BS: US Health Care Benefits

Subject: BS: US Heath Care Benefits
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Mar 17 - 08:30 PM

Essential Health Benefits under Obamacare

Out Patient Care
Emergency services
Hospitaliation
Pregnancy, Maternity & newborn care
Mental health and substance abuse disorder services
Prescription drugs
Rehab
Lab services
Preventative service
Pediatric services
_________________________________________________________
These are all going to go away under the conservative plan
Actually this is the desire of insurance lobbies and not the will of the people.

Subject: RE: BS: US Heath Care Benefits
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Mar 17 - 09:19 PM

Many Medicare features will also go away for those eligible for that program.

Subject: RE: BS: US Heath Care Benefits
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Mar 17 - 01:17 AM

I'm not sure we're doing this right. My stepson is 27 and had no income last year because he was getting pilot training. So, I claimed him as a dependent. I pay $229.99 per month for his Obamacare Blue Cross. It has a deductible of about $7,000, but then seems to pay just about everything - so it's what they used to call "catastrophic" insurance.
But it has no subsidy, and I don't know how to change his billing so he gets a subsidy. Seems to me that if he's working part-time at $18 an hour, he should qualify for subsidized health insurance. I thought I'd get at least some break when I was supporting him, but my tax lady and I couldn't figure out how to do it.
Still, $230 a month seems pretty good for catastrophic health insurance.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: US Health Care Benefits
From: Greg F.
Date: 24 Mar 17 - 10:16 AM

Doesn't Covered California have an ombudsman who could help you out with that, Joe?

Subject: RE: BS: US Health Care Benefits
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Mar 17 - 04:31 PM

They just pulled the bill.... no idea if they'll revive it sometime..

Subject: RE: BS: US Health Care Benefits
From: Greg F.
Date: 24 Mar 17 - 06:54 PM

Oh yeah, they'll revive it or throw one even worse out there.
Ya gotta have faith in the power of lies and stupidity.

Subject: RE: BS: US Health Care Benefits
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Mar 17 - 08:28 PM

When one goes on the exchange and enter all their info, income etc you will see what kid of subsidy is available. At only 3 dollars above minimum wage in some laces only a partial subsidy is available.
Then one has to go to the exchange system and pick what seems good.
Compare to what your monthly payments are now and make your decision.

There is nothing to prevent insurance companies fro intentionally killing Obamacare by strategically raising prices.

The cost of those 10 items in the opening post is expensive compared to the bogus insurance in the past long with impossible deductables.

Oh to be 26 again. 27 is too old.

Subject: RE: BS: US Health Care Benefits
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Mar 17 - 08:39 PM

I hope you put the missing n,m,p,a in their correct places.
I need to type with a heavier touch.

Subject: RE: BS: US Health Care Benefits
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Mar 17 - 08:50 PM

Without more info Joe, I can still guess the partial subsidy will not be much and depending upon which policy chosen on the exchange in which the subsidy is applied to, the monthly payment will be perhaps 50 bucks cheaper.

Lets hope it is all a waste of money.

The only time it really pays off is for catastrophic care.

Subject: RE: BS: US Health Care Benefits
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Mar 17 - 09:25 PM

Donuel gave most of this list at the beginning of the thread, but I found a more detailed list of services every healthcare plan must cover at https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/what-marketplace-plans-cover/

Every health plan must cover the following services:

• Ambulatory patient services (outpatient care you get without being admitted to a hospital)
• Emergency services
• Hospitalization (like surgery and overnight stays)
• Pregnancy, maternity, and newborn care (both before and after birth)
• Mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment (this includes counseling and psychotherapy)
• Prescription drugs
• Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices (services and devices to help people with injuries, disabilities, or chronic conditions gain or recover mental and physical skills)
• Laboratory services
• Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management
• Pediatric services, including oral and vision care (but adult dental and vision coverage aren't essential health benefits)
It appears that the Republican "repeal and replace" bill eliminated some of these basic items, and I think that's a problem. Yes, I'm well aware that I will most probably never need maternity care, but I'm willing to have that included in a plan that also gives me cardiac and stroke coverage that my daughter is not likely to need.

