Today's one-liner: "The shortest way to the distinguishing excellence of any writer is through his hostile critics." Richard LeGallienne
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Friday, January 17, 2014
Obamacare Resulting in Longer ER Lines
... That's according to The American College of Emergency Physicians. The nation earned a "D+". But in 2009, prior to Obamacare, the report card was a "C-".
56 comments:
You own views are appreciated, especially if they differ from mine. But remember, commenting is a privilege, not a right. I will delete personal attacks or off-topic remarks at my discretion. Comments that play into the tribalism that has consumed this nation will be declined. So will comments alleging voter fraud unless backed up by concrete evidence. If you attack someone personally, I expect you to identify yourself. I will delete criticisms of my comment policy, vulgarities, cut-and-paste jobs from other sources and any suggestion of violence towards anyone. I will also delete sweeping generalizations about mainstream parties or ideologies, i.e. identity politics. My decisions on these matters are made on a case by case basis, and may be affected by my mood that day, my access to the blog at the time the comment was made or other information that isn’t readily apparent.
These are passive death panels. The dead don't require medical care. They represent a tremendous cost savings and an essential element in ACA's cost structure. At least folks are no longer complaining about websites and premiums. Preoccupation with simply staying alive tends to change one's priorities.
ReplyDeleteAmong civilized nations, we still get an F. Even Ghana has a better system.
ReplyDeleteYou baggers just can't handle the guy. Heavan forbid we ever fix our health care system. you would think everything was roses before this law.
At least someone is trying. The repeal and replace crowd are the same ones who are still fighting social security and Medicare for over 50 years. You think they will do anything about healthcare?
The rodeo clown president has already repealed many sections of his own law as required to avoid embarrassment and keep the Senate from Republican hands. His practice of executive line-item vetos of portions of his own bad law have created the precedent by which the law can be easily de facto repealed without Congressional interference by the next president.
ReplyDeleteI have to go, Bernie. The line to leave for Ghana is incredibly long. American's are emigrating there in droves for their outstanding medical system. It's time for lefty flea baggers to Occupy Ghana.
Universal Single Payer for every American.
ReplyDelete"Heavan"
ReplyDelete???
Need to take more from the wealthy takers, the heartless bastards
ReplyDeleteGetting a bit desperate, are we Bernie. C- to D+, why that represents a huge change! Especially since the last "grade" was in 2009, and the main portion of the law is only 18 days old. Couldn't you at least have waited for a full month?
ReplyDeleteYour desire to see healthcare denied to the most unfortunate is destined to go unfulfilled. As the law picks up steam and people begin to see that the scare stories you peddle are wildly overblown, you and other Republicans will become irrelevant on this issue.
It looks like Obamacare is having the effect of denying health care to the most unfortunate. That is why I have always opposed it. It's a bad law, and has been proven a bad law six ways to Sunday.
ReplyDeleteFunny how we find that all those people who "needed" health insurance aren't signing up for it. And more people have lost their health insurance because of the law than have signed up for ObamaCare.
ReplyDeleteThis was a con from the start.
4:56 How does Obamacare deny healthcare to the most unfortunate? There is now no denial for pre-existing conditions. No more recisions by insurance companies because of technicalities. Expansion of Medicaid to the poor in states not governed by tea-party zealots (like Corbett here in PA). Insurance companies forced to refund excess profits. Out of pocket costs capped at $6,500 per individual. Subsidies provided for middle class incomes.
ReplyDeleteOK, there is six in favor. Let's here a few of your "six ways to Sunday". Waiting breathlessly.
Charlie Dent said it is bad that means it is bad.
ReplyDelete"How does Obamacare deny healthcare to the most unfortunate? "
ReplyDeleteIt's very simple. The care is not there. The long lines at ERs are proof.
Next.
With the high premiums and outrageous deductibles you might as well take your money and flush it down the toilet, Obamacare is not affordable.
