Tuesday, March 23, 2010
First debate, healthcare reform (of course)
So I will get us started. I will admit I tend to be liberal so my views are such, but can always be convinced of other things if a good, clever, rational argument is presented. I think the current plan for healthcare reform seems promising. I have seen facts in articles on CNN and MSN which have stated that the bill will prevent lifetime and annual caps on insurance, also prevent lack of coverage based on preexisting conditions for adults as well as children, also that it would allow many more people to have healthcare. These are some of the highlights I am hopeful about. Things I am concerned about include: constitutionality of requiring people to have insurance (although it would theoretically keep some costs down), also references to taxes on so-called "Cadillac insurance plans". I am not sure of what they mean by that at all. Nor has it become evident to me after reading articles on the issue, etc. Okay, up for civil conversation! Give me thoughts, ideas, and as always, facts and historical references are particularly cherished!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think the bill that was just passed is a victory for the insurance companies.
ReplyDeleteThere is no progress in this bill, and I say that as an uninsured person who spends too much out of pocket, you know, paying for prescriptions and doctors appointments, etc. Damn me for taking care of myself and valuing my health!
All right--more seriously:
Issues I have with the bill as it currently stands:
* It permits age-rating, the practice of imposing higher premiums on older people.
* It allows the continuation of gender-rating, the practice of charging women higher premiums simply because they are women.
* It imposes harsh restrictions on the ability of immigrants to access health care, imposing a 5-year waiting period on permanent, legal residents before they are eligible for assistance such as Medicaid.
* It will--best case scenario--only cover 32 million of the 47 million uninsured in this country.
* It lacks a public option and provides no pathway to a single payer system like Medicare for all.
* It is almost identical to the plan written by AHIP, the insurance company trade association, in
2009.The original Senate Finance Committee bill was authored by a former Wellpoint VP. Since Congress released the first of its health care bills on October 30, 2009, health care stocks have risen 28.35%.
* It will not bring down premiums significantly, and certainly not the $2,500/year that the President promised.
Some estimations about cost per premiums:
- Annual premiums in 2016, status quo / with bill:
- Small group market, single: $7,800 / $7,800
- Small group market, family: $19,300 / $19,200
- Large Group market, single: $7,400 / $7,300
- Large group market, family: $21,100 / $21,300
- Individual market, single: $5,500 / $5,800
- Individual market, family: $13,100 / $15,200
* The bill will impose a financial hardship on middle-class Americans (should there be many left) who will be forced to buy a product that they can’t afford to use.
As an illustration, consider a family of four that brings in about $66,370. This family will be forced to pay $5,243 per year for insurance. After basic necessities, this leaves them with $8,307 in discretionary income— out of which they would have to cover clothing, credit card and other debt (student loans!), child care and education costs, in addition to $5,882 in annual out-of-pocket medical expenses for which families will be responsible.
I just don't think that this bill is progress.
* This bill does not bring down costs and leaves out nearly every key cost control measure, including:
• Public Option ($25-$110 billion)
• Medicare buy-in
• Drug reimportation ($19 billion)
• Medicare drug price negotiation ($300 billion)
• Shorter pathway to generic biologics ($71 billion)
* The bill does not empower a regulatory body to keep people from being dropped when they’re sick. So much for security and health care as a right. There are already many states that have laws on the books prohibiting people from being dropped when they’re sick, but without an enforcement mechanism, there is little to hold the insurance companies in check.
* Most people with medical bankruptcies already have insurance, and out-of-pocket expenses will continue to be a burden on the middle class.
• In 2009, 1.5 million Americans declared bankruptcy
• Of those, 62% were medically related
• Three-quarters of those had health insurance
• This bill leaves 24 million without insurance (as stated before)
• The maximum yearly out-of-pocket limit for a family will be $11,900 on top of premiums
• A family with serious medical problems that last for a few years could easily be financially crushed by medical costs
I believe that everyone has a fundamental human right to health care. This right has been denied in the U.S. for far too long, while the rest of the industrialized world moved ahead to assure universal, or, at the very least, affordable care for their people.