Obamacare, the proposed trump care, its all a failure.

Get rid of the employer sponsored plans, that makes no sense at all and makes me hesitant to lose my job because my health relies on it? That is simply absurd. Get rid of this. I'm so frustrated with the healthcare here and I don't understand how Washington can't come up with any real solutions

The part in all of this that has bothered me more than anything is that it's a diversion to mask the real problem: healthcare service and products are unsustainably expensive.

Casinos use chips and vouchers to distract gamblers from actually grasping just how much money they're playing with. Health insurance sure feels like the same thing, but it's even worse in that when you're in need, you're not always in a state of mind to make rational choices nor are those choices even adequately defined prior to receiving a bill. Why is this acceptable? Since when are contracts entered into under duress admissible? I suspect it's probably a massive success on the part of lobbyists.

I don't know the solution, but I can confidently say it's probably not reached by tackling the insurance side of healthcare. Maybe the current system needs to collapse under its own weight before a new approach even stands a chance? Unfortunately, it's probably more likely it'd just receive a government bailout at taxpayers' expense so it could continue the status quo.

I always wonder why, in all the coverage about health care and insurance groups "pulling out" of the marketplace, no one seems to want to state the obvious:

* Insurers are not pulling out of the insurance market.

* Insurers are pulling out of selling to individuals.

* This is happening because selling to large groups (like entire companies) is easier/more profitable.

* It is easier to sell to larger groups because you have greater numbers across which to amortize risk.

* The largest group of Americans one could envision selling insurance to is...ALL Americans.

So, by pulling out of the unprofitable individual marketplace in order to focus on selling to larger groups, these insurance companies are practically shouting at us what anyone with half a head already knows: single payer is the only practical, efficient, and cost effective solution for universal coverage.

It's worth noting that Iowa is in particular trouble because of a single patient that costs ~1M a month[1]. In a relatively small market you end up with an unstable situation when there are more than 1 insurers because none of them know if they will have to take on this very expensive patient in any given year.

1. https://www.balloon-juice.com/2017/04/21/catching-the-fallin...

Iowa has only one ACA insurer left and they are raising their rates 43.5%.

Basically providing Obamacare was hemorrhaging so much money that Wellmark and BCBS left, leaving a single payer, that ACA users are forced to use.

http://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/health/medica-to-stay...

That's probably the main factor preventing me from quitting and working for myself. Crazy high medical insurance for a family of 4. That and educational savings for kids.

"Free" medical and college would cause a hell of a disruption that corporations would not like.

When I read the article, I wonder how viable the business really is. The business started in 2015 and he's still below the poverty line: "He needs the subsidy, because he’s taking only about $17,000 in salary per year from the fledgling engineering company."

I attempted to run a company prior to ACA. Because I had a pre-existing condition, I had to buy COBRA. This forced me to get something running within 18 months. I also paid much more than "$100 per month" for my insurance.

18 months went by and I was nowhere. With the ACA, I might have lasted a few more months; but I'll never know if I would have gotten anywhere. Either way, after 18 months I did not have anything close to a viable business.

I think it's important that people are able to start businesses, and health insurance should not be an obstacle to that. There's a fine line, though, between fair access and an outright subsidy of a fledgling business. It's hard to see where that line is when reading this article.

I have an employer sponsored plan through the small business (25 employees) that I work for. The rates the company pays has gone up around 10% a year since I started working here. Two years ago, rates were going to go up 35% but the company found another insurance provider and (after polling employees) went with a higher deductible plan to keep the increas just under 20%.

This does not seem sustainable.

This isn't just an Iowa issue. When I talk to early stage entrepreneurs looking to raise seed capital healthcare is almost always one of their biggest concerns - both for their own families as well as the impact it will have on recruiting the necessary talent.

PEOs help early stage companies to a certain extent, but for a pre-revenue company the cost of healthcare is almost always going to be a significant burden that funnels valuable cash away from the product and shortens the runway. But without a decent benefits package, start-ups have almost no hope of attracting key talent especially if those prospective employees have kids, so they (and their investors) are forced to just suck it up.

Healthcare in the US is a ticking time bomb with the potential to significantly impact our long term growth (if it isn't already). Unfortunately we're in a situation where for-profit insurance companies, for-profit health networks, and for-profit pharma companies are all fighting for their share of the pie while pushing increasing costs onto the average consumer. I wish I knew what the fix was - other than an unattainable single-payer system - but we need to find something and find it fast.

This is all such bullshit. Single payer has problems, but it works well and is a whole lot cheaper in terms of % of GDP as implemented in places like Italy. Also in Italy you have a decent, parallel private system where you can simply call up and ask how much basic stuff is. I once got some chest X-rays and a consultation with an ear-nose-throat doctor for 150 Euros out of pocket (oh, and I got to do both the day after I called). They apologized because it was so expensive. I barely kept a straight face.

The people who claim to be protecting your freedom are shifting the economy into the worlds largest extortion play.

Its maybe the penultimate stage of a truly free market.

I got a letter from my insurance provider saying they're pulling out of the local market in 2018. I pay full price directly, no subsidy, not through any exchange, it's very expensive and I've poured tens of thousands into premiums over the years.

I can't help but relate the entire industry to a ponzi scheme.

Basically, do we want to send the signal that entrepreneurship is for everyone, or just the rich and healthy?

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