Affordable Health Care act - have you read it?

AnnaMC1977

Plain and simple, it's socialized medicine. If you are healthy, you will be fine. If you aren't, y ou will be in trouble. I have Lupus and with it I have kidney failure, heart failure, vasculitis of the brain, antiphospholipid syndrome to name a few. I'm on coumatin (anti-coagulant (blood clot in brain 9 yrs ago), dilantin (seizures), lisinopril (high blood pressure), cellcept (anti-rejection drug), predinsone (immunosuppressive), plaquinil..to name a FEW. I do not believe that I will get the care I need when the industry is flooded. Care (esp for people like myself) will be rationed. There are too many people in this country taking, and not enough contributing, the balance has shifted and this is about to get very bad.

summertime_girl

Yes, I read it for a paper I was writing several years ago. I completely disagree with your assessment. As I read it, you are precisely the sort of person the plan protects. You can keep your insurance if you have it already, and nothing with change. It's been basically implemented in MA for several years, and I haven't met a person yet who has had issues. My care certainly hasn't changed, and I've had several major medical issues since it was implemented.

marsellient

Do you mean socialised medicine....like in Canada?

lour441

I am pretty sure Anna is not worried about keeping her insurance. More likely she is worried about being able to get an appointment when the doctor shortage we already have now is made worse by the addition of 30 million more people covered due to the Affordable Heath Care Act. Don't worry Anna... Your well being is a small price to pay for the availability of health insurance for the masses.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/health/policy/too-few-doctors-in-many-us-communities.html
http://news.yahoo.com/doc-shortage-could-cause-healthcare-crash-172501425--abc-news-health.html

summertime_girl

It has not been an issue in MA. I have no problems seeing my doctors when needed. That has included emergency surgery, xrays, MRI, physical therapy, and treatment for Lyme, as well as other routine things like annuals. I fully admit that MA is exceptional in the volume of world-class hospitals and doctors though. There are more per capita here than other areas.

But I do think it will force changes in some areas. I think there will be a big increase in scholarships for doctors who are willing to commit to working in impoverished areas after med school. I think there will also be a big increase in the number of nurse practitioners for general health. A lot of times there's no need to see a physician for more routine things.

I think we will also see incentives for people to become doctors, such as lower premiums for malpractice, bonuses for less desirable specialties, etc.

I do think there are too few doctors in some areas, but that's due in large part to the outrageous costs that have been implemented from university debt and insurance premiums. If we can attract high quality people to the field with the promise of alleviating some of that, more will opt into that profession.

MaraDiaz

I am pretty sure Anna is not worried about keeping her insurance. More likely she is worried about being able to get an appointment when the doctor shortage we already have now is made worse by the addition of 30 million more people covered due to the Affordable Heath Care Act. Don't worry Anna... Your well being is a small price to pay for the availability of health insurance for the masses.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/health/policy/too-few-doctors-in-many-us-communities.html
http://news.yahoo.com/doc-shortage-could-cause-healthcare-crash-172501425--abc-news-health.html

Time to open up the medical schools to more doctors! Hooray, economic boost, more professionals working, less people dying for lack of health care. What's not to love?

Oooh I got an idea, maybe more scholarships for bright students interested in medicine who can't afford an education.

I don't like Obamacare overall, I think it will shift much of the healthcare costs from employers to tax payers and doesn't curb the profits of HMOs, but it's a tiny, incremental step in the right direction. It just should have been done much better and more thoroughly.

jenbit

Plain and simple, it's socialized medicine. If you are healthy, you will be fine. If you aren't, y ou will be in trouble. I have Lupus and with it I have kidney failure, heart failure, vasculitis of the brain, antiphospholipid syndrome to name a few. I'm on coumatin (anti-coagulant (blood clot in brain 9 yrs ago), dilantin (seizures), lisinopril (high blood pressure), cellcept (anti-rejection drug), predinsone (immunosuppressive), plaquinil..to name a FEW. I do not believe that I will get the care I need when the industry is flooded. Care (esp for people like myself) will be rationed. There are too many people in this country taking, and not enough contributing, the balance has shifted and this is about to get very bad.

Its coumadin not coumatin........


