FrankForum (Frankness IS Forum)

Brainstorming how, audio 10 mins, here: http://www.brainout.net/downloads/wma/FixObamacare.MP3

At first min, I meant to say, anything OVER 50K will be covered 1st dollar by insurer.

Gist:
1. Change mandate to catastrophic coverage only, with 50K-100K deductible, no co-pay.
2. Change existing pension/health savings account laws to allow taxpayers to deductibly save and use tax free, any funds for healthcare OR retirement, without limits.
3. Commoditize all health services, including allowing one to buy pharmaceuticals from ANYWHERE in the world, no longer REQUIRING FDA approval. At Fed level, legalize MJ, with states still free to tax/regulate/ban it if they want.

More can be said: but this is where I'd start, the idea being to make the changeover as smooth as possible.

Your thoughts?

I don't think this is part of ObamaCare, but there is a law requiring that employers provide insurance to full time employees. This is the biggest jobs killer. It almost guarantees that most jobs are limited to part time in order to dodge the mandate.

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HEB 4:12
The word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, of the joints and marrow, and is a critic of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Yeah, that's what HRC has been trying to do since the 1980's.
Some physicians are sooo dumb they actually think government healthcare is a good idea, viz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl5DLuQFeXg

This was my reply to him, in case he deletes it:
First reply:


2nd reply to him

Am I being nasty? You bet. It's incompetent physicians like him who perpetuate HIGH FEES they get by keeping the WRONG SYSTEM intact. But then, maybe he's not making as much money as my physician clients.

Senate amendments to ACA official text, http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congres ... d_ms_tw_ma

AHCA official text, https://congress.gov/bill/115th-congres ... bill/1628/

Windy 41 min audio primer on insurance and effect of Sen bill on ACA, https://www.brainout.net/downloads/wma/SenAmend2ACA.MP3

Better-written analysis of the delay in cuts due to midterms, here: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/senate-healthcare-bill-is-an-obamacare-rescue-package/article/2626868

Revised BCRA (it's now called) Senate amendments, https://t.co/jJcLLz98V4
I'm getting it read aloud now, only via pdf can you get read aloud. You can't convert it to get better read aloud. I use Microsoft Anna 4 4 on speed and pitch. I use Adobe Acrobat 9, the last Acrobat full program worth buying.

Give yourself about 3 hours, so lie down or something as it's read aloud. I wish I could use 'Amy22', the Brit voice you'll hear in my audio drafts, but she won't read pdf files, and they are SECURED so you can't save as something else, then convert.

It's long and repetitive, saying what code sections are amended and how, so if you're not familiar with those sections, reading it aloud will be tiresome.

Here's the official CBO report on the revised Senate amends, https://www.cbo.gov/publication/52849

Converted to audio, https://www.brainout.net/downloads/wma/ ... 2Voice.mp3

Don't listen to the press, READ IT YOURSELF, cuz the press misrepresents 'uninsured'. The Senate amends SHIFT COVERAGE to states and association plans, basically requiring they cover the same things as ACA with stupid restrictions on abortions and other nonsense, but they do remove all penalties for non-coverage. Revised bill removes the 25% penalty for lapse and recover, only the very short 6-month wait for new coverage (pre #ACA, insurers historically made people wait 2 then one year since the 1970s, so this is very short).

So it's not 'uninsured' but 'differently covered', as state and association plans can be self-funded, not insured. But you'll see that for yourself, if you READ THE SOURCE TEXTS.

I tried to summarize the four planks of coverage options and the removal of penalties here (55 minutes, long yet concise): https://www.brainout.net/downloads/wma/ ... alysis.MP3

Basics on Insurance and Social Security, about 30 min audio: https://www.brainout.net/downloads/wma/ ... eaning.MP3

And here's the official Social Security graph talked about in the audios, so you can see it for yourself (bottom of page): https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v75n1/v75n1p1.html

Latest talk on Obamacare:
1. Cruz and Lee offered an amendment allowing insurers to offer any kind of health coverage to customers, if at least one of the plans is at ACA level. Of course, that ends up meaning most insureds will opt out of ACA plans.
2. Raising or eliminating the HSA limits.
3. Some talk of reimposing the 3.8% net investment tax.

