On June 23, 2016, for the Washington Post Stephen Stromberg begins the next chapter of "Obamacare is Perfect," mythology, and here, in this editorial I advocate that it's time to put a stop to this type of manipulation for our sake. Not his sake, Mr. Stromberg can write all the fiction he wants.
Not for the politicians' sake, remember, government employees have health insurance that they brag: "The government provides its employees with a first-class benefits package. In fact, studies conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveal that the gap concerning benefits between the private and public sectors has been growing-in favor of the public sector,” http://gogovernment.org/government_101/benefits.php. Got that? IN FAVOR OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR.
Remember, they're not "exempt" (wink-wink )they just get to choose better plans than we do because the government is their employer and offers it to them (who's paying for up to 72 percent of that?)
Not for the sake of President Obama who's so out of it that he actually lies and tries to claim there's universal healthcare in the US (which it took Castro of all people to point out in March of 2016).
It is for OUR sake that people like Stephen Stromberg should stop. We're the people who are
-reading with horror that the insurance LOBBY AHIP proposed much of Obamacare: Health Plans Propose Guaranteed Coverage for Pre-Existing Conditions and Individual Coverage Mandate,” produced by AHIP, 2008
-paying more in health insurance premiums,
-facing ever-rising out-of-pocket maximums set arbitrarily by the government, next year in the amounts of $7,150 for an individual and $14,300 for family insurance
-complying with more mandatory wellness programs including employer screenings for which we can be charged a surcharge for non-participation as a back-door way for insurance companies to charge higher premiums to those with---yep, you got it, pre-existing conditions, as long as they charge it to EVERYONE getting the policy,
-complying with "covered" preventive checkups knowing that medical errors are the THIRD LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH in the US, knowing that those provisions make WELL people a providers' gold-mine guaranteeing payment and encouraging the practice defensive medicine
-realizing that prevention is NOT what health insurance coverage is needed for but rather for NEEDED medical services, which under Obamacare we pay more for in the form of copayment, coinsurance and higher deductibles
-realizing that now that we're FORCED to buy the consumer financial product of health insurance that our leverage as consumers to choose to opt in or opt out is reduced which also reduces the incentive of insurers to respond to OUR needs
-realizing that the Affordable in the Affordable Care Act is confined to the single stat of saving the GOVERNMENT money on how much it pays out on behalf of individuals (per capita) which is done only by reducing the amount of care and how much they're willing to pay for it (same old insurance company strategy)
-realizing that the poorest Americans were intended to and have been left out of the Obamacare's plan to get people insured with exemptions provided to the homeless, the bankrupt, those who have had their utilities turned off, or those who can't pay their medical bills
-realizing that we don't know if Obamacare has actually saved money overall because the CBO in 2015 decided not to count any money spent on Obamacare except the amount paid on behalf of people
-realizing that insurance companies are leaving exchanges now that government bribes in the form of risk reassurance and risk corridor payments are expiring
-realizing that there are no cost controls on how much providers can charge nor are there incentives for them to reduce the charges they place on us, because they're only rewarded financially by insurance companies for reducing how much insurance companies are charged (see programs like Care First by BC/BS)
That's just a few of the grotesque provisions of Obamacare with which we're familiar, neatly omitting nifty new perversions of values like the one that PAYS providers to ADVISE PEOPLE TO LET THEMSELVES DIE and forego treatment based on the cost of the treatment and the odds of it working (SEE CMS end of life counseling payment to providers).
To people like Stephen Stromberg, whose babyish and idiotic, "I hate Republicans," rant clutters the world of words, ideas and tries to scare people into even more stagnation and backwards steps, it's time to say the obvious--Be quiet. (I consider the article in detail at http://conoutofconsumer.blogspot.com/p/sabotage-or-disagreement-obamacare-and.html, 6/26/2016.
