Whatever the Supreme Court Decides on Healthcare, Nurses See the Real Crisis Continuing

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/story/154730/whatever_the_supreme_court_decides_on_healthcare%2C_nurses_see_the_real_crisis_continuing/

As the Supreme Court justices pass judgment on the law even the President now calls Obamacare, the sad fact is that that health care will remain beyond the reach of millions of Americans no matter how the court rules.

In contrast, nearly half the justices who will pass judgment on the law are beyond the age where they have to worry about their access to care.Four of the nine judges already qualify for guaranteed healthcare, two more will within three years when they reach age 65.

That guarantee could be achieved by extending Medicare to everyone, without raising constitutional questions posed by the individual mandate that forces everyone without coverage to buy private, commercial health insurance.

The stark reality is far different for people under 65 today. Whether the Court throws out or upholds Obamacare, they will still not have universal coverage, medical bills will still push too many Americans into bankruptcy or prompt them to self-ration care, and insurance companies will still have a choke hold on their health.

Let’s credit the law with some positive elements, such as ending lifetime coverage caps and banning exclusion of patients with pre-existing conditions, and permitting young adults up to age 26 remain on their parents’ health plan.

[still_one]

1. A lot of people are going to be hurt when the court rules the ACA down /nt

[Motown_Johnny]

2. There is no guarantee that will happen.

We will find out in June, until then there isn't much we can do.

[Alcibiades]

3. Actually there is

We need to be vocal about the need for the court to respect the political process. This is an issue that had been bouncing around for at least 80 years, and has seemed intractable, but now the political branches of government have finally done something, and the court needs to give it a chance to work.

This court is in lockstep with the national GOP. Three members of the 5-4 Bush v. Gore majority are still on the court, and it's clear from history that the bigger the chance to hand Democrats a loss the more likely they will rule in such a way as to do so. We need to get in front of their inevitable decision so that people understand what it is when they see it: this is not an example of an unbiased neutral arbiter reaching a Solon-like decision that will establish a stable new order, but simply matter of five partisans who desperately would like the GOP to retain control of the court so that it will be Romney who appoints their successors.

We do know what they will do, and we can at least be vocal about it. Sitting down and shutting up isn't the answer here, nor is learned helplessness.

[Motown_Johnny]

4. They voted on Friday

It is already done, we just don't get to find out until June.

[Alcibiades]

13. True

This gives them time to come up with their post hoc rationalization for doing what they were going to do anyway.

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, xchrom.

[ProSense]

6. How can it

"Whatever the Supreme Court Decides on Healthcare, Nurses See the Real Crisis Continuing"

...not matter when they state this:

Let’s credit the law with some positive elements, such as ending lifetime coverage caps and banning exclusion of patients with pre-existing conditions, and permitting young adults up to age 26 remain on their parents’ health plan.

If the SCOTUS strikes down the law, those "positive elements" are also struck down. Moving to single payer is the goal. Advocating that it doesn't matter what the SCOTUS does, makes no sense.

[Ron Obvious]

8. Is it positive?

Regence Blue Cross sent us a letter a year or so ago explicitly crediting Obama's new healthcare law ending the lifetime benefit cap with having to raise our rates 35%

Thanks "Affordable" Care Act! Let's never forget that this was a Republican plan to begin with.

[JDPriestly]

11. We never know when our insurance companies will decide that

hangnails are pre-existing conditions that require a higher monthly premium.

Here is one biggie of a pre-existing condition:

Age and Gender

Age is the major risk factor of hypertension. Blood pressure increases with age in both men and women, and, in fact, the lifetime risk for hypertension is nearly 90%. The risks for high blood pressure increases in men over age 45 and women over age 55. Over half of Americans over age 60 have hypertension. Hypertension is also becoming more common in children and teenagers. Among younger people, boys are at higher risk for high blood pressure than girls.
Race and Ethnicity

Compared to Caucasians and other ethnic groups, African-Americans are much more likely to have high blood pressure. More than 40% of African-American men and women have hypertension. It may account for over 40% of all deaths in this group. High blood pressure tends to start at a younger age among African-Americans, is often more severe, and causes greater risks for premature death from heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and kidney failure.

. . .

http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/hypertension/risk-factors.html

Read the article. It's short and lists the risk factors -- like smoking, obesity, drinking, inactivity, stress.

Then there is diabetes:

Data from the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet (released Jan. 26, 2011)
Total prevalence of diabetes

Total: 25.8 million children and adults in the United States—8.3% of the population—have diabetes.
. . .

After adjusting for population age and sex differences, average medical expenditures among people with diagnosed diabetes were 2.3 times higher than what expenditures would be in the absence of diabetes.

. . .
Factoring in the additional costs of undiagnosed diabetes, prediabetes, and gestational diabetes brings the total cost of diabetes in the United States in 2007 to $218 billion.

$18 billion for people with undiagnosed diabetes
$25 billion for American adults with prediabetes
$623 million for gestational diabetes

http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/diabetes-statistics/

Check that website too. Diabetes needs primary care. By the time you have to go to the emergency room for diabetes treatment, it is awfully late and very expensive.

It will take time, but conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes can be treated or controlled, often very inexpensively, if the patient gets good primary care. I believe that this healthcare bill will, over time, actually reduce medical care costs and improve the quality of our lives.

I would prefer single payer of some sort, but this healthcare bill is a starting point, and for some of the people out there who have untreated diabetes or high blood pressure, getting started is a matter of life or death.

[tularetom]

7. The crisis will continue until somebody starts to control the costs of medical care

Regardless of how much insurance companies and other players are skimming off the top, the medical profession itself is responsible for a lot of the financial impact of health care on the average American. Repetitive and unneccesary tests, referrals, consultations all add thousands to the cost of any surgical procedure and we've all heard the story of the $10 aspirin tablet.

I'm not throwing any stones at nurses per se, but they are part of the process and the process has gotten too expensive to be sustain itself under any rational financial model.

Health care is 1/7 of our GDP? That says a lot to me about where our priorities are. If we continue to accept this it won't matter who pays for it, it will always be too much.

[LuckyLib]

9. Absolutely. A 5 minute appointment for an eye doctor to remove an eyelash

growing inward is $185. Criminal. The insanity has to stop -- and the doctors' offices are the place to begin.

[Coyote_Bandit]

10. We didn't get

healthcare reform. We got health insurance reform.

The people in the trenches know it and continue to work with those who do not have meaningful access to healthcare - and know they will continue to do so even if the legislation stands.

I haven't seen a doctor in nearly 15 years (I am self-insured with a high deductible) and I do not expect my access to care to be meaningfully improved under the ACA.

[lovuian]

12. whatever happens this issue won't go away

the crisis will continue and the healthcare situation will only get worse

the rich will have their private doctors but they will pay and pay for crappy healthcare just like all of us