How is the new Affordable health care plan going to affect y

[mash rookie]

PLEASE DO NOT GO POLITICAL. THAT IS NOT ALOWED ON HD!

Do you have health care insurance?
I am lucky to have health care coverage. It is not great coverage but it is what I can afford being self employed. I had to fight for my recent surgery.
For the last 30 years I have been self employed. I would say that I have had health care insurance coverage off and on probably ten out of the thirty years.

For the most part I have been lucky. My first back surgery was covered. A life threatening explosion resulting in severe burns was covered and my recent back surgery was covered as well.
My monthly insurance costs and medications costs about $600 a month. It’s a tough nut when business is slow but more critical to have as I age. Things are wearing out faster on the 56 yo body.

My 33 yo son is a mailman and has great coverage. My 31 yo daughter has a college education and manages 12-20 people yet has no health care coverage. The company she works for raised the co-pay so high a couple of years ago that she had to decide whether to eat, pay her condo payment (small condo) or keep health insurance.

My girl friend is an ER nurse. Two out of three patients they see are there because they do not have a doctor or insurance and the hospitals are their only resource. She believes that the insured patients are paying the bills for the uninsured.

As a small business, I don’t have any idea how this will affect me. I am hopeful when it all washes out that quality health care will truly be affordable and not more expensive. There are plenty of things wrong with our system. I am not knowledgeable enough to even guess how to fix them.
I am hopeful.
MR

[blind drunk]

I really hope that this plan works well for you all. As you probably know, we have universal, single payer public health insurance up here and boy am I grateful. I was quite sick as a child and my parents were working poor folks and could never have afforded the care that saved my life. I haven't been sick since, touch scotch. Recently, my wife got some serious care and I'm pretty sure that might have bankrupted us if we didn't have coverage. Our systems is not perfect, but for catastrophic events, we're absolutely covered. We're covered for everything else as well, but sometimes there's a wait, etc. Nothing's perfect.

[olddog]

No System is perfect, but I would be broke without it. My wife has had two hip replacements, a wallace implant on her spine, I have had knee surgery, the total bills aproached $100000, but fortunately the health insurance covered 95% of it.


OD

[pfshine]

they upheld it as a tax. But it is not they are forcing everybody to buy a product or pay a fine, which is unconstitutional. I have insurance through my union hall the package pays for it. I will not be without it just for my own peace of mind. Now we will have to pay for the tens of millions of illegals to get cough medicine and wait a year to see a primary doc. Not to mention there will be a panel of yahoos deciding what type of procedure or care you will get. Never mind that over 65% of the country doesnt want it, or that it will put us further into debt with CHINA .All be said it is COMMUNISM plain and simple and I want none of it. If you want health care pay for it or get a job that provides it.

[rtalbigr]

If you want health care pay for it or get a job that provides it.

Well I'm really glad to know it's so simple, oh, unless you're one of the 8% that can't find a decent job let alone one that provides health insurance, or one of those that's just glad to have a job even though it doesn't have health insurance.

What concerns me much more is the precedent the Supreme Court has just set. Roberts danced around the Commerce Clause and told Congress, Hey, just call it a tax and we'll give it the rubber stamp. So what's next? Ya can't have a car over 10 years old cuz it pollutes too much or doesn't get high gas mileage, so we'll tax the begezzus out of ya until ya buy a new one? Ya can't have a heat/air system for your house unless it's energy star rated, so we'll tax the begezzus out of ya until ya buy a new one? Or, hey, you're fat! so unless ya loose all that weight will tax every pound over OUR limit. Unless, of course, you're one of their buddies, or give enough to their re-election, then they'll give ya an exemption.

Big R

[Braz]

pfshine, I think you are getting dangerously close to the "No Politics" line. That said, I want to comment on this part of your post.

Never mind that over 65% of the country doesnt want it...

The polling on the ACA is interesting to say the least. You are correct that when asked, "do you support the Affordable Care Act" a majority answer,"no." However when asked about their support for the main components of the law significant majorities voice their support. Except for the Individual Mandate provision, of course, but without it the rest is not possible. That is just the way insurance works - money paid by people who don't use the insurance pays for people who do. And when you need it, somebody else's money pays your bills.

