Just spent some time with a medical fellow from Stroger County Hospital in Chicago Re: ACA

[mucifer]

The county hospital is getting tons more money already for the uninsured. They are very excited.



If you think about it, years ago there weren't so many differences between hospitals. They all served the people and those without insurance would be supplemented by those with insurance. Over recent years, people with no insurance were forced to go to the county hospitals that got very little reimbursed. The ACA will level the playing field somewhat.

[rurallib]

1. One thing folks forget is how hospitals have been screwed

in the current system.
A small hospital in a small city near here - the director told me they have to write off @$3million / year. And it is a small hospital.

[bhikkhu]

3. That's how it is in my town as well

I know someone who works in the finance office, and explained how Reagan passed the law (as an alternative to really fixing anything) that said that hospitals were not allowed to deny anyone care who needed it, regardless of ability to pay. Which led directly to decades of stupidity - where the hospitals sometimes have to "write off" half of the work they do. Of course, the only way to write that much off and not go bankrupt is to make up for it on the paying customer side, by overcharging them correspondingly.

It was a system, broken by design, between then and now. My family will be signing up soon, and our hospital is planning some big changes in how they do things, and a year or two for everything to settle in to predictability, but its all in a good direction. Finally!

[upaloopa]

2. Many indigent men unable to get Medicaid

will be eligible for Medicaid and the reimbursement to the provider is 100% of cost rather than the usual 50%.

[HereSince1628]

6. ? Medicaid HAS NOT BEEN EXPANDED EVERYWHERE.

Apparently if your income is less than 100% of the poverty line you don't get a subsidy, you get medicaid. If the state you live in didn't take the money to make the expansion possible, then you get nothing, and as you are below the poverty line, you probably pay not taxes and so have no tax credit.

If one looks at what the red states have done, you realize that there is tremendous unevenness in this program. Everyone is vulnerable to the same fines for not meeting the mandates, but the differences in costs, and assistance available to those below the poverty line is nothing short of shocking.

[bluestate10]

4. My Doctor emphatically states that quality health care was a right, period. nt

[0rganism]

5. my co-worker's wife just got hired at a hospital

She had an independent practice, but just got hired on as part of a team at a major local hospital thanks to the ACA.

[mountain grammy]

7. In the late 60's and 70's after Medicare/Medicaid passed, insurance companies towed the line

Nearly every job offered health insurance. It was relatively cheap. The insurance companies were nervous and afraid of Medicare for all. Finally, they realized, Americans were just not that smart. Especially when they elected as president the man who had made commercials against beloved Medicare; and this less than two decades after the lives of seniors and their families changed forever with the passage of that monumental legislation.

Presto! The insurance companies are running the show and a few are getting fabulously wealthy.