The Real Obamacare Disaster Is Still In the Making and Thankfully, We Don't Have Long to Wait

I've been on top of our national healthcare debacle from the beginning it seems. When I say beginning, I mean that era in time when most workers had health plans or you could purchase a decent one for about 250.00 a mo. So I guess I am talking around 10 years ago.

So when they rolled this whole mess out and I read up on it- there were three absolutes that I laughed at. 1. There was no way young healthy people were going to buy this unless they got taxpayer subsidies. 2. The poorest, most unhealthy people, would take advantage of free health care and start fixing everything that was wrong with them- which in a humanitarian sort of way- I actually kind of like. But my favorite part of this crappy law was this. 3. Nobody will sign up for Obamacare until they are sick- thus making them instant liabilities while contributing little or nothing to the plan to begin with.

So the 3 stories I'm about to tell you are true. If these stories are representative of what is going on in the U.S. healthcare industry currently- and I think they are- then you are about to witness a supernova event in the form of skyrocketing premiums. There is no doubt in my mind that the Obama administration will exert every dirty trick they can muster to try and stop the premium supernova. You can't underestimate those assholes either- they've been successful so far.

Here then are my three stories. I am going to summarize them in chronological order.

Early this year (Feb.) I had a friend come up to me and tell me that he had just signed up for Obamacare. He had lost a lot of weight and he looked like hell. About six weeks later he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. They tried a number of aggressive tactics and hospitalization but the cancer had spread and by late May- my friend died. He was 55. I have no idea what his medical bills came to but I have to believe they were north of 100,000. To my knowledge- he had only been insured for 5 months.

I have another friend who obtained Obamacare (silver plan) in April who had several maladies and was admitted the day after his Obamacare waiting period was over. He had DVT and spent 5 days in the hospital. All of the tests, hospitalization, and aftercare amounted to 35,000. He had paid one month's premium.

Everyday I go to the gym and it's a neighborhood gym. I had been lifting with a guy, on and off, for 6 months and he suddenly came up missing last month. When I saw him just a couple of weeks ago, he told me that he had a bilateral hernia which he had gotten in the gym. He had immediately signed up for Obamacare and is waiting until he is insured to have the proper diagnosis. Since he is a former pharmacist I have to think he already has the proper diagnosis. For this piece, I researched that surgery in Boise and the procedure will cost anywhere from 5,000-15,000.  

So those are 3 people who have paid something on the order of 3500 bucks worth of premiums and who have or will receive 150,000 worth of health care services. In the case of my first friend, since he is deceased, there is no possibility of recovering his health care costs. That money is lost.

Without young, healthy people donating their money- Obamacare cannot exist. With a sea of formerly uninsured people demanding services, and only sick people signing up and becoming instant liabilities- this is a three pronged disaster in the making. 

I read an article last week that placed the average healthcare premium rising at roughly 9% this year. Although that number was produced by actuaries and health care experts- I have to tell you I think that is utter bullshit. I think real numbers are going to be north of 25%. You want to hear a collective howl go up? Try three years or so of that and a collective doubling of premiums from existing levels and suddenly- nobody can afford Obamacare.

With any luck- we won't have long to wait.















Comments

PeterE said…
Somebody needs to get on a plane, fly down here to Australia, and see how we do it. It ain't perfect, but it works and seems better than your current situation.
I have a friend that has paid roughly $81,000 in the last 15 years for Health Insurance. And this friend has had Health Insurance for over twenty years. Never been sick. In that same time frame I never purchased Health Care, nor life insurance and I socked away $125,000 making payments to myself for any medical emergency. I had a good life so far. Fit as a fiddle. I think you know my health regimen. Eat good, only drink water, no drugging. {I had a couple druggie roommates in the past, man was that something to see, their both dead.} I eat grass fed beef, elk or deer when I can get it. Greens greens greens greens, lightly steamed, or raw. Fruit smoothies. Some dark chocolate. No cigs. I don't know maybe I've been fortunate. Oh, no vaccines. No fluoridated water, I drink my water out of two wells, one under the Wood River Valley the other under Archie Creek. I haven't been to a doctor since one of those quacks in the wood river valley trained by the medical industrial complex drained my knee, or actually he trained some dumb bitch to jam a large syringe type weapon into my knee, I swear she hit the frigging bone in there. You almost got a call for a double homicide that morning. I was pissed. I bet you know that quack. And that was the only quack I've visited since I was a teenager. I'm 55. I just rode my horse ten miles up Bear Creek in the rain, I hiked two miles lead roping him up into Goat Lake by Ross Peak. 2,000'. If I get sick I'm going to take it like a man and leave here on my terms. There certainly are some Beautiful things we can enjoy here still but for the most part this man made world is a piece of shit. At the end of the day, when this entire deal ends, mankind gets an F for failed. I'd say the guy upstairs has been beyond patient and fair. His case has been made.

As an after thought; You know what people rushing into the quackery medical complex remind me of? First off most of their ailment is self induced because they're stupid. Then they're dying so they try to save their life so they can keep being stupid doing the stupid shit that made em sick. They remind me of the type of people that never prepared for the future by scrimping, saving, storing food, and when the shit hits the fan they're in my yard holding a gun on me because they need my preparedness to sustain their life.

Brian said…
You have always been a healthy guy, my friend. I am actually writing a blog right now about a friend of mine who died this week...because of his lifestyle. He was younger than both of us and I absolutely believe malpractice killed him.
I have seen some folks in this last 6 years die mighty sudden while in the hospital. maybe that's why they call it practice. I think there is depopulation agenda in play and I think we err by taking that possibility for granted. Been a lot of bitching about over population by some very powerful people in this ole world. The Club of Rome, The Society of London, Global Revolution, Global 2,000 Report.. Teaching the flock bad habits, course thats been going on here for quite awhile. But maybe training folks up in that medical community to remove undesirables.. Besides, whats the last virtue a falling society has for one another, the elderly, the poor? Tolerance. We got no love here anymore Brother..
jms said…
You are forgetting the risk corridors. The government is using the built-in bailout provisions to prevent the double and triple digit rate increases. The insurance companies come to the government and say they need a 150% rate hike. The government says "Make it 9% and we'll bail you out on the back end." So insurance rates no longer have anything to do with economic reality. They are 100% political now. The only lyrics way to stop this is for a Republican Congress to eliminate the bailout provisions and force the insurance companies to lay the real cost of Obama care on the table. Otherwise they are going to get away with it and everyone will be paying "reasonable" health care rates while the deficit turns into a mushroom cloud.

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