I for one like the AHC. I work in the medical field. I have seen what happens to people with no insurance.. Is it the perfect plan, no, however its a step in the right direction. My best friend has hypothyriodism medicare told her to get pregnant if she wanted coverage. Her wok insurance wouldn't cover any pre-exsisting conditions which meant she couldn't afford her synthroid. In the course of a year her heart enlarged 10% and she finally qualified for a goverment insurance plan. Now if her insurance had covered her she would have had her medicine and would not have ended up in the ICU for 3 days. Which ultimatley causes the hospital to lose money since her insurance wouldn't cover it due to it being related to her preexsisting condition.

Besides I have yet to hear of anyone coming up with a better plan.

Azdak

Plain and simple, it's socialized medicine. If you are healthy, you will be fine. If you aren't, y ou will be in trouble. I have Lupus and with it I have kidney failure, heart failure, vasculitis of the brain, antiphospholipid syndrome to name a few. I'm on coumatin (anti-coagulant (blood clot in brain 9 yrs ago), dilantin (seizures), lisinopril (high blood pressure), cellcept (anti-rejection drug), predinsone (immunosuppressive), plaquinil..to name a FEW. I do not believe that I will get the care I need when the industry is flooded. Care (esp for people like myself) will be rationed. There are too many people in this country taking, and not enough contributing, the balance has shifted and this is about to get very bad.

Its coumadin not coumatin........


I for one like the AHC. I work in the medical field. I have seen what happens to people with no insurance.. Is it the perfect plan, no, however its a step in the right direction. My best friend has hypothyriodism medicare told her to get pregnant if she wanted coverage. Her wok insurance wouldn't cover any pre-exsisting conditions which meant she couldn't afford her synthroid. In the course of a year her heart enlarged 10% and she finally qualified for a goverment insurance plan. Now if her insurance had covered her she would have had her medicine and would not have ended up in the ICU for 3 days. Which ultimatley causes the hospital to lose money since her insurance wouldn't cover it due to it being related to her preexsisting condition.

Besides I have yet to hear of anyone coming up with a better plan.

The only alternative plan seems to be:

"I've got mine--you can just get sick and die".

Oh and "How dare you make me wait longer for an appointment, so that someone else can see a doctor, too".

Because, you know....

Socialism.

treetop57

I'm curious how Anna's care is paid for now. Probably employer-based coverage, which is of course government subsidized through the tax code. Might be Medicare or Medicaid, socialist single-payer systems. I think it is safe to say that it's not an individual private-insurance plan, since with her health situation the chances anyone who sell her that is near zip.

Italian_Buju

I live in Canada, and we have had socialized medicine forever.....

I have been diabetic since I was a child, if I lived in the USA, I would not be surprised if I was dead or near dead by now....

Because I live in Canada, and have access to whatever DRs and Specialists I need, I am actually very healthy for someone diabetic for so long

I think that is the best thing your country has done in my lifetime, hands down

I am actually kinda put off by the way the OP worded her concern.....it sounds like, it would piss you off to wait a little longer for a DRs appt so that several of your fellow Americans that need to see a DR as well now can, even if they could not afford it before.....personally, if I have to wait a few months to get something done that is not life threatening so that several of my fellow Canadians may get care as well, that is fine with me, rather than me getting my tonsils out while Mr. X dies from heart defect because he could not afford insurance..... its called being human......

treetop57

I wish we had passed a simple "Medicare for all" program like Canada has. Alas, there are too many rich entrenched interests that would have lost too much. I don't think it was a coincidence that the Senator from Hartford killed the proposal to allow anyone over 55 to buy into Medicare. (Hartford, CT, is of course the "Insurance Capital of the World. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford )

LuckyLeprechaun

My care certainly hasn't changed, and I've had several major medical issues since it was implemented.

It has not yet been fully implemented. Speculating on how it will play out might be entertaining, but we won't be able to measure the full effect until it has been implemented in full, and even then it will take several years before we truly "find out what's in it"

treetop57

Romneycare, after which Obamacare was designed, has been implemented in Massachusetts for a number of years and had not resulted in the death panels Anna seems to fear.

Azdak

I live in Canada, and we have had socialized medicine forever.....

