Obamacare

Wow, Maryland is showing typical healthcare plans are asking for a ridiculous increase of 18%. This is significant money for many Americans who struggle with rising gas, stagnant wages etc. Luckily we have Obamacare that is only asking for increases on average of 30%, but up to 91% on some plans. This is actually called the affordable care act, not obamacare, but since he said he liked having his name attached to the act, I will leave it there.

I don't fault the Democrats for attempting to fix our terrible system, heck the Republicans have had 2 years to try the same and have failed miserably. The fact that the Democrats were able to at least make an offering is worthy of praise. At least now we have something we can fix and try to move the market in that direction.

I dont like the mandate, that was the major portion i disagreed with. If the Government can tell me I must buy something with my money, then where is the limits? Why cant they force me to own a Governmental Motors vehicle (GM formerly General Motors) Why cant they tell me I must buy Corn from America, or that I have to buy a gym membership (since this would ultimately save insurance costs if we actually used it). If their is a Mandate, like the Social Security Mandate that is stolen from our pay each payday, then this needs to move over to the governments side. I am very against adding expenses to the Government since they control so much that I don't think they have our best interests at heart. The highest paying lobbyist firm will win the majority of the time, not what is moral or right. But again, if it is in the countries best interest for all Americans to have insurance then Medicaid should be given to all Americans. Yes Americans, not anyone living in America at the time. We are not a wealthy nation anymore, we can not afford to treat anyone who can figure out how to cross the boarder for medical care.

I do like the fact that if you are sick, the insurance companies can no longer say they will not cover you. Pre-existing conditions are a fact of life, and they should be put into the pool like everyone else. Sure this is expensive, but with millions paying into the pool this would spread the costs out.

To bring down costs, we need to do a few things.

1. Make college more affordable - Bringing down the cost of college helps reduce the amount Dr.'s need to make to provide for their families. If I had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars, I would need to charge enough to cover those monthly payments or I would not be able to treat you. If their education was say $50K, they could live on less incomes (say $150-300K per year instead of $750-1M a year). Many doctors live very high stress lives while and deserve to have enough income to be able to relax and come back to work to help all of us with problems. They do it for the love of caring for people. Making a lot of money helps.
2. Allow insurance companies to operate across state lines without mandating a new HQ in each state. This would reduce costs and therefore the profit the companies need to make. Blue Cross Blue Shield operates in almost every state, but they are not allowed to operate as 1 company. This is ludicrous.
3. reduce the number of insurance companies. This will enlarge the pools and therefore spread the risk among many more peoples premiums.
4. limit the amount of expenses that can be related to compensation. This is the kicker. If only 20% of the expenses can be related to compensation, they will need to reduce staff, reduce bonus etc. The problem here is holding them ethically responsible and not closing all call centers, and farming out all calls overseas. Given that this is already being done by many companies, I only see them reducing C level pay/bonus.

I would love to go on, but now I am running late to work. I will be back to add to this or respond to your thoughts below.