Obamacare and hospitals

[mee9mee9]

Will non-profit or for profit hospitals stand to benefit more from Obamacare?

[SC_RNDude]

As for the government "spend(ing) our healthcare dollars for us better than what we can for ourselves," you obviously believe that private, for-profit insurance companies (which have, by definition, the primary goal of turning as large a profit as possible for their shareholders, not making sure that people get the healthcare they need) make better healthcare decisions for us than we can for ourselves.

I stated that I believe that I can make better decisions about how my healthcare dollars are spent then the gov't can for me. So, how does that equate to me obviously believing that health insurance companies make better decisions then I can for myself???

[MunoRN, RN]

So, we agree. Medicare Advantage costs more not because it is run by private business, but because it is a product of politicians and health insurance companies scratching each others' backs at the expense of the taxpayer.

My friends, the republicans? You would be hard-pressed to find a time when I have raved about anything the republicans have done. And, lets don't pretend that the democrats are any better when it comes to these things.

So you're saying that even though taking a medicare-run plan and having it instead run by a for-profit insurers increases the cost of that plan 12%, it's not due to the for-profit insurer? It would seem pretty straightforward; administering the same plan costs 12% more when it's done by a for-profit insurer compared to when it's administered by medicare.

[MunoRN, RN]

I stated that I believe that I can make better decisions about how my healthcare dollars are spent then the gov't can for me. So, how does that equate to me obviously believing that health insurance companies make better decisions then I can for myself???

So how would that work? Should insurers/medicare give the patient cash for their diagnosis rather than paying the facility/providers directly? I think most people agree that they would prefer to spend their money directly, which is why most plans have deductibles. The problem is that I don't know very many people who can afford even rather simple hospital stay just out of their own funds.