Health Care Thread

The exemption is mostly for people in redneck states that rejected medicare extension and are too poor to get a subsidy.

You're comparing apples to oranges - price you're seeing your employers package for is after their contribution, it's not 1:1 remotely (with the 2x more for gold vs. bronze - likely covering around 75% - generous, sounds like my employer that was based out of upstate NY).

And why if you had so many medical expenses the last two years would you want to go without insurance though? That's the point of the exemption to not pay a tax penalty on not getting insurance.... seems suicidal to say the least when you just had 24 months of large medical bills to assume you're not going to get a recurrence of something or flare-up or whatever. Medical shit tends to recur.

wormie_sl said:

I pay 387 a month for a silver plan from emblem here in NY. Its really not that bad.

Click to expand...

And NY is one of the worst states from what's been published.

ACA posted numbers are a joke. Under a certain threshold, they defer to states. If you 'loosely' qualify for updated medicare qualification guidelines (arguably the lowest income brackets who couldn't get insurance will likely be the largest users), you get dumped to the state you reside in.

I've seen letters from AZ where they say 'sorry we have no idea how to figure this out, bear with us'. Clearly no one was ready for this debacle.

Ever notice so much misinformation comes from people that don't know the difference between Medicare and Medicaid?

Doesn't happen to be Wegman's out of Rochester does it out of curiosity? Reason I ask is there is actually some extra money lying around in the scholarship fund for the company that I was allowed to slush to people to cover medical hardship when it went unused for my regions by Robert Wegman when he was still alive (well, it was via email, could've been Danny answering in his name) - and I'd presume Danny would keep similar going.

Just in the off chance you happen to be with Wegman's since some stuff does align with the possibility, could be the most succinct way of solving your issue.

I'm used to having an appendectomy coming with long term care - but then again, I've got a bowel malrotation that was dealt with at the same time - so it might be more about the malrotation (wanted to abbreviate it to two letters, but BM sounds wrong in context, heh) that the followups are covering and he just follows up regarding the appendix stuff since it's all from the same surgery. And of course depending on the work injury details, many sorts can recur. [pulls/strains/falls are all notorious for it - I'd say 1 in 3 that went to worker's comp ended up being something that recurred to some degree - often minor - but they were frequently back - and a recurrence under the laws I'm familiar with (including NY circa early 90's) doesn't get worker's comp coverage FYI]

Palum_sl said:

ACA posted numbers are a joke. Under a certain threshold, they defer to states. If you 'loosely' qualify for updated medicare qualification guidelines (arguably the lowest income brackets who couldn't get insurance will likely be the largest users), you get dumped to the state you reside in.

I've seen letters from AZ where they say 'sorry we have no idea how to figure this out, bear with us'. Clearly no one was ready for this debacle.

Click to expand...

All the health plans and medi-cal are state plans. Nothing is federal.

Araysar_sl said:

So Russia's military is a "decaying hunk of shit" but America flying 60 year old bombers, 40 year old fighter jets, driving 30 year old tanks and sailing around on 40 year old carriers is the best military in the world?

Click to expand...

Having old hardware just means they were designed well from the start. Even Russia's new hardware is junk. I was there the first time MIGs landed as guests on American soil (EAFB), and a third of them wouldn't start the next morning. That, and they leaked like sieves the entire time. And these were NEW. The only reason why Ruskies don't roll with old hardware is because their shit is garbage after a year if they aren't garbage from the start.

Disp_sl said:

All the health plans and medi-cal are state plans. Nothing is federal.

Click to expand...

Correct, point being plenty of states weren't ready so the brilliant 'success' was really just a 'YAY we referred millions of people to states who sent letters saying they had no clue what the hell to do!'.

Vaclav_sl said:

Ever notice so much misinformation comes from people that don't know the difference between Medicare and Medicaid?

Click to expand...

You caught me, I have no clue which program applies to whom under what circumstances specifically. I have to pay for my insurance and healthcare, I have enough to worry about learning medical billing in my spare time afterevery singleEOB because either the hospital billing staff or the insurance company screw something up. In fact, two days ago I had to call because the insurance company said a preventative care visit was applied as a deductible expense. I had to spend an hour on the phone between the hospital and the insurance company to finally get reps which understood one of the simplest 'changes' ACA brought about that has been in effect for some time in order to get the bill paid by insurance.

Ever tried to ask a doctor how much a test costs? No one knows. When you ask why it is medically necessary, most of them actually think and go into the specifics and agree half of the tests aren't necessary. I've saved THOUSANDS in lab costs because I ask questions like 'Well, if the drug has no known side effect that causes a higher lipid count, why would you need to run the lipid panel since one was done 3 months ago with my last physical?' Doctors are programmed to order comprehensive everything because they don't pay for any of it. And again, no one knows how much any of it costs until the bill comes in. I've even had covered bills refunded because the doctor tacked on other tests from a blood draw. When I called the billing department after faxing over the original lab request sheet in my hand, I told them it was a service that was rendered without my authorization and I wanted them to refund the insurance company. You can imagine the shitstorm I caused for weeks trying to get THAT through. But fuck it, I was on a mission.

