So what's going to happen to health care now?

elkpark · Nov 11, 2016

I'm very worried for everyone. I only hope Trump has good sensible advisors, and that he listens to them.

And who would those people be? So far (throughout the campaign) he's surrounded himself with right wing kooks, hacks, and sycophants.

Aromatic · Nov 11, 2016

Healthcare is too complex to be cheap. Everything else is easy to fix compared to the body since everything else in the world we humans created but we did not create the body.

Future will probably hold stratified care where the poor get older/cheaper stuff unless they dish out the cash for the newest and best. Even though we all know to some extent this already happens.

Cut down physician, nursing, and other allied health wages and you won't get the quality of care that you get currently, people with work ethic and brains will seek other ways for financial reward.

Sounds evil of me but probably true. The rest is complete speculation. Good input from everybody above though.

Chinesedog · Nov 11, 2016

I don't know about you, but years before the ACA went into full effect there was a multistep transition we had to go through. It changed our entire operation a bit. The first thing I learned as a nurse was "costs, costs, costs" and how area hospitals were going out of business because people just don't pay their bills. I was told to admit Medicare patients first because they paid the most. Every place I worked freaked out about us using extra pieces of gauze and cut corners to dangerous levels.

All of these problems were the result of decades of financial healthcare disasters. If you remember the HMO movement in the 80's, that failed and led to the need for ACA. With the ACA, we can't be denied due to pre-existing conditions.

My employer cancels our insurance if we go below 20/h a week for two weeks in a row. With my chronic illness child, she would have lost her insurance and I'd be bankrupt soon. I rely on the ACA to have insurance that doesn't cost 4 figures for the both of us.

I haven't had to attend the "omg, stop using so many supplies" meetings in years nor have I been asked to go home as little as an hour early to save the facility money. Financially, the ACA is helping a lot. Keep in mind premiums have been going up long before the ACA, they aren't going up because of it. Please don't get rid of ACA because certain people are on a crusade to do it. My tiny girl needs her mama to not lose the house over her hospital bills.

allnurses Guide · Nov 11, 2016

I have no idea. I do know that insurance premiums will NOT go down. They never do. So that leaves changes in coverage, which will NOT get better. It never does.

TriciaJ, RN · Nov 11, 2016

I would hope that the ACA would not be repealed entirely, but I feel like certain aspects were in trouble regardless of the election results (companies taking themselves out of the insurance exchanges, requiring insurance despite climbing premiums, not seeing the cost savings that was anticipated). I would anticipate thrse aspects to be gone without a replacement in this political climate.

Never mind that a lot of previously-insured people lost their insurance because of ACA (me included). Recently, a lot of people insured through the ACA have been sweating it because premiums have been skyrocketing.

The ACA never did address some of the root causes of health care expense (like tort reform) and is unsustainable in its present form. Impossible to predict what will happen next, but change certainly was inevitable. Election or no election.

Wheaties · Nov 11, 2016

i used to work in the hospital, and the health insurance i had through the hospital was $250/month much more affordable than the what obamacare insurance companies offered through the marketplace.

i dont know whats going to happen to be honest. i wish we had England's NHS or Canada's national health insurance. why cant we have that here in the usa?

VegGal, BSN, RN · Nov 11, 2016

I hope we can get something more affordable. We kept BCBS we had prior to Obamacare and it is going up to $900 a month in Jan. Mine is $10k deductible and hubbys is 3.5 k
Checked into Obama care this yeat and mine alone was going to be 900. Not eligiblefor subsidy as our income is aprox 80k

We have the same problem. Our health insurance was about $200 a month prior to Obamacare, it went up to about $470/month, and now it's going to be about $800 a month on a much lower level (i.e. bronze) with a deductible of about $12,000. Pretty frustrating as all that is just for 2 adults.

At this point, I think anyone who can change things for the better, will be worth listening to, and working with. I'm certainly hopeful that something good may come out of all this. Executive orders just don't work in a democracy.

