Reply to Let Lower Income "Pay Their Fair Share"!

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Amazing how iberals bend over backwards to ensure that the poor don't have to contribute a cent to their care while not giving a flying F about the middle class struggling to make ends meet. For example....

When Obamacare was being rammed down Americans' throats, I told my neighbor I was against it. She called me "heartless," and then proceeded to tell me about a poor friend of hers, earning $20 an hour, who couldn't afford health insurance. She told me that if this friend has a medical situation, she MIGHT HAVE TO SELL HER HOUSE. (She bought the house years ago, when she had a good job.) When I asked if she was looking for a better job, I was met with complete disdain and told how she couldn't find a better job.

Flash forward. Her friend now has free insurance and medical care, and is still in her house. I, on the othe hand, am crashing under an overpriced insurance plan (they've got to charge middle class more to make up for the total coverage they're providing the low esrners), plus thousands of dollars of medical bills the insurance doesn't cover. It's adding up to nearly 30% of my moderate tske-hime pay, and I can't continue indefinitely. Probably within a year or so, I'll need to sell my house. When I told that same neighbor that my medical costs were so high I might have to sell - she said, with a hint of contempt...."well, instead of complaining, just get a higher-paying job."

All the defense for the lower class and to Hell with the middle class. We will see more of it under Hillary, as she shifts even more money from the middle to the lower. [/quote]

Again: you are attacking the wrong people. Why try to get $10 out of a homeless person seeking medical care when you could have the wealthy pay more? Redirect your anger towards the wealthy.

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The Anderson model of healthcare utilization is dependent on three factors:  predisposing factors, enabling factors, and need.  Studies in MediCARE patients show when access is unrestricted and completely free (an enabling factor) elective procedures increase while producing NO corresponding changes in health status, morbidity, or mortality.  This was demonstrated across all ethnicities and incomes and in patients who had insurance prior to accessing Medicare benefits.

In other words, completely free care tends to drive utilization up with unnecessary treatment and little corresponding increases in patient health.

A small payment  helps shift accountability for healthcare utilization to the final healthcare consumer, which is necessary when healthcare is delivered in a for profit system - which is why Medicare users who were insured before age 65 tend not to get elective procdures prior to the more generous coverage of Medicare.  When users don't have incentives to shop and make careful decisions, free market forces are removed from the system.  When sellers are rewarded for selling more healthcare instead of wellness, another free market driver is removed.  Furthermore, not only are there no rewards for wellness, there are no incentives, penalties, or requirements for compliance on high utilizers who have chronic conditions which are amenable to management.  These are some of the factors for increasing healthcare costs.

Conversely according the the Anderson model, barriers and access (enabling factors) have been removed for one class of patients and increased for another group of patients, through premiums, increased cost sharing, and high deductibles.  Ideally, Obamacare adds access, or enables care for ALL groups, but this has not been the result of the legislation.

Adding access for one group and effectively disabling access for another group is NOT providing effective universal healthcare for our citizens.  Obamacare is a failed system and will never be able to work in a free market-for profit healthcare industry.  
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Thank you for your intelligent contribution to this discussion.[/quote]

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