Politics & Current Events
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Re: I'm so sad and disappointed
Sure it does sound peaceful but some of them were here in our city last week throwing things at cops, using profanity and trying to hurt a horse. I'm totally fine with peaceful protesting but that's not always the case.
I am that person who if I got cancer or even needed an emergency appendectomy it would render us bankrupt. However, we can't eat if we pay for insurance so we have to roll the dice. We can't even buy a catastrophic policy anymore because they just aren't cheaply available anymore and we would still subject to the tax penalty anyway thanks to ACA. And before anyone gets on too much of a high horse in their head with stereotypes about the things I have but don't pay for health insurance -I have no cable tv, have not been on a vacation in over 9 years, do not have a landline telephone line, I do not have an i- anything no ipad, no iphone, etc. I have a 1996 vehicle and a my husband drives a 2010 vehicle both of which are paid for. We live in what would be considered a starter or entry level home. My kid goes to public school and I don't own a single piece of designer clothing, purses, makeup or like item. We aren't squirreling away thousands of dollars a month living like misers and trying to skip out on anything. Thanks to the taxes on small business, on paper it looks like we make a lot when we apply for insurance but really we are just treading water *without* paying an insurance premium. We'd LOVE to have health insurance. As such, we can only budget out enough to cover our youngest daughter ($300+ per month) and stay solvent. We are trying to squirrel away enough this year that we might cover my husband next year because he has corneal transplants that are over 20 years old and need to be re-done and a mild heart condition that if left unchecked much longer could kill him. Coverage for me isn't even on the radar of possibility.
There is an entire subset of people in our country like me who work 40+ hours a week but because we don't fit the stereotype of the govt worker or the worker for a large business we are left in the dust. I'd like to think as a tax paying American that I was at least marginally as important as the person with a pre-existing condition who couldn't buy health insurance before. You've basically traded one group of uninsurables in for a group of unaffordables.
@snp605 and @MommyLiberty5013, I actually totally agree with both of you and I'm not even saying the ACA is the answer. I was more saying what we had before was worse.
Health insurance costs skyrocket every year. But that was true before the ACA also. Maybe it is somewhat regional, but I really haven't seen health insurance for independent plans in my area go up any higher (other than what they historically go up) after the ACA went into effect. But yes, EVERYONE should have access to affordable health insurance. I think one of the biggest failings of the ACA is it does nothing to address the exorbitant medical costs our country faces. And much of those exorbitant costs come from our long standing history of the vast majority of people being insured through their work, through a private insurance company.
So, the consumer doesn't care how much a procedure costs, because their insurance pays it anyway. The hospitals/doctors/pharmacies charge exorbitant prices, because they know the insurance companies will negotiate them down anyway. But for someone without insurance, they're stuck with the over-inflated price. The healthcare industry is an entity all its own that is not affected by the same type of market forces that helps to keep prices down and efficiency up, like in most other industries.
I'm a fan of high deductible plans. When a consumer is responsible for the first $3K or $5K or whatever of their total medical bills, it forces people to think more wisely about their choices and to price shop more. It brings back a little bit of that market force.
So, you'd think those would be cheap plans since the vast majority people on them never even have the insurance pay out anything over the course of the year (except for a wellness visit). Heck, even with my major medical condition, I never meet my deductible for the year and pay for all my care and medication out of pocket (which is fine). Except they're not cheap plans. As @snp605 pointed out, even those plans are shockingly expensive considering they're basically just the "new" version of a catastrophic medical plan.
I'm kind of tired of the kneejerk reaction from people that just because it worked out ok for them or someone they know they think that it must be ok for everyone else and the rest of us just aren't trying or looking hard enough or don't know how it works. We are a nation of unique people in different places in life. I am likely a totally different age, live somewhere with different healthcare costs and completely different policies allowed by state laws than someone else who got a policy much cheaper.
Another example is a good friend of mine who was leveled by a chronic illness suddenly. The disability process was over 2 years. During that time some friends and family collectively covered her expenses (rent, food, insurance, etc). She was paying her health insurance premiums but had to shift to the ACA subsidized one when she lost her job due to absences related to her illness. The ACA subsidized one kept her for about 3 months but once they discovered that she was not working they dropped her and would not let her keep her insurance even at a full rate because she couldn't prove she could pay for it even though she'd never missed or been late with a payment! So someone with a major chronic illness had to go almost 2 years without insurance until her disability claim was resolved because of the arbitrary rules of the ACA.
