PassedOut, on 2013-December-10, 17:26, said:
As Art (and Mitt Romney, too, during the election) pointed out, everyone -- insured or not -- can walk into an emergency room and be treated. Those costs are already being paid.
You seem to be saying that you see large additional costs because of the ACA: costs way beyond the sum of the premiums from the formerly uninsured, the additional premiums paid by those who replace old scam policies, and the penalties from deadbeats who refuse to buy insurance.
I probably missed this, but could you explain where you see these large additional costs coming from?
First, I am claiming something simpler. I am looking at the government's income and expenses for the ACA. Consider, from
http://www.nytimes.c...odayspaper&_r=0
Quote
But for all those problems, people are enrolling. More than 243,000 have signed up for private coverage through the exchanges, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, and more than 567,000 have been determined eligible for Medicaid since the exchanges opened on Oct. 1.
The money for the 567,000 new Medicaid patients, and presumably many more to come, will come from somewhere. Where? I believe that when the law was passed, this was to come from other sources within the ACA. Which other sources?
Further in the article:
Quote
Whenever her parents got sick, it fell to Ms. He, who is now 23, to help them navigate the patchwork of low-cost health services available in their city. Members of the community came together in 2012 to pay her mother's medical bills after tests uncovered precancerous cells that, left untreated, could have led to cervical cancer. Her mother receives care from a clinic that treats women and children, but Ms. He has had less luck finding a doctor to care for her father, who suffers from smoker's cough and other ailments. Both of her parents are in their 50s.
"My dad, he's getting older, and frankly he's having a lot of health issues," said Ms. He, who is studying public health as a graduate student at the University of Michigan. "It breaks your heart."
Ms. He's parents will now receive better care, and the community will not have to pick up part of the tab. That's great. I'm for it. It's fair to ask where the money is coming from.
I don't keep lists of things that people have said, but I don't think I am fantasizing that Obama claimed that the ACA books would balance, or at least mostly balance. But then he claimed that the website would be working Oct. 1. I'll hang in there with my criticism that the administration has been blind to any problems until the very last minuted. First they don't see any problem, then they deny it exists, then they say it is being worked on. Only when absolutely forced do they actually confront a problem. I am expecting that the finances will be a problem. Apparently they aren't worried. but they never are worried.
Not everyone with all issues checks into an emergency room. Some just live with the problem. My wife just had both knees replaced by a fine surgeon at a fine hospital. It costs money, mostly insurance money. Can the uninsured do this by walking into an emergency room? I don't know, but I would place a large bet that there are a fair number of things that I. as an insured person, can have done that the uninsured cannot. It will be good if everyone can have this care, but the money must come from somewhere.
Added comment about Becky's replacements: She got a CT scan, hip to toe, that was sent off to a computer with a 3-D printer, leading to knees specially designed to her bone structure, taking into account alignment problems resulting from the arthritis. She had several days of intense Physical Therapy in the hospital, and now has three days a week of one hour each day of Physical Therapy. It was thrirty days ago and she is driving, walking up and down stairs, and so on. On to the Appalachian Trail, although not quite yet. They do this at emergency rooms? They do it on insurance. The costs will change if everyone has insurance.
Again, it is not being picky to ask where the money is coming from. As we roll into 2014 election season, I expect that old statements of Obama about how the costs will be covered, how the books will balance, will be placed where I can easily find them without doing any research.
Just for starters, where is the money coming from to pay for the medical care of the 567,000 new Medicaid patients? Can this be answered on the basis of enrollments as they stand now, or must it assume large future enrollments by young and healthy adults who so far have shown no interest in enrolling?
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