<p>Actually, Flossy, I haven’t. That thing we cannot talk about is not government run health care. </p>
<p>I don’t want to get this thread shut down again so I am going to be quiet now and go off to work.</p>
<p>GP and Flossy, perhaps this will help you understand the difference:
<a href=“Government-Run Health Care - FactCheck.org”>http://www.factcheck.org/2014/04/government-run-health-care-2/</a></p>
<p>Lasma, I understand that you probably don’t think that is a biased link. But, it is. Note how they argue exclusively against the other sides position. Sigh.</p>
<p>“Note how they argue exclusively against the other sides position. Sigh.”</p>
<p>That would be because ACA isn’t a government run health care system. Even if we went to “that which shall remain nameless” like Medicare is now - is would not be a government run heath care system. It’s a government run health insurance program. </p>
<p>The government regulates lots of different industries but just because they impose regulations that must be followed doesn’t make the industry government run. </p>
<p>The VA is a government run health care DELIVERY SYSTEM. </p>
<p>Seems pointless to argue whether some system we don’t have and won’t have is “government run.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, HHS set up the rules for re-enrollment for year 2, for people on the exchanges. A lot of people will be automatically re-enrolled in their existing policy. If the existing policy has been cancelled, they’ll be auto-enrolled in the most similar policy from the same insurer, or the most similar policy from a different insurer if the same insurer has left the market.</p>
<p>This is a substantial advantage for insurers who offered cheap Silver policies the first year. People are lazy. Lots of people won’t bother to check whether a better policy is available in year 2; they’ll just go with whatever they picked last year.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/hhs-sets-enrollment-rules-for-rules-for-year-two-of-obamacare/2014/06/26/ab739d1c-fd2b-11e3-b1f4-8e77c632c07b_story.html”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/hhs-sets-enrollment-rules-for-rules-for-year-two-of-obamacare/2014/06/26/ab739d1c-fd2b-11e3-b1f4-8e77c632c07b_story.html</a></p>
<p>That’s weird then, acting. When my DH went on the exchange to get insurance, there wasn’t a single government option. Anthem, yes. Kaiser, yes. But no government insurance whatsoever. </p>
<p>And he uses Mercy Medical Group for his actual health care, as he has for years. </p>
<p>So please tell me where the “government run health care” is. </p>
<p>Oh, it’s in the massive list of rules regulations from HHS that controls what docs and insurance companies must do to get paid. The money runs the system and the govt controls most of the money in a new way under ACA. </p>
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<p>What? The government doesn’t pay the docs in exchange plans; the insurance companies pay the docs and hospitals, like they always have. And there is no massive list of rules and regulations for the insurance companies to get the subsidy money-- they just get it for everybody who is subsidized. </p>
<p>You may be confusing exchange plans with Medicare. Medicare does pay docs directly, and does have rules and regulations.</p>
<p>“The money runs the system and the govt controls most of the money in a new way under ACA.”</p>
<p>Exactly. </p>
<p>Insurance companies are little more than utility companies. There is essentially one homogenized policy you can sell to the public in the obamacare world. Notice with this so-called competitive exchange almost every plan (with similar deductible) is within a few dollars of each other. Another lie by Obama is that the insurance companies will compete with each other, driving prices down.</p>
<p>OSHA has a massive list of regulations and doesn’t run those businesses.
Homogenized policy? Nonsense. Again, you need to check before making hot universal assumptions. </p>
<p>Lots of rules and regulations imposed on the airline industry. Prices tend to pretty similar for same service, Not much different than Gold/Silver/Bronze in insurance world. First Class/Business/ Coach. One airline starts charging for bags, food, etc., and they all follow suit. Then there is the “Medicaid” airlines- Southwest, Jet Blue, for the poor people. 
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<p>I guess the government runs the airline industry too, then. Do their shareholder know? </p>
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<p>This is simply incorrect. I looked for someone my age, a Silver plan, in Palo Alto. Most of them have a deductible of around $2000. For the Silver plans with exactly $2000 deductible, the cheapest is $662, and the most expensive is $793. That’s a 20% difference, hardly “a few dollars.”</p>
<p>I’ve played around with prices in a lot of areas. Most areas have substantial price differences for plans of the same metal level with the same deductible. I suppose this is because of differences in networks.</p>
<p>So when you buy a car from GM, do you call that “government run transportation”? Or is a restaurant meal “government run nutrition”? Because there’s a boatload of government regulations in both of those industries. </p>
<p>A bit off topic but interesting article in today’s Times:</p>
<p><a href=“When a Health Plan Knows How You Shop - The New York Times”>When a Health Plan Knows How You Shop - The New York Times;
<p>LasMa, when you buy a car or a restaurant meal or an airline ticket your purchase is not subsidized. Some would argue there are way too may regulations in those industries, too. Ask any local restaurant owner. But, it’s not same thing at all. And, yeah, Emily’s link is interesting. </p>
<p><a href=“Confusion over doctor lists is costly for Obamacare enrollees in state”>Confusion over doctor lists is costly for Obamacare enrollees in state;
<p>Thanks for posting that article, Flossy. It’s excellent news that the Department of Managed Care is investigating the two big insurers.
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<p>California’s insurance regulatory bodies are confusing. The Department of Managed Care, strangely, is NOT under the Department of Insurance. The Department of Insurance is in charge of most PPOs; the Department of Managed Care is in charge of HMOs like Kaiser, and also some other health plans, as we see; and the Department of Labor is in charge of self-insured plans, such as would be found at most bigger employers. Go figure.</p>
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<p>It’s true that plane tickets and cars are not subsidized, and (for some people) individual insurance is. But I can’t understand how that comment is relevant to the amount of regulation for these three purchases. </p>
<p>CF- It goes to the “government run” question for me. If they pay, they run. And, they pay for a lot of people. Actually, more and more as costs continue to rise and the economy continues to shrink which is a problem some say this law exasperates. But, we probably disagree on this one.</p>