Drugs don't develop, test, get approved/rejected, manufactured, and distributed by themselves. So very very much money is spent on developing drugs that don't end up making it to market, the money to attempt them doesn't magically appear out of nowhere. Costs do go down once the patent on the drug runs down and a generic can be made - admittedly the original developers do often make small changes to dosage/ingredients so they can renew their patents but it costs many fortunes to get any drug lucky enough to make it - to market. Tax write offs only go so far, they don't give you money they just let you keep a bit more of what you had earned at the end of the day. If they can't make money we won't have breakthroughs.
And how exactly is it that Obamacare helped your father? If he starts chemo Monday, it certainly wasn't a pre-existing condition. If he had health insurance before Obamacare through an employer, he certainly didn't drop it to get on one of the Obamacare plans. And he certainly is older than 25 and not on your grandparents' plan. Pretty much the only option left is that your Dad didn't have insurance until Obamacare forced him to purchase it or pay a fine, or tax, or fine, depending on how they're answering the question.
OR he's disabled and can't work and so is below the poverty line. Even if he isn't, your argument is super shitty. "oh you didn't have insurance before so now you don't deserve to live." get a life.
That wasn't my argument at all. If he was one one of the very few out of millions that actually benefitted from this mess, it doesn't negate the fact that it's a bad law. My argument was simply that you can't post a picture of a discount given by insurance, which was available before Obamacare, merely not mandated, without any details at all, and then claim that Obamacare was the sole cause of your father being alive.
@scott218 Yep. All it did is mandate healthcare and drive up the costs. It did get some people with pre-existing conditions benefits, but hurt way more people.
I literally sourced it? Literally just click the link? And all I'm saying it isn't "the vast majority" of people who have insurance through their employers, and that the people who need medicaid aren't a marginal number (43 million, rather)
...... are you fucking serious? ARE YOU SERIOUS!? That's literally what Obamacare does. It expanded medicaid coverage to those below the poverty line regardless of age. It's called MAGI medicaid and it didn't exist before the ACA. PLEASE do your research before arguing online about something.
sorry, I didn't realize initially that it was two links. While maybe only 9% of employers offer 100% funded insurance, a much larger percentage offered very good insurance plans, even prior to Obamacare.
My point is those below the poverty line can't afford those plans if they have to shell out for them. the ACA expanded medicaid so that those who are making below 2,200 a month get free healthcare, and if you start making more money you start having to pay. People NEED health insurance they can afford and sometimes they can't afford anything at all.
Medicaid was available prior to Obamacare. Again, my point is that these memes that praise Obamacare for saving someone's life are ridiculous. We're there good things about It? Of course there were. We're there bad things? Hell yes. It was passed as law by bribing Congress members for their votes and exemptions from the law, changed illegally, then found to be legal only by lying about it, contradicting directly what they claimed about it. Did expanding Medicaid give healthcare insurance to people who previously didn't have it? Yes. Was it worth he cost of raising premiums for virtually everyone else and costing many their previously held plans? I think not.
Medicaid wasn't available to those from the ages of 19-54 before the ACA. Unless congress has a plan for people who are currently on MAGI before repealing the ACA they're basically saying "fuck you, people living below the poverty line. You don't deserve to live" Also, you need to source your bizarre statements about bribing congress members and illegal lying. And I don't know about you, but I'm happy to pay a higher premium so that those who can't afford it can live. I can afford a few hundred dollars. They can't, and will literally become homeless without health insurance. I'm honestly surprised you're willing to say that the cost of raising premiums isn't worth it.
There was Medicate available as well for younger people. If paying premiums isn't such a big deal for most people, why wasn't it sold to the public that way, instead of lying about it and saying it would lower costs for everyone? When people argued that costs would skyrocket, they were ridiculed. While you argue that repealing the ACA is a "fuck you" to the American people, without knowing yet the plan to replace it, I argue that passing the ACA was a direct fuck you to the people they lied to in order to get it passed. Jonathan Gruber has admitted they had to lie to the "stupid" Americans in order to get it passed.
If they were disabled? Where are you getting your facts about medicaid? http://kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/how-is-the-aca-impacting-medicaid-enrollment/ Regardless of how you think it was passed people are depending on it now. It's been around for seven years and the fact that congress wants to repeal it without a backup plan is ignorant, cruel, and inane.
