Bold Gibbons-Sandoval agenda would shield uninsured Nevadans from risk of becoming insured

Nevada's health care system is every bit as comprehensive, efficient and fair as the rest of Nevada's socio-economic infrastructure: It sucks, too.

The percentage of uninsured people in Nevada is traditionally among the nation's highest, and the individual mandate thing (wingnuts were for it before they were against it) could be helpful 'round here.

But arguably even more helpful are the Affordable Care Act's provisions that aggressively expand Medicaid.

When the more substantial portions of the health care law take effect in 2014, the expert-texperts project that no state will see a more dramatic Medicaid caseload growth than Nevada. And for most of that expansion, the feds will pick up 90 percent of the cost. Which is to say for every dollar the state spends to cover our teeming masses of uninsured, it'll get back, you know, oodles.

Evil terrible horrible "Obamacare" would provide medical coverage to hundreds of thousands of Nevadans who have none -- a key prerequisite to holding down health care costs for everyone. And no state would get a bigger return on investment. (Perhaps some local Democrats might want to say that sometime? No? Never mind.)

So of course Gov. Brian Sandoval, eagerly emulating the competence and wisdom of his disgraced and unhinged predecessor, wants the activist Roberts court to overturn the health care law. (Remember that the next time you see some media report gushing about how practical and pragmatic and non-ideological the magic Sandoval is.)

Anyway, numbers & shit explaining all this in more detail are here, ifn's your interested.

Comments

[vegas_tom]

look Gleaner --- it's my GOD given right to pay the most for the 17th best health care in the world. Got it? Good.

Now got go lay down --- I broke a rib today and can't afford to go to the doctor. I suppose if I end up with a punctured lung out of it I can go to UMC and stiff the baggers, and only the baggers, with the bill. Yeah. That'd be kewl. Until then I'll just chew on this stick for my treatment.

good to see you back, for now. ;)

[Observer]

Gleaner, there are real problems with Obamacare. Yes, the Republicans are mostly off their rockers with their objections, but still, here are the facts:

The US medical is the most expensive medical system in the world. It costs nearly twice the cost of the 2nd most expensive system, Canada. The big difference between the US and Canada is the role of the insurance companies. In Canada, the insurance companies were thrown out of the healthcare system decades ago.
Having private insurance companies involves raises costs in two ways: (1) insurance companies make a profit and (2) insurance companies require that every medical procedure be listed, documented, and billed for separately, and fought over by the doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, and patients, who are all playing "the denial game", trying to get someone else to pay for it.
Factor #2 is much more important than factor #1 in the high price of US healthcare. The upshot is that the US healthcare system supports an army of paperpushers, all playing the denial game.

If the US expanded the Medicare system to cover everybody, they would eliminate enough bureaucratic overhead to be able to cover all Americans. We're paying enough now for universal coverage, we're just not getting it.

Obamacare requires everybody to purchase health insurance from private companies. It's expensive enough to buy coverage that young, healthy people will just refuse to buy it, and pay the fine instead. That will likely kill Obamacare.