Just repeal the stupid thing already, and give the 50 States (and DC I suppose) 90 days to submit their own State's plans for the 'replace' part of the whole thing.
Tell 'em the current budget numbers for Medicaid/Medicare are what they have to work with on that front, and have them present their ideas about how they're going to deal with whatever else has to be dealt with.
If they don't have and/or can't come up with a plan to care for their own, recommend they invest in U-Haul stock because their citizens are likely going to head on out to the States that know what they're doing, or can at least come up with something that makes them LOOK like they might know what they're doing.
While all that is going on, make the insurance companies submit THEIR best plans of action to all the States. Premiums, choices, coverage ... yada yada ... the whole nine yards.
Rules and regulations out the window for the time being, people want to know what kind of coverage they can get for what premiums from which providers.
Apparently at the moment something like 80% of Americans have health issues and/or are at risk of developing serious problems. That, to me, says that for some reason the healthy, strong 20% are being expected to pay for the health care of that 80%.
Excuse me, but that's flat out not fair.
xxx
Update 7//18/17 :
*laughing*
Ya think frustration might be raising its wicked head?
It looks like the above is pretty close to what's happening, except the 90 day thing is actually two years.
This coming twelve-month period will give us a darned clear picture of how our health care community and insurers are going to react to our rejection of the way things have been for way too long.
Tempting as it is, the ACA cannot be blamed for the current state of affairs. Had everything been working effectively and efficiently, it would not have been an issue. All the ACA did was make promises that could not be implemented. That's a bad thing, surely, but it is not the root of the problem. The ACA does not need fixing. It would be just 'second verse same as the first' because the problem lies directly in the same health care system and insurance system that existed and caused such problems in the first place that the ACA was adopted in desperation, only to totally NOT address the underlying issues and therefore totally fail. Repealing it isn't going to make the least bit of difference and neither would replacing it with something else that wouldn't end up being any better.
Now we're kind of back to square one.
The health care industry and its related insurers failed us, true enough. Another big FAIL goes to the pharmaceutical industry. We also basically failed ourselves when it comes right down to it. We did not HAVE to strain the system in the first place by overusing it for trivial non-essential stuff like runny noses every other week.
So what are we going to do about it?
Since this is just a personal blog that is rarely read by anyone I get to yammer on about what I think with nobody to say me nay, so that's what I'll just do thank you very much.
I'm rather an outsider to this whole thing. I haven't had to go to a doctor in more years than I can remember (knock wood) so I'm not directly affected by any of this. I also haven't been able to afford health care in a long time, again not a huge issue for me since I wouldn't have used it anyway and it would have been a financial burden I'd have had a real hard time justifying for my own too-small budget let alone the cost it would have been for my employer's bigger part of the policy expense (which has risen exponentially). Just because it doesn't directly affect me doesn't mean I'm not interested in the issue. I care a heck of a lot about the ones who ARE affected. Since I don't have a horse in this race, and don't even have any bets down on it, I'm essentially a neutral party here.
So.
Since I don't happen to believe health care is in any way covered in our Constitution, I also don't happen to believe the Federal government has any 'jurisdiction' one way or the other. It falls under the 10th Amendment and belongs to the States/People.
When it comes right down to it, the people of the nation are going to have to be the ones who 'regulate' things. That's a right complicated thing because we mostly have no idea that we even have a say in anything (although thankfully that seems to be changing a mite just lately) and don't realize we can say NO to anybody or anything.
We can do it; we just don't. Well we haven't, anyway. At least not yet. As long as we believe we're locked into 'the system' that might not change a whole lot.
Onward, b.
Yeh.
Over the course of the next year or so, I want to see the health care industry openly telling us what services they provide, how much stuff costs, what their budgets are, and the credentials of their staff. I want the same thing from pharmaceutical companies. I want the same thing from insurers.
Without that information (documented and verified) available to the public, we're screwed, blued, and tattooed. Nothing is going to change in any way we might appreciate.
Because I do NOT expect the current crop to comply in a forthright manner, I'm going to be on the lookout for new developments on a smaller scale.
The thing is that nobody ever ever lowers their prices. That's what we've lived with forever and a day (gas prices being the exception, which really goes to prove that yes it can be done). So how did that industry manage to do it? I don't know but I'll find out if ever I find the time and motivation in conjunction with each other.
Realistically speaking, we need to be taking more personal responsibility for our own health care. An ounce of prevention is worth way more than a pound of cure these days, believe you me. I'm a big believer (justifiably) in taking care of one's own self and one's own family. Sometimes it doesn't even take an ounce of prevention. An example? A few drops of hydrogen peroxide once a month or so apparently kept sinus infections and earaches totally out of the lives of me and my children for the entirety of their growing up years. Or maybe we were just lucky, really really lucky.
