Healthcare going forward

[KaraBulut]

...Ronald Reagan signed a law, I think in 1986 or 1987, which was bipartisanly passed in Congress, which MANDATED that hospitals must offer emergency treatment to people who need it and may be badly harmed or killed without that care, even if they are uninsured.

Actually, the requirement for federally-funded hospitals to treat people, including the poor and indigent, goes back to 1945 with the Hill-Burton Act. In the 1970s, there were amendments that strengthened the requirements. Since most hospitals accept Medicare and Medicaid funding, this meant that almost all hospitals in the US must accept patients regardless of race, creed, national origin or ability to pay.

Facilities that received funding were also required to provide a ‘reasonable volume’ of free care each year for those residents in the facility’s area who needed care but could not afford to pay. Hospitals were initially required to provide uncompensated care for 20 years after receiving funding. The federal money was also only provided in cases where the state and local municipality were willing and able to match the federal grant or loan, so that the federal portion only accounted for one third of the total construction or renovation cost.

The law that you're thinking of that was passed in 1986 was the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (commonly called EMTALA). This law was passed to prevent "patient-dumping". Prior to this law, hospitals were able to ask patients about their insurance. If you were uninsured or did not have an insurance that the hospital accepted (or in some extreme cases, if you had Medicaid), some hospitals would send patients to other hospitals like county or public hospitals before they assessed the patient and determined whether the patient needed emergency treatment.

EMTALA requires that if you arrive in an emergency room, the emergency room is required to accept you, assess you and stabilize you before they ask about your ability to pay.

What the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, aka Obamacare) sought to do was mandate that all Americans have health insurance, either from private insurance or from Medicaid) so that hospitals receive at least partial payment for care that they are legally required to provide to patients.

And yes, the ideas that became RomneyCare and ObamaCare were originally Republican proposals.

 

[smokeshadow]

President Obama has now stated that he would support repealing the PPACA if the conservatives would present to him their proposed replacement health care program first; and, only if it was better and more inclusive than the PPACA

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/obama-dares-republicans-better-health-174114898.html

 

[Benvolio]

President Obama has now stated that he would support repealing the PPACA if the conservatives would present to him their proposed replacement health care program first; and, only if it was better and more inclusive than the PPACA

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/obama-dares-republicans-better-health-174114898.html

Obamacare appears to be in real trouble, and the subsidies require Congressional funding. If Congress does nothing it is likely to fail of its internal weaknesses. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...nsurance-medicine-0911-jm-20160909-story.html

 

[Kabluey]

Obamacare appears to be in real trouble, and the subsidies require Congressional funding. If Congress does nothing it is likely to fail of its internal weaknesses. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-obamacare-fail-health-care-insurance-medicine-0911-jm-20160909-story.html

By design, courtesy of a hostile GOP controlled house.
Bullshit spinning in hyperdrive.

 

[Stardreamer]

So Trump is showing some common sense if he agrees with Paul here, hopefully he express it strongly to the Republicans because Paul is right.

Rand Paul: Trump backs plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare simultaneously

"If Congress fails to vote on a replacement at the same time as repeal, the repealers risk assuming the blame for the continued unraveling of Obamacare. For mark my words, Obamacare will continue to unravel and wreak havoc for years to come," he wrote.

I've noticed Republicans have this bad understanding of the optics of legislation, even if Obamacare is as bad as they say it is, stepping in and turning it into an even bigger train wreck means they own it.

 

[SaskGuy]

You fucking Americans don't know what the fuck you're doing. Here in Canada, we've had a proper health care system since the 1960s (which originated in Saskatchewan, you're fucking welcome)
What kind of so-called "developed" country still can't comprehend health care?! You fuckers still don't know what the metric system is.

 

[rareboy]

^ Are you still drunk perhaps?

 

[KaraBulut]

So Trump is showing some common sense if he agrees with Paul here, hopefully he express it strongly to the Republicans because Paul is right...

Rand Paul also realizes that the insurance plans that have been contracted for 2017 are financed by and subsidized by taxes. Even if the taxes were repealed, the subsidies for Americans with ACA plans would still have to be paid. That's going to substantially increase the federal budget deficit.

The attempt to merge defunding of Planned Parenthood with ACA repeal this week is probably a poison pill designed to derail to promises to repeal the ACA immediately. That buys them time to get themselves untangled from the mess the Republicans have gotten themselves into.

 

[Benvolio]

If Republicans do nothing, they system fails of its internal flaws. That is probably the best course. We have never wanted socialism.

 

[rareboy]

Exactly.

From what I've heard, all Republicans would like an immediate end to their Social Security and Medicare benefits and any of their disability benefits as well.

And all those southern conservative states will be returning the money shipped into them by the boatload from the richer liberal states.

