The National Republican
Committee recently tweeted, “The average family premium has increased 29%
under Obama.”
So, what do we learn by this tweet? First, we learn that the NRC
knows how to tweet. Pretty progressive. Second, the tweet is accurate; the
independent, nonpartisan study by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health
Research and Education Trust bears this out. In 2008, this study showed the
average annual family premium for employer-sponsored health insurance was
$12,680 compared to today’s 2013 study which show that premium to be $16,680 ~
29%.
However, the
implication that Obama has caused the 29% increase in health premiums is sheer
conjecture or a downright misrepresentation. The increase between 2008 and 2013 was significantly lower than the
increase between 1999 and 2008. In fact, they rose twice as fast. Compared
on an annual basis premium increases during the Obama years by been 5.8% which
is half the increases of the previous 9 years.
We truly have a health care cost disaster going on in this country.
It seems fairly easy to tie these increases back to deregulation under Reagan.
Medicine for profit as compared to single payers systems we see in Europe and
just way more expensive as we have shown previously with oodles of charts. Check
this site for 21 graphs on our absurd health care system in comparison to
others.
Insurance companies are out of control, medical facilities and
personnel are out of control, and the pharmaceutical industry is out of
control. We need regulation not deregulation.
I think the NRC has a lot of hutzpah blaming Obama for increases
they have in essence backed through deregulation and catering to the healthy
care industry lobbyists. They are the folk who would not even allow the market
place to work by keeping the government from negotiating the costs of medicine
under Medicaid. Duh.
If you a good in depth look at real differences between a single
payer system versus our current system I would suggest checking out the Physicians for a National Health Care
Program blog.
They answer innumerable questions in detail and accuracy. They show
the inaccurate claims of those who oppose The Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act signed into law March 23, 2010 (Obamacare). The NRC has just a
masterful job of frightening and misleading the American populace so the most
folk polled seem against the plan yet when polled on individual parts of the
plan they support them.
Here is a bit of that blog:
What is single payer?
Single-payer
national health insurance is a system in which a single public or quasi-public
agency organizes health financing, but delivery of care remains largely
private. Under a single-payer system, all Americans would be covered for all
medically necessary services, including: doctor, hospital, preventive,
long-term care, mental health, reproductive health care, dental, vision,
prescription drug and medical supply costs. Patients would regain free choice
of doctor and hospital, and doctors would regain autonomy over patient care.
No.
Socialized medicine is a system in which doctors and hospitals work for and
draw salaries from the government. Doctors in the Veterans Administration and
the Armed Services are paid this way. The health systems in Great Britain and
Spain are other examples. But in most European countries, Canada, Australia and
Japan they have socialized health insurance, not socialized medicine. The
government pays for care that is delivered in the private (mostly
not-for-profit) sector. This is similar to how Medicare works in this country.
Doctors are in private practice and are paid on a fee-for-service basis from
government funds. The government does not own or manage medical practices or hospitals.
The
term socialized medicine is often used to conjure up images of government
bureaucratic interference in medical care. That does not describe what happens
in countries with national health insurance where doctors and patients often
have more clinical freedom than in theU.S., where bureaucrats attempt to
direct care.
One of the claims opponents our plan is that we will end up with
rationing the way they do in Canada. The truth is we rationed health care
before the plan. 45,000 Americans die each year because they don’t have health
insurance; more skip treat because the insurance won’t cover things. That
happens in this country not in other countries. Other countries have publicly accountable programs while ours is not. Administrative costs in our country are
31% higher than other countries systems. And we spend twice as much per person
on health care in comparison to Canada and most European nations.
One more time, we need to get informed on this issue rather than
listen to the propaganda of the health care lobbyists are their paid for
minions in congress.
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