Here's a poll from a respected, non partisan polling firm that illustrates the point.

[heartcut]

I think the stated objectives of the health care authors and backers sound great, but the actual bill, if it ever gets implemented, will cost the country a lot more than it gives. Our health care system needs to be fixed, but that won't do it. As usual, 99% of the politicians give the others a bad name.

[mash rookie]

I was pleased to see the first two responses from BD and OD noted their appreciation for the health care in their countries. Where are you Odin?
The US sees themselves the leaders of the free world……….........fill in the blank…..

I am asking again. PLEASE no political rants. PF yes, we need better immigration policies and enforcement but this is not what I ask about. Guess what? We are paying for their health care now. When my girlfriend is working triage at the ER, she is not allowed to ask their citizenship or refuse care if they don’t have ID. No it is not communism. It is closer to socialism if you want to throw words around.

The health care that I have now, that I choose to purchase is an HMO. The primary care is great. I can see my Dr anytime I want to pay a $35 co pay. I can email her with questions and refill my prescriptions online. At about $300 a month for a cheap plan it was one half the cost of the for profit health insurance that I shopped.

At a BBQ last summer, I was having a conversation with a DR. telling him I liked that I could email my DR and give her a heads up about why I was coming in or what issues I was having. He said “I work at a for profit clinic. I don’t have time to answer emails, I get paid for how many patients I can see in a day”

My HMO is not everything it is cracked up to be however. I recently had to pay for my own MRI and had to argue the merits of surgery to get it done. They would have been happy to provide pain medication for the rest of my life instead of the expense of surgery.

A few years ago they said I did not need a colonoscopy. Listening to my girl friend, I insisted. They removed 27 pre cancerous polyps. I believe it saved my life. I had to fight for the care but at least it was there.

I hope this is the start of removing the high profits insurance companies and drug companies are making. That alone would help make health care affordable.

[moonshine guy]

All I can say is this, if we the people are Force to buy this obamacare, then when will GMcare start? Where every American will be Force to buy a General Motors car or be Tax for not buying the Goverment own GM cars, to support union thug bosses!

[RumRaider]

If you own lots of stock in healthcare or insurance companies you will do fine. If you don't, there was never any way you were going to be better off. Upheld or tossed out, does anybody think government is not going to take care of itself and special interests first? Power simply craves more power.

[bentstick]

Not going to effect me as far as I can figure out yet! Wife has medical at her work, hers is included in her benifit package and she(I) pay $18.50 a week to cover me considering it is BC/BS it is not so bad.
I like so many others are self employed and if I had to buy my own insurance I dont think I would survive as a small business! My thoughts on forced health care NO,but there are a lot of things wrong in the good ole US of A, government was not created to be a business....

[USACelt]

It's not going to have much effect directly on Me I'm self employed.
but I can see it might effect a couple of My employees,"loss of emploment"

[Braz]

I think ( but don't know for sure) that the law will help the self employed by allowing them to buy into an insurance exchange - kind of like a group insurance plan - at a lower premium than what an individual policy now costs. It is a big, complicated law and many of the provisions don't take effect for a year or three so we don't know the full effect yet. But overall I don't think it signals the end of the world as we know it.

[guittarmaster]

Not to mention there will be a panel of yahoos deciding what type of procedure or care you will get.

it was already like that pfshine, It's called insurance companies

my mom was diagnosed with skin cancer and her premium tripped six years ago and couldn't afford it. she hasn't been able to get coverage in the years since until after the Affordable Health care bill passed. she was recently able to again get coverage and has already had five lumps removed with more scheduled.

