Obamacare is a complex, unjust,expensive,error-prone system

    By Flavius on Thu, 03/27/2014 - 11:03pm |

    according to both his two remaining supporters.

    On March 22 Brad Delong carried a discussion between  Ezekiel Emmanuel (you know whose brother he is) and Harold Pollack. 

    Due to general and specific incompetence I've been unable to provide a link but if someone could do me a favor and provide one below as a comment I'd promise to demonstrate my profound gratitude either by blogging every day or just going quietly away. Your choice

    Updated with link to interview: http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2014/03/weekend-reading-harold-pollack-interviews-ezekiel-emmanuel.html

      

    Comments

    I don't care what you say, I LOVE Ezekiel Emmanuel.  Look at that face.  Couldn't you just cover it with smooches?

    About that blogging every day:  Don't call us, we'll call you.

    About that going away:  Hey, where you going?  You just got here!


    by Ramona on Fri, 03/28/2014 - 12:07am

    Jokester:

    What has big floppy ears, tusks and black and white stripes?

    Victim:

    I give up. What does have big floppy ears, tusks and black and white stripes?

    J: An elephant. I was lying  about the black and white stripes.

     

    .........................................................................................

    I was lying about going away You'll still have Flavius to kick around for a while longer.

     

    Thanks  


    by Flavius on Fri, 03/28/2014 - 7:15am

    smiley


    by Ramona on Fri, 03/28/2014 - 8:13am

    I saw an interview with Ezekiel back when single-payer advocates were being thrown out of meetings (with OUR) side!!!!  Old "Zeke" was very forcefully advocating for disbanding Medicare and giving vouchers. I couldn't believe my ears; he sounded like the future Paul Ryan explaining how great this would be for elders -- getting to surf the web every year to find a company that would meet their needs -- what a nightmare!  I haven't been able to conjure up any respect for him since. I will try to find the link to the interview. I saved it but have changed computers since then and it must have gotten lost. 


    by CVille Dem on Sat, 03/29/2014 - 5:30pm

    Here it is. Sorry, it is an extended interview with no synopsis:  http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2009/01/10/extended-interv-26/

    jan


    by CVille Dem on Sat, 03/29/2014 - 5:33pm

    And still better than what we had previously.


    by tmccarthy0 on Fri, 03/28/2014 - 1:53am

    Absolutely!  And I disagree with the "unjust" comment. Expensive?  Yeah, but so is getting your routine care in ERs, and this system is better.

    Only someone who could not get insurance before because of pesky things like a history of breast cancer, back pain, domestic abuse, diabetes, high blood pressure...the list goes on...can fully appreciate what a godsend this ObamaCare is. Would I have preferred single-payer?  Absolutely!  Medicare for all?  Yes. But we couldn't have gotten either one of those, so we have this, and we are damn lucky to have it. 

    When they give statistics about who likes/doesn't like the ACA, I really wish they would include all those who have employer-provided health insurance as a separate group; after all, they have nothing to gain from this except that they can know that they can't be dropped once they get sick (which most people really don't realize could have happened before).

     If you have gold-plated insurance it requires a true commitment to the Common Good to be in favor of the ACA and I never see that noted as a factor when statistics are thrown out there. 

    As to the complaint that it is "complex"...well, what isn't?

     


    by CVille Dem on Sat, 03/29/2014 - 6:37pm

    All of this. I agree with all of this!!


    by tmccarthy0 on Mon, 03/31/2014 - 7:27am

    The address to the site is below:

    http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2014/03/weekend-reading-harold-pollack-interviews-ezekiel-emmanuel.html

    I will have to mull over what would be suitable compensation for my heroic act.

     


    by moat on Fri, 03/28/2014 - 7:19am

    What ? No photo? At least Ramona provided a picture.


    by Flavius on Fri, 03/28/2014 - 7:43am

    I keep checking back in because I see " 2 new comments," or in this cae, "3 new comments,". But no new comments. What is this about?


    by CVille Dem on Sun, 03/30/2014 - 9:29pm

    I hope it is not to just increase the "reads."


    by CVille Dem on Sun, 03/30/2014 - 9:30pm

    There's a distinction between vouchers and premium support.

    It goes something like this: A voucher has a set "face amount" and is a given amount of "money" you can spend to buy insurance.

    If you can't find the policy you want for that amount of money, you have to make up the difference between the voucher's face amount and the policy's cost. Or buy a less expensive policy, etc.

    Premium support floats (more or less) with the cost of the policies on the market. It may be based on a percentage of the cost of a policy, whatever that cost may be.

    So if your premium support is 50%, 50% of your premiums will be covered regardless of the cost of those premiums. Something like this.

    This was quite a controversy a while back when conservatives were arguing that certain health care economists supported their voucher proposals. Said economists or policy makers (can't remember which) disagreed and said they were talking about premium support, not vouchers.

    Of course, the face values of vouchers can also be increased as policy costs fluctuate, but they probably tend to lag the market. So it's a less efficient solution (or one that imposes draconian belt-tightening on the buyer) and can leave a buyer hanging out there with insufficient means to buy the policy he needs.


    by Peter Schwartz on Mon, 03/31/2014 - 9:28am

    There is one way in which vouchers could be attractive..

     

    If, like me, your retirement plan is to move to a third world country, and marry a 20 year old widow (with 5 kids who you adopt thus multiplying your social security pittance into a princely sum for the local price structure), if you could take your medicare voucher and buy the bargain priced local health care, it would be sweet.


    by jollyroger on Mon, 03/31/2014 - 9:46am

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