Average GP makes, according to brief googling, $161k/yr and average specialist makes $230k/yr. I mean, it's no union teacher job, but it seems like it's a living.

Setting aside all the other issues, why are you asking us? You're a doctor. This **** is your livelihood. Obamacare passed like 18 months ago. I know it's SO MANY PAGES but you've had over a year. We've had like three or four threads where you've furiously whined about how hard your life is, us resident experts have patiently explained why all the things you read in your AAPS pamphlets and hear on talk radio are wrong...

How do you not already know the answer? Shouldn't you be capable of explaining Obamacare to us?

I was in trouble. I used to have a condition where my heart would race 200 beats per minute. Sat there for prob 2 hours.

and I didn't chop my finger off, but I chopped the end off and was passing out from blood loss. Still had to wait a long time and this was at a huge hospital.

I'd like to reiterate this from my mostly overlooked post about the lead plaintiff in the SCOTUS case on mandates filing for bankruptcy:

Conservatives itt, do you deny that the private insurance market for individuals and small business, particularly with people over 50 - is pretty grim?

If you agree the market is pretty ugly - do you think these people will somehow be worse off under Obamacare - or do you just not think it's worth the cost to give them real insurance as enjoyed by people who work for corporations or govt (or once they hit the magic 65)?

I mean I just want to define what we're arguing here - is Obamacare going to screw small businesses, or is it too much of a free pony to give to them?

Or both somehow (please specify)?

I'll go on record as saying the individual and small business markets are completely ****ed, and there is very little Obamacare could do to make them much worse.

My uncle is a general contractor who's 55. His self-employed private insurance premiums are beyond what he can currently pay because he shattered his ankles 15 or so years ago and has occasional ongoing complications. For the next 10 years his two options are - go without health insurance or find some corporate job. Obamacare will mean a world of difference to him.

In before "Why do you want to destroy small businesses with duh free ponies?"

I'd suggest not lying any further. You need to lose a ton of blood to be passing out from blood loss. That doesn't happen from a finger wound.

Our small business has about 20 people with health insurance. Since 2004, every year except one has had an increase of 12% (most often around 16%) or more, and the one year that we only got a 4% increase, the following year's increase was 55%. When we shopped for a better price, the next cheapest would've been an 85% increase.

And we have a young employee base. I can't imagine having an older set with multiple long term issues. Actually, I can. I can imagine having to drop health insurance as an option.

death panels though...

I used to work for a small computer consulting firm of like 25 ppl - 2 women and the rest young healthy males under 40, most under 30. My boss was pulling her hair out at how much her premiums went up each year. Also the insurance she could afford was getting crappier and crappier.

On the flip side a couple years later I went to work for a very large IT consulting/contractor firm that is also mostly young males - had killer insurance for zero out of my pocket and the company was paying $250/month for me.

The status quo in group health plans is really hosing small businesses to the benefit of large companies.

PPACA didn't really do that at all.

I acknowledge that the health insurance market for individuals and small businesses is grim, and that Obamacare will likely make many people in that situation better off. But I think that even if Obamacare makes nearly everyone better off and is a huge net benefit to society, it still is not justified because it violates peoples' rights (via the individual mandate, etc.) I guess this question wasn't directed to me though, because I am a libertarian, not a conservative.

Do you believe in taxation at all? Because the mandate is just a new tax with a full tax break for compliance. I mean you could say "we're raising taxes for Obamacare and giving people a tax break for getting health insurance" and it would function the exact same way as a mandate.

I mean unless you're one of those all taxation=theft AC-types, it seems kind of silly to say you oppose a program - even if it showed a huge net benefit to society - because of the wording of a new tax. It would be different if by "forcing people to get health insurance" we meant by arresting them if they didn't comply. Then you're talking rights issues. But a modest tax penalty for not doing something is really hard to argue as some kind of egregious trampling of rights imo.

Forcing people to get car insurance is much much more intrusive because you could go to jail for driving w/o insurance (I think - maybe after a few violations?). Either way it's a misdemeanor violation vs. a tax penalty. Big big difference.

Also how do you reconcile the fact that plenty of people are gaming the system right now by using the fact that hospitals have to treat anyone in critical condition, combined with US bankruptcy courts, as discount catastrophic health insurance?

Hr Bill 3200 RFId Chip?

No. I am one of those AC-types. I agree that the individual mandate is no more onerous than being forced to save for my own retirement (Social Security), or any number of other similar programs.

This is a separate issue. I think hospitals should be able to turn away people who can't pay, for one thing.

That act made health care more expensive, not less. The health insurance companies aren't eating the extra cost.

MRI cost

Can anyone explain this? How times a day can a MRI machine be used(without damaging the machine)?

You don't even know what these alleged extra costs are.

So you're telling me that a person with a preexisting condition isn't costing the insurance company money. Is that it?

Ok well at least you're consistent and logical.

MRIs cost $160 in Japan. Reason? Government said it wouldn't pay any more than that, health tech companies found a way to make it work.

Remember, govt can't control prices. Only the free market can do that for completely inelastic needs like most health care. All hail free market.

jogs, now that you're back - would you care to follow up on this thread?

it's amazing to me that we are 2 years removed frmo the passing of "obamacare" and have debated it ad nauseum in this forum and yet this is still the train of thought you are operating with. it may actually help me understand all of the irrational hatred a little more.

My own guess and it is only a guess is in the U.S. many MRI machines are often sitting idle, not in use very often. Every hospital wants to own their own MRI machine. Good for the hospital's rep. Good for the company that makes MRI machines. Bad for the patients who need to pay the high prices.

http://www.ehow.com/about_4731161_mu...ines-cost.html

Interesting cursory view into costs and profit potential of an MRI machine.

Doesn't this actually go against traditional economics?

If there's a high supply of something - shouldn't the price go down?