Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
When obamacare goes, it will take the last breath of hope from the obama reelection campaign.
Epic failure for Liberalism across the board.
They can come along for the ride now, but they are going to have to sit in the back seat while we fix things.
obama intended to run on his success of obamacare. That was his centerpiece. He will start out with less than he started out the first time. A string of failures.
Opponents of the law say it would be fine to turn back the clock and start from scratch. In fact, in our polarized political climate, a do-over is unimaginable. Whats more, the law contains many specific provisions that would be painful to lose.
The big elements are obvious: Without the law, insurance companies could keep turning away people with pre-existing conditions or charging them higher premiums. They could maintain annual caps and restore lifetime caps on how much they spend on care for an individual policyholder. They could stop paying the full cost of preventive services such as mammograms, flu shots and well-child visits. And young adults would no longer be guaranteed coverage on their parents plan until age 26.
We couldn't look forward to state insurance exchanges, those competitive online marketplaces where, starting in 2014, people without coverage from employers should be able to buy health insurance using federal subsidies. And, with no subsidies and no expansion of Medicaid, wed give up on the promise of insuring 32 million more Americans.
Many less-often-discussed pieces of the 2,000-page law are valuable as well. Consider the medical loss ratio -- the requirement that for every dollar insurance companies collect in premiums, they spend no more than 15 cents to 20 cents on administration and profits. The rest has to go toward medical claims. Before the law, insurance companies often spent 25 percent to 30 percent of the money on administrative costs and profits.
Think, too, of the laws charge to the Food and Drug Administration to arrange for speedy approval of biosimilars - - cheaper versions of expensive, complex drugs derived from living organisms, including vaccines and gene therapies, that are used to treat conditions from arthritis to cancer. Biosimilars are needed to bring down the exorbitant cost of using biologic drugs. A three-month course of the melanoma treatment Yervoy, for example, a biologic made by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., costs $120,000. Last month, the FDA released its draft guidance, suggesting that makers of biosimilars could in some cases save the time and expense of human trials.
Without the law, other opportunities to improve care while saving money would be lost as well. Under the law, Medicare payments to hospitals are to be reduced if too many of their patients contract infections while theyre in the hospital or if too many of them, after their release from care, are quickly readmitted.
Another chunk of Medicare savings written into the law is a gradual elimination of the extra payments to private insurance companies for Medicare Advantage policies. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission estimates that, in 2011, payments to Medicare Advantage per beneficiary were 10 percent higher than those for traditional Medicare. According to the Congressional Budget Office, ending these overpayments stands to save Medicare about $136 billion over 10 years.
The law also provides for curtailing increases in other Medicare spending over 10 years, so that, all things considered, it saves the program almost $500 billion.
Finally, we would hate to give up the laws push to improve basic medical treatment. Over 10 years, $3 billion is set to be spent on an independent, nonprofit organization called the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, which will support studies assessing the benefits and drawbacks of medical treatments and diagnostic tests. The idea is to give doctors, hospitals and insurers the information they need to make more informed and less wasteful decisions about the care they give.
This is only a sampling of ways in which the law is already making progress toward mending and strengthening the health-care system. Its not perfect, of course; nothing with so many facets could be. We dont yet know, for example, whether the laws incentives to move doctors and hospitals away from a fee-for- service system to one more focused on efficiency will work.
Just helping Americans to understand whats changing in the health- care system is a challenge that remains unmet. But the law takes a great many small steps in the right direction -- toward a health-care system that provides good- quality care at a reasonable price for the largest possible number of people.
All Americans Lose If Health-Care Law Is Overturned - Bloomberg
Question ...
If its unconstitutional that people must buy their own hc insurance, why isn't it also unconstitutional to force the insured to pay the bills of the uninsured?
" Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits. Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This is unfair.
 Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines. We should all have the legal right to purchase health insurance from any insurance company in any state and we should be able use that insurance wherever we live. Health insurance should be portable.
 Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying.
 Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. These costs are passed back to us through much higher prices for health care.
 Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost. How many people know the total cost of their last doctor's visit and how that total breaks down? What other goods or services do we buy without knowing how much they will cost us?
 Enact Medicare reform. We need to face up to the actuarial fact that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and enact reforms that create greater patient empowerment, choice and responsibility.
 Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren't covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program."
John Mackey: The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare - WSJ.com
This would be ideal
TORT reform is the lynch-pin...
Maybe some sanity will begin to creep back into the what we call the Congress.[/QUOTE
Unfortunately, there will be no sanity in Congress until those far right, conservative, tea party evangelicals are voted out, out, out.........
Maybe some sanity will begin to creep back into the what we call the Congress.
Unfortunately, there will be no sanity in Congress until those far right, conservative, tea party evangelicals are voted out, out, out.........
Doesn't look like it.
if health care isnt a right, then why is ok for the government to force providers to provide services to anyone regardless of their ability to pay? shouldnt hospitals be allowed to refuse services if you cant pay?Question ...
If its unconstitutional that people must buy their own hc insurance, why isn't it also unconstitutional to force the insured to pay the bills of the uninsured?
Because health insurance is optional. So, no ones forcing you, you're choosing to.
Then it's on...we fight for single payer. And we'll win.
What will CONSERVATIVES do if the AMA is found constitutional?
I'll tell you what they can do.
They can.....
EAT IT!
the justices have the option to declare only a part or parts of the law unconstitutional. it does not required a severability clause, otherwise every law would need to be written with such a clause in order for all laws to pass the courts instead of sections of laws.Obama Care has no severability clause contained in it. Which means if any part of Obama Care is ruled Unconstitutional, then the entire Law becomes Unconstitutional
If the Court Overturns Obamacare then What?
Opponents of the law say it would be fine to turn back the clock and start from scratch. In fact, in our polarized political climate, a do-over is unimaginable. Whats more, the law contains many specific provisions that would be painful to lose.
The big elements are obvious: Without the law, insurance companies could keep turning away people with pre-existing conditions or charging them higher premiums. They could maintain annual caps and restore lifetime caps on how much they spend on care for an individual policyholder. They could stop paying the full cost of preventive services such as mammograms, flu shots and well-child visits. And young adults would no longer be guaranteed coverage on their parents plan until age 26.
Say what you want about the Act but at least it got us moving in a direction.
Which is no reform at all.If the law is overturned, then healthcare will once again take center stage in congress. However, the chance of actually passing any meaningful legislation is not good. Republicans will resurrect their scale down healthcare proposals such as tort reform and health insurance across state lines.