Do you ever think for yourself? Does anyone on this board?
1. Medicare patients do NOT receive the same treatment as private health care patients because Medicare screws doctors in what they will pay. That is a FACT. If you knew people on both types of insurance over time, you would not question this.
2. "While Medicaid beneficiaries tend to be less healthy than the general uninsured population . . ." -- Did you read this statement? They were not comparing the two types of insured. Too difficult to explain what this statement actually means, but think about it.
3. AFP is warning Virginians that the system “will cost Virginia taxpayers billions,” require “future tax hikes and budget cuts to vital services like schools, police and fire departments,” undermine the “doctor-patient relationship,” increase wait times and even endanger lives. -- Again, this is not made up. This is all true. If you had run a business and provided insurance to your employees, you would know that these mandates and penalties are nothing but a new way to generate revenue for the gov't. Many have called it a new tax for this very reason.
Listen up, and learn something.
Say you are a company with 75 employees, and you currently provide a health insurance for your employees through Blue Cross. You, as the employer, pick up 75% of the premium, because you have several employees who are in the 50's , 60's, and even a few in their 70's working full time, and they have been with your company for decades. If they work full time, then Medicare cannot be their primary insurance, so having these older employees makes your premiums higher than normal. That is why you pay the 75% -- to make it affordable for your employees.
Now, the gov't steps in and sets a mandate on what they call affordable, and if you do not meet that standard, and even ONE employee qualifies for a tax subsidy on the exchanges, you, as an employer, will be subject to a $2,000-$3,000 penalty (a new type of tax) owed to the gov't. One of the consequences of the ACA are rising premiums for private insurance. It's just a FACT.
So, what if your renewal on your group plan makes it unaffordable for the company to pick up 75%, but because of the new rules on what is considered "affordable" for the employee, they (the small company) actually would be forced to pick up 85% in order to not have any employees qualify for the subsidy and force automatic penalties on the employer, who cannot afford them. The EMPLOYEES want to keep their PRIVATE Blue Cross plan, because they KNOW doctors and hospitals receive better payment than Medicaid and Medicare, and they understand that the exchange plans will be patterned after these.
What's the company now to do? They have limited choices. They could fire enough people to be able to pay 85% on the ones left, but that might place the business in a precarious spot, and it creates more unemployment. They could forget private insurance completely, pay the penalty, and let the employees fend for themselves, but they KNOW that it's not simply those at the VERY bottom of the pay scale having a difficult time affording insurance. They KNOW that the family making more than the percentages above the poverty lines that qualify for help from the gov't will not be able to afford health insurance if the company stops paying the 75% they were.
Because the liberals on this board, and those across the country ONLY consider the BOTTOM 10% living in total, abject poverty, who might get free health insurance, instead of relying on emergency rooms, or just being unhealthy, they are willing to let health care and affordability deteriorate for the other 90%, and IT WILL.
Any THINKING American with real world experience running a business KNOWS this, so liberals with NO experience should just keep their mouths shut.
