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from the sign-this-form-and-we-can-cure-the-hemorrhage-with-a-money-extraction dept.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) open enrollment period for US Soylentis has ended. The website was plagued by problems from its launch and even had issues on the the last day.
So, did any Soylentis actually use healthcare.gov to sign up and how has your experience been with the Obamacare system so far?
For those that don't know, from Wikipedia:
The ACA was enacted with the goals of increasing the quality and affordability of health insurance, lowering the uninsured rate by expanding public and private insurance coverage, and reducing the costs of healthcare for individuals and the government. It introduced a number of mechanisms - including mandates, subsidies, and insurance exchanges - meant to increase coverage and affordability. The law also requires insurance companies to cover all applicants within new minimum standards and offer the same rates regardless of pre-existing conditions or sex. Additional reforms aimed to reduce costs and improve healthcare outcomes by shifting the system towards quality over quantity through increased competition, regulation, and incentives to streamline the delivery of healthcare. The Congressional Budget Office projected that the ACA will lower both future deficits and Medicare spending.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by opinionated_science on Sunday April 06 2014, @02:21PM
As you are an AC, I will give you the benefit of the doubt. However, statements such as "a very small minority" are not quantifiable. I have no quarrel with the idea that the insurance industry may have been close to the implementation plans. But then I consider that they are basically on the hook to either insure everyone, or go out of business. It is that simple. There is no magic font of information on the implementation, industries know "what's what" in their interest.
As a goal for the US society it would, however, be preferable to use the actuarial calculations to produce better healthcare outcomes, rather than profits. This is being attempted by the Mayo Clinic and others to produce a "best working practices" report. There is a great deal of research into genomic medicine which might also help bring down costs.
There is no magic here. Even if the insurance companies made $0 profit, there would still be a problem with the cost of unfunded legally mandated medical treatment i.e. emergency rooms etc.. .
One possible goal of the ACA, is to optimise provider/patient interactions by making more of them. By widening access to the healthcare system, there is a very real chance that new things will be discovered that will help us all.
(optimistic tag) One opinion I will venture (I have no evidence, see how this works?) is that perhaps the removal of all the "we pretend to cover you but never pay out" plans, may really focus the insurance companies on how to treat the 50,000,000 people who did not have regular access.(end optimistic tag)