What does the election mean for us

ByeByeUC said...
It hasn't even been 24 hours yet. Time will tell .... give him a chance to make it better. The affordable healthcare act is anything but affordable.

I personally believe that Medicare Part-D is to blame for most of the rising health care premiums. During a completely Republican controlled Government they put this into effect and it has had dramatically bad effect on drug pricing. The largest buyer of Medicine in the World can not negotiate pricing which leads to other insurance carriers not being able to effectively negotiate pricing on our overall healthcare system.

---------------------(from Wikipedia)--
By the design of the program, the federal government is not permitted to negotiate prices of drugs with the drug companies, as federal agencies do in other programs. The Department of Veterans Affairs, which is allowed to negotiate drug prices and establish a formulary, has been estimated to pay between 40%[27] and 58%[28] less for drugs, on average, than Medicare Part D.
----------------------

I am highly skeptical that they will change this and we will get stuck with basically the same horrible system that we had before the ACA except that we will have Saving Accounts (they expect poor people to save money that they don't have) and be able to buy insurance across state lines.

The Republican governors were the same ones who'd rather let the poorest people in their states suffer than to take Medicaid reimbursement from the Federal Government so all of those millions of people we uninsured. This is why I am skeptical.

And don't forget that the Republicans thought that the way to keep insurance costs down was to charge the people with pre-existing condition conditions the highest rates. It is true, that is the best way to keep insurance costs down but it is also the way that people suffer.

Just look at the way Trump talks about himself and puts his names all over his buildings; do you really think that Trump cares about anyone except himself? He's a narcissist.

Thanks America!!!

ks1905 said...
By the design of the program, the federal government is not permitted to negotiate prices of drugs with the drug companies, as federal agencies do in other programs. The Department of Veterans Affairs, which is allowed to negotiate drug prices and establish a formulary, has been estimated to pay between 40%[27] and 58%[28] less for drugs, on average, than Medicare Part D.

But look at the bright side. You have just pointed out one simple but effective way to lower health care costs: just rescind the provision in Medicare Part D that prevents them from negotiating drug prices. I am sure there are other things we can do that will add up to significant savings.

The healthcare system would be a lot cheaper overall if people were healthier.....I'm not talking about conditions like ours, but whenever I go to the hospital I see morbidly obese people, which I guarantee 95% of those have themselves to blame, and those are the people with most problems.....before getting on republicans and bashing them on drug prices, which they probably support capitalism a great bit which would say the market price is what people are willing to pay, get on your neighbor down the street who is fatter than anything and doesn't do anything about it. But that would just be unfair because you can't hurt anyone's feelings.......

ByeByeUC said...
Keith,
I personally don't like the guy but he's now our president and I'm for giving him the benefit of the doubt. I'm sooooo done with all the political bashing. This has been a brutal election. Let's just see what happens before we bash him about what he'll do with Obamacare.

Marianne,

Typically I would agree with you about this, but this guy has spent 70 years of his life not giving the benefit of the doubt to anybody. He built a campaign based upon racism, xenophobia and fear without giving many specifics on any real policies (most candidates would have had policies in place). He says that he will replace ACA with something GREAT and I'm supposed to believe him?

Forgive me for my skepticism, but as someone who has a chronic illness and needs insurance that actually covers me, I don't feel that he will ever be looking out for my best interests.

For people with pre existing conditions, it may go back to high risk pools, if they manage
to change things. As far as I am concerned that is the best part of ACA.
Sounds expensive.
Old Mike

ks1905 said...
I don't understand, they wrote a law that is the exact opposite effect on market pricing; how is that capitalism? So they buyer (Medicare) shouldn't be able to negotiate what they are willing to pay? They can't even negotiate quantities, but by law they have to buy the product.

Right. But for the past 8 years the Dems controlled the presidency and for the first few of those years controlled the congress as well. Nothing was done to change or modify Part D. I guess the Dems were looking for the same campaign contributions from Big Pharma and the health insurance companies that the Repubs were receiving when they passed Part D.

And seeking campaign contributions is probably the reason why we have the ObamaCare mess we are in. When ObamaCare was passed into law the stocks of insurance and drug companies soared thru the roof. Another example of the best government money can buy.

Post Edited (IamCurious) : 11/10/2016 4:17:41 PM (GMT-7)

imagardener2 said...
I am not obese (no dog in this fight) but have read a recent article citing studies that say that obesity does not mean sicker, that their rate of illness is the same as general population. This is not referring to morbidly obese people, just average obesity.

