What proportion of our national health care costs are spent on “bad lifestyle choices”? Less than you may think. This and dozens of other juicy tidbits from health care policy wonk John Green.
As we prepare to destroy our government and the world economy in a fit of pique over Obamacare — the law that makes your pre-existing conditions irrelevant and lets your kids stay on your policy until they turn 26 — it seems that lots of people still, still, still don’t know the basics of our healthcare problem. Well, this good-looking, fast-talking, funny, and informed guy wants to have a thousand or two words with you, in under 8 minutes. You gotta watch this:
So remember: we’re comparing Obamacare to something. And this is what we’re comparing it to. And it really, really, really sucks — and it’s dragging down our economy and destroying people’s lives. So as we go pinballing through the next month or so of crisis related to Obamacare — which certainly can be improved, if Congress was willing to do so — check out what critics are saying against what’s in this video.
Are they complaining about a $50 billion per year part of a $750 billion per year problem? If so, you’re question ought to be: do they just not know their stuff — or are they actively lying to you?
Now, you may be wondering why, over the course of almost five years, the Obama Administration still can’t seem to explain things this clearly.
(Sorry, that’s the final sentence. I have no explanation for it either.)
Wait, where is the mention of the Heritage Foundation extolling the virtues of the individual mandate, the success of Romneycare, the blacktracking…
Obamacare is like democracy. It is bad. Till you consider the alternatives.
Showdown over Obamacare, on CNN:
This is not about defunding ObamaCare,” Cardenas said. “ObamaCare’s already been in the marketplace. People’s insurance rates are going up 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%—”
“That’s not true,” Donna Brazile interjected. “Over 100 million person have already experienced the benefits of ObamaCare. Whether it’s young people remaining on their parents’ plan or it’s women with pre-existing conditions can now go out and get the kind of medical help they need. This is all about the Republicans not having a plan. Republicans are raising money on this ‘defund ObamaCare.’ You’re not solving the problem.”
this was written a year ago but….
http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/29/pf/healthcare-costs/index.htm
Its great that kids are covered until age 26, but how much more is the parents premium? People think it must be free.
another more recent article from Forbes…
http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/05/30/rate-shock-in-california-obamacare-to-increase-individual-insurance-premiums-by-64-146/
to be fair and balanced… I found this on factcheck.org disputing previous story…
http://www.factcheck.org/2013/03/obamacare-to-cost-20000-a-family/
but we shall see…
It depends on the policy’s terms, Inge. Usually, with most plans, an additional person (especially a younger one) will add much less than the older ones or that the child can get alone. (And if they can get something cheaper alone — they can.)
So the arsenic salesmen and and the Guillotine salesmen are trashing each other’s “headache cures”, each with their favorite 1/3 of the data. **Yawn**
and we add a bunch of over paid paper pushers to the system and call it better… Right! (wink, wink, nod, nod, carry on!)
I would yawn too except that every time I do somebody in a white coat wants to cut, cook or poison me more… although right now none of them seem to know what to do with my recurrence of carotid artery clinging, HPV16+, squamous cell carcinoma…
Since it’s a preexisting condition however, IF I could afford to change insurance, it would at least be covered…of course it’s not going to pay for all forms of treatments or all of those potential life saving drugs that are too expensive to save my old uber-conservative head. Then again perhaps if I had given less, I would still have mine…one wonders….
Much less paper to be pushed now that the insurers don’t get to spend so much time looking for a preexisting condition they can use to rescind their insurance.
Sorry to hear about your illness. I’ll make my standard offer: if you can get yourself to the Philippines, I can help arrange good treatment.
Ok, so now even the Clinton’s are nailing it to the ACA. Waking up the media to the “Family Glitch” in a story from USA Today…
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/09/23/aca-family-glitch-issues/2804017/
So, how well is this going to play out? I certainly have NO clue, but it sure looks ugly, and I don’t care how good you tell me it’s going to taste in the end, it sure looks worse than sausage right now!
Not exactly “nailing it to the ACA.” According to your linked story, it’s a legislative drafting error — something not uncommon and usually readily fixed. Democrats would, without question, fix it if given the chance. Republicans would, almost certainly, block it. So is the problem with the ACA — or with the people who won’t allow an very easy fix?
Pretty piss poor excuse to call it a drafting error after all this time…or did it take them this long to actually read and understand the entire ACA…
The ACA needs to go away!
Yeah, but these things happen. Often. Especially with big bills.
Want to bet that some big bill that you support has had a similar glitch?
I would take that bet, as a rule I don’t support big bills.
They have a bad track record for unintended consequences and high expense.
I don’t believe in fast tracking bills either as a rule.
Yes, there may be some exceptions, but that isn’t an excuse to make it a usual course of doing business or ramming something this gigantic down to a vote quicker than anyone could have a chance to read it.
Since the ACA had so many pieces cobbled together by so many writers, I would bet there are parts of it, that can’t be traced back to any one person either.
It is, was, a train wreck! Let’s clear the tracks and see what kind of reasonable decisions can be made. If we are going to have to do something can we at least be smart about it. I still think it’s un-Constitutional but that’s a subject for the Supreme’s to decide again.
Can we at least agree that it’s a mess?
Again, we jones for simple, honest, single-payer.
we all jones for something Vern 😉
I don’t jones for something Vern, unless you mean his music.
I’m sure that you’ve supported budget bills and appropriation bills and defense authorization bills, right? Again, these things happen.
I think that our pre-ACA system is the train wreck. ACA is far from perfect, but it’s a step away from disaster. It may be a mess, but to start over would be a far greater one.
Not as many as you might think Greg.
Most, if not all have been filled with non-kosher ingredients. Hence they become inedible to my libertarian palate.
If nothing else I’m pretty consistent.