Discussion about hot topics trending today

[jelgate]

That's why you get 5 whole chickens. If you did a bad job, I give you KFC chicken

[Gatefan1976]

I have it listed on my Medicare card, so it get's check up's for free.

[Annoyed]

Just out of curiosity, what would you replace the ACA with?

Rough outline, I'm in drinking mode tonight.

It's a multifaceted problem, so the solution must be multifaceted as well.
The biggest factors:

1: How does the individual pay for his health care?

I think it should be employment-based. Or in retirement years, the govt. medicare system should kick in, provided the individual has paid into the system for most of their lives. The idea is that there are no free rides.

The employer-based model worked well till the destruction of the labor market. The average working-class stiff could get a job which provided health insurance. It was expected. This leads to point 2.

2: The destruction of our labor market. Just as the Republicans holding all three branches of govt is going to trigger a sea change in our judiciary, the free trade crap championed by BOTH parties triggered a sea change in our labor market. The balance tipped overwhelmingly to a buyer's market, with workers having to take whatever they could get because the employer could simply outsource to some country where health care wasn't an expected part of the employment agreement , with other aspects cheaper also due to the different playing field.

Fixing that is an integral pert of making health care affordable again.

Point 3 is more difficult. The basic fact is that Doctors and medical care is incredibly expensive. As far as the doctors themselves go, The practitioner of these skills commands a salary many times what the average stiff makes. I really don't know what can be done about the wages doctors are paid; the dedication required to attain the title would scare off most folks, myself included. I don't care what the job at the end of the tunnel is, I wouldn't want to go through that training regimen.
But as to overall costs of medical care, there are a LOT of over inflated costs there. various ridiculous regulations push the costs of supplies and equipment far higher than they should be. And these regulations are not always from the govt.

This brings me to point 4. Insurance companies.
This is an industry that has unfortunately earned the need to be heavily regulated. There is an awful lot of executive deadwood infesting these companies, and that would be a rich vein for cost-cutting. Just like any company, there are layers and layers of deadwood whose primary function is to make life miserable for lower level workers and customers. Because the end user often has little choice in these services, this nonsense should not be tolerated in the health care field.

[jelgate]

I have it listed on my Medicare card, so it get's check up's for free.

Medicare? You must be poor like Jelgate

[Womble]

Rough outline, I'm in drinking mode tonight.

It's a multifaceted problem, so the solution must be multifaceted as well.
The biggest factors:

1: How does the individual pay for his health care?

I think it should be employment-based. Or in retirement years, the govt. medicare system should kick in, provided the individual has paid into the system for most of their lives. The idea is that there are no free rides.

The employer-based model worked well till the destruction of the labor market. The average working-class stiff could get a job which provided health insurance. It was expected. This leads to point 2.

2: The destruction of our labor market. Just as the Republicans holding all three branches of govt is going to trigger a sea change in our judiciary, the free trade crap championed by BOTH parties triggered a sea change in our labor market. The balance tipped overwhelmingly to a buyer's market, with workers having to take whatever they could get because the employer could simply outsource to some country where health care wasn't an expected part of the employment agreement , with other aspects cheaper also due to the different playing field.

Fixing that is an integral pert of making health care affordable again.

Point 3 is more difficult. The basic fact is that Doctors and medical care is incredibly expensive. As far as the doctors themselves go, The practitioner of these skills commands a salary many times what the average stiff makes. I really don't know what can be done about the wages doctors are paid; the dedication required to attain the title would scare off most folks, myself included. I don't care what the job at the end of the tunnel is, I wouldn't want to go through that training regimen.
But as to overall costs of medical care, there are a LOT of over inflated costs there. various ridiculous regulations push the costs of supplies and equipment far higher than they should be. And these regulations are not always from the govt.

This brings me to point 4. Insurance companies.
This is an industry that has unfortunately earned the need to be heavily regulated. There is an awful lot of executive deadwood infesting these companies, and that would be a rich vein for cost-cutting. Just like any company, there are layers and layers of deadwood whose primary function is to make life miserable for lower level workers and customers. Because the end user often has little choice in these services, this nonsense should not be tolerated in the health care field.

If you re-read your own post, you will realize you are making a compelling case in favor of single-payer healthcare.

I'll throw in something else for added clarity. The nature of the economy is moving away from long-term employment and rewarding loyalty to a company, and towards short-term employment and employee-as-contractor model (what they call Uberization). In these conditions, health insurance via employer may no longer be viable.

[Gatefan1976]

Medicare? You must be poor like Jelgate

Everyone has Medicare here Jel.

[Gatefan1976]

If you re-read your own post, you will realize you are making a compelling case in favor of single-payer healthcare.

Shhhh

I'll throw in something else for added clarity. The nature of the economy is moving away from long-term employment and rewarding loyalty to a company, and towards short-term employment and employee-as-contractor model (what they call Uberization). In these conditions, health insurance via employer may no longer be viable.

I never understood why insurance should be covered by work, it just seems like another way to fire people who aren't 100%, then kick them while they are down. I mean, sure, they need liability insurance for the workers for accidents at work, but why anything more than that.
Do you have work based insurance in Israel Womble?

[Gatefan1976]

http://expressnewsline.com/2017/07/2...-he-fires.html

[Gatefan1976]

Hey Annoyed:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/201...ie_a_23056084/

[Gatefan1976]

Meanwhile, you get this:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-3...macare/8757366

[Gatefan1976]

And this is the attitude you champion:
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/...-trial-w494703

[Gatefan1976]

Are you working it out yet?
or do you need pretty pictures, chart and bullet point format?

[Falcon Horus]

I think it should be employment-based. Or in retirement years, the govt. medicare system should kick in, provided the individual has paid into the system for most of their lives. The idea is that there are no free rides.

So basically, people who are disabled and can't work for whatever reason, are screwed in your employment-based plan.

Hey Annoyed:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/201...ie_a_23056084/

It's HuffPost -- he won't read that.

[pookey]

I never understood either why employers should pay towards medical bills, and GF, is medicare like the NHS ?

[Annoyed]

If you re-read your own post, you will realize you are making a compelling case in favor of single-payer healthcare.

I'll throw in something else for added clarity. The nature of the economy is moving away from long-term employment and rewarding loyalty to a company, and towards short-term employment and employee-as-contractor model (what they call Uberization). In these conditions, health insurance via employer may no longer be viable.

Well, if you look at the VA system in this country, which is horribly frakked up, with obscenely long waiting times and other problems, the government running the show doesn't seem to work out so well, does it. We want to expand that to the entire population?

Maybe we really ought to be focusing on restoring the job market to what it was, rather than a model which allows and encourages companies to treat employees as disposable parts?

And just as the experience with the VA shows the govt. can't be trusted to run health care, experience shows that that model worked reasonably well for those who were working in it. The key word being "working", of course.