Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary nomination

US House Rep Tom Prince was nominated by Donald Trump to be in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services.

money.cnn.com/2016/11/28/news/economy/tom-price-trump-health-secretary/index.html

He is a Tea Party Republican who has created legislation to replace Obamacare/ACA in the past with high risk pools for people with preexisting conditions, insurance across state lines, tax credits for people who have health insurance and subsidies for retiree's medicare premiums....probably after they privatise Medicare.

Now he will be in charge of the Nation's health care. As a person with a pre-existing illness I'm even more worried about a pre-existing condition than ever before.

It amazes me, especially regarding insurance, including Medicare, that so many voters shot themselves in the foot by allowing this to happen. Medicare voters will lose benefits and pay more. I remain astounded at this and many other negative effects from the election.

The only answer that seems plausible is that the people who voted for the President-elect voted on single issue important to them and didn't read the fine print of what all the other changes would be. I wait to see how they will react to these changes that will affect them on a very personal level.

People in my neighborhood who won the electoral college vote still have their signs in their yards. And every day when I drive by them I think "I know who to blame".

I'm as bleeding-heart liberal as you Keith, but we can't get too political due to the forum rules. I'm finding it really hard to be hopeful. For a 1st world nation, the USA falls short in a lot of ways and I'm afraid the new administration is only going to make those disparities far worse rather than better. All I can hope is change is much harder and full of checks and balances that slow and limit what actually does get changed. Talk is easy, actually getting things signed into law through our messy political system is very long and drawn out.

Prior to the ACA, as long as one maintained continuous insurance coverage the "pre existing condition" clause did not apply. You could switch jobs fine. Using COBRA was okay in the event of a layoff or something. You just couldn't have an obvious lapse in coverage.

A high risk pool is inherently very expensive to you or me, as the insurance knows you're a problem. The advantage of work group plans is that they cannot discriminate on individuals health, rather everyone gets the same rate (and risk is spread out within that group).

In Michigan Blue Cross always offered insurance to preexisting. Better than ACA with huge deductibles. Now I have a medicare plus plan that not one Doctor in Tucson Az accepts. It means ER for any medical need. This system is great...

My mother in law also can't find a doctor to accept Medicare. The doctor she has now will only see a limited number of medicare patients so if you want to be his patient you have to pay an annual retainer fee directly to him. She pays a few thousand dollars out of pocket just to know she has a doctor that will take her medicare. That is ridiculous!

The future concerns me but there does need to be change. The current system may be better in some aspects but is still very broken.

Imagarder that is a good question BC my in-laws also live in Arizona.

Hateuc, I am in the same boat. I currently pay 500 dollars a month premium for the highest teir bcbs plan in my state. They are a dropping it in my state for 2017 and replacing it with a plan with about 20 percent less coverage for the same price. Not to mention I can't find a plan for 2017 that has all of my doctors and my current meds.

With that premium and higher out of pocket costs it isn't even doable for me anyway.

I can't imagine how much unnecessary stress it must add when you have to consider this stuff alongside an illness like UC. Whenever I'm in the States (I'm from the UK), it always amazes me how vocal a lot of people are against the British National Health Service - as though it's totally evil, provides poor care, etc. (I'm married to an NHS doctor. We were once talking to some American tourists who were really shocked when we told them who she worked for: "But the NHS is basically communist, right?!?" etc).

My four years of UC were very stressful, but one thing I never even had to think about was money/insurance. I saw whatever doctors were necessary (in an outstanding university hospital), got whatever drugs were needed (including going on infliximab), and eventually had surgeries for a stoma and then a j-pouch... But worrying about the cost was never an issue. Having a chronic illness made me love the NHS so much - there's a lot about the UK that's not great, but the NHS is definitely something Brits should be proud of.

Albannach said...
I can't imagine how much unnecessary stress it must add when you have to consider this stuff alongside an illness like UC. Whenever I'm in the States (I'm from the UK), it always amazes me how vocal a lot of people are against the British National Health Service - as though it's totally evil, provides poor care, etc. (I'm married to an NHS doctor. We were once talking to some American tourists who were really shocked when we told them who she worked for: "But the NHS is basically communist, right?!?" etc).

My four years of UC were very stressful, but one thing I never even had to think about was money/insurance. I saw whatever doctors were necessary (in an outstanding university hospital), got whatever drugs were needed (including going on infliximab), and eventually had surgeries for a stoma and then a j-pouch... But worrying about the cost was never an issue. Having a chronic illness made me love the NHS so much - there's a lot about the UK that's not great, but the NHS is definitely something Brits should be proud of.

The older I get, the more I appreciate our NHS and how under threat it is. The new UKIP leader has spoken out in favour of privatising the NHS in the past, and UKIP have stated their goal is to replace Labour as the main opposition party. Honestly, with Labour being currently less convincing than a wet sponge, I think UKIP might actually stand a chance. The thought of a two-party system consisting of the Conservatives and UKIP terrifies me.

I post on a UK forum and I occasionally see folks say stuff along the lines of "well, healthcare in America might be expensive, but at least you get first rate service" or whatever. I tell them they don't know anything about American healthcare. Incidentally, for those Americans who do think the NHS is unacceptably communist (don't think it would be many on this board to be fair, apart from stereofidelic), people with enough money or who have work insurance can go private - we do have alternatives to the NHS.

Don't forget the life-time caps on insurance plans, that was another way for people will high medical costs to be negatively affected.

I don't think I want to get a $300 colonoscopy but some people would choose to do that.

I do very much agree that health services are jacked up to fake amounts that benefits insurance companies who act as middle-men to "lower" those fake amounts. Really, who pays the full bill amount, uninsured people can't afford to.

If the patient was charged a fair price for medical services we would not need middlemen insurance companies to bargain down the prices, that's their sole job along with denying some patients meds and treatments their doctors prescribe. Health insurers are racketeers in my opinion. The health of a nation's people should be a social issue not a business.

Anyone hear the story today on NPR that Millions Of Americans Are Having An Easier Time Paying Medical Bills?

A report from the National Center for Health Statistics released Wednesday shows that the number of people whose families are struggling to pay medical bills fell by 22 percent, or 13 million people, in the last five years.

www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/30/503760677/millions-of-people-are-having-an-easier-time-paying-medical-bills

But according to Trump, Obamacare and the Economy are/were a disaster.