To clarify, if congress has a PLAN for people who are below the poverty line currently and on MAGI medicaid and thinks they can do a better job at protecting American citizens then by all means I urge them to go ahead. But they don't. They're just repealing the ACA out of spite and effectively telling 43 million Americans that their government doesn't care about them, their families, or their health.
Medicare (ending in E for elderly) has been around for decades. Medicaid (D for destitute) has been around for decades. Had the HCRA better funded these programs instead of subsidizing compulsory purchased private insurance through third party companies there would be more money to fund the programs and less burden on those of us with privately funded insurance. This would also have lessened the difficulty of an eventual change to a single payer system.
Well if congress puts such a plan in place then great. Until then, MAGI medicaid under the ACA NEEDS to stay in place for those who need it, no questions. Congress is behaving like a big, angry baby who doesn't care about the American people.
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· 7 years ago
or... now just hear me out on this... or he just uses normal health insurance. crazy, huh? obamacare isn't anything new. it is normal healthcare that gives you worse insurance for more money. you know just how everything the government does. worse quality for more money.
just read the comment and you will understand that no matter how people are helped by ACA the ignorant ass republicans will still argue agianst it,,if we are to consider ourselves the best country in world and a world leader. healthcare should be right not a privilege to those who can afford it,,,at obama tried to make it better, and it's working for a lot of us the only problem is it isn't working for the insurance and drug company's to make the ridiculous profits they were making.
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· 7 years ago
it is argued against because it was law to sign up for it, it is more expensive than normal insurance, it has worse coverage than normal insurance, it is increasing in price every year, it is huge tax burden and it is a failure in most cases. if it was done right, then yes people would love it. but many things that were supposed to be implemented wasn't. thus creating a mess.
My premiums have doubled since 2010. I now have a lifetime cap. I now have copays. I had none of these before. And the companies are still making huge profits.
It's badic economics, the law of supply and demand. When you have something that is important, but nit necessary you can charge, but not more than people are willing to pay. But, as soon as someone idiot decides to make it mandatory, the companies providing that service can then charge whatever the hell they want because nobody bothered to add that little addendum. This has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with common sense.
But America needs to understand something, the retail price is so high because they have to make a lot of profit but the actual product is much cheaper
People survived and people died, that's life - you don't get everything you want, you don't always get everything you need. Because companies make money on the drugs they sell and procedures they do more are developed. People look at insurance and go "Oh this will be great and pay for my medical expenses" they don't think "Hey, this is a company making a gamble that you will die before they have to pay more than you spent." Insurance isn't in it for the good of humanity, they're in it to make money.
I would far rather have had my tax money going to pay for "Free for any US Citizen or non-citizen taxpayer" clinics (like the minute clinics, or expansion of the VAs) in every state that provide free basic/general practitioner services (basic physical, basic prescription writing (no narcotics)- birth control, antibiotics, etc, immunizations, stitching of wounds, small mole removal, basic dental checkup and fluoride, referrals to specialists)
Stop thanking Obama. Thank your neighbor who worked hard for that money and that phone of which u took the picture was about the price of the treatment
P.s. He wouldn't have actually died you guys would just have some
Debt to pay off by working
In my state, hospitals can take your property, including your house, if you don't pay your medical bills. Personally, I might decide to die rather than leave my family homeless.
I once worked with a client who had 90,000 dollars worth of medical bills because of an emergency surgery. I think you misunderstand exactly how expensive medical care is.
I think you misunderstand my statement. This post says "he would have died" but it was only 1k I agree won other situations it worse but this is not a that terrible of a situation
Well to be fair the price is 1k for 1 prescription, depending on how often they need this prescription refilled + the other prescriptions they needed (the post states the prescription is only one of multiple) it could really add up. This situation isn't 1k and he's cured, its more like 1-2k a month for several years depending on his illness.
I would far rather have had my tax money going to pay for "Free for any US Citizen or non-citizen taxpayer" clinics (like the minute clinics, or expansion of the VAs) in every state that provide free basic/general practitioner services (basic physical, basic prescription writing (no narcotics)- birth control, antibiotics, etc, immunizations, stitching of wounds, small mole removal, basic dental checkup and fluoride, referrals to specialists)
P.s. He wouldn't have actually died you guys would just have some
Debt to pay off by working