I believe they prefer the term "log cabin Republicans".Originally Posted by Tgo01
I believe they prefer the term "log cabin Republicans".
Hasta pronto, porque la vida no termina aqui...
America, stop pushing. I know what I'm doing.
Senior Member
Conclusion from the above? Is this situation likely to result in insurance rates going up faster, or slower? If you wanted to control medical cost inflation would you think this is a well designed system, or a poorly designed one?How can that be? Let’s take an example. A family of four at 138 percent of the poverty level ($32,499) has its premium capped at 3.29 percent of income or $1,071. The rest is subsidy. So, if the cost of a silver plan is $10,000, the subsidy for this family is $8,929. A family at 400 percent of the poverty level ($94,200) has to pay up to 9.5 percent of its income for a plan, or $8,949. So the same $10,000 premium carries a subsidy of only $1,051…
But now look at those two families from the insurer’s perspective. A $10,000 plan already costs more than the maximum amount either family would pay. If the insurer raises the premium to $10,001, both families get $1 in additional subsidy. If it raises premiums to $11,000, both families get $1,000 in additional subsidy. In other words, no matter how much an insurer raises rates, a subsidized household pays zero more.
I'm fine with universal healthcare coverage, but as I've said, this is a shitty way to do it, and it is either going to fail, or consume our entire economy.
Senior Member
The individual mandate gets all the press, but coverage mandates are a huge driver of medical cost inflation. Normally they're bought and paid for by special interests. It goes like this: business/industry cannot compete in marketplace, business/industry bribes politicians with sexual favors to make their product/service mandatory for insurance coverage. Or you have stupid things like the 27 year old slacker mandate which is an implicit subsidy from the poor to the rich, especially from today's poor to tomorrow's rich (a subsidy from a 20 year old full time walmart worker who must accept a lower wager/higher tax/lower benefit to accommodate the mandatory coverage for the children he doesn't have, to the 26 year old grad student who receives the free coverage). Obamacare even has one such coverage mandate for faith healing. Srsly.
IMO do away with all coverage mandates. The governments role should not be to mandate options, but to educate on them. If you must, pare it back to what is basically necessary. Think of cars, we have mandated seatbelts and airbags, but not power windows, moon roofs, and alloy wheels. If the government wants to run ads saying "Make sure your insurance covers faith healing, or else!" Fine, but making us all pay for it is stupid. Let Amazon, Google, some other enterprising company do the comparisons and contrasts. Have you seen Amazon's mobile phone site? Imagine that for healthcare. That is what you need.
But essentially now we're all mandated to drive fully loaded Cadillacs with prepaid regular maintenance. And people wonder why it costs so much.
Senior Member
The fact that Tgo01 gave you this line makes it the bestest grand slam ever.
I know it when I see it!!!!!!!
Last edited by Warriorbird; 10-10-2013 at 11:11 PM.
Ayn Rand!
Senior Member
Let me know when you become a Libertarian and I'll give you one. It seems like you really want it.
Alan Greenspan got there first.
Finally the healthcare.gov website is working (sort of) but I at least got to see some of the plans available before the site was shut down for scheduled maintenance (lawl.)
The cheapest plan I saw was almost 200 dollars a month that covered 60% of healthcare costs and a 30 dollar doctor visit copay with an almost 6,000 dollar deductible. Who are these plans helping exactly?
Just for shits and giggles I put my yearly income as 5,000 dollars just to see what kind of help I would be offered and it said I made too much to qualify for Medicaid, the fuck? I thought they were expanding Medicaid coverage? Again to who? 5,000 dollars a year is making too much for Medicaid?
This whole thing is a failure.
ETA: And the secretary of health said people will pay more for their cable bills and cell phone bills then they would pay for their healthcare premiums. What planet does she live on that people have cable and cell phone bills that are larger than 200 dollars a month? Even combined that borders on the ridiculous.
Last edited by Tgo01; 10-11-2013 at 01:20 AM.
Senior Member
It's pretty common. Not all of us live in the city.
Last edited by Warriorbird; 10-11-2013 at 01:52 AM.
No.
Senior Member
Really? $50 per smart phone line. $50-100 for basic Verizon data plan. At least $50 for cable (More with Internet/VOIP). Throw on fees, taxes, and all the stuff they toss on those bills. Quite easy to get over $200.
Last edited by Warriorbird; 10-11-2013 at 02:19 AM.
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