Overwhelming Incompetence: a.k.a Government Healthcare

[Mr. Laser Beam]

we need single payer. I doubt few here will disagree with that.

Hell, I even agree with that, and I'm as much an "America F**K Yeah!" Republican as y'all have seen here.

srsly: In my mind, health care is one of these matters that absolutely transcends all considerations of political affiliation. IMHO, it's simply more efficient to have a system like Canada's or the UK's.

I mean, I respect the ACA for at least trying to give care to those who can't have it, but it just doesn't go far enough. For too many people it's something that you have to sign up for. Health care is an absolute right, and should be treated accordingly.

Look at it this way: There are certain other services, like police and fire departments, which are automatically taken care of by the government. Why shouldn't health care also fall under this? Nobody with any kind of sense would seriously propose privatizing police or fire services, so why should health care be?

 

[Gaseous Anomaly]

It's open enrollment for benefits 2016 at work and I just found out my cost is going up $230 more every month for the same coverage as 2015. Since last years pay raise was only 1.3% I'll be in the red. I guess I'll just start being like all my coworkers and take my sick ass in to work everyday and not see the doctor anymore.

 

[BillJ]

It's open enrollment for benefits 2016 at work and I just found out my cost is going up $230 more every month for the same coverage as 2015. Since last years pay raise was only 1.3% I'll be in the red. I guess I'll just start being like all my coworkers and take my sick ass in to work everyday and not see the doctor anymore.

My wife works in telecommunications, and it looks like ours is going up about $40/month with the same benefits for 2016. So ACA either hasn't gotten us yet, my wife's company is picking up a much larger chunk of medical expenses (HaHa!) or these other companies are using ACA as an excuse to shift more of the expense to their employees.

 

[RoJoHen]

I will be investigating coverage through ACA for the coming year. Enrollment for 2016 doesn't start until November, but looking at the prices for 2015, I could potentially end up saving about $150/month.

 

[Karzak]

Still no re-appearance by the OP.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

I got my lab results back today.


Triglycerides
July 2015: 1111
Today: 212

Cholesterol
July 2015: 281
Today: 152

Wow, those are two impressive changes, Rainbow Dash! Was that from a combination of meds and diet, or what?

we need single payer. I doubt few here will disagree with that.

Hell, I even agree with that, and I'm as much an "America F**K Yeah!" Republican as y'all have seen here.

srsly: In my mind, health care is one of these matters that absolutely transcends all considerations of political affiliation. IMHO, it's simply more efficient to have a system like Canada's or the UK's.

I mean, I respect the ACA for at least trying to give care to those who can't have it, but it just doesn't go far enough. For too many people it's something that you have to sign up for. Health care is an absolute right, and should be treated accordingly.

Look at it this way: There are certain other services, like police and fire departments, which are automatically taken care of by the government. Why shouldn't health care also fall under this? Nobody with any kind of sense would seriously propose privatizing police or fire services, so why should health care be?

 

[Amaris]

I got my lab results back today.


Triglycerides
July 2015: 1111
Today: 212

Cholesterol
July 2015: 281
Today: 152

Wow, those are two impressive changes, Rainbow Dash! Was that from a combination of meds and diet, or what?

Thank you, and yes to both! I restructured my diet, making it high fiber and low fat. I started walking whenever I could (which isn't as much as I'd like). I take a statin and I take a medication for my triglycerides every day, and on time.

The nurse I spoke with told me my doctor was ecstatic. His words, according to her was "magnificent, and keep doing whatever you're doing."

I cried when she told me my results. I was so scared that nothing had changed, but there it was. Next month I get my A1C checked, and I'm hoping with every fiber of my being that it will be just as magnificent.

 

[Gryffindorian]

Let's be fair. He has a wife and child and generally speaking, people don't check in as much on the boards over the weekend.

That said, it'd sure be nice to hear back from the OP given what a response his thread has generated.

If the OP's history is any indication, it'll be a combination of blanket dismissal and doubling down.

He probably doesn't have anything to add. Some people just like to gripe without offering much insight.

 

[Squiggy]

My job offers health coverage but at the tune of about $600 a month...or more than half a paycheck.

That's your employer's fault for offering you shitty insurance. Do you want Obama to regulate that too? Get a better job or pull yourself up from the boot straps.

My daughter has cost us a grand total of 200 bucks over the past 15 months, and that's because we wanted a private post-delivery room for 3 days.

I had emergency surgery a couple of months before she was born to the tune of $60.

I was able to get my mom signed up for the exchange where she's getting twice the coverage for half the cost of what her employer was offering her.

So there. My three good stories trumps your one sad story.

Through Obama, all manner of things are possible. Praised be His Kenyan name. Amen.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Flux, if you're still checking this thread, tell us more about what's going on. I'd like to understand.

 

[Jedi_Master]

I will say this (negative) about the ACA: It made doing my own taxes a real headache. My wife is self-employed, so it was never fun in the first place, but this year was a special kind of pain.

Yikes.

 

[Karzak]

My job offers health coverage but at the tune of about $600 a month...or more than half a paycheck.

That's your employer's fault for offering you shitty insurance. Do you want Obama to regulate that too? Get a better job or pull yourself up from the boot straps.

My daughter has cost us a grand total of 200 bucks over the past 15 months, and that's because we wanted a private post-delivery room for 3 days.