We did nothing about costs, there is nothing that takes the massive profits out of healthcare and the monetary incentives to continually charge more. I'm not just talking about the health insurers either. I'm not opposed to the reforms. I love that people with chronic conditions can get health care. I don't think kids should be be denied. I don't think that the emergency room doctor should ever be labeled as an "out of network" charge. Those were pretty easy fixes. The coding system needs to be fixed too. Right now though, even with insurance, if I have to pay out of pocket due to a deductible, I can't even call a doctor and get an estimate because it all falls back to the same answer that "it depends how it is coded". This would likely keep me from going if I am on a fixed budget.
Then again, I'm not convinced government should be in the healthcare business anyway. Any time you get govt involved it seems like things get more complex and expensive than if they'd just left it alone.
Our local and congressional races are just as depressing as the presidential. {sigh}
8-|
here's an old news blurb about an old well connected player who is back on the scene and killing it in the election so far
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20100420/ARTICLES/100429969/1067/tourism36&template=tourism
and more gems
http://www.wwaytv3.com/news-tags/julia_boseman/
if you'll notice she is closely connected to Mike Easley who was charged with campaign finance irregularities
http://abc11.com/archive/7805624/
She is a local attorney and has so many complaints for bad work, the court has pulled her eligiblity to handle court appointed cases which rarely happens. Yet I don't think she's ever run for office in this town and lost.
At the state level it's mostly just a bunch of the same old crusty white incumbent guys who haven't had an original thought since they were 12 and vote with their party 90%+ of the time
If people had to pay first and then get reimbursed, you would see a lot of medical dollars not get spent and that might actually keep insurance costs down. The ACA decimated the best benefits of HSAs. This is a great blog piece that describes how the ACA actually helps inflate health care prices via the story of one woman's hip replacement
http://truthonthemarket.com/2013/05/25/my-hip-saga-and-how-the-affordable-care-act-squandered-our-best-opportunity-to-lower-health-care-costs/
Oh definitely! When it comes to one's health, a good doctor is more important than a cheap doctor. But if more people started asking questions about the cost, I think we'd slowly start to see more competitive pricing. You already see it in dentistry and elective surgeries (like some plastic surgeries).
That is one of the things I like about urgent care clinics. There are a lot of them where I live and I can already see the results of competition. I call and ask them about their price for whatever it is I need to see a doctor about. I tend to find cheaper prices than a more traditional doctor's practice. Sure, they aren't going to be for taking care of chronic conditions, but they are my go-to place for when I just need something basic or need an opinion on "here is my symptom(s), what can it be, do I need further care".
The ONLY urgent care center I ever went to that had jacked up prices was one associated with a major hospital network. But at least my high deductible plan, though it is usually useless to me, did the one thing it does well. Forced them to only charge me the negotiated rate. And poof! My bill went from $280 to $101...which is about what I would normally pay at any other urgent care clinic anyway.
@snp605, I was just thinking about you! It was time for my car insurance renewal, so I called up Progressive and went over my policy, just to make sure I didn't want to change anything.
But that reminded me I have "medical bill coverage" on my policy. I forget the specific term they have for it. It only costs a couple extra dollars a month but, if I'm hit by an uninsured motorist or if an accident is my fault, it will cover the medical bills for myself and/or anyone else in my car. If this isn't something you already have in your car insurance or you aren't sure, I'd strongly recommend looking into it.
I actually used this portion of my policy once about 10 years ago. Thankfully I wasn't badly injured, but I was in an accident that briefly knocked me out. I woke up in the ambulance on the way to the ER. I was released just a few hours later but, between the ambulance ride and the ER visit, it was over $3K in hospital bills. And, although I had typical medical insurance, almost all of that would have gone against my deductible and I would have had to pay for it. Instead, those bills were paid 100% by Progressive. And it was all covered under the same deductible I paid to have my car fixed.
I don't think there is one presidential candidate that can be declared "This person will be the one that turns everything around." It's gotten to the point IMO that which candidate has the most views that agree with your views and who is the lesser of two evils.
Also IMO, it doesn't matter who is elected, the opposing party will make it hard for them to make changes. If we really want to see changes in this country, there need to be term limits on congress & the senate, just like the president has. Too many people in there that are life time politicians who are just looking for their own best interest. Time for more fresh blood in those office. But since they would have to pass this type of thing, it won't happen because they aren't going to want to put term limits on themselves.