Wellmark had previously pulled out of North Dakota. Now they are exiting Iowa, leaving consumers with evaporating choices.
This is happening all around the country, by design.
Single payer was supposed to be waiting in the wings for Hillary to implement. Trump derailed that plan.
We better have something in place, pronto.
As insurance companies bail, get bailed out or go belly-up, the Left will demand that we, the taxpayers, pay for all medical insurance, that is, for all medical care.
Repealing Obamacare (and NOT replacing it) reminds me of how Lech Wallenca said about undoing Communism, “It’s easier to turn an aquarium into fish soup–cut up the fish and boil the water–than it is to turn fish soup back into an aquarium.”
If we don’t get the government completely out of health care and health insurance, the better analogy than fish soup is boiled frog.
Why don’t we want single payer? I can’t remember I’m really old.
It would instantly end all insurance companies.
Which is good in my opinion.
Trump could concentrate on illegal removals and the wall.
What am I missing – No, there would be one insurance company – the US Government, composed of the most venal, corrupt greedy, power-mad incompetent politicians and soulless bureaucrats on the face of the Earth.
Venal, corrupt, greedy, power-mad,incompentent, soulless bastards on the face of the earth IS the insurance industry….
^^^^^^^ YEP
all you insurance co. haters remember one thing …. the biggest denier of services is …..
Medicare
…. & if you like your Medicare you’re gonna luuuuuuuuuv VA Care
^^^^ and run by lawyers!
Read about NHS in Britain (National Health Service) to see what a ‘benevolent ” government monopoly on health care inevitably becomes.
They make the VA here look like an ideal paradise of all-compassionate efficiency.
NHS cannot be sued. There is no “malpractice”.
On paper and in theory the citizen-patient has all kinds of wonderful sounding “rights” and bureaucratic protections.
But I n reality their decisions are absolute, totalitarian, non transparent, and cannot be appealed.
Ive lived in London. Everyone knows a family member or older friend who died after being denied necessary care by NHS.
A friend’s 60 year old Dad died while waiting 6 months for an INITIAL DIAGNOSYIC appointment with a NHS cardiologist.
Not coincidentally, the U.K. government saved 25 or 30 years of his retirement pension by ensuring he died at 60.
The same bureaucracy and the same economics will prevail here in the US with ‘single payer” (the Left’s preferred marketing term, which conservatives should NOT adopt).
@WhatAmIMising, The Veterans Adminisitration runs the only true Single Payer system we have in the United States. Ask any Veteran how ‘great’ it is. They’ll tell you. As for how ‘great’ the closest example of a Single Payer system is (Canada) watch this > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXZaTXDu3Os
And this > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_Rf42zNl9U
And this > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVZp6xPA7tk
And this > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE-I0ombIEY
And then get on your knees and thank GOD for private health insurance.
People here have really not even had a good taste of what single payer would be like (outside of those stuck in the VA). The cost is just the tip of the iceberg. A friend from London’s entire family still lives in the UK. Both her mother and brother have had major surgeries WITHOUT anesthesia. Hip and shoulder. And after shoulder surgery her brother was given OTC aspirin only. The other option was to wait 6+ months or longer to have the surgery with anesthesia. My mother’s friend moved there and was diagnosed with cancer and couldn’t see an oncologist for 6 months. These single payer worshipers have no idea what a system with 300 million plus people would have to ration to merely survive and perform the most basic of care.
Non-elected officials deciding if you live or die.
That is what is wrong with “single-payer”!
Can anybody name me one thing the government does that’s less expensive and higher quality than the private sector?
I would love to see a private sector health insurance industry that wanted to provide fair health care, (good health care) at a fair price….It quit happening 30 years ago as the health insurance industry had to balance their losses when they fixed your roof….everything went up and they denied more coverage across all insurance spectrums…..then they started to pull out of the health insurance aspect and will continue to pull out of ir, but your house (p&c), car, boat.,etc.premiums will rise… Health Insurance is simply the most expensive loss that an Insurance can foretell, and for that they will quit….
We were ordered, given strict orders; to spend less than 5 minutes with each patient. But to falsify our charts to reflect complex visits. This is in fully funded, fully staffed, pre-911 days. Anyone who thinks the IRS can run healthcare is delusional. Of course, of you’re high ranking or a party crony, you get concierge care.
The problem with the insistence on “health insurance” is that we’ve all come to believe the lie that it is “insurance”. It is not insurance. It is, instead, a third-party-payer scheme in which someone else foots the bill.
Imagine if automobile insurance were required to cover the same things like what we call health insurance does: oil changes, wiper blade replacements, burnt out headlight/taillight replacements, clouded windows, etc. That would be prohibitively expensive just as “health insurance” is today.
To reverse the analogy, imagine if health insurance were sold and purchased the same way as automobile insurance. We purchase a plan that covers the expensive services we want, such as would be needed for necessary life-saving surgery, heart attacks, severed appendages, deep injuries(like stabs, gunshots or bruised organs/internal bleeding resulting from impacts), major diseases(like cancer, HIV/AIDS) and other injuries/maladies of the same order of magnitude. Then we are covered against potentially devastating financial loss. If we want to see the doctor for every little sniffle, every cough and sneeze, every bump, bruise, and scrape, then we should pay out of pocket; this includes yearly checkups.
True insurance merely protects against catastrophic occurrences. And it is something no government has any business requiring let alone providing. If I don’t want to buy a health insurance policy to protect against major illnesses/injuries, then I shall suffer the financial consequences. To paraphrase victimists favorite phrase: “Keep the government out of my [body]!” They screech that a woman’s uterus, a woman’s body, is her business, so then MY health, MY body, is MY business.
All the extra crap Zero-care forced to be included in EVERY. SINGLE. PLAN. is causing the insurance companies to lose money or drastically raise premiums. We’ve seen both happen the last seven years of Zero-care, often simultaneously. What need has a man of mammograms or pre-/post- natal care? What need has a woman of testicular cancer screenings? (No, I did not forget about the mentally ill individuals that insist on calling themselves transgendered. Biology determines gender; of which, there are only two.)
PERFECT Oeberon!….pick your policy based on your needs, risk , lifestyle!….ain’t gonna happen because they have to provide and finance insurance to those that can’t or won’t. It’s been socialized health care for many years….Look at your tax bill…all of them…
“Conservatives are just gonna have to realize that nationalized healthcare is a reality.”
(or something to that effect, Curly-haired dude on Fox)
At some point we have to understand that there is just too much opportunity for theft with ObolaCare and RyanCare. Trump has sold us out, either through ignorance or perfidy.
Anything other than outright REPEAL is prestidigitation and/or legerdemain.
The Republicans assume (rightly or wrongly) that we are imbeciles.
izlamo delenda est …
@Oeberon — That’s pretty much what HMO’s were, before the courts decided they weren’t ‘fair’ and tore them up. Long time ago. ’70s or ’80s.
Nikki Bella married John Cena for his health coverage….heh….
Single payer. Just like the VA.