The core problem of obtaining affordable, accessible medical services in the event we’re sick is worsened by Obamacare’s relentless drive to get everyone to have some kind of health insurance combined with its increased costs to sick consumers in the form of deductibles, copayments and coinsurance for NEEDED MEDICAL CARE.
Obamacare does NOT create the RIGHT TO HEALTH CARE but instead creates the REQUIREMENT TO HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE, a requirement and product that is only meaningful if it prevents financial devastation in the event the contingency occurs that you get sick and require medical services.
The latest non-news reports that MORE PEOPLE HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE. Jenna Levy’s Gallup Poll report states that for the first quarter of 2015 the UNINSURED RATE has dropped to 11.9 percent, DOWN 6.3% FROM THE END OF 2013, http://www.gallup.com/poll/182348/uninsured-rate-dips-first-quarter.aspx.
If you refer to Jenna Levy’s Gallup report from the fourth quarter of 2013, (which is where this new report of 2015 starts), you’ll see that back then she wrote, “The rate was around 14.5% in 2008,” http://www.gallup.com/poll/166895/uninsured-rate-dipped-back-down-end-2013.aspx, before Obama and before Obamacare. As of the first quarter of 2015, the uninsured rate is 11.9 percent.
This is a drop of 2.6 percent in the uninsured rate since 2008.
Putting aside the components of our US Healthcare crisis, (now a US healthcare problem because after all, it was more than the uninsured, it was the cost, coverage, access and usefulness of the health insurance product that also contributed to the CHOICE of millions of consumers not to have health insurance that would not protect against needed medical care events,) Obamacare has focused on this single statistic, the number of people who have any kind of health insurance at all as the “proof” that Obamacare “works.”
2.6 percent FEWER UNINSURED SINCE 2008: Obamacare created an obligation to HAVE health insurance or pay a TAX AND…
Obamacare provides for expanded Medicaid eligibility where individuals can obtain near-free health insurance AND health care AND…
Obamacare created a new income-based entitlement providing for premium assistance and in some cases cost-sharing assistance from the federal government AND…
Obamacare “allows” parents to pay for their grown children’s health insurance until they’re 26, which we would expect to create an ENORMOUS decreases in the number of the uninsured…We’ve got a 2.8 percent drop from 2008 till now.
More significantly, reading the Gallup research also indicates some pretty frightening trends that ultimately indicate that Obamacare did little to modify key creators of our healthcare crisis (such as the cost to consumers of obtaining needed medical services, the access of consumers to needed medical services, and the cost and effectiveness of the health insurance product for consumers to help pay for those needed medical services) but instead Obamacare masks the problem through its combination of penalty and “free” money to get people to buy health insurance.
This is a double concern because the reduction in the uninsured rate is dependent on the Federal government’s endless commitment to paying for a portion of people’s health insurance and because the federal government is looking to keep its costs per person down which will only be accomplished through the reduction in coverage of needed and more expensive medical services (rather than the finite costs checkups and other preventive).
We know this is true as people pay more in all cash outlays for their needed medical services, higher deductibles, higher copays and higher coinsurance.
The obvious truth is that Obamacare’s reduction in the UNINSURED rate of 2.8 percent since 2008 is simply a function of the four things it did all designed around the REQUIREMENT for consumers to have health insurance rather than addressing the consumer cost, access to and quality of health CARE if they’re sick.
We’ve forgotten that health insurance is supposed to be a financial tool that we purchase to help us pay for needed medical services IN THE EVENT OF ILLNESS, a contingency plan.
The increased dependence on federal money is also obvious. Employer-based health insurance continues to drop and government-based health insurance continues to rise.
In 2012 Gallup reported that “Fewer Americans Getting Health Insurance From Employer, Medicare, Medicaid, and military or veterans' insurance inching higher,” Elizabeth Mendes, http://www.gallup.com/poll/160676/fewer-americans-getting-health-insurance-employer.aspx.
In the same 2012 report Mendes concluded that “High unemployment is partly to blame for the decrease in employer-based health insurance. The decline may also be due to fewer employers offering insurance or due to employees opting to not take their employers' plan due to rising health insurance costs for employees.”
Flash forward to NOW, FIRST QUARTER 2015 and we find that YES, FEWER PEOPLE HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE THROUGH AN EMPLOYER, it’s dropped another 0.9% since the end of 2013.
Back to 2012 when Gallup reported, “More non-government workers now get their insurance from a government plan…” and in the FIRST QUARTER OF 2015? You guessed it. Those with a government plan, Medicaid UP another 2.1 percent from 2013. Those with Medicare, UP another 1.2 percent from 2013. Those with veteran’s benefits, UP another 0.1 percent from 2013.
As for parents carrying their grown children? Conveniently the number gaining health insurance by buying it themselves ALSO includes those who get health insurance from a family member buying it for them so we really don’t know how many are buying it for themselves and that number has the biggest increase since 2013 till now, 3.5 percent.
