Any good health care stories out there?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jon Sessler on November 6, 2013 at 10:47am

The Law of "Unintended Consequences"......businesses will do what it takes to stay profitable (which is what they are supposed to do), I unapologetically strive for that everyday. 

Permalink Reply by Jon Sessler on November 8, 2013 at 1:08pm

Jeff McBroom you are EXACTLY right! 

Jeff McBroom said:

I also don't think people realize what the employer mandate extension did. What is happening right now is that people that were buying their own insurance are being cancelled  (by the millions) if it didn't fit what the Obama administration thought was good insurance. Once the employer mandate extension is over, the administration can start forcing the cancellations of insurance policies that employers provide, if they deem it's not good enough insurance. Think about the posibility of what those numbers could be!!

By the way, the extension itself was purely a political move so that the next set of elections would be done before employer sponsored insurance policies would start to be cancelled.

Permalink Reply by Marc Marcantonio on November 10, 2013 at 2:17pm

Wow, don't have time to fight this battle on the internet in a fishing forum, but make no mistake about how I feel about the Unaffordable Health Care Act.  This is an extension of an erosion of the best Health Care model in the world, and unless we can reverse its course, we will end up with a weak health care system, mediocre at best healthcare professionals, and we will seriously hurt our economy (meaning jobs) that heavily depends on a robust healthcare system (one sixth of our economy).

This Act is an extension of Hillary care, and our health care system has been systematically eroded ever since President Clinton's Department of Health and Human Services created the Oasis rules.

While socialized medicine sounds good to some in theory, it provides all of the wrong incentives.  Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), the first step toward socialized medicine, sounds like a good idea to the uninformed, but fail the test of time because they ultimately result in care becoming inaccessible, and a shortage of health care providers, especially quality doctors.  The HMOs sound great when sold to a customer in that you pay up front, and then are promised any and all your care is provided at no extra cost.  The health care providers who sign on to this model are trapped into a system that doesn't reward hard work, and instead creates dangerous and negative incentives.  Now the insurance companies require extensive paperwork by all health care providers or they deny reimbursement for treatment.  Your doctor and physical therapist, or other provider, no longer have a patient care relationship, instead they have a relationship with the insurance company.

Worse yet, the health care providers have negative incentives for providing care in that they lose money every time a patient walks through the door.  The only way HMOs make a profit is to not provide treatment (since the money is paid up front with no direct relationship to care provided).  So guess what happens?  The system makes it hard for you to see a doctor, and to get treatment.  This is why people flocked to the Emergency Rooms.  When your HMO makes it tough to see your doctor, you don't go.  Eventually you realize you can walk into an emergency room and get seen, or you wait until you have no choice but to go to the ER.  HMOs cause the rush on Emergency Rooms, and the high cost.  Also it doesn't take non-citizens long to learn they can go to the ER when time to deliver, so they can get free treatment for their anchor baby.

So the Clinton's first attempt at changing our health care system failed from an economic standpoint since it drove people to the ERs, it did pave the way for the next step, Obama Care.  The ultimate step they seek is to have the health care system to be single payer; ie completely controlled by the Federal Government; i.e. socialized healthcare.

The so-called "Affordable Health Care Act" will likely never work, because again it creates negative incentives to provide quality healthcare.  Without economic incentives that reward hard work and development of health care professionals, and without tort reform (needed to prevent insurance companies and attorneys from controlling health "care" decisions), the model is doomed to failure.  Already our brightest medical professionals and administrators are leaving the profession, and with Obama Care we will need more providers, not less.  

As an employer I will not be hiring more people, and instead will be forced to use technology to replace humans.  The water utility I manage pays 100% of the employees health care, and 50% for family members.  With Obama Care our healthcare plan cost next year will increase by more than 28%, and even more the following year, and the employees can no longer keep their family doctor who they develop a special relationship with.  My employees will see less take home pay if they have family members, for less quality healthcare.  Our customers will see a significant increase in their water bill as the costs are passed on to the customers.

So if you think you are just as well off as you were prior to Obama Care, you aren't considering your increased costs in goods and services you pay to receive, which is where much of the added costs of health care end up.

If you lose your full time job to part time employees, blame our health care system for providing the wrong economic incentives by nationalizing healthcare.  Companies with 40 or more full time employees will be dumping hours and employees because they cannot afford to keep them.

Claims that conservatives have not offered a better alternative are simply untrue and intellectually dishonest.  They have tried to pass insurance portability, and tort reform, which when added to our previous health care system would have made a world-class system even better.  Even if they did nothing, our health care system was the best in the world.

This country was founded on hard work and freedom to to pursue the American Dream.  The country was founded by those who wanted freedom from a government that decided what was best for its citizens.  We are not learning the lessons of history.  If we penalize hard work by forcing a redistribution of wealth and by giving power to the Government instead of its citizens, we will become collectively broke like much of the rest of the world.  It may be cliche, but it is true, the problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money!  

ciao,

Marc Marcantonio

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