ReplyDelete6:45 Your response was underwhelming, to say the least. You are really grasping at straws in order to salve your conscience.
ReplyDeleteI guess I will never find out about those "six ways to Sunday". I guess I will never find out why the six ways that I mentioned really don't help the unfortunate.
By the way, here are two more in favor. Parents can keep children on their plans until age 24 I think. And seniors on Medicare receive substantial discounts on drugs in the "donut hole", with the eventual disappearance of the donut hole.
Yep. Conservatives like the old way where insurance companies stand in the way of you and your doctor. They distort, you decide.
ReplyDeleteI want the same medical plan that Charlie Dent has.
I could probably go on all night about what is wrong with Obamacare, from its application to 30-hour workers to the medical device tax to the goofy webpage (I have not had an answer from that site for 2 months) to yeas, the long lines in the ER. but there is no point arguing with extremists. We have them on both sides.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous extremists, no less, who sneer at "teabaggers" when they themselves are just as bad.
ReplyDeleteRead the report before your conclusions distort.
ReplyDeleteAuthors divided the indicators into five areas: access, liability, quality and patient safety environment, public health, and disaster preparedness.
The report suggests that the grade for access to ER care is unchanged.
Emergency prepardeness is down as is patient safety.
Folks it is no coincidence that The top two favorable grade changers are blue states. The worse two grade changers are Red states. Could it be because thier conservative officials fail to embrace the Affordable Act?
Bernie, I will say it again....the argument against the nominal medical device tax is was that it would hurt jobs. WELL, the Republican shut down this fall was a job killer. My employer sent folks home without pay, forced vacation, made them take involuntary week furloughs, and some even lost their jobs. When federal workers all got leave with back pay, the private sector families suffered. Republican gamesmanship hurt the jobs recovery...no doubt.
ReplyDeleteThis post has nothing to do with the government shutdown. But I'll agree and I wrote that the gov't shutdown was entirely the fault of tea part extremists in the R party. Fortunately, grown ups like Charlie Dent helped stop the nonsense. It did damage the economy and made us look like idiots.
ReplyDeleteBut Obamacare is a disaster that will hurt the economy far more than the shutdown, while failing to make sure all who need insurance, have it. That is the product of extremists within the Dem party who were unwilling to entertain any reasonable amendments and who in fact jammed it down the throats of an unwilling public.
In essence, your extremism on the left created the extremism we see on the right.
Good old Bernie O'Hare, defining any view with which he disagrees as "extremist" as a way of trying to discredit it. But there has been no answer to the question of how this law supposedly hurts the unfortunate. Oh yeah, the medical device manufacturing companies complaining about taxes. Those taxes, they really hurt the unfortunate, don't they?
ReplyDeleteAnd whether I choose to remain anonymous has no bearing on validity of the points that I made in favor of Obamacare. You have not denied or discredited a single one, because they are all true.
I have already listed several ways in which Obamacare hurts the disadvantaged, including the subject of this post. But as I said at the onset , I am unwilling to debate anonymous extremists, and obviously ones resorting to sophism.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the longer lines are due to the many previously uninsured people taking advantage of medical coverage for the first time.
ReplyDeleteObamacare is a major disaster that will kill jobs in this country and ruin peoples lives, I have seen the light and apologize for supporting this travesty.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, 9:33, whatever did those folks without medical insurance (before Obamacare) do? There ALWAYS was care available. People didn't live with open wounds, unset broken limbs, etc. The net cast by Medicaid was always large.
ReplyDeleteMy concern with Obamacare is my lack of faith in ever-encroaching government takeovers of any kind. Today's government shows almost no concern for the actual costs of things. It throws money around like never before, and why? It believes its citizens can always be tapped for more. Have you noticed how your government now prefers to use the term 'fee' rather than tax? The result is the same.
Obamacare will not end well. The worst parts will become clear during the coming year. They are already speaking about a taxpayer bailout of insurance companies because actual purchases of these plans (not sign-ups) is much too low.