LollygaggerRN · Nov 11, 2016

i used to work in the hospital, and the health insurance i had through the hospital was $250/month much more affordable than the what obamacare insurance companies offered through the marketplace.
Please understand that the reason it is more affordable is because the hospital picks up a huge portion of the tab. I recently switched positions and had to utilize COBRA. When I worked for the hospital my share of the premiums was just under $300 for my family. With COBRA it is just under $2k.
I'm always amazed that some folks want to maintain the the disallowance of discrimination based on pre-existing conditions but are opposed to the mandates. What will people do? They will wait until they get sick and then purchase their insurance. That would be a mess. Twenty years ago there was an HMO in the NW that had to stop selling individual policies because people were routinely buying the policies just for maternity coverage. They would pay their fairly low premiums, get the great coverage and then drop as soon as they had their kid. It was unsustainable.
I truly wish insurance companies and employer based insurance would just go the heck away. I want to stop paying premiums to an insurance company. Let me keep that money, tax me an extra *whatever* and ensure that everyone has access to good care and put the insurance companies out of business! Sorry to those of you who work for insurance companies.

elkpark · Nov 11, 2016

i dont know whats going to happen to be honest. i wish we had England's NHS or Canada's national health insurance. why cant we have that here in the usa?

Because of the Republicans. Be sure to thank them.

Rocknurse, MSN, APRN, NP · Nov 11, 2016

I am conservative leaning, but after getting to research healthcare system around the world, I realized that systems like the NHS are really the way we need to go.
Also, maybe we'll get lucky and Press-Gainey will no longer decide reimbursement!

I'm originally from England and I worked in the NHS for 10 years before I came to America. While there are many good points about the NHS there are also many negatives. Going to an NHS style framework would mean much longer waits for patients...sometimes years for surgeries...much lower wages for nurses and literally zero choice for patients. Nurses wages in the UK are capped and formed into bands where you cannot earn beyond that unless you fulfill certain criteria. In England I earned 4 times less than I do here pound for dollar. There is much less ability to climb the professional ladder and less reward. There is so little money to go around that hospitals are old and groaning under the weight of patients. You cannot choose your doctor at all and you have to be referred to a specialist that takes months to get an appointment with. I am glad I don't work for the NHS anymore. However, the positives are that I never received a bill in my life for medical care there. My parents have medical care whenever they need it although they often have to wait a long time to get seen.

The perfect system would be a hybrid. Funding from multiple areas...taxation and private insurance. Those who can afford should have the ability to buy a better insurance while those who cannot should have at least the safety net of basic, decent care free of charge. America has made things way too complicated with the whole ICD 9/10 thing. There is so much red tape and so many bureaucrats that it's out of control. ACA was a start in the right direction but it's not sustainable in the current model. Having said this, repealing it will be a huge mistake because it will leave us back where we were but now everything is more expensive. It's not like prices are going to go down!

I too remember earning good money 10 years ago. Things weren't so tight and we could get travel reimbursement and bonuses and all that disappeared and the penny pinching started. For one side to gain the other side has to lose it seems. We need a system where everyone gains. I foresee caps on nurses wages if we're not careful. We cost too much money and they have to get that from somewhere. That's why I started accumulating degrees and certifications. Make yourself desirable.

Natasha A., CNA, LVN · Nov 11, 2016

Question, what is the change in health care with legalizing marijuana? I do not smoke. I am curious on the prediction.

MrNurse(x2), ADN · Nov 11, 2016

I read the whole ACA, it was set up to fail, thus ushering in the utopian federalized healthcare. Dr. Carson has been enlisted to help in this. The major ideal that must occur is the erasure of state lines. Despite what Bernie says, the free market has always driven prices down (don't believe me? Say Epi-pen). By mandating availability to all, the pre-existing argument is gone. Mandated enrolment will be repealed. I personally know of multiple people who didn't come to the ER until they were on death's door knowing they were breaking the law by not being insured, smh. Let's get rid of teaching kids social indoctrination and start giving them economics instead so they realize the number one reason for bankruptcy in this country is being uninsured medically, and maybe more young people will pay into the system.