I have been diabetic since I was a child, if I lived in the USA, I would not be surprised if I was dead or near dead by now....

Because I live in Canada, and have access to whatever DRs and Specialists I need, I am actually very healthy for someone diabetic for so long

I think that is the best thing your country has done in my lifetime, hands down

I am actually kinda put off by the way the OP worded her concern.....it sounds like, it would piss you off to wait a little longer for a DRs appt so that several of your fellow Americans that need to see a DR as well now can, even if they could not afford it before.....personally, if I have to wait a few months to get something done that is not life threatening so that several of my fellow Canadians may get care as well, that is fine with me, rather than me getting my tonsils out while Mr. X dies from heart defect because he could not afford insurance..... its called being human......

We need to have some regulation of profile pictures.

I thought Adrian had moved to Canada.

cubizzle

whatever *edit

summertime_girl

My care certainly hasn't changed, and I've had several major medical issues since it was implemented.

It has not yet been fully implemented. Speculating on how it will play out might be entertaining, but we won't be able to measure the full effect until it has been implemented in full, and even then it will take several years before we truly "find out what's in it"

I'm in Massachusetts. We've had the benefit of care for a while now. I do have private insurance through my husband's employer, but nothing has changed, save for the fact that my premiums haven't increased at the rate they did previously, and we can't get dinged for existing conditions anymore.

Like I said, we benefit due to proximity to world class medical facilities. But I have't had a single gripe since the Obamacare predecessor, Romneycare, was implemented.

LuckyLeprechaun

Romneycare, after which Obamacare was designed, has been implemented in Massachusetts for a number of years and had not resulted in the death panels Anna seems to fear.

I'm not afraid of death panels. But I do think the costs will be staggering, and the 13.7% increase on insurance premiums Kaiser just announced is the very tip of the giant iceberg we are headed for.

summertime_girl

That percentage increase would be in direct violation of the law. Further, they'd have to prove that the inflated costs would be going to cover insured people. If not, you would be entitled to a refund under the law.

LuckyLeprechaun

That percent increase already happened. All of my coworkers who have Kaiser found out that their premiums are going up by 13.7%, announced at the open enrollment meeting this year. (Luckily, I chose Anthem, I'm unaffected, for the time being)

summertime_girl

Then Kaiser slid it in before the provisions of AHC took effect. Can't fault the law for something it couldn't control because it wasn't in place yet.

adrian_indy

When I get some time, no worries, I will change my profile pic.

But here is the thing.....if socialized medicine is so ****ing awful....and we support our troops, consider them heroes and want nothing but the best for them, how come I have never heard a single conservative advocate getting rid of government ran healthcare for our veterans. It's not good enough for out citizens, but it's good enough for our vets?

Something doesn't make sense to me. Either it's not as bad as everyone is making it out to be or, once again, our support the troops rhetoric is just lip service as our men and women returning from service are getting rear ended...again.

MaraDiaz

I'm not going to bash on OP for being worried, she has life threatening conditions that need treatment. But it's shortsighted of her to assume she'll always have the money to cover those conditions under the current system.

What looks like a good, stable lifestyle can be gone faster than you'd ever believe. Divorce, injury, or an illness of the working spouse, or worsening of illness if you work making you unable to continue working, all can snatch away your ability to get care.

Ask yourself, would you deserve to die from lack of care if any of those things happened? And if you say no, then nobody else deserves to die from lack of care either.

Bahet

Plus without Obamacare it is quite likely that she'd reach the lifetime cap for medical expenses at which point her insurance would no longer cover her or they'd decide she costs them too much money and drop her coverage. If either of those happened all of those health issues would then become pre-existing conditions and would likely not be covered if she was even able to get other insurance. The issue of them being pre-existing would also happen if her or her husband (whoever carries her insurance) were to change jobs or be laid off. Kiss your coverage goodbye if that happens without Obamacare.

treetop57

Good point about the lifetime limit. I take some expensive meds and didn't like seeing my lifetime total creeping up to a non-trivial percentage of my lifetime limit, just from my continuing chronic condition, knowing that if I ever had anything acute requiring hospitalization, that lifetime total would race toward the limit instead of just creeping.

