The citizens receiving Medicare coverage should have a reliable cost and that won't happen if it is privatized. As a matter of fact privatizing health care for the elderly will place them outside any reasonable market costs. They will be charged three times the rate of someone much younger. No way. They are left alone. If they want to supplement Medicare with a private insurance plan they can do that, but, the Medicare market is fixed and serviced by the federal government.
I don't like what Sebelius is doing. At all. She is not administering this correctly. The waivers were for mini-medical plans. Those plans are very poor plans and should never have been encouraged to remain as an option to the American Health Care Landscape. I really oppose her lax ability to institute the Affordable Care Act AS WRITTEN.
If she didn't provide all those waivers, the mini-market would be reduced and the current private insurance enrollment would have received some more enrollments and changed the market costs. So, as far as I am concerned, she hasn't got a clue.
There are ways of effecting a capitalism market and then there are ways that don't work. The ways mapped out in The Affordable Care Act were deliberately done for a reason. Does she actually think when the House wrote that law over two decades they didn't look at the mini-medical insurance markets. They addressed the ERISA laws very clearly. ERISA has been hugely problematic across the spectrum and until the ACA there was no way of bring about justice to people. ERISA was and to some extent until 2014 is still the problem.
WED SEP 16, 2009 AT 10:55 PM PDT
The outrageous scam of employment-based insurance: ERISA and its malignant effects (click here)
by Richard Johnston
That said:
..."If you only focus on Medicare, (click here) you shift the costs," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said, adding that Medicare and Medicaid are not the reason health costs are going up. Costs in these programs are increasing at a slower pace than private-sector health care costs, she said. "You don't do anything about the trajectory the U.S. is on unless you concentrate on the underlying costs."...
Any estimated costs to the health care market will be effected by the pool of participants. That is fairly fixed and there is absolutely no way of looking into a crystal ball either. There is no accurate model 'out there' that accurately reflects the health care pools as of 2014.
To begin, no one knows the level of participation in the year 2014. There will be folks deliberately trying to effect the costs of premiums in one way or another for personal convictions based on political standing. That is a given. It is my estimation there will be mischief for at least two years. When 2016 rolls around there will finally be a national participation and I expect nothing short of that.
As far as premiums, there will be proof that Joe Lieberman did his job for his health care insurance companies by obstructing the Public Option. There will be trials of different strategies in the State Pools for a few years to reduce costs to all citizens. There will be scrutiny of which pools provide effective cost containment and those that don't. There will be methods sought to bring about effective strategies under the heavy wet blanket of a privatized market for a year or two and then we'll see.
The ACA provides for ONLY 15% profit by any health insurance company. The PERFORMANCE of the State Pools will improve in time, but, the initial years will have lassitude until more information is known about the general health of the American people.
The ACA is a paradigm shift. People will live where they died before. These changes don't happen overnight, but, I guarantee you there will be improved quality of life as the nation pulls itself together and seeks better health.
This is not an experiment that can be dissolved with the elections of 2014 or 2016. It is a better standard of living for the American people. No one can predict the outcome of the ACA and if they try they don't know the resolve of this nation of people to solve their problems with compassion and a clear understanding of a happier life.
Think of it this way.
Michael Phelps eats over 10,000 calories per day when he is training. Now translate into an economy where a 'FIT NATION' participates in recreation and fun. There will be less and less focus on food and calories as a nation of people move away from screens and seek physical activity as improvement to their quality of life. I sincerely believe there will be less sedentary lifestyles once the people of this nation actually 'feel better.'
Look, if a person is going to be popular in a social setting they need to be ABLE to dance. Okay? We need to go forward with this. There will be economic growth when the nation is healthier. It is just going to happen. Local economies will benefit from healthier folks in them.
The healthier the country, the lower the premiums. The ACA is designed for that outcome.
I don't like what Sebelius is doing. At all. She is not administering this correctly. The waivers were for mini-medical plans. Those plans are very poor plans and should never have been encouraged to remain as an option to the American Health Care Landscape. I really oppose her lax ability to institute the Affordable Care Act AS WRITTEN.
If she didn't provide all those waivers, the mini-market would be reduced and the current private insurance enrollment would have received some more enrollments and changed the market costs. So, as far as I am concerned, she hasn't got a clue.
There are ways of effecting a capitalism market and then there are ways that don't work. The ways mapped out in The Affordable Care Act were deliberately done for a reason. Does she actually think when the House wrote that law over two decades they didn't look at the mini-medical insurance markets. They addressed the ERISA laws very clearly. ERISA has been hugely problematic across the spectrum and until the ACA there was no way of bring about justice to people. ERISA was and to some extent until 2014 is still the problem.
WED SEP 16, 2009 AT 10:55 PM PDT
The outrageous scam of employment-based insurance: ERISA and its malignant effects (click here)
by Richard Johnston
So as far as I am concerned Sebilius had no standing to hand out waivers. Congress and the President passed this law for a reason and Sebelius took it on herself to negate it. The Mini-Market Health Insurance Market is a joke. People unable to qualify for Medicaid purchase those policies and receive virtually no value for their monies. There have been movies made about the deaths they cause.
Medicare is not up for grabs for the private industry. Absolutely not!
That said:
..."If you only focus on Medicare, (click here) you shift the costs," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said, adding that Medicare and Medicaid are not the reason health costs are going up. Costs in these programs are increasing at a slower pace than private-sector health care costs, she said. "You don't do anything about the trajectory the U.S. is on unless you concentrate on the underlying costs."...
Any estimated costs to the health care market will be effected by the pool of participants. That is fairly fixed and there is absolutely no way of looking into a crystal ball either. There is no accurate model 'out there' that accurately reflects the health care pools as of 2014.
To begin, no one knows the level of participation in the year 2014. There will be folks deliberately trying to effect the costs of premiums in one way or another for personal convictions based on political standing. That is a given. It is my estimation there will be mischief for at least two years. When 2016 rolls around there will finally be a national participation and I expect nothing short of that.
As far as premiums, there will be proof that Joe Lieberman did his job for his health care insurance companies by obstructing the Public Option. There will be trials of different strategies in the State Pools for a few years to reduce costs to all citizens. There will be scrutiny of which pools provide effective cost containment and those that don't. There will be methods sought to bring about effective strategies under the heavy wet blanket of a privatized market for a year or two and then we'll see.
The ACA provides for ONLY 15% profit by any health insurance company. The PERFORMANCE of the State Pools will improve in time, but, the initial years will have lassitude until more information is known about the general health of the American people.
The ACA is a paradigm shift. People will live where they died before. These changes don't happen overnight, but, I guarantee you there will be improved quality of life as the nation pulls itself together and seeks better health.
This is not an experiment that can be dissolved with the elections of 2014 or 2016. It is a better standard of living for the American people. No one can predict the outcome of the ACA and if they try they don't know the resolve of this nation of people to solve their problems with compassion and a clear understanding of a happier life.
Think of it this way.
Michael Phelps eats over 10,000 calories per day when he is training. Now translate into an economy where a 'FIT NATION' participates in recreation and fun. There will be less and less focus on food and calories as a nation of people move away from screens and seek physical activity as improvement to their quality of life. I sincerely believe there will be less sedentary lifestyles once the people of this nation actually 'feel better.'
Look, if a person is going to be popular in a social setting they need to be ABLE to dance. Okay? We need to go forward with this. There will be economic growth when the nation is healthier. It is just going to happen. Local economies will benefit from healthier folks in them.
The healthier the country, the lower the premiums. The ACA is designed for that outcome.
