If people living in the U.S. would live more healthy lifestyles, eat better, exercise now and then, drink less alcohol and vape instead of smoke, there would be less need (demand) for healthcare. The supply/demand equation would work the way it should in free market economies, and prices would go down.
If you want to increase access to healthcare, you either have to reduce demand or increase supply. Nothing else will work. I do not think Obamacare is about health, healthcare or access to healthcare. I think it is about money.
Oklahoma's FY-2012 budget for medicaid is around $4.5 Billion dollars. Statistics indicate that each nondisabled Oklahoman covered by medicaid costs the State $4,500. In Oklahoma, 679,000 kids and well over a million people total are covered by medicaid. This one program consumes 13% of the state budget. There are only 4 million people living in the state. Medicaid covers One out of Four of them? Obamacare wants to expand medicaid coverage. How the hell are we going to do that?
At my company, we're cutting back insurance benefits this year. We're increasing deductibles and co-insurance, therefore increasing each employee's exposure if something bad happens. We're also not providing spouse or dependent coverage for free anymore. But what choice do we have? I pay the bills here, and I know that insurance costs are two and a half times higher now than they were four years ago. If we keep our insurance plan that we've had for the past 10 years, our rates will go up again in January.
Insurance costs for all of our employees have gone from $4,000/month 5 years ago to $10,000 per month next year. We're bailing, not increasing coverage. It's sad, but unavoidable.
At least we're not cutting staff...yet.