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If you chip a tooth, a private dentist will charge 800 euros
to repair the damage. Apparently nobody
wants to go to a state-run dentist because the workmanship is not guaranteed and
materials hard to find. This explains why so many people have ugly dentures,
cavities, yellow-brown, or missing teeth. I concede that some may have fear of
dentists or lack good brushing habits.
Medical care does not include much dental care and certainly
few people clean their teeth professionally or wear braces. Dental hygiene is a
subject seldom broached in public although there has been a concerted effort to
teach people proper brushing and flossing.
Socialized medicine is unable to provide so much advertised free
medical care; it sounds too good in theory; but in practice, once the money
runs out, the meds are in short supply and access to doctors and hospitals
becomes sporadic and difficult.
Do the promise of free medical care and a shiny plastic card
get you the best doctors and hospitals? It is a great concept if you have the
sniffles -- care is immediate and free. It is not such a good idea if you have
something more complex that requires better drugs, more medical skills and
training, extended hospital stays, and better hospitals with private or
semi-private beds instead of shoddy and dirty wards, or worse yet, gurneys in
an ER hallway.
Americans are beginning to find out with Obamacare just how
bad socialized medicine truly is. With an insurance card issued by one of the Affordable
Care Act’s (ACA) state exchanges, people cannot get their meds refilled in
another state. It’s bad enough that the premiums are much higher than the
previous private insurance and the deductibles in the thousands per year. The
advice from the medical staff that has no idea how to help such patients is to
call their Congressman. Since the law has been in effect since 2010, the chance
of reversing this government bureaucratic nightmare is zero.
Certain drugs that are expensive are no longer dispensed by
government insurance to all patients; they must have other underlying issues
before even a pricey topical cream is paid for. The patient must use cheap drugs
instead that could potentially kill their livers. It saves the insurance money,
who cares about your life? Do you need expensive chemical mixtures to treat on-going
cancer or other serious problems? Too bad, your insurance no longer pays for
them.
There was a reason why foreigners flocked to the United
States for medical care because treatment was available quickly and rates of
cancer remissions or cures were the highest in the world. Surgical expertise
was also the best in the world.
How high are the premiums? It depends how you purchase your
insurance and if you are eligible for a subsidy on which, of course, you will
have to pay taxes because it is considered income. If you are on Medicare Part
B, premiums are $104.90-$335.70 per month, per person. Medicare announced that
premiums will have to go up 52 percent in 2016 in order to keep the system
afloat. Medicare was stripped of billions of dollars in funding in order to use
those billions to fund Obamacare. http://www.mauldineconomics.com/frontlinethoughts/unhealthy-not-wealthy-and-far-from-wise
People living on fixed incomes such as Social Security are
finding out that they are not going to get a cost of living adjustment (COLA)
for 2016 because inflation is low. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is reported
at 2 percent. Anybody who shops in this economy knows it’s a manufactured
number.
Employees stayed in lower paying jobs because they had good
insurance. People who previously had good and affordable private insurance coverage,
even half-timers, are finding themselves now dumped into the exchanges and
having to pick bronze, silver, or gold plans with much higher rates and much
higher per person annual deductibles. Chances are, most people, will be
hard-pressed to meet the deductibles of thousands of dollars per year before
the insurance pays anything at all.
Rates vary based on income, type of coverage chosen, where one
lives, and quality of options and service may or may not be adequate. “Now they
can at least get overpriced and underwhelming Obamacare policies,” said John
Mauldin. He
continued, “The worker’s share of premiums for a family policy went from $1,543
in 1999 to $4,955 in 2015, a 321% increase. The employer’s share went up almost
as much, from $4,247 to $12,591 (+296%).”
The winners are Americans with pre-existing conditions; before
ACA they could not buy insurance at any price. Illegal aliens, who allegedly were
not supposed to be covered by Obamacare, are also beneficiaries of ACA.
According to Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2014 32 million
non-elderly Americans were uninsured. About 10 million people have enrolled in
state and federal Obamacare exchanges and approximately 14 million have
enrolled in Medicaid. This means that the uninsured rate changed from 16.2% to
10.7% by first quarter of 2015. For less than 6 percent gain in insurability,
ACA has disrupted or destroyed the insurance and quality of medical care for a
very large majority of Americans. http://kff.org/uninsured/fact-sheet/key-facts-about-the-uninsured-population/
The Heritage Foundation warned us in 2009 why Obamacare was
wrong for America. Knowing what was wrong and that there was nothing we could
do about it then nor now, provides no comfort to those who are sick or will
become sick and in need of medical care. http://www.heritage.org/research/factsheets/obamacare-top-10-reasons-its-wrong-for-america
1.
Millions of employer-sponsored insurance holders
will lose their insurance (88.1 million was the prediction)
2.
Individual mandate translated into less freedom
and more taxes
3.
Private health care plans changed in order to
conform with ACA standards
4.
The federal government will push any private
competitors out of business; as Heritage put it, “the umpire is also the first
baseman”
5.
Your health care decision will be made by the
fed
6.
Higher taxes will hurt small businesses
7.
Medical decisions will be made by bureaucrats
8.
The Affordable Care Act is not funded
9.
Taxpayers will pay for abortions against their
religious beliefs
10.
The ACA was deceptive that is why it was rushed
through and not read carefully
Most Americans are going to have to accept inferior medical
care because their better plans are no longer approved by the government and do
not meet their standards. Garth Kant listed in 2013, “52 reasons Obamacare can’t
work.” http://www.wnd.com/2013/08/52-shocking-reasons-obamacare-cant-work/#37SYTKHYUSDfktY6.99
Perhaps people are now paying attention as they are
beginning to lose their doctors, their health plans, paying higher Medicare
costs, higher private insurance premiums, higher deductibles, experiencing
denial or worsening of medical care, paying higher taxes, accepting less
working hours, unemployment is growing as employers kill existing and new jobs,
and doctors and specialists who accept Obamacare insurance are harder and
harder to find.
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