So can we agree that this sums everything up?

[Tom]

Yea, around the rate of inflation every year. Which equals around 2.5% - 3% per year, not 9% like in my case, and not something like 75% - 85% in my uncles case.

My uncle is on disability and carries a supplemental insurance policy.

How the hell are people on fixed incomes supposed to cover that kind of increase?

Mine has gone up way higher than inflation many times in the past 20 years.

I'm not saying the ACA isn't responsible; I'm saying assuming it is ignores all the other reasons why it goes up.

And it's way too early to know how it's going to work out. It's possible insurance companies are raising rates higher than they will be able to justify which means they'll have to pay some back.

There's nothing inherent in the ACA that should make the overall cost of healthcare go up, it's even possible it will slow the rate of growth in healthcare spending.

It's possible the ACA could create imbalances in the system, but that should be temporary and/or fixable.

 

[glenn1]

It's possible the ACA could create imbalances in the system, but that should be temporary and/or fixable.

Of course, and the easiest way is repeal. The "inbalances" you're speaking of are actually key features of the law, not bugs.

 

[rudeguy]

Mine has gone up way higher than inflation many times in the past 20 years.

I'm not saying the ACA isn't responsible; I'm saying assuming it is ignores all the other reasons why it goes up.

And it's way too early to know how it's going to work out. It's possible insurance companies are raising rates higher than they will be able to justify which means they'll have to pay some back.

There's nothing inherent in the ACA that should make the overall cost of healthcare go up, it's even possible it will slow the rate of growth in healthcare spending.

It's possible the ACA could create imbalances in the system, but that should be temporary and/or fixable.

How temporary? How many people will be negatively impacted by the imbalances?

How will it be fixed?

What color is the sky in your world?

 

[Doppel]

This really has been an unmitigated catastrophe for Obama.

This plan of his to "allow" insurance companies to re-apply plans is, exactly as I said a couple days ago, a "logistical nightmare" (http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=35727984&postcount=16). It's not something they can easily turn back on: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...alth-care-fix-angers-insurance-companies.html

And now with the House passing a bill--with a substantial number of democrats supporting it--that simply makes Obama go a step further and basically legislate his original promise, and yet he's still saying he'll veto if it hits his desk, well it's just unbelievably bad for him.

This total boondoggle has shown how inept of a leader he really is.

There are now millions of people with cancelled health insurance who cannot get new insurance.

Many political ineptitudes blow over, but this one isn't, and won't. It's directly affecting millions of people.

Did Clinton ever show such political ineptitude during his years? This is Obama's Katrina.

 

[Moonbeam]

As glenn said, so could have Iraq. That one might get lucky based in spite of ignorance and bad approaches is hardly to be commended.

Do you attribute any of the blame for the problems of healthcare reform on the titanic forces that wanted no change? I didn't notice much in the way of partisan cooperation. All I see is that if Obamacare fails, it will help conservatives get elected. Then I suspect we will have a system in which only the deserving of the sick recover, the ones who have turned their time on earth into success at making money, which, by the way, in my opinion, is where all the brightest have gone.

It seems to me our problems are systemic. We have created a system that requires money which is earned in competition and competition breeds contempt for the other. Our experts are expert in serving themselves.

 

[Moonbeam]

Texas (32nd) is no China and certainly no California (50th) in regard to air quality.

http://statehealthstats.americashealthrankings.org/#/country/US/2011/Air-Pollution

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...s-air-pollution-compared-to-other-states.html

If you take a picture of a car that is about to run you down, you will see a moment in time. You are looking at pictures, it seems to me, and I'm looking at trajectories.

 

[Doppel]

It seems to me our problems are systemic. We have created a system that requires money which is earned in competition and competition breeds contempt for the other. Our experts are expert in serving themselves.

Yep.

 

[werepossum]

This really has been an unmitigated catastrophe for Obama.

This plan of his to "allow" insurance companies to re-apply plans is, exactly as I said a couple days ago, a "logistical nightmare" (http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=35727984&postcount=16). It's not something they can easily turn back on: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...alth-care-fix-angers-insurance-companies.html

And now with the House passing a bill--with a substantial number of democrats supporting it--that simply makes Obama go a step further and basically legislate his original promise, and yet he's still saying he'll veto if it hits his desk, well it's just unbelievably bad for him.

This total boondoggle has shown how inept of a leader he really is.

