Hypothetical Question For The Class... How Would Passing A Public Option...

[WillyT]

Have Influenced The Current Insurance Pricing Controversy??? (Re: ACA)

I'm NOT talking about the wesite problems... I'm talking about the Insurance Industry.

Healthcare Insurance Monopolies Difficult to Unseat, Even Under ACA

Link: http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/policysocial-context/22223-healthcare-insurance-monopolies-difficult-to-unseat-even-under-aca.html

I'm just asking... what price we are paying for playing footsie with these amoral leeches.

[elleng]

1. We're paying a very high price,

and likely will continue to do so. The stranglers will not let go, imo.

[pscot]

2. I just got notice of next years premiums

and 'bout had a heart attack. We're going to be spending a quarter of our income on health insurance. We may have to reduce our coverage.

[geek tragedy]

3. The question with a public option was always execution.

How much money and expertise would have to be invested in developing it? What if it lost money initially? Who could join? Could people denied coverage for drugs or procedures sue the government? Would it pay for abortions (that would have been a fun one to get through Congress)?

Would the same people who set up healthcare.gov have been in charge of its computer systems?

What if it failed?

[WillyT]

4. Ok... How About MediCare For ALL ???

[geek tragedy]

5. Dropping the Medicare age to 55 would have been a huge benefit.

Fucking Lieberscum had it removed just so he could stick it to liberals.

[lonestarnot]

6. Amoral leeches. You're too kind.

[Volaris]

7. As far as I understand it,

(and since it never really amounted to a "real" discussion among the Powers That Be", there are more questions than answers here)
it would have consisted of one of 2 possible avenues:

Have the Federal Government, probably through Dept. Health/Human Services, set up a nationwide, not-for-profit Health Insurance and Management Corporation--and yes that IS a thing the Government is allowed to do, see Tennessee Valley Authority as a reference--and let the Company Managers figure out how to run the thing with Executive and Congressional oversight.

OR

Open Medicare to anyone under the age of 55 who wants to enroll, and charge them a small premium in addition to what they kick into medicare already. When you turn 55, everything stays the same, you just don't have to pay the premium anymore.

These were the 2 broad outlines as I understand them.

The general consensus was that either way, EVENTUALLY, the for-profit health INSURANCE model would have bankrupted itself; as more and more people got fucked over, kicked off rolls, overcharged for stuff they weren't getting, etc, they would have turned to the Public Model (even if as a last resort), and in so doing, kept driving the cost of that model down, until such time as the ONLY people left buying Private insurance would not equal enough people to keep that industry afloat, and the very, very wealthy.

If the "market" is truly free, the Government should be allowed to play in it, and survive or fail as good and bad decisions allow. Anything that the people decide their government can do better for them, for less money, ISN'T something that's a "profitable" business anyway. The people who own the market though, make their living off the lie that there is no such thing as Public Space, that ALL is private. Exposing the lie is death for a LOT of America's most profitable Corporations.

Anything "Public" would, eventually, led to a system of single-payer in FACT, even IF not in name. If the Department of Energy were allowed to set up a Federally-run, not-for-profit Energy Corporation, Big Oil companies would be flat-ass broke in 20 years.