The Affordable Care Act

[Just Plain Ruff]

You are probably right Ruff. Let's also not forget that none of this is about healthcare reform and is all about health insurance reform. The only effect it will have on healthcare is that we will be required to do more and get paid less. I don't think any of it will truly change anything until you start putting some of the responsibility on patients and not just the providers/employers/insurers. (I can't believe I just stuck up for insurers there, I feel sick to my stomach).

But Doc, you see the reality of this entire thing and most everyone else is just seeing the emotional side of things. I have so many friends who are so viscerally against anything that Obama and the democrats or whoever they are against puts out there that even the good parts of this law are not good enough for them so they want to get rid of the entire thing.

To get rid of the entire thing will mean that every person who was on their parents plan and was going to lose coverage and then got coverage until they are 26 will quickly be dropped if this law is repealed. Those with pre-existing conditions who are slated to be covered in 2014 will be uncoverable again and quite a few other things that will not come to pass if this law is repealed. And if you think that people are pissed now, just wait till those get kicked off their insurance if it's repealed, you haven't seen anything yet. So unfortunately, OBAMACARE isn't going anywhere soon.

There IS NOT A SINGLE alternative out there that is ready to go guys, nothing nada nothing not a single plan. If there is and it's ready to go, I will personally kiss Michelle Obama on the lips in the white house steps in broad daylight with CNN and Al Jazeera present for all to see. But there just isn't.

[ERDoc]

I totally agree. Obama could cure cancer and discover/prove that god exists and the republicans would still be against him. The problem is that too many people with a interest in the game have had an influence in the monster it has become. I can't say I have a solution but maybe this will be a starting point to something better. I'd still like to see more people have some skin in it though, maybe something like mandatory HSAs.

[ERDoc]

Since we are talking medical insurance here, I was curious if anyone uses an HSA.

[scubanurse]

I do. It covers our prescription copays and doctors visit copays for us. So essentially the employer puts x amount in each year, and as our copays come up it draws directly from that so we don't have anything due at the visit. I enjoy it.

[ERDoc]

Do you know if your HSA has an investment option with it?

[Just Plain Ruff]

I've had that option before. I find that I am terrible at being a psychic at determining how much I need to put out of my check per year to pay for medical.

If I put too little then I have to come up with out of pocket. If I put too much in and don't have the documentation to prove that I spent all the money in the HSA then the company get's to keep the amount over what I didn't spend. I find that to be SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Freaking wrong that it has put me completely off of contributing to a hsa for any time in the near future.

two years ago I put away about 2500 or so. I didn't spend nearly that much and could not prove that I spent that much. My employer or the government got a nice hefty bonus. That pissed me off so for the wary, be careful, just put enough in that you don't get fucked like we did.

[ERDoc]

That sounds more like an FSA. An HSA allows you to roll the money over.

[Just Plain Ruff]

That sounds more like an FSA. An HSA allows you to roll the money over.

That's what it was. Either way, we got shafted. I tried my darndest to get something to get the money paid out but our medical bills just weren't that high that year. Lesson learned.

[ERDoc]

Don't be so rough on HSAs. It is a completely different beast from an FSA. The money in the HSA carries over year to year and it is portable if you are planning on switch jobs. It's basically a savings account for you that your job has no control over. It can also be used as a retirement investment.

[island emt]

Doc is right: this is not about healthcare: It is about making everyone have health insurance coverage.

This was what Romney did when he was governor of Massachusetts .

So what we really are dealing with is an outcrop of Romneycare.

The rabid right could never admit that this was a republican idea brought about to reign in uninsured costs, so large insurance companies and hospital corporations can increase revenues..

Recently here : Anthem tried to FORCE all of their insured clients to get all their healthcare at a single mega hospital corporation and all of it's affiliates instead of the competition and their affiliates. This would have meant that almost 45% of the hospitals and affiliated Dr's groups would not be able to provide healthcare to anthem insured customers and get reimbursement from anthem.

Of course the mega hospital corp and anthem had a deal going on to provide discount care for getting ALL the anthem insured clients , but no one will ever admit that.

Talk about anti trust laws being broken!

This plan was finally squashed under protest by an assistant commissioner of the state insurance board.

Our republican governor Porky Lepage was not a happy camper with the state employee who threw the roadblock in the plan.

think there were any political campaign contributions involved????

DOC: 30 years ago we had the choice of paying for really crappy health insurance that only covered 50% of this & 60% of that or putting a set amount of money aside each month and paying our own way with a catastrophic coverage plan that kicked in after 5 grand self pay. We put $200.00 a month in a seperate bank account and paid all our incidental Dr's visits or prescriptions etc for over 5 years After those 5 years we were way ahead of the game with a savings account of over 10k sitting in it. That became our downpayment on a house.

We were young and healthy without kids, so it worked for us at the time.

Edited November 16, 2013 by island emt