I had emergency surgery a couple of months before she was born to the tune of $60.

I was able to get my mom signed up for the exchange where she's getting twice the coverage for half the cost of what her employer was offering her.

So there. My three good stories trumps your one sad story.

Through Obama, all manner of things are possible. Praised be His Kenyan name. Amen.

 

[Tiberius Jim]

I apologize for the lack of follow up in this thread. As had been speculated, I have been fairly busy with work, the baby and other things (currently planning a surprise birthday party for my wife tomorrow). I actually do technically work two jobs, one full time as a manager at a motorcycle gear shop (the one with the shitty benefits) and I freelance as a graphic designer for an online news site. So yeah, I've been a touch preoccupied but did want to update the thread and clarify some things.

First of all, I don't really have a problem with the ACA. I do agree that it seems confusing in that some people seem to be saving money while others are paying more, but from what I saw on the Covered California site, we would be able to get in with HealthNet at a lower price than our previous insurance for about the same coverage. The best part was that the baby could keep her existing pediatrician. That is what I thought we were signing up for when we went to the office.

I fully expected to be paying per month just like we had been when my wife's job took the premiums out of her check. Only now we'd be paying HealthNet directly. How we got hitched to the "low-income" free Medi-cal wagon was a mystery to me, and that in addition to the extreme wait time and the screw ups on their end (ie. It took us a month to ask you to send us 3 different items that you already gave us, and by the way you have 2 days in which to do so.) lead to my frustration and ultimately this thread.

I friend of mine with some extensive knowledge of the subject did shed some light on it, and figured that we may not have been eligible for ACA since we weren't applying during an open enrollment period and we didn't have a "qualifying life event". My wife's existing insurance stopped 3 months after the baby was born and the cut off was 60 days. So what they did was try to get us on Medi-cal instead, which is free or very low cost but requires a ton of red tape and paper work. I get that now, but why the "I'm only clerical" receptionist couldn't communicate that to us is beyond me. They tout these offices as being the place to go for answers, and when you're in need of some, you're out of luck because the public-facing staff don't know anything about what they're signing people up for.

Currently, the plan is to forget about the Medi-cal process and just sign up for Covered CA as we originally intended to when the open enrollment starts in November. I am told that it is then that the process becomes really easy. My only issue then will be that Covered CA doesn't include dental of vision for adults, so I may still have to go through my work for that. My hope though is that we won't get stuck with that bullshit fee for not having medical insurance that I have seen people getting, and hopefully even *trying* to sign up is enough to negate that.

So no, I can't blame Obama for any of this, although it is really irritating not being able to get any solid info from the people in the office. There definitely needs to be a better setup in that department.

BTW, thank you to those who didn't just assume my reply would consist of "dismissal and doubling down". I appreciate that.

 

[Amaris]

If it helps, there is an open enrollment period coming up November 1st. You should get some traction out of that, and find a reasonable rate.

 

[sidious618]

I agree that providing information on the ACA's benefits and how it works has been woefully lacking. When people are polled on the specifics of the plan, they love it, but because they don't associate them with what the ACA actually is a lot of folks think it either does nothing or makes things worse.

 

[RoJoHen]

I live in a world where most people never had health insurance in the first place, so the ACA was basically forcing them to spend money they otherwise wouldn't have spent.

 

[Marc]

I live in a world where most people never had health insurance in the first place, so the ACA was basically forcing them to spend money they otherwise wouldn't have spent.

But how many of those peopel chose not to have health care and how many of where prevented ether from flat out denial or huge premiums due to "pre-existing conditions"

And how much were they paying to get any medical treatment because they didn't have healt insurance.

 

[RoJoHen]

For most of them it was just one of those things they wouldn't even consider spending money on. They had lived their whole lives without it, so it wasn't even on their radar.

I've been paying for health insurance my entire adult life, and I have used exactly zero times. I can understand the appeal of not having that extra expense.

But you have to understand, these are people that are used to being poor. They pay cash for crappy little cars. They have no aspirations of ever owning a home. If they went to the doctor without insurance, they would be totally fine never paying the bill, regardless of the consequences to their credit.

 

[JWPlatt]

You're an anecdote. And there's a chance of accident. Among people who are otherwise immortal, accidents are the sole cause of death.

The general case is that people need medical attention. I'd also consider it axiomatic that one would never know how long one's productive life could have been prolonged had their been regular proactive medical checkups to mitigate conditions, such as hypertension, that would have otherwise gone unnoticed and untreated which shorten the potential lifespan. But if your priority is population control, you have a point.

Source for the facts you claim about how people would not otherwise have health insurance, given the opportunity during their entire lifetime?

What's the difference between the indigent never paying the bill and medicaid for those same people?

 

[RoJoHen]

Of course I'm an anecdote. We're all anecdotes.

My "source" is conversations. My "source" is all the bitching and moaning I heard when they were told that they had to get health insurance or face the penalties.

Of course everyone wants to have medical coverage, but not everyone wants to pay for it. These are the people that I have daily interactions with; these are my coworkers who do not receive insurance from our employer. These are also people who spend so much of their money on alcohol (I work in a bar, btw) that at the end of the month they bitch about how they don't have enough money to pay their rent. It's crazy to me, but I've seen it too much to dismiss it.

There are obviously going to be differing viewpoints on all of this, but I have had these conversation with too many people for it to not have some merit.