In time, I believe most employers who provide coverage will soon drop that benefit in favor of making small subsidies to their workers and sending them on their way. Removing themselves completely.
Fred Windish
Fred,
ReplyDeleteI will sincerely try to reach out to you at this point. I am not in love with the ACA but I am glad "something" was done.
Now to the past and future. Halthcare costs at one time were similar to most economic forces. It was actually not that bad compared to other services. However over twenty-five years ago modern medicine took off on a double digit inflationary increase year after year. While one can argue it means better care one can also argue what good is "miracle care" if you can't afford it.
No economic system can absorb double digit inflation in only one segment of the economy while other areas barely move are flat or even depressed.
Simply stated "health care" moved beyond the laws of the marketplace into a monopoly of supply with an infinite and growing demand. Prices were set mot by any rules of the marketplace but by the sector itself and due to guaranteed need, the cost was paid regardless. Only large insurance companies had the ability to negotiate, individuals lacked power as there was virtually no competition which in certain cases is not even possible.
So in conclusion, while we can have partisan battles and "freedom fights" over healthcare it is clear the system was not "good" or "fine" and you were a pink slip or major illness or pre-existing ocndition away form losing everything in life in order to care for that life.
That is not the way a civilized society should operate.
While I agree the ACA does nto a lot to address the evil of the "costs", no one has really lifted a finger or suggested anything of real value in over fifty years. So rather than attack each other. Lets get together to address the real problem, which is not you or me.
Melvin H. (Part of my essay under pseudonym, use if you desire)
3 words allow you to opt out of the worse parts of Obamacare. Health Savings Account. Research it and see if it is for you. So the poor get care if they don't die waiting for it and the middle class who use to have it can die because they can't afford it. Or they get sick, and can no longer work because they couldn't afford the new premiums or deductibles. What a trade off. If your premium is high check out Health Savings Accounts and let the others figure out what they can do. What a disaster. Research care in other countries and pay cash if you need to. They won't get anything from me for this disastrous, government can run nothing law. Their mistakes will cost us all....
ReplyDeleteGuess I checked in at just the right time! Thanks, Melvin.
ReplyDeleteI agree, 'something' had to be done just not a government takeover. I continue to believe free market competition on an open market would have worked better, IF GIVEN A CHANCE.
Selling insurance across state lines, some expansion of Medicaid, FAR less government regulation of healthcare practices, medical malpractice reforms, less FDA restrictions on the development and lengthy approval of medicines, and yes, price controls on certain things.
I prefer most issues to be left at the STATE level, not Federal. I prefer 50 options (states) over just 1 (Federal).
MANY citizens are leaving California and New York for various reasons. I'm glad they have that option. But, when it all becomes Federal government control . . .. where 'ya gonna go?
I do appreciate your reasoned response, however.
Fred Windish ( not a pseudonym )
I'm standing on solid ground,. just in case bernie tries to push.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe anyone still defends this debacle. Don't people know how to read? Billions spent for what? More people uninsured. More expensive plans. Poor care. Government incompetency.
ReplyDeleteI usually agree with you Bernie, but a C- to a D+ is the smallest change possible, and how do you know it is related to Obamacare? You've really got a bee in your bonnet on Obamacare, that's for sure.
ReplyDelete"But I'll agree and I wrote that the gov't shutdown was entirely the fault of tea part extremists in the R party. Fortunately, grown ups like Charlie Dent helped stop the nonsense. It did damage the economy and made us look like idiots."
ReplyDeleteBullshit. I was in the Shendandoah Valley during the shutdown, planned to do Skyline Drive when President Payback - who proves the NJ tub of goo is a fucking piker when it comes to such nonsense - ordered it closed off. The B and B we were at, the restaurant and shop owners in Winchester, and the owner of the Carrot Tree restaurant in Yorktown all stood tall in the face of Il Douche, to help the shutdown bring the sought after result. Meanwhile, we rafted the river privately so we didn't have to rely on Uncle Sleaze, and spent our budget at Cedar Creek and other attractions staffed by volunteers who did a much better job than the troughfeeders. No one missed a beat.
