Premiums Unveiled For Health Overhaul Plans

[Millburn]

Originally Posted by MrSparkle001 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

As happy as I am for you, I'm pissed that other people will now be paying for you. That's what the individual mandate is for. They may spin it to sound otherwise, but that's what it is. The insurance companies want to keep their profits, and in order to pay for preexisting conditions and maintain a profit they need young, healthy people to pay. Young, healthy people are forced to buy lousy insurance with ridiculously high deductibles in order to pay for people who cost the insurance companies too much. Your costs are forced on others. Great system huh.

Without the individual mandate this whole law would fail.

I'm also pissed that big corporations and even Congress got themselves exemptions because it's too expensive for them, yet the average working guy who will see his monthly expenditures increase significantly can't get an exemption. You know it's bad when there's members of Congress fighting to get Congress not to exempt itself.

If I take myself out of my own situation I totally empathize, in a perfect world we could take some of the defense budget that goes towards the Military Industrial Complex and use that money responsibly to bring universal health care standards of decency to everyone who lives in this country.

With that said, thank god for healthy people because hot damn have I waited for this day.

[runlvlzero]

Originally Posted by Millburn [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

If I take myself out of my own situation I totally empathize, in a perfect world we could take some of the defense budget that goes towards the Military Industrial Complex and use that money responsibly to bring universal health care standards of decency to everyone who lives in this country.

With that said, thank god for healthy people because hot damn have I waited for this day.

This guy said it best.

[Pringles]

Originally Posted by Millburn [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The affordable care act is pretty much a dream come true if I understand it correctly.

I don't think you understand it correctly.

[Orruar]

Originally Posted by Pringles [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I don't think you understand it correctly.

Read the rest of his story. This thing is a dream come true for those who would like to be subsidized by healthy people.

[runlvlzero]

Originally Posted by Millburn [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I don't know about you guys but I'm fucking STOKED for this shit.

I've had type 1 diabetes for 24 years now and the shit it's done to my savings account is ridiculous. I have to maintain health insurance even if it doesn't do anything for me so that I can keep a certificate of credible insurability which would guarantee that going forward I wouldn't be denied coverage due to my pre-existing condition. Most (read: 99%) of plans don't cover anything that I need and the ones that do are split between both prescription insurance and health insurance due to diabetic supplies being a medical supply and insulin being a medication. So that's two things that sap my income without providing any benefit.

All in all my monthly expenses are about $300 for insulin, $100 for strips, $75 for syringes and pen needles. That's almost $500 a month and that's the BARE necessity of what I need. That is essentially a second apartment lease and that's just to survive.

The affordable care act is pretty much a dream come true if I understand it correctly.

I don't think you should have to pay anything for your insulin or supplies. That whole sub unit industry could be run cheaply and efficiently enough that it could be entirely subsidized by everyone. I'm not sure how this will help people who are barely surviving with diabetes though who can't hold down a full time job. But if this is indeed going to help you I am happy. I don't think people should be murdered just because they aren't perfect.

Below just general thoughts not directed at you:

I just think it could be done much much better than our current regime is doing it. It's not even Obama's fault he doesn't have control over the entire medical industry. But as a leader he could publicly demand solutions and point out the corruption and issues it does have.

I think everyones biggest gripe in general is how vague and mis-advertised this whole idea is. And that a large number of us think we could do so much better as far as health care is concerned in this country. And that this is just a band aid.

Yep I think a lot. Nothing is written in stone as far as my opinion goes. I am not certified to know for sure in absolute terms =)

[Orruar]

Originally Posted by runlvlzero [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

...I don't think people should be murdered just because they aren't perfect.
...

What a shocking and controversial statement. I'm sure all those non-perfect-people-murderers are going to come here in droves to debate you on that position.

[runlvlzero]

Originally Posted by Orruar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

What a shocking and controversial statement. I'm sure all those non-perfect-people-murderers are going to come here in droves to debate you on that position.

I could have phrased it differently. But seriously. We don't have to let people die to issues like diabetes. The damn world has the technology to deal with it. Its douchey to just be like "fuck you die" in this case.

It goes back to the whole argument about automation (which is going to take this whole subject off topic if we do it here). But you can automate a ton of shit now which gives people free time to do other shit. And automate it cheaply.

Cleaning clothes for example. Very automated. Cheaper to do with machines. We don't force prisoners wear dirty rags. We tax payers pay for the laundry machines they use to automate it. Textiles. Though that goes into other issues with economies. But the diabetes industry is not new technology. Sure there's improvements here and there. But the majority of diabetes cases can be treated by tech that is refined and been around for 20 years. We know exactly how much resource it takes and what the cost to distribute is and we can project that for the increase and decrease yearly.

Its a good target for a social (civil) program. Think of it a bit like civil engineering with an investment in the future of our society. And I'm only going there because Obamacare is supposed to achieve this exact gaol. Make this affordable for everyone.

I'm arguing that it already is. From a technical standpoint. Either government can contract private industry, or we can run it as a civil program. Payed for by a small portion of our huge debt. We could slim down and fix the government and still have room to do things like this. Maybe you know transfer some of those administrators to this new program.

Now do we want to get all gattaca about diabetes? Thats irrelevant to whether we treat it or not and provide those people opportunities to live fulfilling more or less meaningful lives.

[Frieza_Prexus]

Originally Posted by runlvlzero [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I don't think you should have to pay anything for your insulin or supplies. That whole sub unit industry could be run cheaply and efficiently enough that it could be entirely subsidized by everyone. I'm not sure how this will help people who are barely surviving with diabetes though who can't hold down a full time job. But if this is indeed going to help you I am happy. I don't think people should be murdered just because they aren't perfect.

This type of sentiment makes for exceptionally bad policy. Why should an otherwise healthy diabetic receive free supplies at the expense of the tax base? Can we start buying groceries for everyone too? (wait a minute, that's already happening).

No one's being "murdered", and it's a complete disservice to the dialogue to frame it so strongly. Few people object to a safety net for the truly and permanently disabled. But why should otherwise healthy diabetics get a free pass? If a person is reasonably capable of supporting themselves, there should be no duty to directly subsidize their consumer requirements.

Also, I think it's somewhat insulting to diabetics to make a general implication that their condition impairs them so substantially that they cannot provide for their own medical needs.

[Orruar]

Originally Posted by runlvlzero [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I could have phrased it differently. But seriously. We don't have to let people die to issues like diabetes. The damn world has the technology to deal with it. Its douchey to just be like "fuck you die" in this case.
...

Again, who here is saying "fuck you die" or anything similar?

You know, I really don't think we should be murdering kittens for fun.

[Tiddlywinks]

Also, you can't really just look at the small subset of age brackets when discussing health costs per year. Of course younger people are on average going to spend far less than the elderly. Part of the way that insurance is set up is so that the unused Premiums of people such as yourself are used to cover the woman with breast cancer. You are not paying ONLY for directly what you will benefit from, that's not how insurance works. That's what savings accounts are for.