[Maru]

Donald Trump is about to face a rude awakening over Obamacare

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ver-obamacare/

So let’s review what just happened. To guarantee that people with preexisting conditions can get affordable health insurance, you need to have rules requiring guaranteed issue and community rating. To keep insurance companies in business because of guaranteed issue and community rating, you need to have an individual mandate. And because poor people can’t afford health insurance, you need subsidies. Combine all three, and what you have, in a nutshell, is ... Obamacare.

Entrepreneurs to Trump: Don't take away our Obamacare
http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/18/news...reneurs-trump/

Obamacare has freed them from depending on employers for health insurance. Instead, they told CNNMoney they can pursue their own American Dreams and work for themselves while getting coverage through the exchanges.

I'm not a benefactor of Obamacare, but I would've been several years ago. The last article would pertain to me... because of lack of access to healthcare (I was not allowed to buy a policy due to a few chronic ailments) and with my yo-yo-ing health status and having to get through school, I could not maintain the hours needed to keep my health ins per an employer... so I was a private payer for many years and in many cases went without because our system is health care is ludicrously overpriced.

I know for people who are fiscally minded conservatives, Obamacare is a mess, but until you yourself has been sick and been dependent on the system as a private payer... you can't really judge know how bad it is nor can you see the commonplace predatory practices in medical and just how badly it needs to be regulated and policies to be put in place to protect the average consumer.

There needs to be regulation and a crack down on billing. We don't get itemized bills often at discharge, even for ER visits. A ghost dept handles all those barely readable codes and we just hope & pray it is correct and we are being treated fair. There are no true customer service in our medical, even though we pretty much are all paying for it, but instead what you get is a billing agent that acts as a bill collector.

Still, our billing is hilariously erroneous. A hospital should not be charging you for equipment and a package of tubing (enough to treat many patients) when you visit the doctor (as a private payer)... one visit to the ER visit cost my insurer $12,000+ (I paid a $300 copay)... I was able to see this itemized and they spared no expense... everything from equipment to tubing, to the pole the IV drip sits on... you name it... thankfully I had insurance, but what about those people who didn't?

In my mind it is clear why Obamacare is failing. They wanted to get the bill through, so they removed or otherwise neglected a lot of the regulations which would've helped to curb the high costs... sure, the hospitals may not be able to afford the gold plating and the luminescent fountains in their entrances, but we will have affordable healthcare. And they'll have to cut back on the amount of oil paintings they buy to place on their walls. We will have to find a way to endure. But what is the sense in creating a universal healthcare system that covers all, if the costs underneath the hood aren't even being mitigated? It's like trying to solve a water leak by purchasing more tanks and vacuums to pick up the water... when really we need to fix the leak first and then worry about the excess water.