The solution is easy. Just let every American have the same plan members of Congress have.

problem solved.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe a public plan for catastrophic health care. Stroke, heart attack, cancer, etc.

Everything else you pay out of pocket.

There are a lot of conditions, too, that don't require frequent expensive visits to the doctor and medication that only addresses symptoms but doesn't cure anything. Some doctors will happily book and bill for multiple follow up appointments that accomplish little.

Why are visits to the doctor expensive to begin with?

Large malpractice payouts and insurance malpractice insurance, health insurance "networks" which are anti-competitive (AKA tying agreements), artifical limits by the AMA on the number practicing in different medical fields, more doctors becoming pharmaceutical reps to push medicines rather than returning to diagnosis and pushing for the patient to be involved in their own health, and millions of people not paying for services which breaks down the link between market feedback and patient responsibility since the payer is a third party.

You don't even see the doctor's face anymore. You see the back of their head as you talk and they type into a screen.

Or they require you to visit with their nurse practitioner, pretty much like how lawyers often throw their work on the paralegal. The experts you're paying for don't want to make the time to see you, the consumer. Or professors putting everything on their graduate assistants.

Sorry, the NP isn't an MD. I'm sure they're skilled at their job, but alas, they didn't attend medical school and pass the required exams.

Plus games on payout whether a facility is affiliated with a hospital or not. Costs can vary wildly by just that one difference. Hospital administrators know this and are gaming the system. The government wrote the system and now they're following every rule and policy to their financial benefit. That's what thousands of pages of bureaucratic legislation get you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe a public plan for catastrophic health care. Stroke, heart attack, cancer, etc.

Everything else you pay out of pocket.

There are a lot of conditions, too, that don't require frequent expensive visits to the doctor and medication that only addresses symptoms but doesn't cure anything. Some doctors will happily book and bill for multiple follow up appointments that accomplish little.

Why are visits to the doctor expensive to begin with?

Large malpractice payouts and insurance malpractice insurance, health insurance "networks" which are anti-competitive (AKA tying agreements), artifical limits by the AMA on the number practicing in different medical fields, more doctors becoming pharmaceutical reps to push medicines rather than returning to diagnosis and pushing for the patient to be involved in their own health, and millions of people not paying for services which breaks down the link between market feedback and patient responsibility since the payer is a third party.

You don't even see the doctor's face anymore. You see the back of their head as you talk and they type into a screen.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe a public plan for catastrophic health care. Stroke, heart attack, cancer, etc.

Everything else you pay out of pocket.

It won't work. Millions of people need chronic meds in order to prevent catastrophic illnesses in the first place. They cannot afford meds 100% out of pocket if all they have is disaster coverage. So many people need chronic care for various ailments that probably wouldn't be classified as disasters.

Millions of Americans can't afford a $1000 emergency bill, but we should expect they'll be able to pay $10k per month for meds needed to treat their kid who has a terrible autoimmune disease?

US HC is such a disaster and the worst in the world. Americans are now better off racking up infinite debt for healthcare and refusing to pay for it anymore. Disaster plans won't solve crap.

Anonymous wrote:What I find fascinating is that Republicans literally cannot come up with an alternative. Concepts of a plan is all we've had for years.

This. To me, that means “we don’t have a plan for lowering healthcare costs because we really don’t care if you or your family or your friends or your community lives or dies.”

Anonymous wrote:Maybe a public plan for catastrophic health care. Stroke, heart attack, cancer, etc.

Everything else you pay out of pocket.

There are a lot of conditions, too, that don't require frequent expensive visits to the doctor and medication that only addresses symptoms but doesn't cure anything. Some doctors will happily book and bill for multiple follow up appointments that accomplish little.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe a public plan for catastrophic health care. Stroke, heart attack, cancer, etc.

Everything else you pay out of pocket.

This should be the plan for team R. Without an alternative plan, Medicare for all is inevitable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed. If the only people buying healthcare is the very ill, it makes healthcare so expensive AND leaves hospitals in the lurch. We will see hospitals closing and collapsing under the economic burden.
At the same time, the elder healthcare burden demands attention. It’s not sustainable.
We need universal or required (affordable) healthcare for all, and free elder care options.

Affordable to you is not affordable to someone else. Plus, if it's required, what stops providers from raising prices to get more reimbursement out of the government?

When have so many other countries figured this out? They don't have runaway infinite costs because providers are raising prices to whatever they want.

Once again, America is too stupid and too obtuse to learn from what billions of other people have already figured out.

Anonymous wrote:Agreed. If the only people buying healthcare is the very ill, it makes healthcare so expensive AND leaves hospitals in the lurch. We will see hospitals closing and collapsing under the economic burden.
At the same time, the elder healthcare burden demands attention. It’s not sustainable.
We need universal or required (affordable) healthcare for all, and free elder care options.

Affordable to you is not affordable to someone else. Plus, if it's required, what stops providers from raising prices to get more reimbursement out of the government?

Maybe a public plan for catastrophic health care. Stroke, heart attack, cancer, etc.

Everything else you pay out of pocket.

Way to go Republicans! Let them eat cake!

What I find fascinating is that Republicans literally cannot come up with an alternative. Concepts of a plan is all we've had for years.

Agreed. If the only people buying healthcare is the very ill, it makes healthcare so expensive AND leaves hospitals in the lurch. We will see hospitals closing and collapsing under the economic burden.
At the same time, the elder healthcare burden demands attention. It’s not sustainable.
We need universal or required (affordable) healthcare for all, and free elder care options.

Been reading a lot of stories recently on various social media platforms on the horror stories so many Americans are currently facing with respect to HC. Besides the loss of subsidies for Obamacare, so many people are now saying their HC insurance during this new round of open season is at the breaking point where it is completely unaffordable. Many people saying they now have to shell out $2000-3000 per month for coverage for their family with their *employer* plans. And that's for garbage HC plans that still require $6, 7, 10k deductibles before their insurance will pay anything. So many people are now basically saying they plan to go uninsured because HC plans are a massive ripoff and they can't afford it. They plan to pay out of pocket for what they can, but if they hit an emergency, many have said in these stories they have zero intention of paying now because it isn't affordable. They don't care if they get hits to their credit, because it isnt like they can afford $500-600k homes and $50k cars anyway.

So is HC in America finally toast? What happens when the vast majority of Americans simply decide to stop paying the outrageous costs and risk can no longer be pooled for insurance plans because huge numbers of people can't afford it anymore? The entire system for insurance will collapse. Costs keep going up, which makes fewer amd fewer people able to afford it, which causes even more people to drop causing prices to escalate even more. It is a circular problem out of control.

HC in the US may finally be over as we know it, and it feels a lot different this time.