Health Care Thread

Article about losses to big insurers and pulling out.
UnitedHealth expects to lose nearly $1 billion on Obamacare - Jan. 19, 2016

And yet they actually made more money.

They blame people getting insurance after they get sick, outside of the sign up window. So that process will be more regulated now, as it should be.

EDIT: Also, they are using MPAA math. "Oh, we lost a quaddrillion dollars to piracy because otherwise every person alive (and their pets) would have paid for this movie 25 times each."

I suspect much of their losses are from a subset of deeply unhealthy and inactive people. Health education needs to become more prevalent and HFCS should have a sin tax akin to alcohol and tobacco. Fortunately, millenials take their health more seriously than previous generations - in part due to vanity in the media age and in part due to increased access to data. I think the education end of things is sharpening, and in another 30 years the american people will be in a better position.

I love this part.

In an effort to stem the losses, it is also working more closely with providers and enrollees to manage their illnesses and care.

Click to expand...

No shit, Sherlock. Thanks for joining the 21st century.

The ACA is a fucking sham and nobody in their right mind should defend it. Require people to pay for private insurance? Are you mad? What a terrible way to try to bring healthcare to everyone. Don't fix the system, just make everyone pay a private, for profit company.

But why should anyone be surprised when we're already forced to buy private insurance in other areas of our lives in most states (vehicles and homes).

Also, you don't need housing or auto insurance to own them. You need one to secure the asset against loss if you want financing and you need the other to operate on public roads.

You can buy a house for cash and roll the dice. You can also buy a vehicle and drive it on the race track or dunes every weekend without ever insuring it.

There has to be a surge of usage once a previously uninsured has access to insurance.

Article about big losses to insurance companies in the first year after the mandate. I'm only suggesting a very valid(to me) explanation that isn't doom and gloom

Khane_sl said:

But why should anyone be surprised when we're already forced to buy private insurance in other areas of our lives in most states (vehicles and homes).

Click to expand...

Someone without insurance costs me more money. Everyone having insurance makes it less expensive for me.

Draegan_sl said:

Someone without insurance costs me more money. Everyone having insurance makes it less expensive for me.

Click to expand...

I mean I appreciate the simplicity of how you explain insurance here but it's not that simple with health insurance. The 'costs' of non-treatment before were very often buried in mortality rates, bankruptcy and charity tax exemptions or non-profits. None of that has really changed much except more services are being rendered in plain sight instead of hidden in the folds. If the system corrects on its own (it won't because profit) we're talking decades/generations.

In fact, because the ACA removed bullshit like 'preexisting conditions' to deny claims, the cost has almost assuredly increased on top of the additional covered people. Preventative care which was the major focus of the ACA leads to more treatment leads to more cost.

I don't want to get into a deep philosophical debate but at some point it is cheaper for you that some any random dude who doesn't have coverage dies in their twenties from an undiagnosed illness rather than living to 73.

More like services cost more to make up for people who can't afford care and dont pay bills due to lack of insurance. Wasn't even going into expanding the risk pool.

If they weren't paying for them before (charitable care, charge-off, etc.) then they aren't paying for them now. I'm not sure what you are driving at there?

The services don't actually cost the amount that hospitals charge. The fact that they are trying to maintain profit margins is a burden to the system. The one thing I like least about Obamacare is that they made us beholden to private corporations. He NEEDED to remove them from the equation or relegate them to a secondary market.

But hate Obamacare all you want. Healthcare was very broken the way it was and you all still paid for it anyways.

Agraza_sl said:

I suspect much of their losses are from a subset of deeply unhealthy and inactive people. Health education needs to become more prevalent and HFCS should have a sin tax akin to alcohol and tobacco. Fortunately, millenials take their health more seriously than previous generations - in part due to vanity in the media age and in part due to increased access to data. I think the education end of things is sharpening, and in another 30 years the american people will be in a better position.

I love this part.



No shit, Sherlock. Thanks for joining the 21st century.

Click to expand...

There is absolutely no health difference between HFCS and regular sugar. The only reason we even use HFCS is because massive tariffs on sugar are making it cheaper than sugar. Now we should pass another tax to cancel out the previous tax?

The fact that you haven't needed a doctor is luck, not virtue.

Flipmode_sl said:

But hate Obamacare all you want. Healthcare was very broken the way it was and you all still paid for it anyways.

Click to expand...

Of course it was broken. That is why the large majority of American voters wanted legit reform of the system. That did not occur and now the system is worse than it was before and even more expensive.