What happens if Obamacare gets repealed?

[jeannetherese]

And where will your friend be if the government runs out of money, or if he/she won’t get treatment because of cost rationing, even though they are covered?

This is what happens when government is trusted to “help” people.

Think any of those people running policy on this in DC would give of their own stock to help your friend? Because it’s easy to use force to take money from others to pay for things, but it’s much less fun to give of your own to someone else.

This is why market-driven solutions whereas big government ones do not.

Peace, SuperLuigi,
I am not advocating for Obamacare and neither is the person I mentioned who is paying the penalty while unable to afford it.
I’m pointing out that, being forced to pay a fine for not buying insurance when you cannot afford it in the first place is problematical.
If Obama care disappeared tomorrow, that person would actually have more money to spend on things that would promote health. In other words, the end of Obamacare would be a plus.
I probably worded my initial post poorly and I apologize for the confusion I have sown.
7 sorrows and SuperLuigi, please accept my apologies.
May God bless all who visit our thread.
Amen.

 

[7_Sorrows]

Peace, SuperLuigi,
I am not advocating for Obamacare and neither is the person I mentioned who is paying the penalty while unable to afford it.
I’m pointing out that, being forced to pay a fine for not buying insurance when you cannot afford it in the first place is problematical.
If Obama care disappeared tomorrow, that person would actually have more money to spend on things that would promote health. In other words, the end of Obamacare would be a plus.
I probably worded my initial post poorly and I apologize for the confusion I have sown.
7 sorrows and SuperLuigi, please accept my apologies.
May God bless all who visit our thread.
Amen.

thank you for the clarification. I am following your point now. I agree.

 

[Thorolfr]

The direction is to replace it with a bi-partisan solution. I expect it would fix parts that are broken and make changes to actually reduce costs, but it wouldn’t result in refusing coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

What makes you think that Republicans would repeal the ACA and then force insurance companies to provide affordable health insurance to people with pre-existing conditions? If they did that without also requiring healthy people to buy health insurance, insurance companies would go bankrupt.

 

[Corki]

What makes you think that Republicans would repeal the ACA and then force insurance companies to provide affordable health insurance to people with pre-existing conditions? If they did that without also requiring healthy people to buy health insurance, insurance companies would go bankrupt.

Or they could do a high-risk pool in the same way that many states do (or rather, did before Obamacare) for health insurance. It’s not the case that we have to take the whole package in order to achieve some desired reform.

 

[Thorolfr]

Or they could do a high-risk pool in the same way that many states do (or rather, did before Obamacare) for health insurance. It’s not the case that we have to take the whole package in order to achieve some desired reform.

So how successful have these high risk pools been?

From the start, analysts questioned whether the $5 billion that Congress appropriated for the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan — as the program is called — was sufficient.

Initial fears that as many as 375,000 sick people would swamp the pools and bankrupt them by 2012 did not pan out. This is largely because, even though the pools must charge premiums comparable to those for healthy people, the plans sold through them are often expensive.

But it was also because the pools are open only to people who have gone without insurance for at least six months. The result is that, while only about 135,000 people have gotten coverage at some point, they are proving far more costly to insure than predicted.

Many people who are uninsured go untreated, exacerbating their medical problems. When they finally do get coverage through a high-risk pool, they are in immediate need of expensive care.

“What we’ve learned through the course of this program is that this is really not a sensible way for the health-care system to be run,” Cohen said.

Of the original $5 billion, about $2.36 billion remains available for the last three quarters of 2013 — enough only to continue coverage for those already in the pools, according to administration estimates.

washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/2013/02/15/cb9d56ac-779c-11e2-8f84-3e4b513b1a13_story.html

Even before the ACA, high risk pools were usually prohibitively expensive, were difficult to get into, and were often underfunded and running out of money.

 

[DarkLight]

Even before the ACA, high risk pools were usually prohibitively expensive, were difficult to get into, and were often underfunded and running out of money.

Pretty much. High risk pools tended to be expensive plans that often covered very little. Not a good option for people already struggling to pay for medical bills.