The entire system is a scam, there is NO transparency. if you are someone who is not detail oriented and a good researcher with good memory, youwillget fucked 100% of the time by healthcare costs, insurance or no.

And? That's all reasons to firebomb the system into single payer.

PS If you're implying Medicare is free, 20 yrs of FICA plus $108/mo doesn't feel free to me. (and rx coverage is still separate for Medicare)

Vaclav_sl said:

And? That's all reasons to firebomb the system into single payer.

PS If you're implying Medicare is free, 20 yrs of FICA plus $108/mo doesn't feel free to me. (and rx coverage is still separate for Medicare)

Click to expand...

If you're not 50+ already and you think you will ever see a dime of SSI or Medicare, you are in for quite an M Night Shamylamyalmanyalnian twist. It's only 'free' in the sense that Congress squandered the real funding for the currently enrolled seniors, we pay directly into their expenses by working now.

Palum_sl said:

If you're not 50+ already and you think you will ever see a dime of SSI or Medicare, you are in for quite an M Night Shamylamyalmanyalnian twist. It's only 'free' in the sense that Congress squandered the real funding for the currently enrolled seniors, we pay directly into their expenses by working now.

Click to expand...

That's the Presidency that was (past tense - only recently changed by executive order by the current President to disallow) allowed to spend the reserve fund on discretionary spending - and that was technically decades of prepayment. And it's a speed bump that exists til 2025-30 once we get over the speed bump that the size of the baby boomer generation entails. [Additionally note, you mentioned two avenues - it was only allowed for SS spending exclusively - only way it could've seen Medicare's hands was via premium expenses from recipients - very roundabout]

Or more in short, people that aren't stupid know it's going to survive in some form, either existing bandaided to get over the speed bump or adjusted into something more expansive of a single payer (and note, MOST SP systems in the world planned themselves after Medicare - more than a few even use the name Medicare) - it's twits that listen and believe right-wing hyperbole without even looking into stuff on their own that believe that both are going to implode.

Additionally, do you think Medicare is going to fail by 2019? Because you can actually get Medicare as early as 55 if you've got flagging health but not to disability criteria.

Even during the worst year for the projections of those years (2022 I think is the top of the crest with the longer estimate) they need to be helped along for about 20% of their funding for SS (Which 10% is the norm because of disability and other "welfare" parts of the program - again you screwed up your terms - SSI is never "paid for" by the recipient, and actually comes out of welfare funding to make sure they hit $708 a month currently if they don't have a full work record for it - SSI is SOCIAL SECURITY INSURANCE/SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME. The SSA gives the payments, SSDI is for disability income that's been earned by the recipient (or their parent in the case of disabled children and other odd cases). The term from their book that you want, and brace yourself it's a doozy, is just SS.).

Or to put it in budgetary terms - about as much as Afghanistan and Iraq were costing us combined - for about the same time that it's looking like they'll be before they'll be completely closed in additional funding and then we're over the speed bump without additional adjustment.

And that's for the worst of the two you mentioned - Medicare barely runs into the general budget at all - and is projected to actually start generating a small profit in the CBO projections of the ACA. Medicaid costs are stagnating mostly under the projections however. (Note: Medicare's "profit" is generated in it not as much because of Medicare itself - only a slight savings occurs there - but excess revenue from other parts of the bill prioritize Medicare)

Or there's of course the options of additional adjustments, which can actually fix it before then with more actual adjustment of things (that Democrats have been trying to push many of them, but have been blockaded on passing any - by people that claim to love seniors in their next breaths) - AARP has done a number of flash games to demonstrate how trivial the fixes really are - can't find my favorite ATM - but this one works too:Do-It-Yourself Social Security Fix, Options Help Close Gap - AARP Bulletin

Less Glenn Beck, more reality makes a nicer place (and a more accurate one). So much wrong in so few words.

PS - Two more incorrect statements while making over the top attempts to sound informed, while completely butchering simple things like the proper names for things that are DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT FROM EACH OTHER - its quite shocking.

PPS - Start out being cogent and coherent, then try to debate - it creates a giant strawman doing the ridiculous caricatures that the extreme right-wing does these days. [Including the incoming "I'm actually a libertarian, screw Republicans" statement to come soon, I'm sure]

"I have to pay for my insurance and healthcare"

He obviously don't know shit about shit because he's busy working instead of freeloading! Proud repub earning 40k/yr and wishing the bottom 50% would get off their asses and do something.