An interesting story out of Washington state.

Quote:Washington hospitals provided nearly $154 million less in charity care in the first half of this year than in the first half of 2013, in many cases boosting the hospitals’ bottom lines.

Hospitals attributed the plunge in charity care — about 30 percent — to the Affordable Care Act’s focus on reducing the number of uninsured patients.

This year, for the first time, low-income and uninsured patients whose care was previously covered under hospitals’ charity-care programs were able under the ACA to qualify for Medicaid coverage or subsidized private insurance.
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2...opxml.html

From a Triad (NC) business journal article regarding a Price Waterhouse report.

Quote:PwC looked in particular at the impact on the country's largest for-profit health systems, such as Community Health Systems, Hospital Corp. of America and Tenet Healthcare. Those systems saw an increase of between 10.4 percent and 32 percent in Medicaid admissions while self-pay admissions — those patients funding their own coverage — declined by nearly half across the board.
Community Health Systems reported that the coverage expansion under the ACA accounted for $40 million to $45 million of its earnings, with another $40 million in benefits through the second half of the year.
"As more and more people seek out routine primary care, a community's overall health should improve," the PwC report reads. "But in non-expansion states, lower-income individuals may continue to have limited access to care and strain the safety net."
Gov. Pat McCrory and the Republican leadership in the General Assembly decided last year against expanding Medicaid, claiming that the system was broken and needed reforming before any expansion would be considered.
However, a reform plan developed by a McCrory-appointed task force failed to be adopted, and competing proposals as well were left on the table as legislators ended their work during this year's short session of the General Assembly.
http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/news/20...l?page=all

So we pay for it in the form of charity or we pay for it in the form of higher premiums and higher out of pocket costs. Either way, we're still paying for it. Why do you guys act like all this stuff is free?

(09-21-2014 10:46 AM)smn1256 Wrote:  So we pay for it in the form of charity or we pay for it in the form of higher premiums and higher out of pocket costs. Either way, we're still paying for it. Why do you guys act like all this stuff is free?

Who said it was free? It isn't, but healthier people and financially stable hospitals certainly are a positive for our economy. Premiums and out of pocket are generally stable or rising at a rate that is at the same level as prior prior years. Plus those crap policies aren't being sold anymore.

(09-21-2014 11:09 AM)dawgitall Wrote:  It isn't, but healthier people and financially stable hospitals certainly are a positive for our economy.

I see a huge irony about passing a law to keep people healthy while passing other laws promoting bad health.

In a recent sit-down with Sports Illustrated's Peter King, Peyton Manning more or less admitted that Colorado’s decision to legalize marijuana has been a huge boon for his pizza stores.

Weeks before the state passed a legalization amendment in 2012, the Broncos quarterback began snapping up Papa John’s franchises in the Denver area. The move prompted even the most casual observer to deduce that Peyton, a wily old fox, had bought the stores to capitalize on the impending munchies boom that would sweep the state.

And those observers would appear to be right, if we read between the lines Manning is dishing out.

Answering a question concerning whether he votes for public officials (he does), Manning told King that he likes to educate himself on the people and issues of the day—namely, he like to stay informed on local politicians and the potentially profitable laws they pass.


You try to know who you’re voting for…I’ve gotten to know some of the folks here in Colorado. There’s some different laws out here in Colorado. Pizza business is pretty good out here, believe it or not, due to some recent law changes. So when you come to a different place, you’ve kind of got to learn everything that comes with it.
”
So, is Manning pro-‘Dro? Certainly he’d never personally conspire with the devil’s cabbage, but judging by the soaring sales his stores have experienced, he’s probably not against it.

After all, as TMZ noted in 2013, the 21 Papa John’s stores owned by Manning raked in record sales in the post-legalization period, registering a 25 percent profit increase at one location.

So while we all half-joked about Manning purposefully buying 21 pizza restaurants in a legalization hotbed, well, it appears Manning was doing just that. Occam’s razor wins again.

Peyton’s purchase was what we thought it was, and now he’s reaping the profits of sticky seeds sown.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/22031...pt=hp_bn15

(09-21-2014 11:09 AM)dawgitall Wrote:  It isn't, but healthier people and financially stable hospitals certainly are a positive for our economy.

Absolutely, but there's no reason to expect Obamacare to bring about either of those. My own expectation is that it will in fact make both worse.