[quote=FlyerInHi]Honestly, I don’t know much about the details of Obamacare. My insurance is great so doing the research is useless to me.
I don’t however see how anyone can be against the concept of getting everyone covered with the goal of a healthier population.
Premiums may vary between different employers and individuals, but total health care costs are born by the whole country. Under the status quo, for decades, health care has been eating up a bigger and bigger percentage of our national wealth. We need to stop escalating costs and such things as the use of the emergency room by the uninsured population. Is sounds to me like Obamacare is designed to do that. There may be some transition pains but as the population is covered, costs will come down.[/quote]
What makes you think costs will come down. Say there’s a 20% reduction in emergency rooms visits because patients go see the doctor before they end up in the emergency room. Are some emergency rooms going to close? Are some emergency rooms going to downsize? What if instead the emergency rooms jack up the prices on their remaining patients to make up for the decrease in the number of patients they see. Does that lower the cost of healthcare in this country?
Obamacare is likely adding 30 million people to the demand side of the equation and it will likely take years for the supply side of the equation (more doctors, nurses, and clinics) to catch up. What’s likely to happen to the costs if demand goes up a bunch and it takes a while for supply to show up. Will the costs go up or down?