All Dent did was get the printing presses rolling and the borrowing going again, and spit on the sacrfices of those people who would do it all over again if it comes to pass.
But you hang on to those talking points ifn it keeps you in good stead wif Chuck.
-Clem
Clem, I saw how it affected the economy in my own work. The real estate market was starting to recover, and dried up with the shutdown. So thanks.
ReplyDeleteYeah, part of my income is derived of an industry that declined a bit because quasi gov't agencies slowed their purchases. I made less money during that time. I wished to God those with the power to do so had taken the opportunity to purge us of any government impact at all.
ReplyDeleteDude, every Revolutionary War and War of Northern Aggression battlefield holds the remains of those who gave ALL for freedom and liberty (I am confident the Union infantryman did not realize his sacrifice was, ultimately, for an infinite expansion of government and NOT the end of chattel slavery).
Some of us lost a few bucks and experienced some inconvenience. The suckling class and the troughfeeders whose losses were returned retroactively sacrificed nothing.
Do those in government ever suffer anything more than temporary and reversable inconvenience?
Have we become so pussified, so "I must have mine now" that we must punt and cave at a mere attempt to rein in the drunken sailor, the plunderer of our children's and grandchildren's future?
As for the original post and its point: Unassailable, except to those who have downed the kool-aid.
-Clem
I like the non profit hospitals that charge 22 dollars for a tylenol and 60 dollars for a guaze bandage. I tried to pay my bill with tylenol but they refused.
ReplyDeleteClem, I'll give you this. You are consistent. You spoke against the Sletvold nomination and i was convinced you would defend it.
ReplyDeletePussies
ReplyDelete"every Revolutionary War and War of Northern Aggression battlefield holds the remains of those who gave ALL for freedom and liberty"
ReplyDeleteDude, you are one sick crazy mama jamma
I just close my eyes and whisper. ..God, is any of this true? but, I'll lay it down on a bef of roses.
ReplyDeleteWhen enough folks realize Obamacare was not about your healthcare (good or bad) but about increasing government control of our lives, income redistribution, and creating new means to extract from us, yet increase our dependency on government itself, something MIGHT change.
ReplyDeleteWe must not forget, the Social Security Trust Fund you were led to believe is there for you really does NOT exist. Its funding tapped for other government spending projects.
Too much government becomes a growing beast that needs to be fed more every year. Obamacare is a new layer of government need that will reach all of you in ways you have yet to imagine.
Move over Federal Income Tax (IRS), there's a new bully ready to join you.
Fred Windish
"When enough folks realize Obamacare was not about your healthcare (good or bad) but about increasing government control of our lives, income redistribution, and creating new means to extract from us, yet increase our dependency on government itself"
ReplyDeleteThe opinion of Roger Ailes and his Fox news, the Koch Brothers and you. Hardly a fact in the bunch.
Can't we just let the believers in Obama and his care ban together and do for each other. The others will gladly take care of their own and the true needy. The left can not survive without the money from the right. They want our money but not our opinions. Give me and shut up. Well that won't work forever. And it shouldn't. Making people very bitter on the left when we speak up which then makes us bitter to have to give and get nothing back. Not even a say....
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness... you people who trust any facet of government to do right "by the people" are so disillusioned that you are beyond any hope. Can you no see that you are part of the problem. Any free person would never ever want its government to have a stich more power than would ever ever be needed. Period. Now, the government has MORE of a say in your personal health to the point that it will FINE you if you do not comply. KNOCK,KNOCK what part of that is being free? You will be made a criminal. Really?? Is that we have become. What is next, if you eat a Big Mac you will pay a fine?? It is a very sad time in our country. The progressives (communists) have taken too much and it is time for the remaining people with common sense and a sense of Patriotism to start putting people in positions that will stop the madness. The founding fathers are rolling in their graves.