My oldest sisters health care coverage premium is expected to drop because her insurance can't charge her 30% more than the males at her work because she's a woman and needs "girly visits"

My youngest sister was originally dropped from insurance at age 21. a year later the bill passed. three months later my father recieved a call because his insurance had changed their policy (along with a few other companies) and said they would be able to expand coverage to my sister again. Presumably because they wanted keep him from switching insurance as my parents are divorsed and my father won't cover my mom but legally had to cover my sisters.(divorce rules...)


also consider this. Most of the jobs where i live are service industry and pay under $9/hour. when i was a chef i only made 10 and hour. I have had to give myself stitches three times, treat a flash fire burn that blistered from my hand to my elbow with only aspirin and alcohol, and tape two broken fingers together because i fell on ice and broke them. Now I'm a chemist and I'd pay what ever the socialized cost [like you folks in the EU or australia] to help my countrymen to not have to sew 2 inches of their left hand back together!


It saves more money to treat an respiratory infection when it's fresh than waiting for it to become pneumonia with a hospital ER visit. There are no free lunches. We're paying anyway so lets take care of it when it's small and cheaper so i can afford to go the hospital again

[USACelt]

I think ( but don't know for sure) that the law will help the self employed by allowing them to buy into an insurance exchange - kind of like a group insurance plan - at a lower premium than what an individual policy now costs. It is a big, complicated law and many of the provisions don't take effect for a year or three so we don't know the full effect yet. But overall I don't think it signals the end of the world as we know it.

our group plan rates have aready gone up alot.
but yes alot of unanswered questions still loom.

[blind drunk]

It saves more money to treat an respiratory infection when it's fresh than waiting for it to become pneumonia with a hospital ER visit. There are no free lunches. We're paying anyway so lets take care of it when it's small and cheaper so i can afford to go the hospital again

When health costs are socialized, alot more money goes into preventative health care. Much cheaper than acute health care, as we know. And in the long run, healthcare becomes cheaper to society, overall. This last scenario may take a generation ...

[whiskeytripping]

I'm so damn unhappy about everything that has came out in this last week, I'm so pissed just thinking about it
But, I'm not even gonna get started I think I'm just going to go pour me some UJSSM and try not to think about how America is going down the tubes

Go vote for America this fall

[mash rookie]

As a small business owner that has had from 0 to 30 employees in the past 25 years I have to call BULLshit on those that say it will cost lobs because we will fire people.
Times always change. Business goes up and down. Cost of business goes up and down. We don’t dump someone because overhead goes up. Yes, we tighten our belts, cut back on hours and take a few lumps. NO business owner ever wants to loose a good employee.

If we Americans can get past our own selfishness and try to care about everybody as human beings, we could recognize what we would want for them is what we desire for ourselves and family.

For being such a special country we are very short sided. I am embarrassed for what our international brother members must think of us.

Mash Rookie

[MitchyBourbon]

I certainly don't know everything about blablablaCare, but I know a little about the company I work for and what their plans are come 2014, Jan 1. I work for a medical device company that employs about 8000 people in the US. Most of the people they employ are hourly workers paid anywhere from 12-20 $ per hour. In the past these employees were greatful to get the company healthcare for next to nothing. But with blablablaCare this will no longer seem like a big deal as they will be able to get it cheap or free due to their low income. With that in mind my company has announced that on 2014, Jan 1 they will no longer provide a company healthcare option.

I will not get by so easily, I will not likely qualify for any special oblama rates. This means I will likely have to pay full price whatever that turns out to be. Thank god my son only has one year of college left. I'm a software engineer, I'm well paid but I don't have tons of money to buy healthcare on my own. I suspect I'm not alone. I think that there may be a lot of large companies planning to do the same thing.

All in all, its gonna suck for me and my family.

[aqua vitae]

I'm not familiar with all the details but congratulations to all americans that now get access to health care

I live in Europe and as you may know we get our medical care provided by our goverments (no matter who you are, rich or poor), but has to pay a higher tax than you do instead. Is this how it will work for you too now or who gets to pay the bill for you?

[Coolbreeze]

Find a copy of the 5 year old video by Micheal Moore ,entitled "SICKO"...Try to watch it with and open mind...

[HolyBear]

How is the affordable health care plan going to effect me??? I'm considering moving to another country, who is John Gault??? Where is Silver Town???

[Bushman]

Not sure what will happen to us retired people that aren't quit old enough for Medicare. Currently we pay $1400 a month as our son is still in college even though he is an adult we are carrying him until September.

