getting patients.

therefore, with all the new customers, doctors and hospitals can afford to lower their costs.

correct?

 

[WildCat]

health care costs are subject to supply and demand.

now that millions of more Americans will be able to go to doctors and hospitals, more doctors and hospitals will be getting patients.

therefore, with all the new customers, doctors and hospitals can afford to lower their costs.

correct?

So you think costs are high because there's not enough patients?

 

[Dave Rogers]

I'm still waiting for someone to explain how a public option reduces health care costs.

And yet, in our (UK) publicly funded healthcare system, outcomes are comparable and costs are lower. We can speculate on mechanisms as much as you like, but we do actually pay less for it.

Dave