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

Nursesarecool1 · Nov 13, 2016

Hi i found this interesting article out Of a RNs perspective. Totally relevant. Enjoy

JustinMars · Nov 13, 2016

It is hardly affordable. Premiums are doubling and tripling. You don't get to keep your Doctor. It is nothing like what they said it would be. It is a nightmare

Mommavik, ADN · Nov 13, 2016

As a disabled nurse on SS disability, I found that my costs sound very reasonable until you take into account that by the time I pay my absolutely necessary expenses (rent, car payment, utilities, medications, insurance) I usually have about $100-200 per month for food, gas, simple things like shampoo and toothpaste, etc. Then I add on $30-45 for a"specialist"visit for my diabetes; same for each other doctor that my pcp sends me to for my other medical problems. Granted, I don't usually have more than 1 or 2 per month depending on how problematic my illnesses are but it sometimes comes down to"do I go to my doctor knowing I have to pay that (mostly before being seen) leaving little money for food or do I skip the Dr visit and hope I don't increase my problems from not going" BTW, my monthly income is around $1800/mo. I moved to the cheapest long term hotel I could (since utilities are included) because I could not afford a1 bedroom apartment plus utilities ;my city has poor transit so I can't NOT have a car, I'm grateful to have insurance through medicare since due to over 2 years wait to be approved for SS everything I had in savings, my 401k, other retirement account had to be used for living expenses unless I wanted to be homeless (and still would have been if not for friends and family)

land27 · Nov 13, 2016

My concern is more related to future employment; I am graduating from NP school in December and concerned most employers will slow hiring for the first part of 2017.

Mfs1 · Nov 13, 2016

Not what will occur for sure . What I can tell you Obama care did was create a lot more have not and decreased health care for many in the lower middle class. My parents busted their butts working their whole life they retired with decent insurance just to have it taken away and replaced with a more expensive plan that offers less quality care. I had to pay much for health I durance and what Obama care did for me was make me unable to afford insurance and have to pay for not having it . I am white and my privilege and my families privilege was to work hard to get to lower middle class from poverty to be kicked right back into poverty thanks to Obama and his radical ideas. That man and that house created a lot more have not as was his idea anyway! Perhaps the president elect will move away from creating more poverty level house holds to use as pawns for his political ideations. However, I have no faith in any rich person,any lawyer, any politician. This country is sickening with what the politicians,special interests, globalists, and Big business has done to it! If you want the AMERICAN DREAM THANKS TO THE POLITICIANS AND GREED OF THEM ONE MUST MOVE TO DENMARK!! HOWEVER, I HEAR THAT TOO IS GETTING DESTROYED BY PEOPLE WITH THE SAME RADICAL GLOBALIST IDEAS AS OBAMA. PERSONALLY I AM PISSED I VOTED FOR OBAMA TWICE AND HE BROKE MY FAMILY AND DID SO BECAUSE WE WERE MIDDDLE CLASS .

TriciaJ, RN · Nov 13, 2016

So what will it take for the USA to have some sort of national health coverage to all citizens just like in canada, United, most western European countries, nordic european countries just as an example? what's keeping the USA from doing it? it would surely be beneficial.
i dont know much about the politics of it all and why the USA, one of the richest countries developed countries in the world, doesn't have it.

Things are done very differently in the countries you mentioned, and those things drive the cost of healthcare. I've sat in many waiting rooms in the US while my partner has had surgeries. The waiting rooms were all new, with nice furniture, fresh paint and carpets, televisions. Who do you think pays for all that?

When I sat with my dad in an ICU in Canada, the waiting room was a dismal, depressing experience. No windows, crap furniture; very uncomfortable. That's because the health care dollars only fund health care, not all the other niceness that Americans take for granted and don't realize they are paying for.

That's only one small example of why health care costs are different in different places. It's really hard to take in the WHOLE PICTURE of why something can happen in one place and not the other.

sallyrnrrt, ADN, RN · Nov 14, 2016

I would like to see private, person owned health care plan

arizonagirl2016 · Nov 14, 2016

I'm hoping something good comes of it. As it stands, the ACA hasn't made healthcare affordable. Premiums just increased dramatically in my state, making it absolutely unaffordable for my husband and I to both be covered. We don't qualify for subsidies, he doesn't have insurance through work and for us both to be covered under my plan from work would be $850 a month which is pretty much most of my paycheck. And that would be just for medical. It doesn't include vision and dental. So at the moment, I'm insured, he isn't. And we're just hoping we won't be in a situation where he needs something until we can get it figured out. Oh, and we're newly married so things are tight money-wise. But right now, we definitely don't have the money for insurance because premiums are ridiculous. Hopefully something can be done about those stupid-high premiums.

MunoRN, RN · Nov 14, 2016

I would like to see private, person owned health care plan

I'm curious what that means.

MunoRN, RN · Nov 14, 2016

I'm hoping something good comes of it. As it stands, the ACA hasn't made healthcare affordable. Premiums just increased dramatically in my state, making it absolutely unaffordable for my husband and I to both be covered. We don't qualify for subsidies, he doesn't have insurance through work and for us both to be covered under my plan from work would be $850 a month which is pretty much most of my paycheck. And that would be just for medical. It doesn't include vision and dental. So at the moment, I'm insured, he isn't. And we're just hoping we won't be in a situation where he needs something until we can get it figured out. Oh, and we're newly married so things are tight money-wise. But right now, we definitely don't have the money for insurance because premiums are ridiculous. Hopefully something can be done about those stupid-high premiums.

True insurance wasn't really available in the individual market prior to the ACA, the majority of people who declared bankruptcy due to medical bills prior to the ACA had insurance, so it wasn't doing much to keep healthcare sustainably funded.

Health insurance is now required to actually do what's supposed to and reflect a person's share of healthcare costs, which isn't a bad thing but also isn't cheap.

For each person that pays less than their share, someone else has to pay more, so we can't just say everyone can pay less, instead there's a necessary cutoff for subsidies. If you and your spouse don't qualify for a subsidy then that means you make more than $64k a year, well above the US average for an entire household. What do you think the cutoff should be?

Susie2310 · Nov 14, 2016

People can also not make enough money to qualify for a health insurance subsidy, yet not qualify for Medicaid. This situation is known as the "Coverage Gap", and a number of people fall into it.

morte, LPN, LVN · Nov 14, 2016

Not sure, but trying to be positive (at least here on AN) regarding Trump and his advisors. I have little hope, but his politics will affect Canada as well. Maybe Trump will react in haste and find himself impeached.
For now, we can only speculate on health care reform.

The professor that predicted trump's win, is predicting that his own party will impeach him within the year. So that they can put pence in the white house because he is more easily controlled. Remember, the dems can't do it, they don't have the numbers. pence is worse in many ways: voting rights and choice, the leading two.