First link is an individual example. Second link is averages. If you think this won't happen to people in real life examples then I don't know what to tell you. Families with HSA plans right now are going to get crushed. My brother is 29 with wife and child paying $280/mo for a $6k family OOP max HSA plan. Next year he is looking at $600+ per month for an HSA plan with $12k OOP max and a smaller network of providers.

Why does a hepatitis sushi stock photo even exist

I happened to be in the car listening to talk radio today when cruz did his repeal obamacare speech live in the senate and the parts i heard were amazing - as in if the daily show doesn't include some them they need new interns. At one point he was lawyerly presenting tweets with the hashtag #stopobamacare? (something like that) and reading them off as evidence against it. It was hilarious.

OBAMACARE IS FUNDAMENTALLY ANTI-AMERICAN, BAD FOR OUR COUNTRY, BAR FOR ALL OF YOU, BAD FOR EVERYTHING EXCEPT FOR THE TERRORISTS, SO WE CANNOT IN GOOD FAITH FUND SOMETHING SO FUNDAMENTALLY EVIL but -- for oil legislation (that was inevitable anyway) -- it's negotiable:

Forbes man, they get you with a snappy quote then hit you with some infected sushi.

I do appreciate the fight scaremongering with slightly more legitimate scaremongering tone of that article.

Is this where I lol @ Republicans?

Most of the problems the right makes about Obamacare seem to be non-issues.

1. It will force people on 30 hour workweeks. Is this not good news for most people, they can buy insurance on the exchange. They can hold 2 30 hour jobs, then drop the one that is giving them fits. The country should go to a 30 hour work week anyways. This is a benefit to the working poor.

2. The unions are against it. The unions are against it because it will give their non-union competitors health care. One of the main reasons people want to work with a union. It will reduce union power.

3. It will lead to poor healthcare. The us. is already ranked low worldwide. With this law I expect the average life expectancy to rise 5 years. Furthermore since all the plans are the same, the companies will be competing on quality.

4. The hmo stocks don't seem to be scared of it but will add to profits. It seems it will not bankrupt them. The benefits of having insurance far outweigh the costs of paying the penalty and waiting for a large cost item before you get it.

5. Millions may lose their current insurance, but that is a plus. you will now have insurance separate from your employer. You will no longer be a slave.

6. The medicine is socialized. Actually it is private insurance. The costs are subsidized. however the business healthcare deduction is also subsidized. The later is probably a bigger subsidy.

7. It might be possible to stop the mandate. If you get sick and have a $100K dollar bill you will have to pay it. The bronze plan acts more like catastrophic care.

IMHO, health care is not that expensive. The HMOs will pay the wholesale price for pre-existing conditions. The existing system the homeless, unemployed, renters, minimum wage workers actually subsidize the health care of the rich.

Obviously because the most important issue to all Virginians is that they have nationwide health coverage. Thus it makes it more tricky. If everyone in Virginia did not require their health plan to directly cover the entire US and every hospital and doctor within, as you have told us they do, things might be easier for them.

I can't even venture a guess as to why the state of Virginia would intentionally be one big insurance cluster when it comes to the ACA. Can not think of a single reason why that might be the case. Certainly no chance any forces are deliberately or intentionally trying to make it so.

Also I guess all those doctors who are not included will retire or just close up shop. Sometimes it is hard to believe you peddle insurance for a living (ignoring the requisite that a good salesperson is often full of crap).

Any chance your customers and clients are worried because you are feeding them self serving nonsense?

I am sure the percentage of people in Virginia without insurance will skyrocket in the next few months.

Poor people have it pretty well. If they have a legitimate problem and go to the ER they have a good chance of getting shot up with morphine and leaving with a script for Lorrab, the while visit gratis. What are the odds a family practitioner is going to shoot you up with morphine? It is virtually non existent and most of them would be super stingy with the Lortab unless you get X-says and mris.

Poor people are living the health care dream. Of course they have to walk the fine line between going for care too soon where they just kick you out and waiting too long and you die but otherwise they have it made in the shade.

Obviously letting poor people wait until they can run up a 5k to 50k hospital bill every year or two is much more cost effective than a handful of gp visits with a specialist visit mixed in.

More and more doctors practices are owned by hospitals these days. The hospitals have done this to fight back against the insurance companies. Plus most doctors are focused on treating patients and have no real desire to fight tooth and nail with the insurance companies. Hospitals buy the doctors out and manage the back end and most patients have no idea. The hospitals then use their hospitals and all the doctors they own to negotiate en masse with the insurance companies.

The idea that patients or doctors would want to negotiate every service on a case by case basis is crazy talk.

Steeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllhoussssssssssssssse is pro-ACA? Maybe it's time for me to reconsider...

Sounds like a utopian dream. They will give you morphine guys! I expected this post to be from Lirva.

Sort of. Feel free to do it in here, but we have a 5,000 post thread specifically dedicated to laughing at them so you may find that option more enjoyable. Also in the lol Republicans thread the mouthbreathers long since departed so it is generally a more pleasant read.

Well HHS release premium projections and they are lower than they originally thought.

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

But some people are concerned that they are lower due to smaller doctor pools. Some plans are not offering PPO plans at all anymore, just HMO's.

Make of it as you wish.

It's HHS so obv biased

PPOs are ******ed. I should not be able to go see an expensive specialist any time I self-diagnose over the internet.

If it's something routine like plantar's warts you can just call your primary and get a referral (at least with the plan I had). So it's not like you have to go in and pay just to get the referral.

And plantar's warts usually don't even need a dermatologist. With the PPO right now, I can either get them treated by the primary or dermatologist. Up to me. I assume the dermatologist costs a lot more but I haven't checked.

More freedom of choice is definitely ******ed.

Me self-diagnosing what specialists I need to see is ******ed.

So you rather have a low level insurance clerk decide for you. lol

You must be kidding.

This is funny.

cliffs: if an employer offers "affordable" care to an employee in a single income home, that whole family is ineligible for subsidized coverage. So a single mother who gets health care thru her crappy job, would be expected to pay the full amount to insure all her children.

Some people see this as an oversight in the wording of the bill. I'd bet dollars to donuts it was intentional to make the numbers look better when the CBO looked at it.

Either way quite a few people are going to get screwed, and obviously congress is unable to fix it at this point.

Apologies if this has already been mentioned.

Using a system like Watson to diagnose medical problems is one very possible potential path to lowering healthcare costs. Not sure why you think it's "******ed" that a machine could actually give faster and more accurate diagnoses than a 55yo PCP who hasn't been to med school in 30 years.

To be fair, the average internet user is way worse than Watson at pretty much anything.

Gotta love Republicans.

"Look at this possible negative consequence, lol Obamacare!"

"Yeah that kind of sucks, lets fix it via legislation."

"Yeah right, like I actually care about getting people affordable care. Sorry to cut this short, I am late for my spot on Hannity."

Medicare is the most efficient, most cost-cutting health insurance program in the country, and it's not even close. It's favorability ratings are off the chart. Shall I continue?