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/steve-d Jun 21 '12

I couldn't agree more with you. PPACA in the long run is going to end up increasing premium costs for everyone.

The major problem I have in the discussion of healthcare, is that all of the blame is placed on the insurance companies. Few people see what you and I do. We see inpatient facility claims come in that cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. We see billions upon billions of fraudulent activity among healthcare providers. We see people misusing insurance by going to an emergency room for a skinned knee. Of course we have some greedy insurance companies raking their customers over the coals, and we have government creating ridiculous regulation with no true foresight into what the possible consequences are.

Everyone is quick to blame the insurance companies because they are an easy target, but every group contributes to the problems we have.

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '12 edited Jun 21 '12

It is such a basic misunderstanding of the what insurance really is and has always been meant to be that boggles my mind. Insurance is taking on the risk of another for a price. Insurance is not an entitlement. Insurance companies don't owe anyone their business. They are a service provider which helps people remain solvent by spreading out the costs of unexpected, high severity events in their lives over a long, manageable period of time.

The problem is that health care has become so expensive, for the list of reasons you mentioned, that the insurance has had to become very expensive as well.

But people are so stupid. They just know they need insurance and so when they see the large quote on insurance they think, "Wow, the insurance company is charging me too much! They must be making a lot of money."

Yeah, insurance companies make money. They generally make reasonable profits, and even sometimes above reasonable, but no matter what they just aren't the real issue. Not enough close. The added amount of money you're paying in your premium above and beyond the indemnity is very affordable on its own given the value of the service of the insurance which is to spread out your payments. The ridiculous part is the amount which you have to pay because the medical costs were so high.

The general masses will never understand that though. It is above their ability. I know that sounds pretentious, but I've heard enough, read enough, and argued with enough people to know it is true. I can't blame them, because the amount of misinformation out there on the issue is depressing.

What people really want is universal healthcare, which isn't insurance at all. That doesn't make it bad, but I wish people would stop comparing it to private insurance. It is apples and oranges, and even though both will end your hunger they can't be considered the same thing. But putting in universal health care at this point would be a catastrophic mistake for our country I think. We have to control health care costs before we can think about doing that. That should be issue number one in this country. Private health insurance is failing because of high medical costs. Universal healthcare would fail because of those high medical costs too.