AuntiE wrote:
I will wait until the CBO and OMB provide numbers.
Fair enough.
AuntiE wrote:
I will further continue watching the quiet trend that has been occurring in my area for several years of concierge medical practices who take NO insurance. The costs to the patients are significantly lower as there is no burdensome administrative costs. The other interesting part is your medical records are totally private from governmental agencies. A patient does not have to provide their SS# as the insurance company is out of the loop. Patients actually are a name not a number. Patients and physicians can actually have time to discuss a medical issue in depth.
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That sounds good. But I doubt that these practices will be able to cover any significant percentage of the nations needs while maintaining such a cozy relationship with their patients. It's an unfortunate reality I'm afraid... 314 million people, of which roughly half make less than 22,000/year. That's a very heavy burden for a federal government that doesn't want to turn it's back on the less fortunate. But for the smaller percentages of people who can find services like what you describe, I am very happy.
AuntiE wrote:
The issue that continues to confound me is how HHS and/or the IRS are going to compel young people, who are not gainfully employed and not paying taxes, to become part of ACA. the old saying about blood from stone would seem to fit this scenario.
Seems obvious to me... A young person who is not gainfully employed and not paying taxes seems to have two choices. ACA coverage or no coverage.
Squeezing blood from a stone seems more like a concern for people like me who want to know how this system is going to work. Personally, I agree with Winston Churchill, my favorite conservative of all time, that taxes should come from wealth, not income. First of all, wealth is where most of the money is. There is enough to cover everything in our budget AND our national debt without forcing ANYONE into hardship. But wealth has become the stone that can't be squeezed because wealth itself is what directs this country, so the politicians, who are the pawns in this game will continue to press pennies from single moms struggling to feed their children while issuing sermons about how wrong it is to ask a billionaire for anything at all.
AuntiE wrote:
What of the individual who is healthy, sees no doctor; however, has taken the precaution of purchasing a catastrophe health insurance policy. Must they now become part of something they have no need nor want of?
They already are.
AuntiE wrote:
I have concerns with the new form each taxpayer will have to submit to the IRS providing information on what health insurance an individual has and the IRS determining if it meets requirements. REALLY, the IRS :twisted: one would suppose all new IRS employees will have to have not only knowledge of tax code but medicine. WOW, and they thought college loan debt was high now, imagine what it will be with that double major.
Yeah, that doesn't sound right.
AuntiE wrote:
No one can debate the behemoth insurance companies have become. There is insufficient time or space to cover the issues surrounding the intrusiveness into physician/patient relationships that has occurred; however, it may be a out of the frying pan into the fire issue with the ACA. One size does not fit all.
I agree. Fortunately, ACA does not intend to be a one-size fits all solution. It features a public option, but people still have the choice of that or whatever else they want.
AuntiE wrote:
I freely admit to not having done due diligence on ACA; however, will probably go for the penalty phase. It has been my practice for a long while to set aside what my health insurance premiums would be in case of health issues. My last visit to a doctor was five years ago for pneumonia and in fact was charged less due the physician NOT having to process paper work. In point of fact, there is no record of that visit in a vast data base. Cash precludes the necessity of having to provide pesky personal information.
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I did the same thing with the dentist last year... I paid cash and got a better deal. The reason, as I understand it is that providers will ask for more if you use insurance in much the same way a merchant in Tijuana will ask more for something if you look wealthy - in both cases they are setting the bar high for the subsequent bargaining that happens. This is one those things ACA is trying to reduce.
AuntiE wrote:
My perspective on these types of issues may come from a family of CPAs and physicians mixed with two pastors thrown in. Geez, maybe I should get insurance and seek a psychologist.
Or be a psychologist and charge 100/hr to sit around, chat and write a few prescriptions.
:)