The 2016 Presidential Election Trainwreck

[Northwestcoug]

I come across people all the time who lost their health insurance through work because the cost increase or they opted out of it because the deductible was outrageous and unaffordable. The ACA caused this.

As an example, I know a guy with an okay job, opted out of his health insurance through work because the premiums and deductibles skyrocketed after the ACA. His wife is diabetic and it was still cheaper to come out of pocket then to go the insurance route. He has Hispanics that work for him bring insulin up from Mexico whenever they travel down there.

Medicaid was expanded, but a ton of other people have been royally screwed.

The ACA has some real and significant problems, no doubt. I'm not even sure if it's going to survive without some major revisions. But I think it is helping more people than it is 'royally screwing'.

I stopped right there. If you are going to mischaraterize what i said I don't really care to read more.

That's a shame. I really knocked it out of the park at the end.

[Moliere]

I'm totally in favor of some type of "no-frills" single payer health care plan for all citizens that at least covers "catastrophic" health care events as well as standard preventive services.

Even after the Affordable Care Act I take care of this type of patient all the time: 60-year old construction worker taking his chances with no health insurance because he always considered himself healthy. Dude has a heart attack and gets awesome care that saves his life but legitimately very expensive care: $50K range hospital bill. The guy goes home seriously almost wishing he were dead because there is no possible way he could ever pay this.

A very large segment of society is never going to save a single dollar for retirement, not going to plan ahead for any type of insurance, health or other type of insurance. When you hear about Rondo Fehlberg's son with the head injury that will cost a million dollars, now begging for money from friends/families that will be transferred to wealthy health care institutions it is just a stupid, pathetic system.

I've long been an advocate of this. Public "free" health insurance for preventative and catastrophic services. I know too many friends that have Had children born with serious issues that have resulted in them really struggling to make ends meet even when working several jobs between both parents...even when they had good health insurance.

I also think it necessary to allow for private secondary or supplemental insurance for other things that wouldn't be covered under the public plan. It seems Medicare operates a bit like this.

We've already accepted in this country that people will be given health care when they need it (thanks president Reagan and your ER bill!) so let's formalize it and make it so people go to the doctor instead of the ER.

[Uncle Ted]

friends from canada I ask about this laugh at the suggestion of these supposed problems with their system. Why cant there be oth private and public options?

Your friends in Canada have both private and public options. They use their government single payer in Canada but also come to the USA for private options. All my Canadian friends do this. It is pretty ideal for them. Maybe we should try doing that here in the USA and screw them over. With single payer here I could imagine myself making runs to Mexico for private healthcare and drugs instead of just cheap drugs as I do now.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Careful guys. SU is going to come back from his deposition and obliterate you.

[Uncle Ted]

Careful guys. SU is going to come back from his deposition and obliterate you.

Please delete this immediately. You're offending my family.

[Northwestcoug]

Your friends in Canada have both private and public options. They use their government single payer in Canada but also come to the USA for private options. All my Canadian friends do this. It is pretty ideal for them. Maybe we should try doing that here in the USA and screw them over. With single payer here I could imagine myself making runs to Mexico for private healthcare and drugs instead of just cheap drugs as I do now.

Half of my extended family is Canadian. I have never heard one of them going to the US for health care. Maybe they don't have the funds your friends do. I know this happens, but I seriously seriously doubt it's as extensive as it's made out to be.

[Uncle Ted]

Half of my extended family is Canadian. I have never heard one of them going to the US for health care. Maybe they don't have the funds your friends do. I know this happens, but I seriously seriously doubt it's as extensive as it's made out to be.

I have a Canadian friend just do this for a MRI. It is no wonder they all live on the US/Canada border.

[falafel]

I have a Canadian friend just do this for a MRI. It is no wonder they all live on the US/Canada border.

Don't all Canadians live on the US/Canada border?

[Northwestcoug]

Don't all Canadians live on the US/Canada border?

Yep. 90% of Canada lives within 3 hours of the border.

[Uncle Ted]

Yep. 90% of Canada lives within 3 hours of the border.

This article claims that 52,000+ Canadians last year travel outside of Canada for health care... 52,000? Isn't that about all of them?

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/ca...25-study-finds

[Jeff Lebowski]

This article claims that 52,000+ Canadians last year travel outside of Canada for health care... 52,000? Isn't that about all of them?

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/ca...25-study-finds

Heh. Canada jokes never get old.

[Northwestcoug]

This article claims that 52,000+ Canadians last year travel outside of Canada for health care... 52,000? Isn't that about all of them?

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/ca...25-study-finds

Ha. Pretty close.

That's about 1% of the population. Interesting that over half of the border crossers are from Ontario.

[Topper]

I have a Canadian friend just do this for a MRI. It is no wonder they all live on the US/Canada border.

Here is an older article but it speaks of wait times.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/canadian...are-in-crisis/

Meanwhile, the average wait for surgical or specialist treatment is nearly 18 weeks, up from 9.3 weeks in 1993, according to the Fraser Institute, a right-wing public policy think tank in Vancouver. A Fraser study last year said the average wait for an orthopedic surgeon was more than nine months.

An estimated 4 million of Canada's 33 million people don't have family physicians and more than 1 million are on waiting lists for treatment, according to the Canadian Medical Association. Meanwhile, some 200 physicians head to the United States each year, attracted by lower taxes and better working conditions. Canada has 2.1 physicians per 1,000 people, while Belgium has 3.9, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Here is an abstract from a recent study on wait times.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3999534/

[beefytee]

More like 0.15% of the population.

Only person I know that went south was my uncle 3 years ago about a stroke diagnosis.

[creekster]

Ha. Pretty close.

That's about 1% of the population. Interesting that over half of the border crossers are from Ontario.

I think canada has about 35,000,000 people. So it probably is a bit short of 1%.