Already Started for Some

[MrFedEx]

You may not always be. When you have to wait months to see a doctor for a procedure, or have that procedure deemed unnecessary by a review board, you may grow nostalgic for the old system.

You have pre-existing conditions that would probably preclude affordable insurance rates for yourself. One would think that you, of all people, would understand this. The "horror" stories of socialized medicine seem all too much like the usual GOP talking points. "Death panels", "Long waits for procedures", blah, blah, blah. I actually have a relative who practices medicine in Canada, and I've asked him about their health system frequently, and what I've been told is this:

1. Serious conditions go to the head of the line..period

2. There are waits for elective, non-serious issues. Yes, there is prioritization

3. Doctors have caps on their wages. Once they reach a certain point...that's it.

4. Canada has a GST tax that varies per province that pays for it.

There are no review boards under Obamacare, and the "death panels" were optional end-of-life counseling sessions that a person could choose to avail themselves of. No panels saying someone wasn't going to get care. This is a GOP talking-point LIE.

Besides, Obamacare is NOT socialized medicine in the way you are portraying it. There is no single-payer system yet, and there are still private insurance companies providing care, not some socialist state system that dictates every aspect of health care.

 

[vantexan]

You have pre-existing conditions that would probably preclude affordable insurance rates for yourself. One would think that you, of all people, would understand this. The "horror" stories of socialized medicine seem all too much like the usual GOP talking points. "Death panels", "Long waits for procedures", blah, blah, blah. I actually have a relative who practices medicine in Canada, and I've asked him about their health system frequently, and what I've been told is this:

1. Serious conditions go to the head of the line..period

2. There are waits for elective, non-serious issues. Yes, there is prioritization

3. Doctors have caps on their wages. Once they reach a certain point...that's it.

4. Canada has a GST tax that varies per province that pays for it.

There are no review boards under Obamacare, and the "death panels" were optional end-of-life counseling sessions that a person could choose to avail themselves of. No panels saying someone wasn't going to get care. This is a GOP talking-point LIE.

Besides, Obamacare is NOT socialized medicine in the way you are portraying it. There is no single-payer system yet, and there are still private insurance companies providing care, not some socialist state system that dictates every aspect of health care.

And what you aren't seeing is that insurance companies are being forced to accept pre-existing conditions. This raises the rates for everyone(which is already happening), which leads to enough people/companies to drop their coverage that insurance companies will go bust. There was a recent survey of businesses and 30% said they will drop insurance once Obamacare is in force next year, putting their employees on government exchanges and saving themselves a bundle of money. This will raise rates for everyone else even further and hasten the demise of the insurance industry and leave the government as the last man standing/single payer system. This IS the goal and I've seen Obama in interviews pre 2008 saying he favored a single payer system. And Canadians come across the border in droves to have procedures done. AND I saw Obama in an interview last week talk about these review boards as medical experts. You said YET, well Obamacare hasn't kicked in yet, and funny that they set it up to start in 2013 AFTER the election. Gee, I wonder why? For some reason people believe they can solve all of life's ills by having the government control everything but what will happen is we will give up a good measure of our freedom and ultimately we'll all be miserable together. Except of course for the "elite" who think they deserve more. As the Who once observed "Say hello to the new boss, same as the old boss".

 

[MrFedEx]

And what you aren't seeing is that insurance companies are being forced to accept pre-existing conditions. This raises the rates for everyone(which is already happening), which leads to enough people/companies to drop their coverage that insurance companies will go bust. There was a recent survey of businesses and 30% said they will drop insurance once Obamacare is in force next year, putting their employees on government exchanges and saving themselves a bundle of money. This will raise rates for everyone else even further and hasten the demise of the insurance industry and leave the government as the last man standing/single payer system. This IS the goal and I've seen Obama in interviews pre 2008 saying he favored a single payer system. And Canadians come across the border in droves to have procedures done. AND I saw Obama in an interview last week talk about these review boards as medical experts. You said YET, well Obamacare hasn't kicked in yet, and funny that they set it up to start in 2013 AFTER the election. Gee, I wonder why? For some reason people believe they can solve all of life's ills by having the government control everything but what will happen is we will give up a good measure of our freedom and ultimately we'll all be miserable together. Except of course for the "elite" who think they deserve more. As the Who once observed "Say hello to the new boss, same as the old boss".

I don't foresee any insurance companies failing, since they're going to get thousands of additional customers via Obamacare. They weren't exactly hurting financially either. Personally, I'd love to see a single payer system.

 

[vantexan]

I don't foresee any insurance companies failing, since they're going to get thousands of additional customers via Obamacare. They weren't exactly hurting financially either. Personally, I'd love to see a single payer system.

Those thousands of additional customers are the uninsured who couldn't afford insurance before or had pre-existing conditions that insurance companies wouldn't insure or would charge sky-high rates for. The rest of us will be paying for their care with higher premiums. When I say insurance companies will go bust of course I'm talking about healthcare providers. It's simply a matter of math. It costs a lot to insure those with pre-existing conditions and that cost is spread around to everyone. That will raise premiums considerably, people/companies will drop out, not enough revenue will then be taken in, and eventually you'll get that single payer system. When companies are shelling out more than they are taking in they eventually file bankruptcy. And with the high cost of healthcare it's just a matter of when. Look at the difference in cost between our employee healthcare and our retiree healthcare. I doubt that many will be willing to pay those retiree rates unless they were a highly compensated employee. As healthcare premiums go up to treat all those with pre-existing conditions(who wouldn't qualify before but now the gov't mandates it), I doubt very many will be willing to pay such high rates, especially when they have a more affordable gov't plan to fall back on.