How would I know? I'm not a republican. Both the democratic and republican plans are bad.

Who knows? Few are aware of this option.

You don't need to know how many are aware of that option to get an idea. For starters, you can immediately eliminate the 1/3rd or so of households because they have $0 disposable income.

Looking at the median household that makes $50/yr, trying to come up with $2k-$3k for a plane ticket plus the cost of the procedure (even at 20%), it is hard to really imagine many of them being able to afford it.

Virtually nobody can afford to just pay for their own procedures, that's why we have insurance in the first place. Any solution that requires everyone to be on the hook for the lion's share of their own medical costs just isn't feasible, and it seems like this is a requirement for getting people to shop around.

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Citation needed.

I can see you've put a lot of thought into this and are well-versed on the subject.

I put just as much thought into those statements as the people who voted for Obamacare did when they passed the bill. Hearing Nancy Pelosi say this tells my uneducated ass that they didn't really look into it very much before voting for it either. If it is such a good plan then why did they opt themselves out of it?

They didn't opt themselves out of it

Not only did they not opt themselves out of it, they wrote it into the law that they are required to use it.

Assuming you meant citation for increases not leveling off for 2013:

NY Times Jan 2013

CNN March 27 2013 - Society of Actuaries says claims costs will increase

AON-Hewitt prediction for 2012 (from Oct 2011) of 7-7.5%

My 8-12% was based on small business group premiums (2-50 employees) I see in my area (midwest). 8% is the lowest I've seen with most 10% so far in 2013. Carrier projections for most of these groups for 2014 (especially those with younger employees) are a LOT higher, 20%+.

They're trying to undo this:

Forbes April 25 2013

The world isn't fair. What else is new? Did any of those ppl spend $10K for the WSOP main event?

LOL no, wrong assumption, you made claims about the root causes of rising health care costs.

Forbes article - obesity more impact than smoking on healthcare costs

2nd point (how to eat) more a subpoint to we're getting fat in the US.

Pharmacueticals overprescribed and overused (IMO) for things that can be controlled by diet/exercise/natural supplementation. Big Pharm providing doctor incentives to use their stuff. Cholesterol, blood pressure meds are common ones. Everyone also looks for an easy/magic pill to fix everything.

older article, 2010

April 2013 - antibiotic overuse

2002 study showing rise in Rx

Lack of transparency.

May 2012 study

This is tough because it's difficult to know where to start for a patient and often times the doctor.

Yeah, buying into the WSOP is just the same thing as being able to not die when you get sick...

Are you proposing that if someone in the bottom, say, 90% of the population (by wealth) gets cancer that they should just die? Because the world isn't fair?

Or do you just mean people who can't afford the proper insurance?

Sounds like a nice thousand-year step back in civilization.

Hey, if the bottom 90% can't afford to fly to Asia to save pennies on the dollar, whose fault is that? Clearly not enough bootstrap puller-uppers in this great nation anymore.

That talking point was fundamentally dishonest and relied on people not understanding what Obamacare does.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...rom-obamacare/

What would it even mean to "opt out" here? What do you think the options are for Congress that they could "opt out" of "Obamacare"?

Obamacare isn't a thing that you are "in" or "out" of, it's a pretty comprehensive reform of the health insurance industry as a whole, everyone will be subject to some of its provisions.

I'm not proposing they die. Think that's what's happening. Hear anecdotal evidence hospitals allow ppl to die when they can't pay for operations in advance.
Think rich ppl are dying of cancer also.

Thanks Obamacare

This is huge news. Those rates are very, very reasonable.

Rich people are dying of cancer, but not at the near 100% mortality rates that would happen if they just didn't get it treated at all. As far as people dying when they can't pay for operations - sounds like BS to me. I'm sure there is a single case of that happening somewhere, but it is not the general case. Hospitals are required to provide emergency treatment for anyone regardless of their ability to pay. I'm sure you know this.

Not a shread of evidence here to support your claim but thanks for playing.

Not all operations constitute emergency treatment cmon. I can tell you from experience that hospitals have some discretion. I'm not going to into details so take that FWIW.

I know they don't. The post I was responding to said "hospitals allow ppl to die when they can't pay for operations in advance." That sounds like an emergency situation.