Has it dawned on anybody that people with BMIs ranging from 17 to say 22 are likely to be a heck of a lot healthier than other folks? Has the thought crossed anybody's mind that fast food and an addiction to electronic devices might not be real healthy choices?
Of course.
Everybody knows those things.
So where is the fuss about our nation being 80% not exactly in the healthy zone?
Instead, I see a fuss if anybody should dare to bring it up. We're all supposed to just love our selves and our bodies exactly the way they are.
I call bullshit on that.
I do not love the fat in my belly that I put there my own self by indulging in too much sugar. I do not like the way it affects how my clothes look on me.
Just because I'm healthy and strong now doesn't mean I don't have to be careful about things. I know darned well that my sugar habit can and will make me sick if I don't knock it off. That's up to me.
When it comes to health care, I think our related industries have been making a killing off the unhealthy choices of us as individuals. A person can't really blame them for taking full advantage of a population of people who don't care enough about themselves to take care of themselves. We can (and should) blame the industries for becoming so greedy that even those of us who are most oblivious can't help but notice. If they'd (the industries) reined themselves in a long time ago, we might have never noticed that they were scalping us.
Since there's no going back, we have to look ahead, right?
IF we're serious about reining in health care and insurance costs we'd best be looking a lot closer to home for solutions because the big companies are not going to be on our side. It would be a shock to their systems and they are not going to want to go there. A sick population is much more to their liking for obvious reasons.
Again, where is the outrage over the statistics relating to us as a nation of unhealthy people? Where are the advocates of reasonable BMIs? Where is the social pressure to become healthy? Where is the determination of us as a people to take some responsibility for our own well-being?
What if, heaven forbid, the American people as a people got a collective wild hair and decided to regulate our health care system ourselves?
Huh?!?
Well geez.
What do we expect from profit-oriented industries when we're so dumb as to continue to provide them with exactly what they want from us?
How badly do we want this issue resolved?
Badly enough to get up onto our feet and do something about it, other than to participate in a protest now and then?
I wish I could say that we as a nation cared enough about ourselves and each other to do exactly that but I've got my doubts. We didn't get to 80% at risk by giving a damn about ourselves and each other, did we?
Nope.
And we want Uncle Sam to 'fix' us.
Let me tell you something.
Uncle Sam did not force feed us junk food. Uncle Sam does not make me indulge in way too much sugar for my own good. Uncle Sam is not in charge of our individual daily lives and the choices we make in them. Uncle Sam does not get to mandate such things. We do.
You know what?
All that sugar I ingest would not be the issue it is if I'd get up off my (skinny and almost non-existent) backside more often and go for walks around the block, or walk the mile to work and back three times a week. But I don't. It's not that big a deal to me right now.
See, that's exactly the kind of thinking I need to work on.
We've got two years, America.
Two years.
Can we bring our national statistics, our need for health care, down to a reasonable level in that time?
Of course we can.
If we want to.
Set a goal. Meet it. Set another one. Meet that one too.
Or we can remain on our backsides and keep on whining about something that we've created for ourselves.
IF we take the steps we need to take as the People of America, we can reduce the demand for health care services down to whatever level we collectively want it at.
Would I be resentful if I were a healthy young person expected to cover the expenses of a bunch of people who are essentially sick because of their own choices? Hell yes.
IF we, those of us who can, would just eat right, rest right, exercise right, and bloody take care of our own selves, those of us who actually NEED health care services might not have to pay an arm and a fricking leg for them.
But I don't suppose that thought has even crossed the mind of very many of us. Nope. It's been 'all about me' for a long time.
A while back, don't remember precisely date or place, I wrote a suggestion for insurers regarding policy prices. Base them on the person's BMI with the ones in the 'green zone' getting practically a free pass even though that might seem counter-productive from a business point of view. Later on, that might be true. For now, because of the statistics, it would work in the favor of the insurers because hardly anybody's in that zone. IF they went that route, it might be a great incentive for folks to get themselves into that zone. By the time that happens, there will be lots and lots of folks paying not too much for insurance they'll rarely need because they'll be healthy, leaving more for those who are in true need.
And I cannot believe I'm getting this wrought up about something that doesn't even have much of anything to do with me personally.
I think it's almost cool enough out there by now for me to be able to mow my yard without falling prey to heat stroke.
I have a feeling I ought to just go out there and do that.
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