[LWTCS]

Not sure what will happen to us retired people that aren't quit old enough for Medicare. Currently we pay $1400 a month as our son is still in college even though he is an adult we are carrying him until September.

See that would break my back. If this plan is cheaper and still offers a respectable level of benefit,,,then I'm game.....but if it turns out to be a BS crock of shit then.............

The real issue for me is not so much that I am opposed to this plan,,,it is that what we are being sold,,, is not at all what the fearless leaders say it is......I just don't trust any of em......Let us pray.

[Bushman]

Not sure what will happen to us retired people that aren't quit old enough for Medicare. Currently we pay $1400 a month as our son is still in college even though he is an adult we are carrying him until September.

See that would break my back. If this plan is cheaper and still offers a respectable level of benefit,,,then I'm game.....but if it turns out to be a BS crock of shit then.............

The real issue for me is not so much that I am opposed to this plan,,,it is that what we are being sold,,, is not at all what the fearless leaders say it is......I just don't trust any of em......Let us pray.

Kind of like what our state did with privatizing liquor sales, taxes are now over 30%.

[HungoverHog]

This thread needs to be closed. Even the op doesn't quite understand how to stay out of politics. Way too much to go into and you obviously don't understand how a small business will be affected or you wouldn't be touting that we shouldn't be so selfish crap. Start researching this bill. We are will be much better off crap holing the whole thing and starting over. Don't let ignorance run a muck here and CLOSE THIS THREAD!!

[acfixer69]

This thread needs to be closed. Even the op doesn't quite understand how to stay out of politics. Way too much to go into and you obviously don't understand how a small business will be affected or you wouldn't be touting that we shouldn't be so selfish crap. Start researching this bill. We are will be much better off crap holing the whole thing and starting over. Don't let ignorance run a muck here and CLOSE THIS THREAD!!

I agree it is pissin me off too. I have tried to avoid posting on this because I don't like to argue with idiots Politics makes us all idiots.

AC

[Braz]

This thread needs to be closed. Even the op doesn't quite understand how to stay out of politics. Way too much to go into and you obviously don't understand how a small business will be affected or you wouldn't be touting that we shouldn't be so selfish crap. Start researching this bill. We are will be much better off crap holing the whole thing and starting over. Don't let ignorance run a muck here and CLOSE THIS THREAD!!

Allow me to disagree. I think, for such a hot button issue, we have overall done an admirable job of keeping the discussion civil and not overtly political. A few posts excepted of course.

[Husker]

Allow me to disagree. I think, for such a hot button issue, we have overall done an admirable job of keeping the discussion civil and not overtly political. A few posts excepted of course.

I have to agree (with reservations). I have VERY strong feelings about this, but am staying 100% out of this thread (other than this post).

It is being monitored closely. However, if this topic simply makes steam roll out your ears, and venom fly off of your keyboard, then PLEASE simply move on to the next thread, and ignore this one.

Remember folks, we are a 'stillin forum. THAT is WHAT we come here to talk about. This is the off-topic forum, but there are limits. Please be respectful of each other.

H.

[TheVillageIdiot]

Just an outsider point of view.
France, mandatory health system, job tax (way too much, since active people pay for everyone, including chronic diseases which amounts roughly to half of the health spending).
Well, basically the opposite of the US when it comes to health politic . The simple idea of being bankrupted because of an accident or a disease (like newspapers mention from time to time in the US) cannot be grabbed by the french. Here, the spirit is everything health related is covered. It just needs to be needed (cosmetic surgery is not covered), and medically proofed (herbal remedies aren't either - I'm a big fan of it, especially when they're macerated in alcohol ).
The cost is heavy on the workers since the whole "système de protection sociale" (social security system, whether it's health or retirement) weights on the work force.

However, keep in mind that an optional health coverage isn't costless for those who cannot/will not afford it. Being injured or sick is a cost to society. An employer who choose not to help his employees to get health coverage pays for it when one of them is sick and cannot function 100%.

Well, that's about my limit when it comes to writing about politics in english, so don't expect much of a debate (but I'll continue smiling when someone brandishes the ghost of communism when it comes to basic mandatory health coverage :p )