This is all the more reason that a Republican needs to get elected President this year. The ACA needs to be summarily scrapped . . . yesterday.
You mean “Sanders needs to be elected President.” So the ACA can be scrapped, replace with national insurance, and a few insurance CEOs can be burnt at the stake on CNN.[/quote]
Well, spd, I would prefer that the six big carriers who left the state on 12/31/13 came back to CA’s individual market and created “competition” among themselves. (UHS IS back for 2016 in the Region 1 state marketplace only, I believe, and is considering leaving again at the end of the year.)
I’m standing by ready to submit to a physical exam by a provider of a major carrier’s choosing to be “vetted” into a plan which fits MY needs. That doesn’t include paying for autistic child services (that’s what Medi-Cal is for), maternity services (who paid for mine when I used these services?), and a whole slew of other “unnecessary services” which got thrown in wholesale into the ACA-compliant plans which I will never use (I’m too old or being required to pay for mental health/rehab services or services for males or minor children). And I don’t want to be “age-ranked” anymore. I want to go back to being priced according to MY risk. The bulk of my “brethren” aren’t representative of the way I’ve lived MY life. I only cost my (ACA marketplace) carrier ~$1000 in 2014 and only ~$400 in 2015). Yet, they made $10-$11K in profit each year off my premium share plus my subsidy.
I don’t feel sorry for my brethren who use a lot of health services today solely due to the choices they made throughout life.
As before the ACA, all carriers doing biz in the state would have to participate in the “state pool.” People who cannot pass entry physical exams to have their application with a carrier be accepted would be placed with a carrier’s policy from the “pool” at just a slightly higher premium than a healthy person. This would occur on a rotating basis as applications flood into it.
I would not mind at all if $20-$40 month was tacked onto my monthly premium to help fund the “pool policies” so they can be sold at more reasonable prices to those who desperately need them.
NO ONE “deserves” comprehensive care with tiny copays and little or no deductibles on the gubment’s dime unless they are on Medi-Cal and thus gave up their choices of providers AND choices on whether a condition they have will be treated …. or not.
Medicaid/Medi-Cal expansion needs to be done away with, period. The “system” is not designed for the extra ~9 million people in CA it now has. It couldn’t even adequately serve the ~3 million it was “covering” prior to the ACA.
The “individual mandate” needs to be done away with as well. Millions of taxpayers are paying the fine in lieu of coverage, anyway, cuz it is much, much cheaper to do so than paying monthly premiums. The IRS needs to get out of the health-premium-calculation-business and the Federal and state exchanges need to be completely dismantled …. yesterday. No one really wants an in-your-face gubment stealthily trolling thru their financials and even making “adjustments” to them whenever they feel like it and that is exactly what is happening now.
The above scenario would also benefit the carriers because they would not have to offer “comprehensive plans” anymore and could offer HDHP’s instead. As it stands, the carriers participating on state exchanges (which are not Medicaid/Medi-Cal contractors) HATE the fact that they are required to offer Platinum Plans, ESPecially to marketplace consumers who are paying for them with the help of a monthly subsidy. Many of the so-called “comprehensive plans” offered on the state marketplaces which are Silver 70, Silver 73, Bronze or Catastrophic levels (the most affordable plans) don’t cover much, anyway, without substantial OOP expense for the working-class individual they attract (who can’t afford ANY OOP expense so don’t end up using health services, even when they should). These plans are no better than the pre-ACA HDHP’s and are actually much worse because their networks are so thin.
If Sanders becomes president, it won’t be the end of the world. I can see single-payor working, but there should always be the option of buying different levels of supplements for it. Not everyone who is already covered with their plan of choice (which will ostensibly “go away” with single-payor) wants to wait 4-6 months to get in to see a certain practitioner (or their regular doctor) or wait months/weeks to get a certain kind of scan to find out what is wrong with them! I fear long waiting times to get into the see the most experienced, competent providers under a single-payor system. But it is better than what we have now and gets the gubment out of our lives and finances.
People who are willing and able to pay for it should always have more choices and access to medical care than the huddled masses.