One quibble: as long as she (and her spouse if any) were able to somehow maintain continuous coverage, either employer-based or COBRA, they would not lose coverage for pre-existing conditions when they found a new job and got new employer-based coverage. That's been the law since the mid-90s. (Thank you, Senators Kennedy and Kassebaum!)

That law, incidentally, was what Romney was talking about when he said his replacement for Obamacare covered pre-existing conditions. Anyone without continuous coverage? Screwed under Romney's non-plan plan.

treetop57

Copays, deductibles, and premiums were increasing every year before Obamacare was passed in 2010. But since passage, some people blame every increase on the new law, as if there were no increases previously.

The data says healthcare inflation slowed down once Obama was elected, and he started pushing Congress to pass healthcare reform.



Source: http://ycharts.com/indicators/us_health_care_inflation_rate

Notice: The long-term average healthcare inflation rate is 5.56%. The rate for the last year is a full 2.5 percentage points lower: 3.12%.

Bahet

One quibble: as long as she (and her spouse if any) were able to somehow maintain continuous coverage, either employer-based or COBRA, they would not lose coverage for pre-existing conditions when they found a new job and got new employer-based coverage. That's been the law since the mid-90s. (Thank you, Senators Kennedy and Kassebaum!)

True, but the cost of COBRA for someone wit all those health issues would be astronomical. If she loses her health insurance because of losing a job that alone could bankrupt most people. The average American is 1 month of income away from financial disaster. She'd have to decide whether having health insurance is more important than staying in their home, having a car, keeping the things she's aquired over the years, sometimes even eating on a daily basis.

Bahet

She deactivated her account. I guess she couldn't handle the truth and didn't like looking like an ungrateful idiot who prioritized her want of a fast appointment over the health of 30 million people.

treetop57

One quibble: as long as she (and her spouse if any) were able to somehow maintain continuous coverage, either employer-based or COBRA, they would not lose coverage for pre-existing conditions when they found a new job and got new employer-based coverage. That's been the law since the mid-90s. (Thank you, Senators Kennedy and Kassebaum!)

True, but the cost of COBRA for someone wit all those health issues would be astronomical. If she loses her health insurance because of losing a job that alone could bankrupt most people. The average American is 1 month of income away from financial disaster. She'd have to decide whether having health insurance is more important than staying in their home, having a car, keeping the things she's aquired over the years, sometimes even eating on a daily basis.

No argument.

It's too bad she decided not to stick around and discuss the issue. My hope is that the Affordable Health Care is the beginning of the end people being driven into bankruptcy and poverty due to illness.

Wickedbookworm1977

I am pretty sure Anna is not worried about keeping her insurance. More likely she is worried about being able to get an appointment when the doctor shortage we already have now is made worse by the addition of 30 million more people covered due to the Affordable Heath Care Act. Don't worry Anna... Your well being is a small price to pay for the availability of health insurance for the masses.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/health/policy/too-few-doctors-in-many-us-communities.html
http://news.yahoo.com/doc-shortage-could-cause-healthcare-crash-172501425--abc-news-health.html

Time to open up the medical schools to more doctors! Hooray, economic boost, more professionals working, less people dying for lack of health care. What's not to love?

Oooh I got an idea, maybe more scholarships for bright students interested in medicine who can't afford an education.

I don't like Obamacare overall, I think it will shift much of the healthcare costs from employers to tax payers and doesn't curb the profits of HMOs, but it's a tiny, incremental step in the right direction. It just should have been done much better and more thoroughly.

Can't afford medicine/healthcare? That's fine. Why give free stuff to people who didn't earn it?? Why should I have to pay for them??

Wickedbookworm1977

She deactivated her account. I guess she couldn't handle the truth and didn't like looking like an ungrateful idiot who prioritized her want of a fast appointment over the health of 30 million people.

Those "30 million" people need to get a job. Not have handouts from Obammie!!

Brunner26_2

Can't afford medicine/healthcare? That's fine. Why give free stuff to people who didn't earn it?? Why should I have to pay for them??

You already do pay for them. ERs are required to treat people without insurance. When those people can't pay, the costs are transferred to other patients and taxpayers resulting in higher hospital fees and insurance premiums. Emergency care is expensive. It would be less expensive to provide regular care for the uninsured.