Bipartisan Health Care Effort

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ProVobis said:
Bringing prescription drug prices down would be a good start.
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In many cases, they already are. But the low-cost versions are not the “state of the art” versions. I remember reviewing one glaucoma med for a client. It is a combination of two existing meds. The new combination is massively more expensive than the two previous meds, even though the “recommended” med is the combination one.

In another case, there are two versions of a particular drug for high blood pressure. One is time-released and is taken once/day. The other is not time-released and is taken twice/day. The “one per day” version is massively more expensive than the two-per-day one. And yet, doctors will nearly always prescribe the more expensive one because it’s the “optimal” med for a particular level of HTN.

“Off label” use is very much frowned upon in the medical community, even when “off label” use is effective and much cheaper than the drug specifically designed and recommended for the condition.

I had occasion in the past to research Canadian meds for a client from time to time. The Canadian meds are almost always much cheaper than the “American” analog, even if the very same name is used. But if you dig into it, the Canadian drugs are almost always variations, not quite the “optimal” drug for the condition, and are often made in places like Vietnam or Bangladesh.

It’s not easy to figure out.
 
Ridgerunner said:
One has to realize there are people stuck in the “exchanges” who would pay less in a free market; possibly a lot less, because the composition of the “pool” they are in would almost certainly change favorably.
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Dream on. As long as for profit companies are involved in healthcare to the degree they are and people without health issues choose not to buy insurance, healthcare costs will continue to rise for people who need care and more will be priced out of the market as their coverage becomes more unaffordable. Projections are that even under the Republican skinny bill, premiums will increase 20% year.
 
Why would premiums skyrocket like that? This doesn’t even fully repeal the healthcare system.
 
Padres1969 said:
Only way anything is going to happen is if both sides work together. The Republicans despite having both houses and the presidency apparently can’t get anything done with their attempt at health care reform, other than trying to pick away at the ACA to make it fail.
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The ACA is failing on its own.

You need 60 votes in the Senate, and the GOP doesn’t have that as Democrats are obstructing.

Sorry, but that’s not total power or having “both houses”. There are rules in the Senate.
 
AFerri48 said:
Why would premiums skyrocket like that? This doesn’t even fully repeal the healthcare system.
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It repeals the mandate but keeps the requirements that insurance companies issue policies to people with preexisting conditions. Healthy people won’t pay for insurance until they need it so only sick people will be buying insurance, which greatly raises prices. This is the so-called “death spiral”.

Washington State passed a health care bill very similar to the ACA 25 years ago and before it went into effect Republicans won control of the state legislature and did the same thing (repealed the unpopular mandate but kept the popular preexisting conditions clause). Several years later it was literally impossible to buy a health insurance policy on the individual market. If you weren’t part of a employer/group plan and weren’t poor enough for Medicaid you were out of luck. Something similar will happen if this bill becomes law; most of the country will have no options for individual insurance and those that do likely will be unable to afford them.
 
AFerri48 said:
Why would premiums skyrocket like that? This doesn’t even fully repeal the healthcare system.
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Anytime people demand a product from the federal government, the price will be more than projected. It has happened every single time except maybe once in the entire history of this country.

People can make whatever excuses and rationalizations they want, but that is the final, ultimate result regardless of their religion’s social teaching or their own personal views.

GOP won’t do full repeal b/c of the American entitlement mentality.
 
AFerri48 said:
Why would premiums skyrocket like that? This doesn’t even fully repeal the healthcare system.
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lmachine said:
It repeals the mandate but keeps the requirements that insurance companies issue policies to people with preexisting conditions. Healthy people won’t pay for insurance until they need it so only sick people will be buying insurance, which greatly raises prices. This is the so-called “death spiral”.

Washington State passed a health care bill very similar to the ACA 25 years ago and before it went into effect Republicans won control of the state legislature and did the same thing (repealed the unpopular mandate but kept the popular preexisting conditions clause). Several years later it was literally impossible to buy a health insurance policy on the individual market. If you weren’t part of a employer/group plan and weren’t poor enough for Medicaid you were out of luck. Something similar will happen if this bill becomes law; most of the country will have no options for individual insurance and those that do likely will be unable to afford them.
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Thank you, Imachine, for explaining it.
 
The Senate bill is dead for now. Who knows if they’ll try again but for now the vote has failed.
 
_Abyssinia said:
Can anybody please explain what this means?

twitter.com/jrovner/status/890809161407021056
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This kind of bill has to originate in the House. The vote tonight wasn’t on the actual bill but an amendment to it. After the skinny repeal amendment failed they could have voted on the actual House bill but that would have failed (there’s no way the Senate would pass the AHCA as is) and if they wanted to try anything on health care again in the future the House would have to vote again. Leaving it on the calendar and unvoted-upon just saves a step if they want to come back to health care in the future. For all intents and purposes the bill is dead for now.
 
SuperLuigi said:
Anytime people demand a product from the federal government, the price will be more than projected. It has happened every single time except maybe once in the entire history of this country.

People can make whatever excuses and rationalizations they want, but that is the final, ultimate result regardless of their religion’s social teaching or their own personal views.

GOP won’t do full repeal b/c of the American entitlement mentality.
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As Boehner predicted.
 
ucfengr said:
Medicare isn’t all that great, which is why anybody who can afford it has supplemental coverage to cover the enormous number of things Medicare doesn’t. Medicaid is even worse due to the low reimbursements. Most doctors won’t even take a Medicaid patient and those that do can only afford to take a very low number.
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The other thing about Medicare is that it is a massive redistribution system, mainly from working people to wealthy people. It is redistribution of the worst kind.
 
Theo520 said:
I’m always astounded why people think single payer is an easy answer to the problem.
Changing who processes your insurance premium check has no impact on the cost of delivering the services. For single payer to work, we would have to make all the healthcare workers govt employees.

What we need is real reform that reduces the cost of delivering healthcare services.
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Getting rid of occupational licensing and increased immigration would help.
 
What is needed is competition among providers.

Some people just perform better, faster and cheaper than others.
 
Sy_Noe said:
Dream on. As long as for profit companies are involved in healthcare to the degree they are and people without health issues choose not to buy insurance, healthcare costs will continue to rise for people who need care and more will be priced out of the market as their coverage becomes more unaffordable. Projections are that even under the Republican skinny bill, premiums will increase 20% year.
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And they are not increasing now?
 
lmachine said:
This kind of bill has to originate in the House. The vote tonight wasn’t on the actual bill but an amendment to it. After the skinny repeal amendment failed they could have voted on the actual House bill but that would have failed (there’s no way the Senate would pass the AHCA as is) and if they wanted to try anything on health care again in the future the House would have to vote again. Leaving it on the calendar and unvoted-upon just saves a step if they want to come back to health care in the future. For all intents and purposes the bill is dead for now.
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Thanks
 
SuperLuigi said:
The ACA is failing on its own.

You need 60 votes in the Senate, and the GOP doesn’t have that as Democrats are obstructing.

Sorry, but that’s not total power or having “both houses”. There are rules in the Senate.
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Seems like the main obstructionist is the White House going around insulting everyone.
 
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