Democrats See Skimpy Insurance As The Next Health Care Issue

[Purveyor]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A different health care issue has emerged for Democrats, in sync with the party's pitch to workers and middle-class voters ahead of next year's elections.

It's not the uninsured, but rather the problem of high out-of-pocket costs for people already covered.

Democrats call it "underinsurance."

After paying premiums, many low- and middle-income patients still face high costs when trying to use their coverage. There's growing concern that the value of a health insurance card is being eaten away by rising deductibles, the amount of actual medical costs that patients pay each year before coverage kicks in.

"I think it's going to be the next big problem," said Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., a congressional leader on health care.

"We've got some 17 million more people covered ... but they can't access the care they seem to be entitled to," McDermott said. "It costs too much to use the care. That's the deceptive part about it."

more...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DEM_2016_SKIMPY_INSURANCE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-05-23-08-33-10

[enlightenment]

1. That's not the "next" big problem.

It was built into the system and that makes it an endemic problem.

[CTyankee]

2. the best way to get to universal coverage is to get Americans to understand exactly what

is wrong with our system as opposed to all other industrialized countries that provide universal health care to their citizens. Once the mask ("socialist&quot slips away from health care, even if bit by bit, Americans will demand it.

[Cal Carpenter]

3. Yep. And those who pointed it out while the ACA was being

'debated' (aka negotiated into weak sauce) were called liars, because if the word 'affordable' was in the bill, then it must be affordable, amiright?

But then and now, I think it is important to point out that simply having larger numbers of people signed up for insurance is NOT success, that it will take a few years to see how many more people are actually using it and what the outcomes are using measurable public health/quality of life statistics over the next few years. I am not optimistic and would love to see improvements sooner rather than later.

Frankly, I'm surprised any politicians are talking about this yet, because the ACA is still in the honeymoon phase of being able to tout enrollment numbers as success.

[Doctor_J]

4. solution: give more money to Big Insurance, hope it trickles down to people who need it

Will work as well as Reaganomics, maybe better!

The democrats did as much damage as they could get away with in 2010. They passed into law the worst healthcare system in the world, making the insurance industry part of the government, and part of every American's life, forever. Idiots like me, whose costs went up by a multiple of seventeen - my deductibles and copays are now a quarter of my take home pay - , continue to vote for them mostly out of habit. But worse are the imbeciles who think it will "develop into single payer". Seriously, how deluded do you have to be to believe that??