Damned socialism.

 

[Soilwork]

You fucking Americans don't know what the fuck you're doing. Here in Canada, we've had a proper health care system since the 1960s (which originated in Saskatchewan, you're fucking welcome)
What kind of so-called "developed" country still can't comprehend health care?! You fuckers still don't know what the metric system is.

I'm Canadian, luv. Grew up in New Brunswick and lived in Toronto for 18 years.

 

[Kabluey]

If Republicans do nothing, they system fails of its internal flaws. That is probably the best course. We have never wanted socialism.

The problem has always been the spiraling and unchecked growth in medical expenses and drug costs.

No matter what system is in place, affordable healthcare is impossible unless someone has the balls to blunt medical industry profits.
Trump doesn't have the balls.

 

[Kulindahr]

You fucking Americans don't know what the fuck you're doing. Here in Canada, we've had a proper health care system since the 1960s (which originated in Saskatchewan, you're fucking welcome)
What kind of so-called "developed" country still can't comprehend health care?! You fuckers still don't know what the metric system is.

Your reprehensible manner of communication aside, partly it's a problem that the left talks about health care as a "right", which is patently ludicrous, and the right refuses to acknowledge that citizenship and nationhood bring obligations. Until the left wakes up and switches to talking about obligations as human beings joined together as one people there won't be real progress.

As for the metric system, everyone by now knows it in terms of distance and volume, from sports and drinks if nowhere else (though anyone who deals with tools is perfectly aware of millimeters and centimeters!). The big hurdle is that totally switching would cost just the nation's highway departments billions just in changing signs (not even counting the labor involved), so the government just keeps kicking the can down the road.

 

[Kulindahr]

If Republicans do nothing, they system fails of its internal flaws. That is probably the best course. We have never wanted socialism.

That you can speak of socialism in connection with the ACA tells me you haven't a clue how it works, or perhaps what socialism is. The ACA is corporate welfare via coercion of customers, not socialism (it's closer t national socialism; calling it that would be a reasonable accusation).

As for wanting socialism, Americans have wanted quite a bit of it for a long time -- ever since the Socialist Party became an actual threat to the 'big two', causing them to lift substantial chunks of the Socialist platform and put it in their own platforms.

 

[KaraBulut]

It's kind of curious how "socialism" gets brought up in conjunction with Obamacare.

The original Affordable Care Act did have a public option that was a socialized health insurance program, presumably based upon the provincial health insurance programs in Canada. That was abandoned in favor of subsidized group healthcare plans provided by private insurers. That concession to the health insurance industry was made in exchange for their support of the ACA and it was made to avoid setting up a "public option".

Medicaid was expanded by the ACA however Medicaid has been around since 1965, so that's hardly a new "socialism" program.

 

[Kulindahr]

Exactly.

From what I've heard, all Republicans would like an immediate end to their Social Security and Medicare benefits and any of their disability benefits as well.

And all those southern conservative states will be returning the money shipped into them by the boatload from the richer liberal states.

Damned socialism.

If they had a clue economically, they'd boost the minimum SS income for retirees to half the poverty level.

 

[Kulindahr]

The problem has always been the spiraling and unchecked growth in medical expenses and drug costs.

No matter what system is in place, affordable healthcare is impossible unless someone has the balls to blunt medical industry profits.
Trump doesn't have the balls.

At bottom it's impossible until the supply of doctors is increased. The AMA's de facto monopoly over the supply of doctors works just like guilds in the Middle Ages: keeps the numbers low and the income high, to the detriment of the community.

 

[Kulindahr]

It's kind of curious how "socialism" gets brought up in conjunction with Obamacare.

Socialism is thrown around not with any cognitive content but as an epithet. The only kind of socialism that fits the ACA would be national socialism, with the government and industry in cahoots to fleece the people and force them to conform.

 

[nycguydowntown]

You fucking Americans don't know what the fuck you're doing. Here in Canada, we've had a proper health care system since the 1960s (which originated in Saskatchewan, you're fucking welcome)
What kind of so-called "developed" country still can't comprehend health care?! You fuckers still don't know what the metric system is.

You are 100% correct about the health care--it's been a political football for 50 years----it's a joke---we are a dumb country on many levels ----when you hear repubs on here making excuses for trump or health care etc ---they are just bullshitting themselves.
For the longest time---repubs didn't want Democratic party to do health care---because it would mean a huge voting block for them for decades---repubs are all about power they don't care about people and have no solution for health care---they have had a long time in power and out to do something about it and never did a thing----as far as the metric system goes I don't give a shit about that

 

[MakeDigitalLove]

^ Are you still drunk perhaps?

Drunk and Angry, not a good mix.