They're not making big changes post July recess, yet. Lots of talk nothing new to report of value.

Are they at least planning on ditching the individual mandate?

_________________
HEB 4:12
The word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, of the joints and marrow, and is a critic of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Oh yeah, the individual mandate was removed from both prior versions. It's not coming back. The arguments are over how much to retain of what's already been passed. GOP objections are just the opposite of Dems. GOP rightly see the new Senate (and House) bills as KEEPING Obamacare largely intact, and hate that. Dems of course have to lie and call every future adjustment a 'cut' that will kill millions, etc.

So they are both hypocrites in opposite ways. As usual.

I'll never forget some of the worst tax raises came under Reagan and Bush Sr.

TEFRA (Reagan) SEEMED to cut tax rates, but they gutted long-historical deductions or halved them (especially in pensions, my field). So net result was you paid more in taxes if wealthy, and got less in retirement. Very like what a Democrat would do.

So the result was, people stopped putting money in pension plans and that triggered in material ways to the Social Security crisis we have today. Long story.

The Bush Sr 'read my lips' higher taxes didn't last, but again it shows the hypocrisy.

Dem hypocrisy needs no examples, every day you see it on TV and twitter.

Glad to hear that the individual mandate is dead. I really hate to say it, but if my generation is to live past their 40s and 50s, the classical healthcare and pharmaceutical systems as we know them today must collapse and reset. In acception for simple things, like infections and basic musculoskeletal issues, I believe doctors and pharmacies are slowly killing Americans. I don't think its intentional, its just a mixture of flawed education and greed. Same problems with Christianity and Physics.

There are dietary cures for issues like type 2 diabetes, certain mid-life cancers, and many autoimmune diseases. These are all disorders. The cure for a disorder is to find its origin and put it back in order. Rx drugs just compound the problem. I see it ever single day.

Let the politicians have their Bills. I just don't want any part of that system anymore.

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HEB 4:12
The word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, of the joints and marrow, and is a critic of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Well, think of it the other way: nowadays, multimillion-dollar lawsuits are launched if a physician misdiagnosed a toe twist. Add to that, how Medicare repayment is not only limited, but slow, so to make up for the real cost of patient needed care, you have to order a bunch of tests even if they aren't really needed, JUST TO COVER YOUR BUTT IF SUED and of course to get more money to compensate for the fact you won't get paid until 7 months later.

That's a big factor in costs, not only in healthcare, but in any professional service, anything you buy from a large corporate seller. Litigation risk.

Summary of bill:
https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=3894093-Summary-Revised-Senate-Health-Care-Bill-7-13-17

Summary is 27 pages.

NPR's insertion of the doc is annoying, so instead use the link AT RIGHT HAND SIDE to download the pdf.

ACTUAL BILL, 147 pages (I think). Again, use the RIGHT LINK to download the pdf, as the online post by NPR of it, is blehh

https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=3894050-Revised-Senate-Health-Care-Bill-7-13-17

Official CBO link which uses 'here' as links to the official Senate texts (there are actually 2 revisions, the earlier one being June 26):
https://www.budget.senate.gov/bettercare

The Summary in its link, allows conversion to text and hence to voice, so I used Firefox Text2Speech to convert it, at the end of this post. Total time is over 2 hours.

If you prefer online links outside the forum, these are the mp3 copies:
http://www.brainout.net/downloads/wma/BCRARevisionSummaryText2Speech.mp3
and
http://www.brainout.net/downloads/wma/BCRARevisionSummaryContinued.mp3

UPSHOT: Not much different, removes FSA deduction limits, allows HSAs to use that money for premiums, not just actual expenses (a good help), retains and slightly expands the ways insurers can offer cheaper plans, cuts only SOME of the red tape against the states. Sadly, the taxes allegedly against 'the rich' were partly reinstated. Since the buyer always pays the SELLER's tax (look at your own paycheck for proof), YOU end up paying more vs had the taxes been removed. Will report more later. Just know that both lefties and righties LIE about the bill, so you MUST read it yourself.

