Stephanie Herseth Sandlin saw this coming last year, and said so on the campaign trail: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act does patient protection but needs a lot more work on the "affordable" side. The f... f... f... friendly people at Assurant just raised my individual market health insurance premium 23%... just like last year. I'll pay $3400, about ten percent of my current income, for a $7500-deductible plan. Grrr. Mr. President, you need another meeting with Congressman Kucinich on how to really fix health care (hint: starts with universal, ends with single payer!).
While I want even bigger health care reform, a bunch of people think we've already repealed PPACA. A Kaiser poll finds 22 percent of Americans think the health care reform act has already been repealed. Pay attention, people: that big promise Congresswoman Kristi Noem is so proud of fulfilling was a symbolic vote, not an effected change in the law.
Even more Americans probably still buy the fantasy that we have the best health care system in the world. Kristi Noem does, since she gets government health care on our dime. But the rest of us continue to pay absurdly more relative to our income than anyone else in the world:
As Aaron Carroll at The Incidental Economist points out, spending on health care tends to go up as income increases, but only to a point. Norway and Luxembourg, the countries at the far right, bend that curve down significantly. They appear to understand that spending more money doesn't make a drug or your doctor's advice work any better. Time for us to get that message. Quit posing on repeal, Republicans, and figure out how to do cost controls!
$3400 is unbelievable cheap compared to what many of us pay. Wait until you get older.
Michael, That's for two people (I'm on a separate seminary health plan) with a $7,500 deductible.
I still don't have health insurance...and haven't for 18 years.
And my retirement plan is called .45 ACP.
Oh, and my other retirement plan is to stand up and yell I'm gay at the Valley Tap in Ft. Pierre on a Friday night.
It's not about "health care" - it's all about wealth transfer.
Nice graph. Thanks. It's good to be reminded of what I'm missing.
Barry: I encourage you to engineer a softer landing than those options!
John: Isn't wealth transfer unavoidable in the social contract?
Michael: I am pleased that my contributions help other people get health care. I simply wish we had a more rational system, where my money would be used to serve every American, and where subsequently when I need medical help, the burden would be spread out as fairly as possible among all Americans. If we did that, we'd save money and save lives.
Cory, as bad as you think you may have it, I know of people that pay 3 to 5 times more than you do for only very basic coverage. Their only fault: they have 20 years on you and a few medical conditions.
Medical costs will only stabilize when the population discovers that they must take responsibility for themselves and change their lifestyle. Until then, things will only get much worse for everyone. Our gov't is not going to save us.
Michael,
Part of the equation is fee-for-service reimbursements. The incentive is to do lots of "stuff" to patients rather than get people better swiftly and economically. As long as CMS continues operating as such, we're not going to see meaningful changes, even if we could keep ourselves from courting diabetic comas.