Conservatives. What SHOULD health care in America look like?

Automation is a different issue but it is likely to be a part of healthcare going forward whether we're government run or free market oriented. AI already does a better job of diagnosing health issues than most doctors do, when its used. The clinic in Wichita that I referenced earlier offers access "via phone, e-mail, text, webcam and more. The sky is the limit.". I wear a watch that tracks my heart rate and warns me if I have an "irregular" heartbeat. There is every reason to think the app that transmits that data to my doctor is just around the corner.

Even more interesting (for diabetics) is the technology that allows people and doctors to monitor a person's blood glucose levels constantly (cgm - Constant Glucose Monitors) already on the market.

 

The Left would be in a lot better position to help all these people if they were able to let go of their grip on "equality" and be able to see more practical solutions.

"No, I won't support that idea, because it wouldn't be treating homeless people with equality"
As a result they just end up being homeless.

(You never have enough money to treat them with equality and solve their problems)

Same thing with healthcare.

 

I believe you are taking a mechanical, literal, and therefore bogus view of "equality" as meaning "equal". And that is easy to do when the ideas are taken out of context.

 

I love how progressive ideas screw up everything. Education stinks so nobody is responsible with finances. Medical degrees are outrageously expensive because of student loan programs and greedy leftist universities. Irresponsible people using insurance for mundane medical expenditures drive up cost in the absence of a free market and competition. Able bodied people on Medicaid and disability.

All progressive dreams and all lead to the nightmare today. But no, we don’t want to face the reality it’s mostly progressives that messed it all up. Of course the solution is forcing me to pay for more of the same.

 

The way you describe things it makes it look like progressives have all this power over conservatives. Why have conservatives allowed themselves to get pushed around and bullied by all these progressives by allowing all these "progressive ideas" to be implemented?

 

1 cent paid by the government is 1 cent more than the people are paying. I’ve showed statistics

 

Sorry to break the news, but it is the top corporate elite who are the guiding force for this country and our economy. That is why so many public supports are being cut or eliminated while the rich get huge tax breaks and other gifts. Education, for example, has always served business in preparing a workforce equipped to take jobs in industry and finance. Today, with off-shoring of so much of our economy, not much of a well-educated workforce is needed, so education suffers neglect. But if you're a rich kid and you want to get a good, advanced education so you can take your place among the rich elite, your parents can easily afford to pay for that education that the rest of us cannot get so easily.

Yes, the top corporate elite are really the ones in control, and the right finds it good policy to blame the victims.

 

Just a quick outline, but something like this:

A. Tax Credits available for purchasers of independent health insurance plans that are actually equivalent as a consumer to the employer health plans being covered by private companies. And that would be pricy, something along the lines of a $5000.00 tax credit for individuals and $10,000.00 for families. This would come close to paying about two thirds of the premium cost of the average group plan.

B. But wait you ask, that doesn’t do anything about medical inflation, that encourages people to seek out the most expensive plans they can afford with their tax credit. Not so fast… Any leftover amount from their tax credit would be rolled into a Health Savings Account (HSA). So say you find a family plan that only costs $8,000.00 per year, and then $2,000.00, the balance of your unspent tax credit, can be rolled into an HSA account to be used to pay co-pays, and deductibles. That’s a big incentive to be a smart consumer.

C. Of all of the Obamacare Mandates, the one on Preexisting Conditions is the most popular, and the one that is most likely to survive in any future health bill. Pre-existing conditions should be paid as a secondary payer via Medicaid.

D. Of course the media and CBO crying jag over people losing their health coverage due to the elimination of the Medicaid Expansion can be avoided by simply allowing those currently under Medicaid Expansion to keep their plans. If the 14.5 million people currently covered by Medicaid Expansion know they won’t lose their plans (even if no new people are added to the program) that takes a lot of wind out of the sails of the opposition, and those numbers will only decline over time.

 

I'm conservative and a trumper and don't hate Obama care. I kow a lot of people rely on it. Some of these are lazy pieces of trash taking advantage and others genuinely need it. If the republicans can't come up with something better they need to shut up about it.

 

Because many are complicit and the rest lackadaisical.

 

So conservatives are cucks to progressives? Got it.

 

And what do you do about those that take advantage of society and are lazy?

Is societies job not to provide them with rewards but to ensure they opportunity is there for them to pursue those rewards if they wish?

If someone chooses not to take advantage of the open roads society has provided them then why is that my problem?

It is possible for the vast majority. Those without the inability I have no problem taking care of. I also am not going to support taking care of people that make stupid choices. Want to have 10 kids before you are 20 then deal with it, we aren't going to bail out your ignorance.