I got an email today that says that Bernie Sanders is going to propose "Medicare for All." I think this may be a very good solution to the problem. Medicare has been available to Americans over the age of 65 since 1966, and thus has had a long time to iron out problems. Medicare pays 80% of medical expenses, and there are private-pay insurance programs that will cover the remainder. Most recipients are very happy with Medicare - why not make its coverage universal?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: US Health Care Benefits
From: Donuel
Date: 29 Mar 17 - 08:28 AM

Single Payer is where modern society should be.

Just think the money businesses would save by not having to pay for employee health plans. It looks like job stimulus to me. The losers are the Administrative insurance companies who made money denying.
Also the savings from all the paper chase in approving or disapproving people.

Think of the freedom people would have in employment. They wouldn't be indentured to their employer over the issue of keeping health care.
They would not have that axe over their heads anymore.

The cost would be a hundred F-18E war planes at most.

Subject: RE: BS: US Health Care Benefits
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Mar 17 - 10:00 PM

As I understand it all the problems which have arisen with Obamacare have been the result of the changes enforced by Republicans in order to allow any health care reform to be introduced.

These put the insurance companies in the driving seat, enabling them to impose the full cost plus on the public for any expenses occurred because they would no longer be allowed to exclude existing diseases and so forth.

Subject: RE: BS: US Health Care Benefits
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Mar 17 - 12:16 AM

I like the idea of Medicare for All that Bernie Sanders is promoting. Medicare has been around since 1966, so most of the kinks have been ironed out. Americans think highly of Medicare, so it's likely that universal Medicare might have wide support.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: US Health Care Benefits
From: Greg F.
Date: 30 Mar 17 - 10:16 AM

Absolutely spot on, Kevin. All part of the Republican campaign at to thwart ANYTHING Obama wanted to accomplish. They also killed the public option that Obama wanted to include.

And now they're trying - with good success among the ignorant and brain dead- to put the blame on someone else for the mess they themselves created.

Subject: RE: BS: US Health Care Benefits
From: cetmst
Date: 31 Mar 17 - 11:16 AM

Universal Health Care was a proposal in Theodore Roosevelt's unsuccessful 1916 presidential campaign. Franklin Roosevelt's original agenda in 1935 included Social Security, Unemployment Insurance and Universal Health Care but because he felt opposition of the AMA, established medicine and a cost conscious Congress would cause defeat of the whole program he abandoned medical care. Nearly every president from Harry Truman to Donald Trump has given lip service to health care for all but differences in who pays how much to whom for what has pitted Congress, the Health Insurance industry, employers, labor, pro-life and pro-choice groups, the AMA, the AARP and countless other organizations against each other. Check out 'Physicians for a National Health Program'. Universal Health Plans in other countries have unique sets of administration, benefits and problems. To date Medicare may be the first step.

Subject: RE: BS: US Health Care Benefits
From: Thompson
Date: 01 Apr 17 - 02:31 AM

Insurance companies will be hit hard if Obama's attempt to start a "National Health Service" is dismantled. If you're walking along and someone knocks into you and you fall and break your wrist:

1) If there's a mutually-paid-for national health service and you can go into the hospital and get your wrist set and plastered plus a couple of after-care for free - you do that, and that's the end of it.

2) If the health service is based on greed for fees, and you go to hospital and they do a million unnecessary tests as well as your basic treatment - out of necessity you sue the person who knocked into you, and their liability insurance has to pay for all that the hospital demands.

Subject: RE: BS: US Health Care Benefits
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Apr 17 - 08:31 PM

But that's the kind of reason people have to have that insurance. The insurance companies are essentially bookmakers, whoever wins the race they are in profit if they've worked out the odds right and hedged their bets.

Running a health system through private insurance doesn't make sense.

Nor for that matter does it make sense to do the same for other types of insurance, notably motor insurance.   In both cases it drives costs through the roof.

Subject: RE: BS: US Health Care Benefits
From: Greg F.
Date: 02 Apr 17 - 01:45 PM

Running a health system through private insurance doesn't make sense.

Thay're not running a health system - they're running a business to make a profit from sick people.

USA! USA!! USA!!! Best health care in the world!!!