Goodbye ACA and look out Medicare

[SHRED]

The Price appointment all but guarantees this.

[still_one]

1. no doubt about it.

[sheshe2]

2. I wonder...

How the ER's will handle the influx of 20 million uninsured?

[JimBeard]

3. I ask on a similar thread about the Donuhnut Hole in Medicares plan D

passed by baby bush. I have been reading that the Affordable Care Act started closing the Doughnut Hole slowly slowly until 2020. We Seniors could be screwed out of our benefit if they dismantle ACA. They have only been talking about keeping children's insurance under 26 and preexisting illness. What has everyone else heard?

[Hoyt]

4. I honestly do not think they are going to dismantle the ACA, mainly because too many GOPer

kids are covered under it.

They will change it -- hopefully for the better -- because even the majority of Democrats want it changed. Heck, some right here have said the most horrible things about the ACA and Obama.

I honestly think they will change it just enough so that it will no longer be associated with Obama. They cannot bear the thought of 30 years from now people being relatively satisfied with their Obamacare. In fact, I believe enough GOPers would have supported a Public Option back in 2009/2010 if they weren't so strongly opposed to anything Obama wanted.

I'm trying to be positive, which is usually difficult for me.

[SHRED]

5. Well they hate government

And privatizing further will ruin it further.

That's how I see it.

[Hoyt]

6. Well, the ACA does rely on private insurance companies right now. The only thing I see they might

do is get rid of the exchanges by offering vouchers. The private insurance companies, some not-for-profit, will still be required to provide certain services established by the law, will likely not be able to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. Where we really have to watch the GOPers is to make sure the subsidies and/or vouchers are sufficient enough.

The ACA was privatized from the start in that you buy insurance from private companies. The government provided an Exchange and established the requirements those companies operated under -- including how much they have to spend in medical benefits for insureds -- and how much of a subsidy people got based upon their income.

[Hortensis]

7. NO chance they will "change it for the better."

The drive behind destruction of the ACA is first profit and second ideology. There are huge, huge, huge profits in healthcare that will become available if the ACA, Medicare, Medicaid, and VA can be gotten out of the way.

The only way to increase profits is to increase premiums and decrease the percentage of premium dollars that go to patient care. For the VA the amount that can be diverted to admin/profits is something like 3%, Medicare 7%, ACA ceiling of 20%. Even the last is unacceptably low.

First things that MUST go: Coverage for preexisting conditions. Lifetime coverage for conditions. Guaranteed coverage regardless of health history and age.

Regarding ideology, true libertarians like Ryan, and perhaps Charles Koch, (not the foolish trend-chasing types) are appalled at things like dialysis centers springing up all over, paid for by taxpayer dollars. They loathe the aging population that's living long past their ability (or willingness!) to work. They believe people who work for others are unworthy burdens on humanity and literally believe people who cannot pay their own way are destroying society.

[Hoyt]

8. Coverage for Pre-Existing conditions will not go, at this point.

The 20%, which is really 15% for large plans, is not all profit. ACA insurers make 6% or so profit at best, and many went broke including some not-for-profit and co-op plans. We definitely could do better without the 6% going to profit, but that isn't going to happen unless you believe even Democrats would turn Medicare, Medicaid, ACA into one big government program that employs doctors, nurses, owns hospitals, equipment, operates ambulances, dialysis centers, etc.

Fact is, our health care system will be for the foreseeable future, and then some, an effort between government and private companies, even if Congress and the President were all socialists (which wouldn't be bad in my mind).

[melody]

9. They won't touch ACA for his first term n/t