All those section numbers are to #ACA and IRC Code Sections; so unless you can discern what's being changed just by hearing the text, you'll need to google or download the Acts or Code Sections being addressed. It's tedious, sorry. This is why lawyers get the big bucks.

If you want to know my position on this, I'm against it. ACA should just flat-out be repealed. The reason your healthcare costs so much, is GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT. Medicaid, Medicare, all Federal health programs should never have been started in the first place. Then costs would dramatically halve or even less. Why? Because at least 20% of the costs you pay are for the RED TAPE of Govt oversight. Another 30% is for the built-in TAXES, same as your paycheck. Your employer effectively pays your taxes, so guess what you're doing when you buy something? You're paying for the taxes of everyone involved in making whatever you buy. So in healthcare, if the others' TAXES weren't there -- i.e., no more income tax but instead only sales tax YOU pay as YOU use whatever -- then what are you paying? A LOT LESS.

But government wants control over your life. So it won't make the real changes needed to reduce healthcare costs, and the Dems will ALWAYS LIE about that. GOP is now learning to lie, too. Pox on both parties, sorry.

Now that #BCRA won't be voted on, and instead the old 2015 flat repeal Obamacare mandate:

If just flat repeal of taxes and indiv mandate, BUT the insurers don't get a break on the mandate of what insurance they can sell, here's the (obvious) CBO report result, updated from the 12/2015 study of same they had done (link is to official cbo report, but only pastes in truncated form, is a pdf download):
https://t.co/oINbYncBnn

I just got a letter from Mission Health (the largest hospital network and employer in Western North Carolina). They're informing everyone that if Blue Cross (dominating 72% of the market) will not renegotiate their terms of agreement by 10/4/2017, Mission Health will no longer accept Blue Cross as a 3rd party payer. This is going to make health care significantly less affordable in the area, and can potentially result in mass unemployment. This isn't just hospitals we're talking here. Mission Health's network extends to Urgent Care facilities, retail pharmacies, retail medical supply stores, and most importantly, local family doctors. Looks like things might be getting really bad here soon. Obama Care is killing the local economy.

As a pharmacy technician, I've been watching things fall apart since 2014. Everything, from the out-of-pocket drug prices, to premiums and co-pays have rapidly gone through the damn roof. Some very old and inexpensive drugs have gone up in price by as much as 100 fold.

If the free market is not reintroduced into the health care system soon, the whole thing is going to come crashing down, and its going to drag jobs and a large, "too big to fail", chunk of the economy with it. Americans are not prepared to handle this kind of crash.

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HEB 4:12
The word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, of the joints and marrow, and is a critic of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Yeah, my pharmacy clients are bailing out. Obamacare has the opposite effect of what it was sold to do, cuz you can't introduce govt control without massive price hikes. That creates more dependence as some sectors of the economy benefit from having more money, so then when removed.. crash.

The latest iteration of proposals to repeal and replace Obamacare is #GrahamCassidyHellerJohnson, or simply #GrahamCassidy, and I turned a summary of the meaning into a 'Moment', here:
https://twitter.com/i/moments/911089218050441216

Upshot: it wants to replace by calculating the money otherwise under #ACA, and instead block grant it to states. However, the block grants adjust for parity per capita, so some states gain a lot and some lose a lot. Democrats of course hate it, cuz then they lose Federal power over your healthcare funds.

The actual GCHJ bill is in that Moment, and here:
https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/read-about-graham-cassidy-heller-johnson/

Going by the mainstream media, no one's actually reading and thinking through the bill's text, and they are completely unaware of the BARGAINING POWER states could get directly with reinsurers, so that healthcare could become much cheaper, even if not insured individually. Oh well.