ReplyDeleteThis is my shelter?
ReplyDeleteSome of you people are just too nutty to respond to. You sound like you have lived under a rock or a rock fell on your heads.
ReplyDeleteBoth, probably.
ReplyDeleteWell, here's a question for you Obamacare haters. Now, since Jan 1, insurers can no longer turn down an applicant because he has a medical condition, a pre-existing condition.
ReplyDeleteHow is that a bad thing? Even more, isn't that a good thing?
7:13 are u crazy? These same insurers will have to insure a person who does not spend one dime on insurance but when a catastrophe hits them they will not be turned down. For those of you who buy into this you will pay for them. I will not. I can do my own thing and it won't be Obamacare. 26 year olds are now welfare cases. They can't find a job because this administration has no clue here so they are now welfare young adults.
ReplyDeleteMost will lose their doctor and their policy which many would like to keep. Many will pay more. A lot more. If you voted him it I hope u pay til u can't afford it.
The ER will still be flooded and worse and how long can that last?
Go abroad and pay cash and educate yourself on how to stay away from Obamacare.
Doctors leaving and a shortage coming. Many will get minimal care and it won't be when u need it.
Does anyone really think the right has no clue? Do u really think they want to stress about all of this and more? Without the right there would be little in charity. No welfare or food stamps and no military. They know nothing I get it.......we do Ned a new right though and it's needs to be as militant and loud as the left. Oh and maybe leave trash and act like it too.
8:33 I think you are just a bit confused. Your worry about people having a catastrophe, not paying a dime, and then getting medical help is precisely the reason there is a mandate to buy insurance, and a penalty if you do not. There will not be any "free riders".
ReplyDeleteSome will pay more. If you are getting insurance through your workplace, you will NOT pay more. Those others who have a high income will likely pay more. Middle class people have access to generous subsidies. But if your main concern is selfishness, then I agree that I have no answer that will satisfy you.
Nobody seems to be reporting a doctor shortage yet. If one develops, well I guess we will have to educate and graduate more doctors. But once again, if you are arguing that you should be first in line, and the unfortunate can go suck eggs, then I have no answer that will satisfy you.
If healthcare is so bad, tell why on every corner they are building a urgent care center! The doctors are going to be rolling in the dough! More people with health care the more money they make! only makes sense!!!! this is a wonderful thing President Obama did.. just takes a little time to work out the bubbles!!! Bernie if you didn't have medicare you wouldn't have insurance either!!!! stop bitching!!
ReplyDeleteI just close my eyes and pray. God, is any of this true? because ohare must be on wellbutrin.
ReplyDeletehey trish. You want my continued support? stop your follish assault again kelly gross. if you keep that shit up, then you're on your fucking own. period.
ReplyDeleteGreggy???
ReplyDeleteNo, silly. I keep it real.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how people who live in states that have expanded Medicaid under Obamacare are reacting. Here is a quote from an article in the NY Times:
ReplyDelete"Waitresses, fast food workers, security guards and cleaners described feeling intense relief that they are now protected from the punishing medical bills."
www.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/health/peace-of-mind-is-first-benefit-for-many-now-getting-medicaid
This from the state of West Virginia, which has a Democratic governor. It is a feeling that similar workers in PA do not have, because Gov. Corbett does not want them to have it.
Bernie,
ReplyDeleteThe "long lines at the ER" are a fundamental aspect of America's healthcare system which precedes Obamacare. For at least the last 20 years if an individual needed emergency treatment they could go to the nearest ER and receive it, regardless of their ability to pay. Now people who didn't have healthcare waited till things became dire and then used the ER like most people visited their general practioner because they didn't have to pay for it. Obamacare will at least force these individuals to have insurance so they can either afford to see a general practioner or at least allow the hospital to recoup the cost of their continued ER visits.