The national healthcare connundrum Xplained

ythe reach ofany millions of USAmerica's

In my humble opinion, there is nothing exaggerated or otherwise significantly inaccurate about your observations of the present day state of healthcare affordability in the US of A. Also in my humble opinion, the diminishing domestic purchasing power of the Federal reserve's monopolized currency and the usual grab for as many shrinking bucks as possible is mostly to blame for driving the cost of healthcare beyond the reach of millions of working people.

 

People using the system and not paying their damn bills drives up the cost. Illegals over taxing our public hospitals drives up the costs. People being over weight and in poor health because they don’t exercise and eat right dives up the costs. (Not talking about people with medical issues like thyroid problems and other stuff that makes it hard to exercise)

 

Healthcare insurance is also driving up healthcare costs...too many people think the two are one and the same...

 

I'm gonna be 65 in a few more years, and I hope nothing major, or minor happens before then. I'm stuck with Obama Care, and if anything happens I gotta pay several thousands of dollars out of pocket before they pay for anything. My employer offers insurance, but it's more than the Obama Care and isn't as good.
Health Care for All sounds good, but there isn't enough money to make it happen.

 

The ability to pay isn't even questioned when it comes to ruining people who haven't a shot in heck in paying for what amounts to be a mortgage, or many mortgages in exchange for their life. I suppose crawling out to the woods to die is the healthcare plan for those who are not as fortunate as the government politicians along with Local State and Federal government employed who have taxation and national debt funded healthcare coverage.

 

Okay I hear you Wildbilly. After a couple of decades of the cost of healthcare rising out of the reach of millions of working people due to the sharp decline of the domestic purchasing power of the U.S. Dollar, The Affordable Healthcare Act passed which gave working people of modest income the opportunity to purchase affordable healthcare insurance based on income. The Affordable Healthcare Act has been a burr in the sides of the politicians and other government employed who already had and still have their healthcare purchased for them via taxation and national debt. Also opposed to the Act were those who already had and still have affordable healthcare coverage via an employer or are otherwise wealthy enough to purchase the uniformly, across the board high priced plans which were and still are the only offering provided by the free market.
The broken domestic dollar bill is the problem and can no longer stretch far enough to subsidize the cost of affordable healthcare not only for the working people that currently purchase health insurance via the Affordable Healthcare Act's rapidly disappearing, "Health Insurance Marketplace", but also for the entitled who enjoy government health insurance provided coverage via the traditional taxation and national debt funding mechanism.
The solution you may ask? It's quite simple, honest and common sensible which is why you will not hear so much as a whisper of it by greedy, entitled government or by government's mass proletariat who already get theirs or just don't care. The solution is: Either EVERYONE has access to purchase affordable healthcare coverage or NO ONE gets to have affordable health insurance. To achieve affordable healthcare for all working, retired and verifiable unemployable people in the immediate term, the Affordable Healthcare Act needs to stop being murdered by crooked politicians who have been elected by a government created, common core brain damaged, sports media distracted mass proletariat. To achieve this in the long term, the busted dollar bill needs to be made whole again by reducing national debt by 2/3rds, by the reduction of the cost and size of government by 1/2 and by replacing the "jobs" and welfare entitlements currently provided by the bloated corporation of government using a renaissance in the free enterprise, free agency, free market sector of the economy.
Good luck getting anything done when over 91% and increasing of the population is now literally raised in a publicly tax and debt funded public school system that has been shanghaied by a private for profit labor pyramid scheme staffed overwhelmingly by default by far left democratic socialist extremists, pursuant to the *illegal COLLECTIVE bargaining acts of the 1970's.
*Note: The collective Bargaining Acts violate the anti trust act but the C party legislated themselves a pass on that so it's all nice and legal.

