Yes there is a good point to Obama care, otherwise known as the Affordable care act. Well, there are two in total, but they come at a cost. So let’s get to it, the only provisions that would survive if Obama care is ever overturned or replaced.
Ban on lifetime limits: A life time limit is a set amount of money a health insurance company is willing to spend to pay for your health care expenses. Life time limits for typical Americans before the law were approximately one million dollars. Now this was not a negative. In fact most Americans never reached the million dollar mark in their lifetime. Well that was until the costs of health care increased due to inflation and other factors. Soon Americans with the most severe diseases and conditions would meet that limit. This meant diabetes patients, AIDS patients and those who suffered the most debilitating of physical and mental malformations would exceed that limit and thus be dropped by their health insurance companies. All this was due to cost increases in health care (which Obama care did not solve at all).
But, the lifetime limits were good under certain conditions. It was a form of rationing health care that prevented two things. One, it prevented free loaders from overburdening the private health insurance companies. Let’s face it, the insurance companies act in a similar manner to a ponzi scheme. They pool all of the money from the premiums together (save the money to pay their workers, taxes and expenses) and then dish it out to pay for health care. But, just like a ponzi scheme, if too much is taken out then the system collapses. The result is less money to go around meeting demand. This all would have been solved if health care costs have been addressed properly (aka, make it so we do not need the insurance companies). But now we face a financial risk of the health care companies denying coverage more to ration care more efficiently.
Ban on discrimination of pre-existing conditions: Pre-existing conditions have been the bane of many Americans who suffer from debilitating diseases. If you have diabetes, AIDS, cancer or any other disease prior to getting health care, then under the original system the insurance companies might have denied you as a customer (though this was not always the norm if you could pay). The result was the poorest Americans with pre-existing conditions having to use a government sponsored health plan to help pay for treatments. Problem was that the government plans are twice as likely to deny treatment as a private plan. So to stop this, Obama Care banned all forms of discrimination with respect to pre-existing conditions.
However there is a problem with this. Women who typically pay a higher health care cost when they are younger due to them being likely to get pregnant, would no longer have the ability to have their rate reduced once they hit menopause. People who stay healthy by exercise despite their health conditions cannot have their rates reduced. This ban on discrimination also banned positive discrimination. So discrimination that would have saved people money is not allowed. Also, because there is a ban on this form of discrimination, everyone else's costs with respect to premiums, and co pays will rise. The reason is because you no longer can charge more money to a person with a pre-existing condition, so to compensate everyone else must pay more.
Conclusion: Both of these benefits come at a cost. These benefits will inherently raise costs for health care on everyone. As a result, more people will only sign up when they are sick, and then drop coverage when they get better which will result in costs rising even further. What should have happened is a free market of health care where all insurance companies world wide would compete for your business. This competition alone would drop costs dramatically. Then allow for certain forms of discrimination that would allow insurance companies to reduce costs when certain conditions are met. Finally, those who cannot afford the higher costs for health care they need can be subsidized rather than forced onto a government plan that is more likely to deny coverage. But that is a perfect world scenario with the government (Federal and State) getting out of the way. It is due to government that costs have risen as much as they have. States allow only a select group of health insurance companies in creating a monopoly. The tax code incentivizes health insurers to focus on businesses, not individuals. States regulate what should and should not be covered which results in us all paying for coverage we do not need and most likely will never use. Those in the Federal government have made it worse by adding more rules and regulations onto a system that was already overburdened with useless laws. It is time for a change. We need the Free Trade of health care, where only catastrophic coverage is required to be covered, with us the people deciding what we as individuals need. This change alone will drop costs dramatically as approximately 50% of the health care costs alone are due to having insurance act as a middle man. This means all costs will drop by at least 50%. There are more changes that could free the system and make it work. But, we need to first vote in responsible people back into office who are willing to make that change in the first place.
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