Hi
What exactly is Trump implying with his analogy of “unless you get hit by a truck, you’re never going to be able to use it”? I don’t understand. If I pay a deductible, I pay my premiums and co-payments, why would I not be able to use my insurance policy? Trump uses this analogy a lot but never explains it.
I look forward to your feedback.
But she wants to go to single payer, which means the government basically rules everything. Hillary Clinton has been after this for years. Obamacare was the first step. Obamacare is a total disaster. And not only are your rates going up by numbers that nobody’s ever believed, but your deductibles are going up, so that unless you get hit by a truck, you’re never going to be able to use it.
Trump’s assertion, if I understand it correctly, is that deductibles would be so high that the cost of treatment except in catastrophic cases (being ‘hit by a truck’) would be lower than the deductible, i.e. the insured had to pay the treatment out of pocket.
An assertion not borne out by existing single payer systems, by the way. (Is single payer part of Clinton’s platform, anyway?)
He’s exaggerating, but there are some high deductible plans that healthy people tend to get where, unless they suffer an unexpected medical problem, they don’t expect their usual yearly medical expenses to exceed the level of their plan’s deductible. Of course, it doesn’t factor in all the other benefits of an insurance plan besides them paying all your medical bills.
I think if single payer would be good based on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eA_0x8ONsU
You want the US to take out the middle man who does nothing- the insurance company- that will lower health care costs.
I’m an American, live in New Zealand now, and you don’t have to have insurance, Australia, same system but even better, probably because its a larger country. Single payer is working much better or the people in these countries.
No, Obamacare was a bastardized attempt to appease the insurance companies while trying to insure more people. It was not a step to single-payer.
And nations that have gone to single-payer overwhelming have lower costs and better results - why do we insist on sticking to a “system” that is demonstrated to be inferior?
Yes, you might have to wait for non-emergency treatment. Boo-fricking-hoo. If it’s not an emergency you can wait, or pay out of your own pocket. If it’s an emergency you can get what you need without sentencing your entire family to a life of poverty and harassment by bill collectors.
With the US sliding down the global ratings for health care it’s time to stop crowing “we’re number 1!” We’re not, and we haven’t been for a couple decades now.
That’s exactly what he’s talking about, although in his usual bombastic, disjointed, imprecise way. Being self-employed, I have an ACA plan that costs me $12,000 per year in premiums, with no copay provisions and a $12,900 family deductible. So, basically, it doesn’t pay for any medical care until I have paid $24,900 out of pocket for insurance and care. A few months ago, I had a couple of moles taken off and sent to the pathologist for analysis. I now have bills totaling $1,600 because my insurance didn’t pay any of it. Supposedly, I got lowered contracted rates at the doctor’s office and lab, but I don’t believe for a minute that I couldn’t have negotiated a lower bill if I didn’t have insurance. The pathology lab told me as much when I complained about their bill, saying “we don’t adjust owed amounts down if you have insurance. If you didn’t have insurance, our billing department would be able to help, but since you have insurance, you owe the indicated amount”.
So, yeah, for me, my insurance is worse than worthless unless I get hit by a truck.
And what would those benefits be? Limiting which doctors and hospitals I can visit?
The current Obamacare system is horrendous and unsustainable, and collapsing as predicted. At this point, I’d welcome a single-payer system.
Just to address this Trump quote as a factual matter, Hillary Clinton is not currently proposing a single-payer health care system.
Here is a side-by-side comparison by a respected research group that compares the Clinton and Trump health care proposals. Clinton’s proposal is basically to expand the Affordable Care Act in various ways, not to replace it with a single-payer system. Turning ACA into a single-payer system would be closer to a repeal and replace (though not in the way that Republicans use the term).
Actually, The truth is a bit more complicated than what Trump said…
Obamacare policies must include certain types of preventive care (like an annual exam and some vaccines) at zero (or very low) costs which are not subject to a deductible.
The link above explains this and includes a list of the covered services with no deductible.
I thought one point of ACA was that the deductible had to be reasonable.
Trump mentioned Canada’s system was crap. he was quite wrong.
If you need emergency care in Canada, you get the best - everyone gets the same - and possibly, the only expense is the ambulance ride.
Almost nobody here goes to the USA for operations, unless they are filthy rich (i.e. people Trump knows) and can pay the costs out of pocket. (Or, it’s cutting edge research procedures not yet covered here)
If you need something that can be delayed, yes, you go on a waiting list. This can be extensive. your (free) knee or hip replacement could take 8 months to a year once the specialist says you need one.
