Do the Homeless Get Free Medical Treatment at American Hospitals?

[Tora Ziyal]

^You're right, Robert Maxwell. My health insurance premiums started going up almost every year long before Obama was President.

[teya]

RyanKCR wrote:

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Not really.

Just to be clear, I spoke about *providers* raising rates, as was alleged.

Insurers are continuing to raise rates as they have for my entire adult life.

Even on those of us with little healthcare usage & no pre-existing conditions.

I priced plans on the open market to get a ballpark figure in the event Obamacare got dumped.

I've been to the ER once in the last 15 years & go to the doctor only for the annual visit. I'm on no meds, have no pre-existing conditions.

Best price, for a minimal policy? $1250 per month.

At that rate, I'd die in my chair at the office.

[IndyJones]

RyanKCR wrote:

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And that's the point. ACA will screw over people like me and families with children like me.

That's such bullshit.

Every anecdote you've ever given over the years has the same through line: You getting by because of the contributions others have made (your family, church, doctors, community, wife's boss, other people at your insurance company) to your health care needs. You will never contribute enough to your own healthcare to pay for it. Never.

And ObamaCare is forcing healthy young people into the system, instead of having them wait until they're older and need more care? Well hot damn, who benefits in that system more than the people who do have serious needs?

RyanKCR wrote:

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Ever since the ACA was passed my costs and many other people's costs have risen considerably. How is that helping?

Yeah, let's all act like health care costs weren't increasing *before* the Affordable Care Act passed!

Oh, wait. The truth is that rate increases have slowed since the ACA passed. Now, arguments can be made both for and against crediting the Affordable Care Act for that (I think I've got a handle on which side you'd take), but blaming the legislation for rate increases when they're actually at "historic lows" seems a bit off.

Link:

The cost of employer-sponsored family health insurance premiums jumped again this year, but the rate at which they rose slowed to historic lows, according to a new survey Tuesday.

For insured workers, the cost of buying health insurance for a family of four increased 4% to $15,745 in 2012, according to a survey conducted by Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust.

Last year, premiums leaped 9% from the year before.

"These are strikingly low numbers to those of us who have been studying health costs for a long time," said Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation. "A 4% increase in health premiums is good news."

[Robert Maxwell]

I would cheer at a mere 4% rate increase. That's much better than what I've seen my entire working life.

Oh, but Obamacare is teh evil.

[teya]

IndyJones wrote:

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That's such bullshit.

Every anecdote you've ever given over the years has the same through line: You getting by because of the contributions others have made (your family, church, doctors, community, wife's boss, other people at your insurance company) to your health care needs. You will never contribute enough to your own healthcare to pay for it. Never.

As well as public assistance....

This is a disconnect I just don't understand. My SO was also a high-consumer of health care dollars. In the last year of his life, he racked up over $2 million in health care expenditures. He had both Medicare & MediCal--and was supremely grateful for that.

As he became ill at 23, no, he never paid into the system what he got out of it. But what was the option? Let him die on the streets? Or take him out into a field & shoot him? Because insurance here in the US is tied to work, he was dumped from his insurance plan as soon as he was unable to work. Public assistance was the only option.

If we'd had a single-payer system, the costs for him--and other high-consumers--would have been spread across the entire population, not just across a system paying for other high-cost consumers of medical care (i.e. the elderly & disabled).