Anonymous wrote:Two obvious things we need to do first:

1) close the country, kick out the people who shouldn’t be here (at least who arrived in the past 5 years) and make it clear there will be no handouts to non-citizens ever (in law)

2) change the preexisting condition requirements to remove things that people choose to get. No coverage for obesity related conditions unless they have a thyroid or other underlying medical condition; no coverage for smokers or alcoholics, etc.

Then we can start talking about possible solutions.

Anonymous wrote:

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

Everything else you pay out of pocket.

Good luck to the middle class. Dr's charge $120 for an office visit; mammos $200+. Broken bones trip to ER $1000+.

Anonymous wrote:

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:Toast for who? Rich people still have good healthcare. Only a problem for people who don’t have wealth.

Anonymous wrote:Stop focusing on fat people! Healthcare keeps getting more expensive each year. Seems to be getting that way since the formation of HMOs and for profit health insurance companies. Take the profit out!!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Health care is not "unaffordable". It's expensive, which is different. People often choose to go without insurance, or with low value insurance, because at the time they make those elections they are not consuming health care and prefer to spend their money on other things. That's understandably tempting, but also foolish. People need to prioritize health insurance when they choose among employment options, and when they budget for expenses. Too many people do neither, and then expect "others" to pick up the costs if they later need care.

Medicaid addresses the truly impoverished and indigent disabled; Medicare addresses the elderly. Others are expected to provide for themselves, which is not really unreasonable. It does, however, require a mindset of self-sufficiency and prudent prioritizing of health insurance expenses and saving for emergencies over discretionary lifestyle choices, and many people lack the necessary discipline and foresight to do that.

this is exactly it, in america we have the freedom to make our own choices and if you choose not to pay monthly for health insurance that's your business. However on the flip side we shouldn't bail people out if they made that choice. Let the free market happen, in fact, I would love to be charged less because our family is healthy and takes care of ourselves and doesn't use the hospital except for true emergencies like a broken bone, etc, that happens once every few years but beuricrats have passed laws not allowing sliding scales for lifestyle and health issues. Why should an obese person pay the same as a non obese person?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Health care is not "unaffordable". It's expensive, which is different. People often choose to go without insurance, or with low value insurance, because at the time they make those elections they are not consuming health care and prefer to spend their money on other things. That's understandably tempting, but also foolish. People need to prioritize health insurance when they choose among employment options, and when they budget for expenses. Too many people do neither, and then expect "others" to pick up the costs if they later need care.

Medicaid addresses the truly impoverished and indigent disabled; Medicare addresses the elderly. Others are expected to provide for themselves, which is not really unreasonable. It does, however, require a mindset of self-sufficiency and prudent prioritizing of health insurance expenses and saving for emergencies over discretionary lifestyle choices, and many people lack the necessary discipline and foresight to do that.

this is exactly it, in america we have the freedom to make our own choices and if you choose not to pay monthly for health insurance that's your business. However on the flip side we shouldn't bail people out if they made that choice. Let the free market happen, in fact, I would love to be charged less because our family is healthy and takes care of ourselves and doesn't use the hospital except for true emergencies like a broken bone, etc, that happens once every few years but beuricrats have passed laws not allowing sliding scales for lifestyle and health issues. Why should an obese person pay the same as a non obese person?

Did they really ban charging obese people more? That’s infuriating. People need to take some basic responsibility for themselves and their families. Entitlement everywhere!!

Telling people they are fat and act clearly is not very effective at promoting lifestyle changes or the adult obesity rate in the US would not be around 40%. Yes people are making bad decisions with their diets, but that doesn’t change the fact that obesity cost taxpayers hundreds of billions a year. Are we really going to refuse to treat people and let them die of a heart attack in the hospital because they had a bad diet? The answer is no and most people don’t want to live in a society like that either. At the end of the day, results are the only thing that matters and the status quo of lecturing people about their lifestyle is not working. At this point, the US government should just buy the patent rights to Ozempic, Wegovy, and Monjaro, and offer free prescriptions for any US resident 18+ that is obese or overweight. It would only cost around $10 Billion a year for the US government to produce enough ozempic doses to provide medication for all 100 million obese people in the US (if government owns patent). The cost savings to the healthcare system would greatly exceed 10 billion per year. Just make ozempic over the counter and let everyone sign up, then provide it for free. Even if every adult in the US signs up for it, it would still only cost 25 billion a year which is less than 2% of discretionary federal budget.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Health care is not "unaffordable". It's expensive, which is different. People often choose to go without insurance, or with low value insurance, because at the time they make those elections they are not consuming health care and prefer to spend their money on other things. That's understandably tempting, but also foolish. People need to prioritize health insurance when they choose among employment options, and when they budget for expenses. Too many people do neither, and then expect "others" to pick up the costs if they later need care.