There are now millions of people with cancelled health insurance who cannot get new insurance.

Many political ineptitudes blow over, but this one isn't, and won't. It's directly affecting millions of people.

Did Clinton ever show such political ineptitude during his years? This is Obama's Katrina.

Well said.

 

[glenn1]

Do you attribute any of the blame for the problems of healthcare reform on the titanic forces that wanted no change? I didn't notice much in the way of partisan cooperation. All I see is that if Obamacare fails, it will help conservatives get elected. Then I suspect we will have a system in which only the deserving of the sick recover, the ones who have turned their time on earth into success at making money, which, by the way, in my opinion, is where all the brightest have gone.

It seems to me our problems are systemic. We have created a system that requires money which is earned in competition and competition breeds contempt for the other. Our experts are expert in serving themselves.

When progressive opposition to the Iraq War was at its height, I don't recall Bush blaming the left for the insurgency problems over there. In response to the partisan hack right-wing commentators that made charges the left was undermining the war effort, progressives responded by saying "we support the troops by seeking to bring them home" and "dissent is patriotic." Is your side now reversing its position about dissent being patriotic when the target is Obamacare and its your political opponents in the opposition?

 

[Tom]

When progressive opposition to the Iraq War was at its height, I don't recall Bush blaming the left for the insurgency problems over there. In response to the partisan hack right-wing commentators that made charges the left was undermining the war effort, progressives responded by saying "we support the troops by seeking to bring them home" and "dissent is patriotic." Is your side now reversing its position about dissent being patriotic when the target is Obamacare and its your political opponents in the opposition?

Nothing wrong with dissent as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Do you attribute any of the blame for the problems of healthcare reform on the titanic forces that wanted no change? I didn't notice much in the way of partisan cooperation. All I see is that if Obamacare fails, it will help conservatives get elected. Then I suspect we will have a system in which only the deserving of the sick recover, the ones who have turned their time on earth into success at making money, which, by the way, in my opinion, is where all the brightest have gone.

It seems to me our problems are systemic. We have created a system that requires money which is earned in competition and competition breeds contempt for the other. Our experts are expert in serving themselves.

I think that there is always reasons for the status quo. When things work well it makes sense. The old saying is that if things aren't broke, don't fix them.

My overall impression is that there is that inherent resistance and there are no doubt some that is by those who feel financially threatened by uncertainty.

What I also believe is that there is a sense that something is wrong, but that people have gone about reasoning in much the same way when the blind men described an elephant in the story. Every part is different, but every one of the men insist that their part is the "real" description.

There's just so much to grasp, so little time and effort put into getting the basics of what is needed down, and this has led to distrust by many (including myself) about those who make binding decisions. It's not that I think those people are evil, but I do believe they have different priorities than are needed and a sense that they are the answer. For me someone who claims to know all the answers is the one who most often understands the least.

I wish we could step back from all this and try again but this time not have people who have neither time nor expertise tackle it. I don't understand why that would be a threat, because no matter what only the legislature can enact. Health care will consume more than all other resources combined at some point and it's inevitable at this rate. Most people don't seem to understand that's would be bound to happen much less why. They would attribute it to malice or greed, but it's just people getting old. So much to do and so little time.

 

[schmuckley]

Everything everywhere is happening exactly as it has to. Humanity is asleep. New organs of perception develop only with need. It is need that is driving the evolution of thinking in Detroit. The evolution is greater now because the need is. Detroit has responded exactly as it could and can.

Life remains at stasis when life is sustainable. When the economic activity in a region reaches the point where live degrades the needs of the region switch from growth to environmental preservation. Success breeds regulation and the lack of it brings growth. As California sheds California, California will go everywhere, and along with it, California regulation. If you are a regionalist, an ego whose self worth is based on regional identification, a common attribute of human sleep, you will view shifts in economic activity, growth and decline, as a sort of ball game rather than as an osmotic flow seeking stasis. It is consciousness that determines now meanings of stasis. We are ever pushed by need.

China has 10% economic growth but you can't breathe the air. There was a small but heavily polluted region there that produced plastic. The government closed it down and not the plastic industry and its pollution has sprung up all over China as those businesses moved away. When Texans start to die from polluted air and industrial waste, Texas will have it's lack of regulations to thank. Then a different part of California will be imported, and the Texas disease will move somewhere less enlightened by modernity.

Didn't they tell you NOT to take the brown acid? :sneaky: