Universal Health Coverage

[Trumpetmaster]

Documents reveal AT&T, Verizon, others, thought about dropping employer-sponsored benefits

http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/05/news/co ... 1&iref=NS1[code][/code]

Not good..

[Haggis@wk]

Documents reveal AT&T, Verizon, others, thought about dropping employer-sponsored benefits

http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/05/news/co ... 1&iref=NS1[code][/code]

Not good..

The current congress is counting on that on the theory that if it happens then the new law becomes almost un-repealable.

[Trumpetmaster]

We all may be in jeopardy of losing company health benefits.

[piqaboo]

We all may be in jeopardy of losing company health benefits.

you noticed.

[OperaTenor]

Documents reveal AT&T, Verizon, others, thought about dropping employer-sponsored benefits

http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/05/news/co ... 1&iref=NS1[code][/code]

Not good..

The current congress is counting on that on the theory that if it happens then the new law becomes almost un-repealable.

I'm not sure how you draw that particular conclusion, but I do agree that the law won't be repealed by our government as it presently exists.

[Haggis@wk]

The despicable “duty to die”

One fashionable notion among some of the intelligentsia is that old people have “a duty to die,” rather than become a burden to others.

This is more than just an idea discussed around a seminar table. Already Britain’s government-run medical system is restricting what medications or treatments it will authorize for the elderly. It seems almost certain that similar attempts to contain runaway costs will lead to similar policies when US medical care is taken over by the government.

Make no mistake: Letting old people die is a lot cheaper than spending the kind of money required to keep them alive and well. If a government-run medical system is going to save any serious amount of money, it is almost certain to do so by sacrificing the elderly.

There was a time when some desperately poor societies had to abandon old people to their fate, because there was just not enough margin for everyone to survive. Sometimes the elderly would simply go off to face their fate alone.

But is that where we are today?

[Haggis@wk]

I'm not sure how you draw that particular conclusion, but I do agree that the law won't be repealed by our government as it presently exists.

I thought you read it? The new bill sets incredibly low fines for businesses that drop their employee health care plans and those fines are far, far lower than current health care cost companies pay for their employees now. All it will take to start this flood is one company in the same industry as yours to drop it and the rest will quickly follow suit. Check with Piq. If one of the competitors of the company she works for drops their health care plan I would expect hers will quickly follow if only to maintain a business parity. And once they drop it I can't imagine they will ever re-start it.

It's hard to imagine any other intended scenario the writers of that provision planned for; we're screwed.


Breaking--ObamaCare prompts top companies to consider dropping employee coverage

But a report issued today in Fortune Magazine and reported by CNN indicates that the dire warnings of ObamaCare critics concerning the consequences of approving the costly legislation are in fact well-founded.

The report points to internal documents from AT&T, Verizon, John Deere, and several other large corporations which show that executives are, in fact, looking at the option of dropping healthcare coverage for employees due to what they are sure will be unsustainable increases in costs. These costs will be so prohibitive that it would benefit the corporations to pay the government fines instead:

Internal documents recently reviewed by Fortune, originally requested by Congress, show what the bill's critics predicted, and what its champions dreaded: many large companies are examining a course that was heretofore unthinkable, dumping the health care coverage they provide to their workers in exchange for paying penalty fees to the government.

That would dismantle the employer-based system that has reigned since World War II. It would also seem to contradict President Obama's statements that Americans who like their current plans could keep them. And as we'll see, it would hugely magnify the projected costs for the bill, which controls deficits only by assuming that America's employers would remain the backbone of the nation's health care system.

Hence, health-care reform risks becoming a victim of unintended consequences. Amazingly, the corporate documents that prove this point became public because of a different set of unintended consequences:

they told a story far different than the one the politicians who demanded them expected.

[analog]

A HR type once told me the company was shuddering at rate of increase of their healthcare costs.

He said i'd likely see the company sponsored insurance disappear, replaced by an 'account' containing some fixed amount of money that had to last one a lifetime.
Made sense - the directors need to limit company's liability.
Who'll limit Obamacare's liability?

we talked earlier about how the insuror/provider bureaucracies form a closed loop that grows on itself.
They overworked that golden goose so bad it's on the critical list now.

Reality is the only way to rein in a bureaucracy is to cut off its money. Those companies are doing the right thing for the long run. Gonna be some pain though while the old system withers and dies and a new one evolves.

a.

[Shapley]

Nancy Pelosi tells artists, musicians: Quit Your Job, The Taxpayers Got Ya Covered..

Part of the jobs creation plan, I reckon. Artists and musicians quit their jobs to focus on their art so regular, talentless Joes can get off unemployment and fill those jobs.

Apparently, artists and musicians don't mind starving, as long as they've got health care...

[analog]

I cant' say anything suitable for mixed company so hold my piece.

mutter icon. that (participle deleted) airhead.

[Haggis@wk]

NHS 'preparing to cut millions of operations': Patients will lose out to ensure £20bn savings


But that would never happen under Obamacare!!

[Haggis@wk]

So much for that promise about keeping your own health care: ObamaCare will kill 51% of companies’ health plans.

“

Internal White House documents reveal that 51% of employers may have to relinquish their current health care coverage by 2013 due to ObamaCare. That numbers soars to 66% for small-business employers.”

The Democrats hope that the American public will forget about this must be fading. More Americans, 55%, want it repealed than did when it passed. What a POS it's turned into.

[Haggis@wk]

Texas doctors threaten to pull out of Medicaid. My mother in-law depends on Medicade so we're nervous that her doctor, who has already expressed his own reluctance that he'll continue to treat Medicaid, might quit taking it.

[piqaboo]

Yeah. My mom goes on medicaid this summer. It will be worrisome regarding managing her diabetes and leukemia.
Fortunately, a scare 3 weeks ago about a possible heart condition turned out not to be that.
however, we still dont know what is causing the symptoms.

She's gonna have a full time job figuring out how to manage her health insurance.

[Marye]

Family member lives in Washington. Terminally ill. Needs monthly intravenous fluids to stave off crises of dehydration and organ failure as of a result. Her medical plan covers her hospital stay because of dehydration but not the monthly intranveous fluids that would prevent the dehydration and costly hospital stay. Makes no sense...

[piqaboo]

Marye,
we have the same stupidity in dental care.
A rootcanal is covered 80%. The crown that might prevent the need for the root canal? 50%.
Total out-of-pocket cost for the crown ends up being more than for the rootcanal (my root canal was billed at twice what my crown-alone cost).
(0.5x vs 0.2(2x) = 0.4x)

Insanity.

[dai bread]

Well, at least you can get coverage for dentistry. We can't, unless we're prepared to pay for a top-of-the-line health insurance policy. Even then it's only partial, and a small part at that if you're talking crowns and root canals. $400 out of a $1200+ bill.

[Haggis@wk]

Obama Administration OKs First Tax-Funded Abortions Under Health Care Law

The Obama administration has officially approved the first instance of taxpayer funded abortions under the new national government-run health care program. This is the kind of abortion funding the pro-life movement warned about when Congress considered the bill.

[Shapley]

Obama Administration OKs First Tax-Funded Abortions Under Health Care Law

The Obama administration has officially approved the first instance of taxpayer funded abortions under the new national government-run health care program. This is the kind of abortion funding the pro-life movement warned about when Congress considered the bill.

But,... He signed an executive order...

[Haggis@wk]

Axe falls on NHS services NHS bosses have drawn up secret plans for sweeping cuts to services, with restrictions on the most basic treatments for the sick and injured.

REID: “We're going to have a public option," Reid said. "It's just a question of when"