» Obamacare won't decrease health care costs for the government. According to Medicare's actuary, it will increase costs. The same is likely to happen for privately funded health care.
Is there a reason why this doesn't say "like Obama said it would. Oh maybe because he said it will reduce long term costs, because that's what it does, look up the costs to us as a nation for healthcare, they have been growing too rapidly and is really making shit expensive. Which is why something that pushes people to manage their health through less expensive doctor visits is a reallygood idea.
The health care law expands coverage, reducing the number of uninsured by more than 32 million, although about 24 million will remain without coverage.
Still, the share of the population with insurance will go up by nearly 10 percentage points, to about 93 percent. And that makes a difference in the numbers.
If you divide total national health care spending by a bigger number of insured people, you get a smaller per-person result.
It's an interesting statistic, but it doesn't mean the problem of rising costs is solved.
"It's not that it's false, it's just that it will be a little misleading," John Allen Paulos, a mathematics professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, said of the White House number, calling it an "apples-to-oranges miscomparison."
Consider an imaginary country with just three citizens, Peter, Paul and Mary. Peter has health coverage but Paul and Mary are uninsured. Peter spends $1,000 on health care, but Paul and Mary can only afford $500 apiece because they lack coverage. Total national spending: $2,000. National spending per insured person: $2,000.
Now suppose a law gets passed to expand coverage. Paul gets insurance, but Mary remains uninsured. Now Peter and Paul are spending $1,000 apiece. Paul spends more than when he was uninsured, so total national health spending goes up to $2,500.
But because more people are covered, spending per insured person goes down to $1,250.
It's a simplistic comparison, but would you call that a savings?
Paulos said it would make more sense to first figure out the share of total national health care spending by people with health insurance, and then divide that result by the number of insured people – before and after the health care law.
The government hasn't run that calculation.
Richard Kronick, a senior Health and Human Services official, said the Obama administration disagrees that its number is misleading.
"There are a number of ways to evaluate health care spending and the new law," said Kronick. "Examining spending on each individual with health insurance is one useful data point."
National health care spending is a kitchen-sink statistic that includes personal health costs of the insured as well as the uninsured, and such categories as research and development and medical infrastructure. In 2019, when the overhaul is fully phased in, the tab will be $4.6 trillion.
Foster says it's acceptable to divide the number by the total U.S. population. In that case, per capita spending would $13,652 as a result of the law, and $13,387 without it.
The difference: just $265 per person more.
Paulos, the mathematician, said that sounds like a bargain to him. "It's a relatively small cost given that 30 million more people will be covered," he said. "You don't really need this kind of apples to oranges miscomparison."
» As written, Obamacare covers elective abortions, contrary to Obama's promise that it wouldn't. This means that tax dollars will be used to pay for a procedure millions of Americans across the political spectrum view as immoral. Supposedly, the Department of Health and Human Services will bar abortion coverage with new regulations but these will likely be tied up for years in litigation, and in the end may not survive the court challenge.
I'm perfectly happy allowing the women whose decision this is to decide their circumstances and make their mind up. And I do find it funny that this makes it seem like they would rather pay for the nine months of doctor visits and the ass load it costs to pop the kid out, vs a very costs effective alternative, which also lends to lower taxes for us to have to dedicate to the blastis if it became a welfare baby.
» Obamacare won't allow employees or most small businesses to keep the coverage they have and like. By Obama's estimates, as many as 69 percent of employees, 80 percent of small businesses, and 64 percent of large businesses will be forced to change coverage, probably to more expensive plans.
just going to have to look at this more, but I'm guessing this may be due to those plans being scams of some sort that people pay in but don't really get anything back, or just flat out bullshit.
» Obamacare will increase insurance premiums -- in some places, it already has. Insurers, suddenly forced to cover clients' children until age 26, have little choice but to raise premiums, and they attribute to Obamacare's mandates a 1 to 9 percent increase. Obama's only method of preventing massive rate increases so far has been to threaten insurers.
Funny if you actually think about this for longer than it takes to cut and paste someone elses article.
Who do you think costs the healthcare system the least amount of money? Gasp healthy young people! So really what's the point kicking the, off of their parents health I insurance before they hit 26?
Wouldn't it make sense to allow parents that would like to keep paying for their child in case of emergency or maintenance reasons the chance to do so?
Another funny thing about this is when you think about how much insurance rates have been increasing, this article dismisses all that and allows them to say this Increase has to be due to the health care bill.
» Obamacare will force seasonal employers -- especially the ski and amusement park industries -- to pay huge fines, cut hours, or lay off employees.
How so? Funny there's not much detail in these mindlessly anti Obama bullet points, don't you ever question the info you read? You were right to call me out on the parroting I did on the 98% of small business would not see their taxes increased, isn't this just you doing the same? Or do you realize this may all be stretched and mangled facts and inferences that really is misleading at the best and full of shit at the worst?
» Obamacare forces states to guarantee not only payment but also treatment for indigent Medicaid patients. With many doctors now refusing to take Medicaid (because they lose money doing so), cash-strapped states could be sued and ordered to increase reimbursement rates beyond their means
.
So it's better to just stiff the doctors? Or is this saying it's better to just let the elderly that can't afford to pay the hundreds of thousands they cost to just kick the bucket?
» Obamacare imposes a huge nonmedical tax compliance burden on small business. It will require them to mail IRS 1099 tax forms to every vendor from whom they make purchases of more than $600 in a year, with duplicate forms going to the Internal Revenue Service. Like so much else in the 2,500-page bill, our senators and representatives were apparently unaware of this when they passed the measure.
How is this different than it is now? Does it drop it down from 800 bucks or something?
» Obamacare allows the IRS to confiscate part or all of your tax refund if you do not purchase a qualified insurance plan. The bill funds 16,000 new IRS agents to make sure Americans stay in line.
Is that confiscated amount going to pay for the insurance you were supposed to have gotten? Similar to what would happen if you owe child support and they garnish your wages? Because to me it sounds like it won't even be that invasive, just if you think you got past something with not buying it and your getting a return on the taxes you paid at the end of the year, you'll just not get that money back that you shoulda used to get insurance.
First and foremost where in the Constitution does the government get the authority to regulate heath care? How does any of this improve health care? So I should have to pay higher premiums and higher taxes to support people who don’t want to pay for their own health care? What about my right to my personal property? Why do they have a greater right to my property than I do? How is Obama Care going to make America a freer nation?
Yeah I'm over the whole constitutional argument, it's played out.
More important is improving healthcare. Right off the bat you should look at the fact that a few doctor visits per year can catch illnesses or thongs like cancer far before they are detrimental and farmore expensive to treat and dangerous to the patient.
And you really should wake up to the fact we already pay for these people through far higher er costs that we pay for through taxes (which pay the higher costs that Medicaid,care have to pay for) and higher insurance premiums that we have to pay because the person with no I surname dumped as a loss into the hospital.
The rest is stupid and why me kind of shit.