 

After a couple of decades of the cost of healthcare steadily rising out of reach for millions of working people due to the sharp decline of the domestic purchasing power of the U.S. Dollar, The Affordable Healthcare Act passed which gave working people of modest income the opportunity to purchase affordable healthcare insurance based on income. The Affordable Healthcare Act has been a burr in the sides of the politicians and other government employed who already had and still have their healthcare purchased for them via taxation and national debt. Also opposed to the Act were those who already had and still have affordable healthcare coverage via an employer or are otherwise wealthy enough to purchase the uniformly, across the board high priced plans which were and still are the only offering provided by the free market.
The broken domestic dollar bill is the problem and can no longer stretch far enough to subsidize the cost of affordable healthcare not only for the working people that currently purchase health insurance via the Affordable Healthcare Act's rapidly disappearing, "Health Insurance Marketplace", but also for the entitled who enjoy government health insurance provided coverage via the traditional taxation and national debt funding mechanism.
The solution you may ask? It's quite simple, honest and common sensible which is why you will not hear so much as a whisper of it by greedy, entitled government or by government's mass proletariat who either already get theirs or just don't care. The solution is: Either EVERYONE has access to purchase affordable healthcare coverage or NO ONE gets to have affordable health insurance. To achieve affordable healthcare for all working, retired and verifiable unemployable people in the immediate term, the Affordable Healthcare Act needs to stop being murdered by crooked politicians who have been elected by a government created, common core brain damaged, sports media distracted mass proletariat. To achieve this in the long term, the busted dollar bill needs to be made whole again by reducing national debt by 2/3rds, by the reduction of the cost and size of government by 1/2 and by replacing the "jobs" and welfare entitlements currently provided by the bloated corporation of government using a renaissance in the free enterprise, free agency, free market sector of the economy.
Good luck getting anything done when over 91% and increasing of the population is now literally raised in a publicly tax and debt funded public school system that has been shanghaied by a private for profit labor pyramid scheme staffed overwhelmingly by default by far left democratic socialist extremists, pursuant to the *illegal COLLECTIVE bargaining acts of the 1970's.
*Note: The collective Bargaining Acts violate the anti trust act but the C party legislated themselves a pass on that so it's all nice and legal.

 

The hourly guys at the plant I work at have an excellent medical plans for the and their dependents and it is cheaper cop pays than our salaried health care plan is. My employer sponsored health plan is still what you would consider a cadillac plan. I pay about $150 per month for my family and I. We also have vision, dental and a drug plan. Your statement that only state and federal government workers have decent insurance is patently false. You keep repeating a lie. If you want better employee sponsored health care, get a skill employers want and find a better job. Note: you may be required to move for that job.

 

Also the “affordable health care act” did nothing but make healthcare unaffordable by demanding coverage for all things from all plans, forced increases in plan costs by robbing from us to subsidize the “poor”. All the plans on the exchange are crap and very over priced. You used to be able to buy plans that suited you needs. Don’t plan on having kids, no prenatal and maternity care. Don’t abuse drugs, no substance abuse care. Don’t see a shrink, no mental health care. People could pick and chose what was right for them and their situation. Many young people would get “catastrophic” plans. Ones that were for serious injury and covered basic wellness stuff. They sucked for someone with long term medical issues but that is not what they were for. Younger people are generally healthy. It was an odds thing. The plans were pretty cheap. Now those plans are illegal. So people are forced to pay for crap they will never use and the healthy young are forced to subsidize the sick.

 

I don't think it is repeating a lie so much as repeating a misunderstanding. The bigger the pool of people the better and lower cost the health insurance negotiated is. Public Service Unions generally have VERY large numbers of people VS most private sector employers. AFSME in IL represents around 100,000 State Employees active and retired. The State in accordance with the Negotiated Contracts provides some seriously great insurance based solely on the volume of people it brings to the table. A company with say 10,000 employees has nowhere near that kind of negotiating power.

