6 thoughts on “Update on Obamacare replacement from Kristi Noem”

  1. Back when Obamacare passed, I was opposed to it because I did not believe that his version of socialized medicine was the answer. I have changed my mind at least to some degree. I now believe something has to be done to make sure that children, elderly people, mentally challenged folks, the poor, and even some in the lower middle class are given coverage regardless of ability to pay. Unless you are going to turn people away at the emergency room, someone else is going to pay for most of that treatment anyway. The government is paying for a large percentage of healthcare already but, because of these increasing costs, more may be needed.

    Most medical procedures today are far more expensive than in decades past. Sometimes by a multiple of ten. I have mentioned before how maternity care today can cost over $20,000 compared to $100 in 1950. Adjusted for inflation, that’s about twenty times higher. How are lower and middle class citizens supposed to come up with that kind of money?

    What about pre-existing conditions? I do not want to go back to the good ol’ days when it comes to that issue either.

    The first Republican version of healthcare was estimated by CBO to knock 24 million people off of coverage. I don’t think that this version has been scored yet but I doubt it will be “moving in the right direction” .

  2. Back in June of 2008 Hillary Clinton made a campaign stop in Sioux Falls and told the crowd we needed health care reform because the cost-shifting of uncompensated care was costing all of us an extra $800/year.

    That was a bargain.

  3. Insurance coverage is not health care.

    I have recently discovered that if I want to buy a nebulizer at a medical supply store, I could buy it for $40; but….if I had the insurance pay for it, it would have cost over $200! Since I wasn’t sure that the insurance would pay and then I’d end up paying the $200+, I paid $40 and got the same nebulizer. I had some X-rays etc, and my insurance paid a portion of it (a small portion which was accepted as the provider was a preferred provider), but my copay was very little compared to the cost of the procedures. Why the difference if an insurance company is paying vs if I pay cash. My hubby found out the same thing at an acupuncturist; so much in cash or triple if submitted to insurance. Maybe this issue should be looked at! Maybe everyone should just negotiate the cost if paid in cash vs using insurance.

  4. Just wait till Noem is Governor and has to implement this polished turd. She’ll find out quickly what it will take for a small state that lives on sales tax to provide health care for its poor and elderly. She wasn’t around when this state’s pitiful attempt at a catastrophic fund crashed and burned, so anyone with pre-existing conditions can bite it. This AHCA will blow away any ideas of uniformity and consistency among insurance laws from state to state, taking insurance regulation back to the chaotic mess that the ACA tried to correct. The insurance industry is already way too powerful here, as evidenced by shenanigans like the tax credit the companies get for donating to private schools. But as long as millionaires and billionaires can get their tax breaks, life is good in RepublikanLand.

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