Obamacare cost...

[thesaint258]

Mine costs more, but I got a better plan. After that kidney stone incident, I figured I might not be as healthy as I thought. Fortunately, I started a new job that pays most of the premium. I think the actual out of pocket cost to me was about the same as last year.

[ERCougar]

My premium went from $600 to in excess of $1500. I loathe Obamacare. That was more than I have seen any premium increase over any ten year period. I don't know who is feeding the media the fraudulent information, but Obamacare has been a disaster as to affordability.

The Oregon case was a nice real life study because it was essentially randomized (lottery system to get the coverage, IIRC). However, the results aren't particularly surprising because Medicaid has very low to non-existent copays--of course you'll use more of something when it's free. The Masachusetts experience is really more applicable.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

My brother, a doctor (a real doctor, as in an MD, not a chiropractor) mentioned that everyone should pay something up front when they go to the emergency room (except for someone arriving in an ambulance or its otherwise truly an emergency). I agreed with him citing to the fact poor people just love to show up at the ER because they don't plan on paying anything and it creates a scarcity and a corresponding increase for people that pay.

He then mentioned a lol funny number to deter the overuse of the ER, something like $25 up front. I told him that would probably increase the usage, and the real number needed to be at least $100. Someone on here mentioned the Freakonomics example when the daycare told everyone they would start charging people $5 if they were late picking up their kids and then more people started picking up their kids late as a result of the light penalty.

[Uncle Ted]

My brother, a doctor (a real doctor, as in an MD, not a chiropractor) mentioned that everyone should pay something up front when they go to the emergency room (except for someone arriving in an ambulance or its otherwise truly an emergency). I agreed with him citing to the fact poor people just love to show up at the ER because they don't plan on paying anything and it creates a scarcity and a corresponding increase for people that pay.

He then mentioned a lol funny number to deter the overuse of the ER, something like $25 up front. I told him that would probably increase the usage, and the real number needed to be at least $100. Someone on here mentioned the Freakonomics example when the daycare told everyone they would start charging people $5 if they were late picking up their kids and then more people started picking up their kids late as a result of the light penalty.

I was talking to someone that works as an ER nurse at the local hospital. She said they can tell when the Cowboys are playing because it is usually relatively claim at the ER. After the game is over the storm hits. At least they wait until the game is over.

[Pelado]

Politicians and journalists use the term tax more narrowly than economists do, but the economic definition is needed to understand the economic effects of the ACA.

Withholding benefits from people who work or earn is hardly different than telling them to pay a tax. For this reason, economists refer to benefits withheld as "implicit taxes." What really matters for labor market performance is the reward to working inclusive of implicit taxes, and not the amount of revenue delivered to the government treasury according to economically arbitrary distinctions between implicit taxes and other taxes.

During a period that included more than a dozen tax increases, the ACA is arguably the largest as a single piece of legislation, adding about six percentage points to the marginal tax rate faced, on average, by workers in the economy. The only way to cite larger marginal tax increases would be to combine multiple coincident laws, such as the Revenue Acts of 1950 and 1951 and the new payroll tax rate that went into effect in 1950. Even with these adjustments, the ACA is still the third largest marginal tax rate hike during the seventy years.

http://www.realclearmarkets.com/arti...re_101133.html

[imanihonjin]

This case could be the death of Obamacare

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101819065

[Uncle Ted]

This case could be the death of Obamacare

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101819065

doctor-obamacare.jpg

[Color Me Badd Fan]

The 4th Circuit just ruled the exact opposite. The Supreme Court is going to take this issue up and they're going to hammer Obama. In the meantime the.Democrats will start messaging how awful the GOP is for taking away all these subsidies (and essentially taking their health insurance).

The people that are really screwed are those that were on the private insurance markets that will have to pay inflated premiums without an accompanying subsidy.

[imanihonjin]

The 4th Circuit just ruled the exact opposite. The Supreme Court is going to take this issue up and they're going to hammer Obama. In the meantime the.Democrats will start messaging how awful the GOP is for taking away all these subsidies (and essentially taking their health insurance).

The people that are really screwed are those that were on the private insurance markets that will have to pay inflated premiums without an accompanying subsidy.

That is some serious mental gymnastics by the 4th Circuit to believe that the phrase "through and Exchange established by a State" could somehow be construed to mean that an exchange established by the Federal government is an exchange established by a State.

[byu71]

In the meantime the.Democrats will start messaging how awful the GOP is for taking away all these subsidies (and essentially taking their health insurance).

You may be right. The republican war may have escalated from a war on the poor, to a war on people of color, moving onto a war on women and now the dems can show the republicans have declared war on men, women and children of any color who want to stay alive.


Seriously, how does anyone admit to being a democrat?

[Mormon Red Death]

Well this a surprise. No one could have seen that coming.

"Everything from this ill-conceived tax's structure to its implementation has been a disaster," said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. "It is no surprise that 79 senators went on the record to repeal this job-killing tax."

[imanihonjin]

Well this a surprise. No one could have seen that coming.

Reports from yesterday also show that the medical device tax has failed to raise the amount of taxes that it was suggested was capable of being raised by $300 million. So surprise, this bill is going to be more expensive than originally estimated. Just one more thing that no once could have seen coming.

[cowboy]

Obamacare has cause our allowance for bad debts to double at our local hospital because of the number of people who lost their non-compliant plans due to the ACA and now have no insurance but do not qualify for Medicaid because Wyoming didn't expand Medicaid. This makes me wonder if we could institute some sort of pre-paid health care option that would allow these people to pay something equal of less than what they were paying before in insurance premiums to the hospital, which would then accrue and be applied to any charges they would incur in the future. We could cap the total pay-in at a number like $10,000. Our facility is a critical access hospital, with a clinic attached, so we could offer pretty much everything but major medical, and even apply their accrual to major medical if it is at our major medical affiliate in Billings. Does anyone know if this is legal?

[Mormon Red Death]

Obamacare has cause our allowance for bad debts to double at our local hospital because of the number of people who lost their non-compliant plans due to the ACA and now have no insurance but do not qualify for Medicaid because Wyoming didn't expand Medicaid. This makes me wonder if we could institute some sort of pre-paid health care option that would allow these people to pay something equal of less than what they were paying before in insurance premiums to the hospital, which would then accrue and be applied to any charges they would incur in the future. We could cap the total pay-in at a number like $10,000. Our facility is a critical access hospital, with a clinic attached, so we could offer pretty much everything but major medical, and even apply their accrual to major medical if it is at our major medical affiliate in Billings. Does anyone know if this is legal?

It sounds good but I would bet it would have to be approved by the Department of Insurance for Wyoming. If it sounds like insurance the DOI would probably be all over it. If it is legal it you would need to give these people a break ( make them pay 85% of charges for example) to make them want to do it. Also the discount cant be too low or you run into contract problems with the Insurance companies who already contract with your hospital. BTw I told you a long time ago you should have hired me to run your revenue cycle

[Pelado]

allowance for bad debts

I love it when you talk dirty accounting.