Healthcare Exchanges:Mass Confusion&Doctor Shortage.A Next Major Democrat Scandal?

[TheSeventhTiger]

I think all aliens from Mars and Uranus are Conservatives.

 

[Trakar]

...It's just another myth like $20,000 health insurance premiums for low income families.

That, along with the (mistaken) opinion that most doctors (and medical professionals in general) are only doing what they are doing for the earnings it affords them. Don't get me wrong, being able to afford nice things is always a plus, but most medical professionals do what they do because they have a talent and interest in that professional field of helping people and treating disease and injury.

If being nice paid the bills then I agree, but being nice only goes so far. How would YOU react to whomever you work for suggested you take less because you love your work?

I really wasn't talking about a labor of charity, altruism or even just feel-good nicety. What I did say is that most of the people who become medical professionals do so because they possess a relatively unique set of skills and intelligence which, when coupled with a rigorous education and training routine results in professionals that are generally less concerned about compensation than they are with proficiency in an exacting field which they have invested and devoted their lives to mastering.

Yes, reward for those skills is an amazing perk, but most of the medical professionals I know, would not give up their profession merely because circumstances reduced their annual income by 10-20%.

As has been noted, however, the provisions of ACA do not really seem to be structured in a way that causes any real or substantial net loss of income from most health care professionals.

 

[Flopper]

OK libs. A retired person who is thrown onto Obama exchanges, what kind of premium can they expect to pay? What kind of coverage can they expect. Assuming they are 62-65?

Without Obamacare, we would still have the pre-existing condition requirements for insurance which means many people age 62-65 would not be able to retire because they would be paying huge premiums with limited benefits because they would be considered high risk. In fact, anyone that can afford an early retirement will be able to get insurance regardless of their health. This is one of the reasons AARP was such a strong supporter of the bill.

Often overlooked, is the the huge ACA benefit to employees with serious health problems. They can retire early, start up their own business, or change jobs without worrying about being denied insurance.

Because of my younger daughter's serious health problems, I had to turned down several wonderful job opportunities because, I could not get an individual policy that would pay her medical bills. I had to remained in a job I really hated for 9 years in order to be able to pay those bills.

That's one of the best arguments in favor of national health care which most countries now have. I knew one independent contractor that took a school system job because his son had a serious condition that he couldn't afford as an individual worker. I think productivity as well as job satisfaction would increase if health care wasn't such a determining factor in what you do for a living.

There are probably a lot of good reasons to stay with your current employer. Health insurance shouldn't be one of them.

 

[Trakar]

No one has been able to explain to me what "Obamacare" has to do with the fact that less people are going to medical school and more people (boomers) are getting old and sick.

Of course the boomer thing will take care of itself when we boomers die. Then the country should be swimming in money.

The lack of doctors? The ends justify the means. If there is no gold at the end of a very long and rigorous rainbow then who is going to enter the field. Especially when there is more gold and less work in other fields for the bright young person?

Actually, though the boomers were a huge expansion population group, the generational groups following were not much smaller than the Boomers. I'm in my mid sixties (born in 1947) and near the front edge of the Boomer generation which extends to those born in the early sixties ('63-'65 depending on whose study you look at). there isn't really a huge taper in the population pyramid for those born after the early sixties.

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[Little-Acorn]

And have you heard? The Libs are using these exchanges to register many customers for voter registration.

Do you have some link or reference to support this statement?

 

[lynn63]

No one has been able to explain to me what "Obamacare" has to do with the fact that less people are going to medical school and more people (boomers) are getting old and sick.

Doctors are fed up with how low all of the health insurance companies are paying per their fee schedule but they can't stop being a provider for the health insurance companies because they would have no patients. Doctors have lost in the game against all insurance companies.

Its not that the baby boomers are just getting old and sick, its that there is 2 million more in their age group then the younger generations can support. The very last generation boomers have not reached retirement yet but they are in the age bracket of 49 to 64 years of age. This is the age when cancer strikes and chronic conditions begin to occur and since there is so many of them, everyone is concerned about what they will end up costing all of us in the next decade.

 

[Flopper]

And have you heard? The Libs are using these exchanges to register many customers for voter registration.

Do you have some link or reference to support this statement?

What's wrong with using health insurance exchanges as voter registration outlets. States use the DMV, tax collection offices, welfare office, home support services, and host of other agencies.

 

[Trakar]

No one has been able to explain to me what "Obamacare" has to do with the fact that less people are going to medical school and more people (boomers) are getting old and sick.

Doctors are fed up with how low all of the health insurance companies are paying per their fee schedule but they can't stop being a provider for the health insurance companies because they would have no patients. Doctors have lost in the game against all insurance companies.

Its not that the baby boomers are just getting old and sick, its that there is 2 million more in their age group then the younger generations can support. The very last generation boomers have not reached retirement yet but they are in the age bracket of 49 to 64 years of age. This is the age when cancer strikes and chronic conditions begin to occur and since there is so many of them, everyone is concerned about what they will end up costing all of us in the next decade.

The actual numbers don't seem to compellingly support your assertion. The number of people in the US 10-30 (20 year span) are approximately equal to the number of people in the Boomer generation (45-65), and the number of tweeners (people between 30 and 45) is not much smaller.

Remove the cap on SS, shift the draw date up a couple years and institute public health care (like most of the rest of the planet) and let private health care compete with the public health services (filling niche services like "Sports medicine", "cosmetic surgery", upscale pampered care for those with the cash to spend on it) and everyone is much better off.

 

[LoneLaugher]

if the economy remains stagnant rest of the year, the entire Exchange Debacle will collapse.

You can always maintain hope, can't you?