You can wait several days or a week or two in some places for a family doctor appointment. It is getting harder to find doctors accepting new patients. but… eventually, you get in. Worst case, just like the USA, an emergency room substitutes for a walk-in clinic. Still - no charge.
the downside, if you’re a doctor -
The government set the fee schedule. Regular GP’s are well off, but not rich. Even specialists are nowhere near as rich as in the USA, where my step-brother’s signing bonus at his new clinic (neurosurgery) was half a million.
All hospitals are run by the public health authorities, not private companies.
There is no private, for-profit medicine except for the outliers - sports teams, very rich people, procedures like cosmetic plastic surgery not covered by the health system.
The people running the health system are civil servants - certainly nowhere near the mutli-million dollar salaries paid to even the CEO of a hospital in the USA.
This is the big one - If a doctor wants to do covered procedures and charge more than the provincial rate, he cannot be part of the system. The patient gets nothing to reimbursed, and the doctor cannot bill anything to the health system for any procedures. Either all in or all out. There’s no chance a doctor could cherry-pick the rich patients and refuse to do the procedure for the going rate and charge more, while doing many others who can’t afford it for the going rate. We avoid the much-maligned double system that Britain has.
Many provinces refuse to allow for-profit health clinics (I think Alberta is the exception, and someone in BC is suing to change the rules there). This avoids the situation where someone who does not want to wait a month for an ultrasound or MRI can jump the queue for a hefty fee.
the basic point is we don’t want the situation where the better off don’t care about the system.
there is no health insurance in Canada. Blue Cross etc. are relegated to coving dental, ambulance, prescriptions (huuuuge moneymaker) etc. Billing for medical goes trough one process for the province. Much more efficient. For the poor and elderly, there are provincial plans to pay for their drugs.
Also, the provincial health groups negotiate prescription prices with the drug makers, which is why the same product in Canada costs substantially less than the USA; prescriptions given in hospitals are free, so provinces tend to be the biggest consumers of many drugs.
All in all, I wouldn’t give up our system, flaws and all, for the USA’s, especially after seeing how my father was treated in NJ.
To be factual, yes, my policy does cover one annual checkup, as well as certain other preventative things like flu shots, mammograms, etc. So, I do get that with my $1,000 monthly premium. Yay.
Both my wife and I have had knee replacements that is not emergency treatment. So we should have just used a wheel chair? And without insurance that does non emergency treatments that would be our mode of transportation.
The deductible is how much we (my family) has to pay to providers before the insurance pays anything - other than the aforementioned annual checkups and preventative treatments. The $12,900 is an annual figure for the entire family. So, we have to pay all of our medical bills to doctors, hospitals, labs, etc., and insurance doesn’t pay anything until we have paid out $12,900, on top of our monthly insurance premiums.
Based upon what I’ve heard from Canadian friends adjustments are made to waiting lists based on severity of the condition. So, if your condition is so severe as to render you unable to walk you would be moved up the list.
Do not think that you receive NO care unless it is an emergency, that is not the case at all. You get in line and wait your turn, which may be a few days or may be a month or may be some other length of time depending on what needs to be done, how may doctors are available to do it, and your condition.
A Canadian of my acquaintance at one point required hernia surgery. It was a relatively minor hernia, didn’t significantly restrict his daily activities regarding self-care or work, and he was monitored regularly by a doctor. He waited six months for his surgery. His roommate had been rushed into surgery without any wait at all, due to possibly life-threatening complications. So, for that particular surgery the wait is typically between “none” and “six months” depending on the severity of the hernia. Compare this to the US where the wait may be between “none” (for emergencies) to “never” if you have no insurance, can’t pay for it up front, and it’s not an emergency.
I don’t have such particulars for knee replacement, but the same would apply. Those with more severe conditions move higher up in priority, but no one waits forever. In the US, if you don’t have insurance and can’t pay up front you never get the surgery and you might have to beg just for the wheelchair because, while bad knees are painful and crippling they aren’t life-threatening so just sit there and suffer.
Again, you might not have waited 8 months if you were in that sort of condition - as I said, the more severe the problem the shorter the waiting period.
I might also add that a lot of the nations with single-payer are ALSO more generous with medical leaves and social assistance as well.
what he’s talking about are the increased premiums, higher deductibles and the financial hardships caused by Obamacare. Any cash reserves available for the lower deductible get burned up in premiums. the only way you’d actually get any use out of it is a catastrophic event. When Obamacare was enacted my premiums went up $100 a month. My deductible more than doubled.
And to make matters worse companies cut hours back to avoid the extra cost of Obamacare.