Medicaid addresses the truly impoverished and indigent disabled; Medicare addresses the elderly. Others are expected to provide for themselves, which is not really unreasonable. It does, however, require a mindset of self-sufficiency and prudent prioritizing of health insurance expenses and saving for emergencies over discretionary lifestyle choices, and many people lack the necessary discipline and foresight to do that.

this is exactly it, in america we have the freedom to make our own choices and if you choose not to pay monthly for health insurance that's your business. However on the flip side we shouldn't bail people out if they made that choice. Let the free market happen, in fact, I would love to be charged less because our family is healthy and takes care of ourselves and doesn't use the hospital except for true emergencies like a broken bone, etc, that happens once every few years but beuricrats have passed laws not allowing sliding scales for lifestyle and health issues. Why should an obese person pay the same as a non obese person?

Did they really ban charging obese people more? That’s infuriating. People need to take some basic responsibility for themselves and their families. Entitlement everywhere!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Health care is not "unaffordable". It's expensive, which is different. People often choose to go without insurance, or with low value insurance, because at the time they make those elections they are not consuming health care and prefer to spend their money on other things. That's understandably tempting, but also foolish. People need to prioritize health insurance when they choose among employment options, and when they budget for expenses. Too many people do neither, and then expect "others" to pick up the costs if they later need care.

Medicaid addresses the truly impoverished and indigent disabled; Medicare addresses the elderly. Others are expected to provide for themselves, which is not really unreasonable. It does, however, require a mindset of self-sufficiency and prudent prioritizing of health insurance expenses and saving for emergencies over discretionary lifestyle choices, and many people lack the necessary discipline and foresight to do that.

this is exactly it, in america we have the freedom to make our own choices and if you choose not to pay monthly for health insurance that's your business. However on the flip side we shouldn't bail people out if they made that choice. Let the free market happen, in fact, I would love to be charged less because our family is healthy and takes care of ourselves and doesn't use the hospital except for true emergencies like a broken bone, etc, that happens once every few years but beuricrats have passed laws not allowing sliding scales for lifestyle and health issues. Why should an obese person pay the same as a non obese person?

Anonymous wrote:Health care is not "unaffordable". It's expensive, which is different. People often choose to go without insurance, or with low value insurance, because at the time they make those elections they are not consuming health care and prefer to spend their money on other things. That's understandably tempting, but also foolish. People need to prioritize health insurance when they choose among employment options, and when they budget for expenses. Too many people do neither, and then expect "others" to pick up the costs if they later need care.

Medicaid addresses the truly impoverished and indigent disabled; Medicare addresses the elderly. Others are expected to provide for themselves, which is not really unreasonable. It does, however, require a mindset of self-sufficiency and prudent prioritizing of health insurance expenses and saving for emergencies over discretionary lifestyle choices, and many people lack the necessary discipline and foresight to do that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Health care is not "unaffordable". It's expensive, which is different. People often choose to go without insurance, or with low value insurance, because at the time they make those elections they are not consuming health care and prefer to spend their money on other things. That's understandably tempting, but also foolish. People need to prioritize health insurance when they choose among employment options, and when they budget for expenses. Too many people do neither, and then expect "others" to pick up the costs if they later need care.

Medicaid addresses the truly impoverished and indigent disabled; Medicare addresses the elderly. Others are expected to provide for themselves, which is not really unreasonable. It does, however, require a mindset of self-sufficiency and prudent prioritizing of health insurance expenses and saving for emergencies over discretionary lifestyle choices, and many people lack the necessary discipline and foresight to do that.

this is exactly it, in america we have the freedom to make our own choices and if you choose not to pay monthly for health insurance that's your business. However on the flip side we shouldn't bail people out if they made that choice. Let the free market happen, in fact, I would love to be charged less because our family is healthy and takes care of ourselves and doesn't use the hospital except for true emergencies like a broken bone, etc, that happens once every few years but beuricrats have passed laws not allowing sliding scales for lifestyle and health issues. Why should an obese person pay the same as a non obese person?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Health care is not "unaffordable". It's expensive, which is different. People often choose to go without insurance, or with low value insurance, because at the time they make those elections they are not consuming health care and prefer to spend their money on other things. That's understandably tempting, but also foolish. People need to prioritize health insurance when they choose among employment options, and when they budget for expenses. Too many people do neither, and then expect "others" to pick up the costs if they later need care.

Medicaid addresses the truly impoverished and indigent disabled; Medicare addresses the elderly. Others are expected to provide for themselves, which is not really unreasonable. It does, however, require a mindset of self-sufficiency and prudent prioritizing of health insurance expenses and saving for emergencies over discretionary lifestyle choices, and many people lack the necessary discipline and foresight to do that.

this is exactly it, in america we have the freedom to make our own choices and if you choose not to pay monthly for health insurance that's your business. However on the flip side we shouldn't bail people out if they made that choice. Let the free market happen, in fact, I would love to be charged less because our family is healthy and takes care of ourselves and doesn't use the hospital except for true emergencies like a broken bone, etc, that happens once every few years but beuricrats have passed laws not allowing sliding scales for lifestyle and health issues. Why should an obese person pay the same as a non obese person?