17 thoughts on “Real Health Care Reform”

  1. The insurance company I work for is backing out, being forced out really, of the CA market. Several of our major products are no longer legal in CA. I would not be surprised to see us stop sales there entirely in a year or two.

  2. While I applaude the good doctor’s efforts, I hope he has a good CPA. I predict massive tax audits in his immediate future.

  3. They use “shock” like it was unexpected. Neither the higher rate nor the civil servant misleading the public should be unexpected.

  4. Even IF they get rid of Obamacare, it’s already screwed up tens of thousands of people, some irrevocably I’m betting.

    One of my wife’s co-workers had knee replacement late last year. Three weeks after her surgery, she fell and tore up her knee, and has been through the ringer over it. BCBS has been foot dragging anyway for the last two years on everyone, but it’s getting worse. Now, she needs an MRI, because she’s having trouble with her shoulder. Her ortho doc thinks it’s a rotator cuff tear, but he can’t set a repair operation, because he can’t get an MRI approved.

    AND, until the shoulder is cleared off her medical checklist, she can’t her OTHER knee replaced, because the insurance company requires that you CAN support yourself on crutches or a walker. It’s all very circular and it’s all falling to the benefit of the insurance company. I doubt that BCBS / NC is the only one doing this stuff.

    And the rates are about almost 30% over the last 4 years for these privileges.

  5. California insurance rates are set to skyrocket next year.

    Only if you compare insurance that anyone can buy, to insurance that you can only buy if you’re lucky. If you compare apples to apples, prices are dropping.

    2. insurance that you can only buy if you’re lucky

      Why would you do that? You buy insurance to hedge against bad events not good ones.

      If you compare apples to apples, prices are dropping.

      I bet certain “apples” won’t be available at any price. The replacement “orange” is more expensive because it covers more things and has more strings attached.

      And do you happen to have a link for your assertion that the price of “apples” are dropping? The story in question seems to indicate otherwise.

      1. You buy insurance to hedge against bad events not good ones.

        Yes, but in today’s individual market you can only hedge against future bad events if you’ve been lucky enough to not have any past bad events.

        do you happen to have a link

        Here’s the link:

        The rates submitted to Covered California for the 2014 individual market ranged from two percent above to 29 percent below the 2013 average premium for small employer plans in California’s most populous regions. This is impressive since the 2014 products include doctor visits, prescriptions, hospital stays and more essential benefits; protecting consumers from the “gimmicks and gotchas” of many insurance policies.

        And that’s before you factor in subsidies, which will be available for incomes up to 400% of the poverty line (today that’s $45,960 for an individual or $94,200 for a family of four).

        In short: better coverage, for the same or less money, available to everyone.

        1. Can you provide a link that wasn’t discredited by the original post for this topic?

          And that’s before you factor in subsidies

          In Jim’s fantasy world, subsidies grow on trees like all money, apples, and oranges.

          1. The point being that it wasn’t discredited. It’s the response that tried to compare two very different things, insurance that you can buy and insurance that you maybe can and maybe can’t buy. It’s like comparing store prices for an item when only one of the stores actually has the item in stock. It doesn’t make any sense to compare prices unless it’s possible to actually buy the product.

            In Jim’s fantasy world, subsidies grow on trees like all money, apples, and oranges.

            In my world, those subsidies are paid for with taxes and spending cuts. If it’s reasonable to complain about those taxes and cuts, then it’s reasonable to point out that they will make insurance more affordable for tens of millions of people.

          2. “In my world, those subsidies are paid for with taxes and spending cuts.”

            President Trillion-Dollar-A-Year-Deficits certainly isn’t going to make any meaningful spending cuts.

          3. President Trillion-Dollar-A-Year-Deficits certainly isn’t going to make any meaningful spending cuts.

            That’s two errors in one sentence:

            * The deficit is under a trillion and falling fast; for this year it’s projected to be $642 billion.

            * Obamacare includes $700+ billion in Medicare spending cuts. Remember the GOP hammering Democrats over this in 2010 and 2012?

      2. Prices are dropping from $69/month to $117/month!

        That $69/mo is only available to the fortunate. The $117/mo plan will be available to everyone. The plans available to everyone today cost more than $117.

        1. That $69/mo is only available to the fortunate.

          Those are the only kind of people who buy catastrophic insurance. Duh! Their preimums are going to skyrocket to subsidize the expensive HMO policies for you.

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