Affordable Care Act

Did I say, or somehow suggest it was not? Why do you make it sound like charity?

I'm not suggesting you said it was a choice. That's my opinion - which can be wrong.

Sorry. I misunderstood.

Maybe there was misunderstanding on one or both of our parts. Macht nichts

I guess there was.

The ACA changed the law and people are not denied, "because they do not have insurance" preexisting conditions are not an obstacle to owning insurance...

I wonder how many people, that alone, has benefited?

I just wonder how many with preexisting condition were able to buy insurance because of cost.

A dear friend and former manager where I worked had a beautiful daughter who was having some health concerns. When she was 35 she told her doctor and her GYN she had serious concerns about rectal bleeding and pressure in her lower half.....both docs told her that she didn't need a colonoscopy because she was too young......the GYN said it's probably because of pregnancy or childbirth or the reliable 'you're too young. When her youngest was 18 months old, she finally got that colonoscopy none of the docs thought was necessary. A week before Christmas, on her mother's birthday, she was told she had stage 4 colon cancer. Her husband's health coverage took care of her treatments for about 2 years until his job was eliminated. Her dad and her family savings paid for incredibly expensive chemo, until she was covered by ACA. Her husband was hired by McCormicks and I don't know if it was ACA or McCormicks coverage after that.....but both her husband and two young girls and her mom and Dad would have had to declare bankruptcy if it hadn't been for coverage of existing
conditions. She managed to live 5 years before she lost that cruel battle. She was 43 years old when she died. I'm sorry her docs ignored her symptoms, but thank god for ACA, her daughters got her for 5 years more than they might have.

Fewer people can be turned away.

We already had this in Mass with the insurance I had previously we could not be denied with preexisting conditions. And it was not high deductible and did not cost me as much in premiums monthly. But once the Obamacare came into effect - we no longer had the better insurance where we paid a reasonable co-pay, but instead we had high premiums and once reached we pay 10% with most office visits and hospital visits/stays/surgeries is significantly higher than the co-pays we had previously.

So why has the cost changed so dramatically with fewer choices - with just this one item if we already had this ever since I was deemed a working adult (some 25 years ago)?

In Mass everyone -- at least since 25 years ago.

I still don't understand how for years Mass had this - and our rates were reasonable - certainly not dirt cheap, but affordable, and we did not have high deductibles. We were able to be seen in a reasonable amount of time for our doctors - all I had to do was say it may be an issue and I would have worst case an appointment next day.

I was never refused service or coverage like you mention - refusing a procedure if I felt concerned and mentioned certain things. My daughter a newborn - her doctor thought she heard a heart murmur and sent us immediately to a specialist where we got an appointment in just a few days. She was perfectly fine thankfully to the point the doctor got mad that we brought him a perfectly fine baby.

Now though everything is questioned - where I have to fight for an MRI - after going to the doctor and them thinking she had a minor sprain - and having to visit again before someone took her seriously and now requires surgery.

This all happened after obamacare was instated. Now I fully support covering pre-existing conditions - but something is wrong here - when previously we had all this great coverage including pre-existing conditions and coverage if you lost/left your job. This was all in place in MA.

But the quality of service - having to fight for everything, costing more in premiums and less coverage. How is that better when we already had this in place?

It's supply and demand. More people now have health insurance, but the supply of health care workers did not grow at the same rate. Rationing is forced onto the system.

I disagree with that...

With more healthcare services available to people now, then preventative medicine can spare people from more costly procedures that surely do tie up physician resources down the road...

A motor vehicle that is regularly maintained with rather minimal procedures costs less and demands less time in the shop requiring more costly repairs.

A 15 dollar pair of brake pads can avoid an entire wheel assembly repair.

20 dollar pair of shocks can avoid a leaf spring, frame and body repair.

Your premise is without solid evidence.

Many of the people who joined Obamacare are young and need no healthcare, yet...

That is a sad story with a dire message to all people thinking about seeing a physician. Go and get checked!

Thank you for sharing this from your heart, it made me teary.

We can all learn from eachother and healthcare is about community not building walls.

What is sad is that by the time the republican are done destroying affordable healthcare by making it unaffordable... many will have died due to not being able to come up with up front costs.

Had Obama Care been fully implemented... the costs would have plummeted over time and saved the lives of many good people who have literally had their lives stolen away by the greedy and unconscionable GOP.

The GOP that professes that "all lives matter" is an oxymoron. They already tried to take away health insurance from 24 million people. They are hypocrites of the first order. How often did they try to repeal ACA?
They never had a replacement.
They played with repeal for seven years.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/static.theintercept.com/amp/repeal-votes-obamacare.html
They put fear into people to play politics.
Bunch of bozos.

All lives matter is not an oxymoron to the GOP, it is an outright lie.

Only white billionaires lives matter to them, their tax breaks and unregulated pollution.

Exceptionalism will be the ruin of everything good.

What's even funnier is Trump's threat to the GOP on the repeal of Obamacare.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-essential-washington-updates-trump-warns-gop-vote-for-obamacare-1490110769-htmlstory.html
Trump's approval rating is hovering around 34%; a loser by any definition.

These are the questions you need to be asking about Republicans’ health care plan.
https://www.facebook.com/SenatorKamalaHarris/videos/440311109645361/