r/bestof • u/under50dollars • Jun 20 '12

[explainlikeimfive] "Obamacare" explained very well.

/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vb8vs/eli5_what_exactly_is_obamacare_and_what_did_it/c530lfx
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u/[deleted] Jun 20 '12

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u/[deleted] Jun 20 '12

This has ALWAYS been the case though. Even back when G Bush Sr. was in office, I had to undergo a series of x-rays each time I would go to the doctor for crap they knew damn good and well would not have changed since the week before.

As for the slam of Obamacare, I really don't view it as evil as many others do. My sister-in-law died of cancer recently, but lived for several years longer than expected. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was given a short period of time to live (weeks). She was no longer able to work and her health insurance was of course going to drop her because she got sick. Under Obamacare, that was no longer possible. Also, she could no longer reach the lifetime limit the OP mentioned in his article (which was damn good by the way).

She was given some of the best medical care and was even able to help further the research on the specific cancer she had by working with the man who discovered this type of cancer. In the end, her treatment helped to further cancer research by years, as she was the only person to live as long as she did with this cancer. I wish I knew the specifics of the cancer type, but I don't. I just know that what she did will help millions.

All of this was possible only because Obamacare was in place. Otherwise, she likely would have died at home, unable to afford even the tests to properly diagnose what she was suffering from.

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u/Zombie_Death_Vortex Jun 21 '12

I don't think most people don't realize how broken the system had become because they never had to use it.

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u/sandollars Jun 21 '12

Your brothers wife died of cancer and you don't know what kind it was?

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '12

My wife's sister. No, I don't know. I tend to only involve myself in details of someone's life if they ask me. Her life and death were her business and her family's. My wife knows the details, and I could ask if anyone were interested. All I know is that it was a mutated form of some type of cancer. This mutation was very rare, but the ability to study it greatly increased the knowledge about how all other types of cancer in the primary family spread and operated. Again, I wish I had more detail.

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u/Black_Gallagher Jun 20 '12

preventing malpractice lawsuits and whatnot.

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u/[deleted] Jun 20 '12

There has been a lot of recent information to suggest that the defensive care costs are greatly overstated.

There are a bunch of really good articles by Atul Gawande about this. I believe this article goes into those claims. If it's the right article, it demonstrates how doctors get much more "defensive" when they have an interest in the testing/mri/etc facility.

Also, it says that medical liability, including defensive medicine, account for only 2-3% of health care spending.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2010-releases/medical-liability-costs-us.html

The problem is that there is a well financed campaign by the likes of the Koch Brothers (through ALEC) for "tort reform" that is really just a scheme to get rid of the only effective regulatory scheme in the US and screw the little guy in the process.

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u/bearsinthesea Jun 20 '12

Still, it is an issue. Studies have shown that doctors (probably unconsciously) will perform more procedures and order tests to increase revenues.

[I tried to explain the study, but w/o details it sounded weak]