https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucej...ions-of-dollars-after-two-years/#470c5835764c Insurer Obamacare Losses Reach Billions Of Dollars After Two Years
They got more money from me than I got in coverage actually....poor insurance companies, struggling away at the expense of public health..maybe they should restructure or take on pharma .....I pay them monthly and my copay is still larger than the matching contribution...maybe they lost millions in projected profits...but they are not declaring bankruptcy last time I checked
They're evil. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucej...nitedhealth-rebounds-with-optum/#55860bfa78cc Despite $720M Obamacare Losses, UnitedHealth Rebounds With Optum The nation’s largest health insurance company is pulling back products from public changes under the health law after $720 million losses in 2015 that included $245 million in the fourth quarter “for the advance recognition of 2016 losses.” Those losses were the main driver in a 19% dip in the company’s fourth-quarter profits to $1.22 billion from $1.51 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014. While UnitedHealth weighs whether to continue offering products on public exchanges in 2017, executives say they are poised to rebound thanks largely to its fast-growing Optum unit, a health services business that provides an array of outpatient centers and offers technology services to providers of medical care as hospitals and doctor practices look for help in managing populations of patients.
I'm already paying for insurance....what Trumpcare will do is cause me to spend more of my healthcare dollars overseas and drop the local service because it's not competitive...and I want to shop locally for all my goods and services. Ambulance chasing lawyers have caused insurance companies to lose money more than common folk trying to cover their needs ...come January, I'll reapply for my family and adjust.....another thing is many more seniors like myself will opt for early retirement rather than stay in the workforce just for the Medicare benefits....I'll probably retire a year or two earlier than I would have otherwise...
The cost of medical equipment and medical school for doctors is unreasonable....the cost for a doctor to insure against lawsuits has their hands tied as far as pricing for services as well...TORT reform should be addressed along with huge medical school debts....in some countries doctors are paid like school teachers and firemen.....here they're paid like rock stars
http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/29/house-passes-medical-malpractice-tort-reform-bill/ House Passes Medical Malpractice Tort Reform Bill WASHINGTON — The House passed medical tort reform legislation Wednesday that is intended to help lower the cost of health insurance by lessening the burden of medical lawsuits. Proposed by Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King, the Protecting Access to Care Act (H.R. 1215), the bill passed with 218 yeas and 210 nays. The bill caps medical malpractice lawsuits by restricting plaintiff non-economic damages to $250,000. Juries may not be informed of this limitation. “The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that passage of King’s ‘Protecting Access to Care Act’ would save federal taxpayers at least $50 billion over a ten-year period. In addition, the CBO has estimated that King’s reforms would lower premiums for medical malpractice insurance by an average of 25 percent to 30 percent,” the Iowa congressman said in a statement.
I'm not asking for your approval....I need several thousands of dollars worth of dental work here that would cost me hundreds of dollars elsewhere and yes.....it's a choice.....but policy has put me in a position to make that choice when I believe it should be something I could save money doing at home instead of outsourcing the work.
I hope the Republicans come to their senses and simply repeal the Obama care. Undo the damn taxes and mandates. They can not heal the wounds made but we can stop doing more damage. Replace is stupid in the current meaning. They need to leave the Insurance industry alone and see if they can return to offering a useful product, that is helpful to the buyers, without government interference. Some additional legislation would be helpful to allow insurance marketing across state lines. Perhaps even prohibit states from taxing healthcare insurance premiums like Oregon just slapped on. That sure as hell makes it more difficult for people struggling to get insurance. Health savings accounts capability would also help some people, perhaps even better than insurance. Then perhaps just catastrophic insurance would be necessary. Exempting people's homes from being leaned would also be a good idea. Returning to this period would be wise, it changed in the 70s or 80s.
Can you spot the lie? This is from 2016, before Trump was elected. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/26/upshot/rising-obamacare-rates-what-you-need-to-know.html By REED ABELSON and MARGOT SANGER-KATZ OCT. 25, 2016 Obamacare rates are going way up. The latest estimate from the federal government is that the average midlevel Obamacare plan, the most popular choice, will cost about 22 percent more in 2017 than it did in 2016. This is based on data from 39 states where people sign up through the HealthCare.gov website and some preliminary data from four other states and the District of Columbia.
Anything Steve "Clash of Civilizations" King proposes is instantly suspect. Repubs always blame rising healthcare costs on "frivolous lawsuits" mainly because the healthcare industry donates to Repubs while lawyers tend to donate to Dems. I'd like to see any evidence that lawsuits are driving up healthcare.
My neighbor retired from being an emergency room surgeon in frustration from law suits...she could explain it better than I can but after I listened to her take on TORT reform, I was convinced...I don't believe it's a partisan conspiracy, I believe it is an ambulance chasing issue that has sparked health care increases in costs and doctors fear of being tied up in court for trying to save some crackheads life in many, many cases. Big pharma as well....insurance companies have made out like bandits in my life's contributions....I've paid way more than I've ever received in care here in the states. In Taiwan it was the opposite...family insured for 20 bucks a month and national health care covered almost anything we needed with minimal copays....I was quarantined in a hospital for 2 weeks with a flesh eating bacteria I got swimming in the ocean on a scrape.....they saved my life....my copay was 800 bucks ......that wouldn't cover one day in a hospital here. Our healthcare system has been broken for a long, long time...if an airborne virus ever breaks out here....it'll be a wake up call for the privileged who don't care if poor folks outside have access to sanitation or health care
The actual cost of the lawsuits only drives up the cost of malpractice insurance, which is ultimately paid by the patients. Doctors have to pay that insurance and eat. On top of that, the doctors want to avoid getting sued, or losing if they are. So they run every test in the book to cover their asses. That's what litigation does to medicine.