Pensions do need to be reformed in IL. Can't take away what was agreed to in contracts but the Union has got to give on new people coming in and either change to a 401k type system or a 50/50 matching system. No fast or easy solution to the IL pension problem but working out out with attrition over the course of 30 years or so would cut the cost of the pension system by 50% of course not electing the most corrupt people in the State to lead the State would also help alot.

When we looked at moving out of State, one of the thing the wife looked at was getting employed in various States Government. They all offered a fraction of the benefits and usually half to 75% of the Salary that IL offered. That was the deciding factor in remaining in IL until she hit the 30 year mark and full retirement benefits. Which only made sense since her pension per year from IL with 30 years in would be more than what those States pay active workers and then there is the health insurance that carries over into retirement.

Another problem in IL is folks collecting multiple pensions. It is not uncommon for people to work long enough in one agency to get vested, then quit and work long enough in another agency to get vested and then quit and repeat. Thus we have people collecting 3-4 State Pensions, with a County pension or two and a City Pension to top it all off. LOL one of the common themes in our local County Elections is "HOW MANY PENSIONS DOES OUR ROAD COMMISSIONER NEED?" But he takes care of the right peoples roads so he keeps getting elected, I believe one more win and that gets him fully vested for that pension, on top of his 5 previous pensions. Can't blame him personally as it is the system he games that allows it.

 

I did not say "only", please do not put words into my mouth, that's a lefty tactic. If I was not clear, ask me to clarify, do not call me a liar especially from behind a screen when I can't take my baseball cap off and swat you with it.
The labor union that operates the United Parcel Service labor force for example, has a Caddilac healthcare plan for it's employees. I also know of a local bus service that offers it's employees 100% paid healthcare and it's not just a catastrophic plan, but on the flip side they pay low wages which may or may not reflect what is certainly an exorbitant healthcare cost borne by the company.
The 80/20 plans that were once the standard of employer/employee plans that offered good coverage with affordable monthly premiums and co pays, have been severely curtailed thanks in no small part to the shrinkage off the US dollar along with the exporting of millions upon millions of reasonably compensating jobs for the masses.
And yes, the politicians, senators, congresspersons and government employees that "we the people" buy healthcare for either directly or via bloated compensation packages, do not want to in turn fund anyone else's healthcare because like their own healthcare packages, it's too expensive to fund, so they are shipwrecking the affordable care act which has been providing coverage for the expanding lower middle class and working poor.
Making huge amounts of money to keep up with the lifestyle that government and the other more wealthy choose for themselves is not always an option for a great many people, nor should the more fortunate monkeys punish other working people by denying them the same opportunity to purchase healthcare plans that are within their means.

 

Larger companies generally do negotiate better plans. 10,000 people isn’t what I would really consider a large company. Working for a larger company does have some benefits. In one sense you are just a cog in a wheel but in another you usually can get better benefits than the people working for medium to smaller sized companies. I agree with you that people shouldn’t be able to get 3-4 state pensions. That is totally wrong! I think state governments should look at cutting pension plans for most state workers. Keep them for the most physically demanding work like police, fire rescue, prison guard and similar things, because those ypes of jobs are hard on the body. Teaching, administrative, etc are not and should have normal 401k type programs only.

The exporting of manufacturing jobs is actually a multi faceted problem. When joe snuffy joins a union and they strike and force employers to pay unskilled workers $25/hr and then you can’t force him to do an honest days work it makes sense for a company to move production. When government taxes and regulations hurt the business and drive it towards bankruptcy keeping up with it all, it makes sense to move production. High energy costs, high transportation costs, high materials costs... there is a lot that goes into deciding to move production off shore or sometimes to bring it back on shore. Some companies change states for the same reason. Why do you think companies are fleeing IL and setting up shop right across the borders in IN, WI or IA? Thunder can tell us all about what life is like in IL. I have a supplier of mine that currently has his business in IL and is seriously considering the move to IN.

