https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_health_care_inflation_rate
Health care is not becoming more affordable. The rate of inflation in health care is significantly higher than the US inflation rate.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/T5YIFR
How is that affordable? How are $600 epi-pens affordable?[1] How is a 4000% price hike on a 62 year old generic affordable?[2] Google for "snake bite hospital bill." $153,000. That's not affordable. That sounds downright fraudulent.
It seems they should have named it something more appropriate, like the Universal Health Insurance Act. Insurance that is no more affordable than the overpriced health care available in the country. But point this out, and everyone starts their partisan bickering and nothing gets done at all.
[1]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-29/mylan-to-...
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/0...
I don't intend any snarkiness, but am I somehow misreading those numbers? I'm reading that statement as "an inflation rate of 2.95% for the last year compared to the long term average of 5.40% could be equated with 'more affordable'".
[1] https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_health_care_inflation_rate
That is the core issue. That was not solved by the ACA. How do we solve it? Ideas? Oh yeah, you know what? Let's argue about Obama and Trump instead. That will surely work. Look at the comments in this thread.
If I asked you how to solve a sorting problem, I'd have a dozen good solutions presented. If I ask how to solve a healthcare cost problem that many other countries don't seem to have, everyone's brain switches off and they go into arguing about politics.
From the wiki[1]:
By the design of the program, the federal government is not permitted to negotiate prices of drugs with the drug companies, as federal agencies do in other programs
The bill forces the government to pay whatever the pharma manufacturers will charge. If you were selling a product and there were a law preventing your largest customer from negotiating the prices which you set, why wouldn't you heavily inflate your prices?
Oh good, let's see you present to me evidence that the inflation rate of health care in the US is below that of the inflation rate of the country as a whole. Can you do that? Because that's my point.
Health care is not affordable. Hospitals are charging tens of thousands of dollars for treatments that cost a couple hundred dollars 2 hours away across the border.
http://archive.azcentral.com/business/articles/20120831scorp...
That's fraudulent. Put those people in jail.
The ACA wasn't a bad attempt given the constant efforts of the opposition to sabbotage it.
Actually, it was, given that many of the misfeatures of the ACA were premptive compromises to gain the support of opposition that never accepted it anyway.
But even so, it's better than the status quo ante was, and there's no sign of anything better on the horizon amidst the rush to repeal it.
It seems they should have named it something more appropriate, like the Universal Health Insurance Act.
The name of the bill is a lot less important to most people than the substance. If you read Sam's post, there is a man in there with a heart condition who is essentially uninsurable without the ACA. For him, the word "Affordable" definitely applies, but he doesn't care what the bill's title is. In my opinion, you shouldn't either, because the bill's substance is what is important.
>In my opinion, you shouldn't either
It's clear to me, I need to leave and go to a country with a higher average IQ. They, unsurprisingly, have figured out how to deliver actual affordable care. The people here are too ignorant to actually solve this problem. Even "smart" people have been completely brainwashed by propaganda.
Affordable care is more expensive. War is Peace. Ignorance is Strength.
You can tell because while some premiums have increased, the overall healthcare costs (including premiums) for all Americans has been reduced.
Making healthcare actually affordable -- as in, reining in costs -- is where we should be looking.
Other ways to lower healthcare costs:
* Increase med-school acceptance rates & fund more residency programs/additional slots to increase supply of MD's
* Subsidize med-school tuition so MD's don't graduate drowning in debt
* Allow PA's and NP's more authority in primary care and non-trauma emergent care situations without an attending physician having to sign for every order and discharge - some states are ahead of others here, we have a lot of NP's in GA ER's that work without an attending
Oh, and single payer healthcare would do wonders too. Administrative costs for hospitals and billing companies would drop dramatically not having to manage dozens of different insurance contracts just to get paid, would love to pass that savings onto patients.
Mandatory Purchase of Service from Private Industry Act ?
either way it was a redistribution to some at the expense of others. decide yourself which moral side you sit on.
I think healthcare has become a jobs project. As manufacturing employment decreased, many found replacement jobs in an ever-expanding health care industry.
There is no incentive for anyone to get medical costs under control. The health care delivery system has every incentive to use the "blank checks" offered by the insurance industry. The insurance industry makes a certain percentage off whatever they pay out in claims, so their incentive is to pay as much as possible.
Patients want to feel better, and aren't in a position to evaluate whether the recommended treatments are actually their best option.
> But point this out, and everyone starts their partisan bickering and nothing gets done at all.
In the early days of medicare the government's costs quickly got out of control. The first reform was to figure out what a procedure should actually cost. It's been "trench warfare" between doctors and payers ever since.
I have some anecdotes from my passengers and friends that would hopefully sidestep the bickering to point out that the status quo is quite harmful to the health industry's customers...
Iatrogenic conditions are exceedingly common. These are conditions caused (or worsened) by the treatment provided.
For example, hospitalists (doctors who manage patients' care in a hospital) are starting to look at old patients' pile of prescriptions to figure out which ones are actually necessary [1].
[1] When less is more: De-prescribing medications - http://www.acphospitalist.org/archives/2016/05/deprescribing...
If only there was some large body that was able to negotiate reasonable rates for health care on behalf of consumers... it's amazing nobody in the world has figured this out before!
[0]: Here's one source, although there may be better ones http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-obamac...
If you put the starting date at 1970/1980/1990.. it really puts things in perspective.
https://data.bls.gov/pdq/SurveyOutputServlet
It's up to a historic rate of growth that has been typical since the early 90s.
I'm sick of these stupid names in general.
