It's frustrating though because it seems like being on the right side of things never gets you anywhere.
The right side or wrong side is only a matter of opinion. Just change your opinion and you'll be OK with it.
We had to drop our HDHP,which we loved and was perfect for us. We got it as individuals. Because the premiums shot up so drastically we switched to the plan my wife's employer offers. It doesn't fit our needs as well. Presently we are discussing my wife quitting her job and coming to work with me, but then we would be stuck in the exchanges. I am stuck with two lingering questions: 1) Why did we need medicaid expansion at all? You have to be dirt poor to qualify for medicaid. If you are dirt poor you get a full subsidy through the exchanges? If the government provides insurance why do we still need the entitlement program at all, much less a more expensive entitlement? 2) If everyone either has health insurance (required by law) or medicaid why has there been virtually no change in ER visits for non-emergency care? I mean hell, when DHH studied the Mid City ER 90+% of the care was not related to an emergency, and since it closed the increases at the General and Lake emergency rooms are not related to emergency care. Why aren't these people who should be insured at taxpayer expense, or be on medicaid at taxpayer expense going to primary care physicians.
They probably don't go to primary care physicians because they can go to ER and be seen the same day rather than making an appointment with a doctor that might be weeks before they are treated
Fair question. I'm not sure I know, but as I understood it at the time, medicaid provides free or low-cost coverage to people and families with limited income, disabilities, and some other situations. These people had a system to pay for their health care. The uninsured Americans ranged from wealthy and middle class people with pre-existing conditions or other reason that insurance companies would not cover them to poor working people with no insurance at their jobs and even people like you who underinsured themselves at will to obtain low rates and didn't mind paying out-of-pocket for everything except a catastrophic illness. Some states thought that it made more financial sense to put all of the low-come people on medicaid which was already up and working. Most of the middle class wanted regular insurance and they could get it at the exchanges. 2) If everyone either has health insurance (required by law) or medicaid why has there been virtually no change in ER visits for non-emergency care? I mean hell, when DHH studied the Mid City ER 90+% of the care was not related to an emergency, and since it closed the increases at the General and Lake emergency rooms are not related to emergency care. Why aren't these people who should be insured at taxpayer expense, or be on medicaid at taxpayer expense going to primary care physicians.[/QUOTE]It's going to take time to educate people who have for generations in Louisiana, went to the Charity Hospital ER for all illnesses. Jindal was foolish to close it abruptly, they all should have been phased out gradually. People who have never had insurance don't have a concept of seeing a doctor regularly and taking the medication they need. It will take several years to get people to learn a new system of getting medicine and doctor care that is not an emergency. The Mid-CIty BR General is another story. It is said that BRGH Inc. has been quietly trying to shift all operations to the new facility off Bluebonnet ever since it was completed. Closing the ER was just the first step. I think the entire mid-city hospital will be consolidated at the Bluebonnet campus in 5 or 6 years.
That and they don't have to pay. They just get a bill they will never pay for and the cost gets passed on to us.