If you want to be reasonably compensated for a job you have to have skills an employer is willing to compensate you for. The working poor are usually the working poor because their skill set is not in high demand. How many “working poor” certified electricians do you know? How many are certified welders? I would say not many. If you have skills and if you are willing to relocate to the job there are good jobs to be had. We were giving electricians $3k signing bonuses and tool allowances. Same with machinists. Regular floor hourly guys are a dime a dozen.

I hope the affordable care act is totally repealed. You want free health care? Join the military. They are hiring. I did my 20.

 

YES , employee health plans do work and work well. All a matter of the inherent selection process, 100 % of the members are employed in order to have the insurance, that removes those who can't or won't work from the pool, none have end of life nor diseases that keep them from working, as then you would not be an employee, it also removes most poor, young, unless dependents of those working, and the elderly. If they are large enough to bargain, they also pay less for the medical coverage and for the insurance overhead. The system worked well until the government in its wisdom wanted the healthy working people to also pay for those who weren't able to work or would not work. End up with medicaid for all where the middle class and the government pay for every ones care and no real attempt is made to limit costs. 50 years ago the company I worked for, 1,500 employees, had an arrangement with a Dr and a hospital, I went in, showed them my time card, and it was covered. They in one sense worked for the company as well. If something more than what they supplied was needed, they called the company and I don't know how it worked, but it was covered. But there were no 1 million dollar cancer treatments, 200 thousand dollar hip or other joint replacements, no 10 thousand dollar CAT scans,, etc. I don't know if such a system would work in the present medical cash plus delivery system.

 

The AHCA priced so many out of the system it was bound to fail. At my previous job "premiums" would have been $1200...just for me...PER FRIGGING MONTH! Needless to say, I refained from that scam.
Now I pay about $225/month...so that my wife can have insurance.
So even though I am exempt, I have to buy insurance (not to be confused with health care) so that I can purchase insurance for my wife...who had to find a doctor that knew what he was doing under the new plan.

Get rid of the insurance scam and pay cash. Much cheaper.

 

We Have To Sign It Too See It !!
That Bitch drives me ,, was that not the BS “affordable health care act”.
Thats when my usa bros said they were going broke , while no-bummer just paid for his new NY waterfront guarded house.
Fines were as much as crap coverage ..
What outsiders see in the news ,we just can't figure out how you folks have not "LINCHED " the bitch

 

US Local, State and federal Gubment has stepped in to become a major employer in the wake of relatively living wage paying, tax generating, jobs for the masses leaving the USA over the past 50 years. Government jobs use tax revenue and while government employees do pay taxes from the taxes they receive, trying to pay taxes with taxes is like standing in a bucket and trying to lift yourself up, so this further adds to the non-sustainably huge nationalized debt that government has heaped upon the heads of their common core clueless created proletariat.
The bitches: Yes we the people pay for far too many elected and appointed government employees. While it's okay to be a bitch, (bitches come in both genders by the way), it is not okay to be an A--hole, which is exactly what the swamp is full of. Have a nice day and make the best of it.

 

At 22.3 Million Employees Government is hands down the biggest employer in the USA. Says something......... not enough coffee yet to think about what it says.

 

And that's a whole bunch o folks raised up in the sense of entitlement culture which significantly adds to the tax burden borne by the shrunken, free enterprising, middle class who are forced to fund entitlements and take one for the team because government's "public" education monopoly says so.
Do the wealthy pay most all of the taxes? Conventional wisdom would say yes but when the wealthy declare a properly structured loss then they get a tax pass and if they declare a profit then the revenue is there to pay taxes with anyway so win win might apply here to some extent.
The expanding, working poor majority who don't make enough money to buy enough stuff to write anything off pay the lionesses share of taxes is how I see it. If I'm wrong about this particular point, (and I very well could be), I'm all ears.

 

A bit different thought on it... 22.3 million people that produce NOTHING that are supported by a shrinking number of people that produce SOMETHING. It is a growing system of diminishing returns.