Is Obamacare working ?

Post Reply New Topic

Some facts I dug up:

-In 2016 Obamacare participants are expected to receive 680 billion dollars in subsidies [source 8]

-As of last year, 12 of 23 Obamacare exchanges have closed [source 1 & 2]

-1.2 billion dollars in defaulted loans from these failed exchanges [source 2]

-Four of the eleven remaining exchanges are deemed to be in "solvency trouble" because of low enrollment [source 3]

-All of the remaining eleven exchanges have received permission from the feds to reclassify their loans as "assets" to maintain an appearance of solvency [source 4]

-Insurance companies are pulling out of areas where they are losing money (e.g., Blue Cross pulled out of New Mexico claiming that the state is not allowing them to charge adequate rates) [source 5]

-2016 exchange rate increases are double digits in many states [source 6 & 7]

-HHS (Health & Human Services) says avg. premiums should rise 7.5% in 2016 / critics argue it is closer to 20.3% [source 9]

What do you think?

My opinion is that the prices are too high for the 90% coverage. It seems like it will really help the very poor, very sick, but not the working poor & middle class. This gallup polls suggests that there is no net improvement in providing needed care.


http://www.gallup.com/poll/187190/cost- ... three.aspx

sources:
1. http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/10/2 ... re-Closing
2. http://reason.com/archives/2015/11/26/w ... ep-failing
3. http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2016/03/1 ... are-Co-ops
4. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-karr/ ... 86192.html
5. http://krqe.com/2015/08/26/blue-cross-a ... -exchange/
6. http://dailysignal.com/2016/03/21/why-o ... l-over-us/
7. http://iwf.org/blog/2799668/Un-happy-Si ... -ObamaCare!
8. http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/ ... -by-losses
9. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/03 ... wages.html

I think it works for some people.

For others, it doesn't work at all.

All in all, I don't think Obamacare is a great compromise between capitalistic health care and complete national insurance.

I think the problem is Obamacare was always a sticking plaster anyway.

Often people talk about how good US healthcare is, but in fact is they are referring to the very best care available it is not good overall.

The reality is your healthcare costs too much, is massively inflated.

The insurance market hasn't help that, on the contrary.

Too little competition+too much regulation=$$$

When you are 60 odd years old and pay for maternity care it is not insurance against an illness, it is redistributionism.
When you are 35 and paying to insure yourself against hip surgery something is clearly wrong.
When you are mandated to buy a plan you don't like and cannot afford it is clearly not affordable care.

Health insurance costs rising faster than before obamacare:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/03/24/health-insurance-premiums-rising-faster-than-wages.html?intcmp=ob_article_sidebar_video&intcmp=obinsite

Is there any shortage of companies or is is more that they are not directly competing?

I'm a competitonsts however healthcare is unique.

My sister is in insurance (not healthcare). There is no such thing as "fully comp" insurance.

You could be paying for your platinum plan for years, and still come out short.

There are gaps that are still not commercially attractive. I don't

I do find it interesting ans an outsider, given the US model is quite a bit different from the rest of the world. There are countries like China which basically have no provision, then you have the Scandinavian model which is near total.

I find it odd that people turn their noses up at other models, yet they think nothing of showering in a publicly supplied water, or using a nationalised mail service. UK is one of only two countries that privatized the water supply, and just privatised Royal Mail.

You already know what I think.

The only measurable difference I think is the expansion of medicaid which gave healthcare to a lot of people that didn't have it before. As for everybody else, I can't imagine it has made things much better. Medicaid is not much better than no healthcare at all either(this has been studied in Oregon btw) so I can't say it is working. The mandate should be destroyed, the insurance company bailout needs to be stopped, Obama's signature achievement just kind of sucks.

In the UK we have 18. There are the big 6 generally available to all, but the the other are able to get some reach too.

Naturally becuase of the geography there is more overlap.

There has been question on how competitive the big six are and how much they are colluding to price fix.

for me and others of my socioeconomic bracket, PPACA is a world better than the big fat nothing available to us before.

It's the only reason why my mother has healthcare, so, it works for us,