 

Many “conservative” politicians are, yes. Some call them RINOs. Conservative leaders betraying the people is why Trump exists.

Most conservative “people” (not it politics) have taken for granted the principles that made this country great would survive unassisted. They failed to account for the authoritarian core value of progressivism and for the fickle self interest of conservative leaders. When people are busy working and raising families it’s hard to devote large amounts of energy to combatting authoritarians....up to a point. Then it becomes a priority...

 

What objection can there be to solving simple poverty in a market friendly manner via compensation for Capitalism's natural rate of unemployment in our at-will employment States?

 

Sorry, not buying it. I think the reality is even most conservatives deep down like and want progressive ideas. These "RINOs" are such for a reason. And Trump won because he knew exactly how to manipulate the sheep.
Mind you, I don't like many of the progressive ideas...I'm just calling it like I see it.

 

The concept of insurance itself is destructive to a capitalist society. It's only a little better than a corporate bailout.

Risk vs reward is in important cog in how capitalism works. If people are not held mostly or completely liable to face the consequences of their choices they will be less concerned about making the right choices.

It is not surprising that one of the greatest reasons health insurance costs so much is malpractice 'insurance' !

 

Like any other service you pay for what you need.

 

They said we did not fill out the proper paperwork before my son was transferred from West Hills to UCLA for emergency heart surgery. We submitted our Blue Cross card when my wife went in to deliver and when we got to UCLA to admit our baby. The next I heard from the insurance company was a letter denying the claim because we did not get pre approval for the procedure at UCLA. Then I started getting demand letters for payment of over $120,000. I called several times to explain the situation and got nowhere. Finally after my wife was forced to quit because Blue cross more than doubled the premiums, I hired a lawyer. A year and $20,000 in legal fees later, the insurance company finally agreed to pay the claim in exchange for an agreement not to sue for bad faith. By that time they had sent our account to collection and damaged my credit. If I had the money I would have proceeded to sue and told them to F off, but my lawyer said it might take years to resolve.

 

As always I can only speak of which I have firsthand knowledge. I’m willing to bet the conservatives we know have little in common. A flyover conservative and an Ivy League conservative are as different as a classic liberal and a progressive. You may very well be right about some conservatives.

As far as sheep, I didn’t vote for him because I thought he was just saying things to get elected. When he actually did some things important to me I’ve come around a bit. For anyone having any vestiges of conservatism in their veins, there really isn’t any viable option. Even if a real conservative came along the odds of them being able to withstand the progressive, RINO, socialist, and media attacks is virtually zero.

 

I know. But in the case of too much risk the capitalist system of incentives doesn't always work too well.

For example students making all that investment of time, money, and energy into medical school.

 

Dude - if Universities are charging all they can get for a service, that's called Capitalism.

 

Glad you asked. In the first place, health insurance is not the same thing as health care. Insurance was never meant to cover items you could save/budget for, like office calls, monthly prescriptions, well-baby checkups, etc. When insurance started covering EVERYTHING is when we started running into trouble. Insurance is so when you have an emergency situation or huge health crisis, it doesn't bankrupt you. Leave Medicaid/Medicare alone. Those are the safety net for the poor, elderly, and infirm. Folks with pre-existing conditions wouldn't be covered for those for a couple years; after all, you can't go out and buy car insurance after you've already had an accident, right? And there is COBRA to help people who've suddenly lost their job/insurance.

If the government wants to get into it in some way, they should require every health insurance company, in order to be licensed, to offer a low-cost, reasonable deductible, policy that is for catastrophe only. They could still sell the big Cadillac policies too for people who want and can afford them. This, I believe, would solve the insurance crisis.

 

The problem isn't that the universities are charging what the market will bear. Its that government subsidizes the schools and student loans without any accountability, which vastly inflates what the market will bear. Would you loan a kid 200K so he can get a degree that will only qualify him to be an Uber driver or a waiter? Government loan programs do that every day. Without the market distorting effects of government intervention, education would be much more affordable and would likely be more limited in regard to fluff degrees that aren't a good return on investment.

 

Which ignores the preventative medicine that can often help stop the huge emergency room bills. THAT"S what the ACA was mainly about - getting people out of emergency rooms and into early detection and treatment by giving incentive to go to the doctor BEFORE conditions became acute.

Was it perfect - hell, no. But after 50 years of trying to get some type of health initiative passed, it was a start.

If the ACA is repealed, a split Congress is NOT going to agree on a replacement and the popular parts will die along with the unpopular provisions. Congress will be too gun shy and too split to take it up again for decades.