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The New Joe Montgomery Birther Pit / Re: "Obamacare"
« on: May 23, 2013, 09:55:34 PM »
1. Of course premiums went up in the last 20 years. Healthcare costs went up in the last 20 years. Insurance companies view themselves as mere middlemen between the consumer and the service providers. If the cost for the service goes up, the cost of the premium goes up. They are in the unique position of determining their profits because, in short, they know how to project how many people are going to get sick. But their profits are neither high or low relative to the healthcare insustry. They target the middle. That's where they are. It's by design. It's so they don't get in trouble.
2. I don't know how healthcare providers could increase their profits by charging higher rates to people who can't afford insurance in the first place. They don't get any payment at all in many of those cases. They get a tax write off.
3. Preventive care is a pretty small part of the complex issue of rising healthcare costs. The amount of coverage added for new preventive services under typical health plans in the past 15 years is negligible compared to how much overall healthcare costs have increased in that time.
4. Price shopping really has nothing to do with anything. Rising healthcare costs, again, is a complex issue. Costs increased a crap ton for all healthcare providers for many reasons. They all had to respond by charging more. The bigger issue on the consumer end of things is that they could often go to the doctor as much as they wanted with little to no costs to themselves. They didn't have to think about the bill. Their employers who were paying it did. And that's why dedutibles are now increasingly being applied to covered services. It's to force people to think about whether or not they really need to go to the doctor because they have a cough.
2. I don't know how healthcare providers could increase their profits by charging higher rates to people who can't afford insurance in the first place. They don't get any payment at all in many of those cases. They get a tax write off.
3. Preventive care is a pretty small part of the complex issue of rising healthcare costs. The amount of coverage added for new preventive services under typical health plans in the past 15 years is negligible compared to how much overall healthcare costs have increased in that time.
4. Price shopping really has nothing to do with anything. Rising healthcare costs, again, is a complex issue. Costs increased a crap ton for all healthcare providers for many reasons. They all had to respond by charging more. The bigger issue on the consumer end of things is that they could often go to the doctor as much as they wanted with little to no costs to themselves. They didn't have to think about the bill. Their employers who were paying it did. And that's why dedutibles are now increasingly being applied to covered services. It's to force people to think about whether or not they really need to go to the doctor because they have a cough.
