How is a private company mispricing their service, and later on correcting that mistake by raising the price, a direct consequence of the ACA? I just don't see the logic in that. If every insurance company out there all over the country was raising their premiums by over 30%, then I would definitely see the connection. Here you have some official data, though not sure how accurate/trustworthy this website is: http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/health-insurance-premiums.aspx "A new analysis of the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplace costs finds that, nationwide, marketplace premiums did not increase at all from 2014 to 2015, though there were substantial average premium increases in some states and declines in others."
Good old fashioned unintended consequences. Of course, this one was so obviously coming that it isn't even funny. And it is isn't just premiums going up due to the "Affordable" Care Act. Tangentially, Forbes has an interesting interactive site on the topic of ObunglesCare: What Will Obamacare Cost You?
The underlying problem here is not the cost of health insurance, but the face that healthcare amounts to 1/6th of American GDP. Where is all this money going? I'm positive that it's not going to wages. I'd love to know just how much is going into the hands of those who are not providing care to those who are sick. We need to switch to a non-profit model of healthcare. What we have is a mess. I've been in a hospital and there is no way in the hot spot that I will believe that the services I was given were worth the 15k a day I was charged. No way. I doubt I consumed more than $500 in services after labor and real costs are determined.
If you are somehow able to eliminate profits, you eliminate incentives and will greatly reduce the quality of care. I believe we generally get what we pay for in life. If I need surgery, I want the guy who was at the top of his class and is now making $1 million a year to be the one doing the cutting. I don't want the guy at the local charity hospital who barely made it through school and is paid $90k a year to be the one cutting on me. I agree that the system needed to be improved. But a massive big govt takeover is not the way to do it - it will only make it worse.
You compare the average healthcare in Western Europe and the average in America.. I think you will find that the European ones certainly match if not exceed the quality of the one in USA. And here I am talking about the average, not about the best money can buy in the USA vs the public (more or less free) doctors you get in Europe. Lets put it this way, fully insured in both cases, I think I would rather get in an accident in western europe than in the USA. Profits are not eliminated in a public system, the doctors still make a good deal of money. As do the specialist nurses. It's the guys sitting wearing a suit in an office who never even see the patient that don't get that much money, and as far as I'm aware those guys have very little effect in the quality of the care.
That's great - you guys do things your way if you're happy with it. I've been pretty happy overall with America on the whole throughout my life and from what I've studied prior to my being born. I'm not very happy with much of what has been going on here in the past half dozen years though. That's what Obama and the "progressives" want - for us to be more like Europe. If I wanted to live like Europe, I'd go there.