Yes, age is much more related to disease, more years=more opportunity.
At some point the Millenials will ask themselves and us "must the young sacrifice their future to pay for elder life support?" Not being asked today but it is coming. End of life cost is obscene and I will not agree to it for myself.

Have you got a link to that article? I'm not obese either, but I do get a bit sick of the holier-than-thou types who bash fat people for being fat.

I'm quite happy to sign any number of "do not resuscitate" disclaimers. No way I want to spend my final days/months/years in a hospital bed, hooked up to various drips and unable to speak, move, etc.

NCOT

I am terrible at saving links, just read and move along. I do make an effort not to read junk (National Enquirer, etc) so I don't remember crap haha.

This is not what I read but does mention the "paradox" that showed up in studies. There are always conflicting studies because I also remember reading years ago that deliberately starving extended life. Why live longer if I can't eat I say.
qz.com/550527/obesity-paradox-scientists-now-think-that-being-overweight-is-sometimes-good-for-your-health/

edit to add: I have/had obese family members and some of it is genetic IMO. My beloved grandmother was tall and very overweight and others on her sisters side have shown that also. She did not die prematurely but did have hip problems due to weight. These are my English genes haha, the Irish ones are shorter height and prone to skin cancer.

Post Edited (imagardener2) : 11/10/2016 5:54:35 PM (GMT-7)

Clearly I'm one of the few optimists regarding Trump and I'm going to reserve judgement of impending doom until absolutely necessary. Thank goodness for Remistart because I needed it after Obamacare became law. I would have otherwise been responsible for $700 each infusion. The only good that came out of the ACA was no penalty for pre-existing conditions. I hope that FSA contributions will revert back to $5000/year. Obama decreased it to $2500 max and I run out in September every year.

Maybe my phrasing was off:

Remistart was available but I didn't need to use it until after Obamacare was inacted. I didn't get to keep my PPO plan that I loved because my employer got rid of it. My new insurance plan provides less coverage and without Remistart, I would be responsible for $700/infusion until my deductible is met. The price of my other rx's increased as well ultimately making my out of pocket expenses go up. I also would calculate my anticipated OOP expenses for the year and set aside in my FSA account pre-tax. As with all of us, my OOP is more than $2500. So for me, Obamacare is not affordable.

platinumpixie said...
Maybe my phrasing was off:

Remistart was available but I didn't need to use it until after Obamacare was inacted. I didn't get to keep my PPO plan that I loved because my employer got rid of it. My new insurance plan provides less coverage and without Remistart, I would be responsible for $700/infusion until my deductible is met. The price of my other rx's increased as well ultimately making my out of pocket expenses go up. I also would calculate my anticipated OOP expenses for the year and set aside in my FSA account pre-tax. As with all of us, my OOP is more than $2500. So for me, Obamacare is not affordable.

It sounds like you have an employer based insurance and not an Obamacare policy through a state run exchange. Your costs are mainly due to inflation in the medical industry and it outpacing the standard inflation/growth rates of the economy and either your employer not being about to afford to pay for it or choosing not to pay for the better plans. This will continue after they "repeal Obamacare". And actually after the ACA went into effect the inflation rate of medical costs was lower than the decade prior to the ACA.

The other part of Obamacare was setting up State Exchanges for people to get/buy health insurance who did not previously have health insurance and were now required to have insurance. 80% of those people ended up qualifying for subsides to help offset their costs. Some of their premiums skyrocketed recently due to a variety of reasons but only in some states.

Correct me if I am wrong but I don't think that you have an Obamacare policy so how is Obamacare unaffordable for you? Your healthcare costs maybe unaffordable but the ACA actually has helped to keep them down.

If Americans, like they did with this election, demand that their healthcare costs go down, then the easiest and fastest way to accomplish this without effecting the majority of the people is to charge higher premiums for people with preexisting conditions. This would effect people with IBDs dramatically since we are some the costliest people to insure.

Isn't stress a trigger for UC? It is for me.

So I'm not getting worked up about this. I gave Obama a chance, so I'm going to give Trump the same. Who knows? Maybe he turns out to be a good President. Thinking of him as the boogeyman isn't going to help our stress levels. React to what does happen, rather than what we think will happen.

Now it's privatisation of Medicare, not just fixing the ACA. I can't possibly foresee anything going wrong with this.

nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/paul-ryan-says-medicare-privatization-is-on.html