Syndicated columnist, Linda Chavez published this today.This is merely the latest in the devil-in-the-details found in the mammoth plan Obama is trying to ram through. Recall that as of the day ObamaCare is enacted, you will only be allowed to sign up for the government plan. So his anesthetizing soundbite, "You can keep your private insurance if you like" is as misleading as when Bill Clinton said, "I did not sleep with that woman."
I believe health care must be reformed: We need portability, coverage for pre-existing conditions, electronic medical records, curbs on frivolous lawsuits, etc. While ObamaCare includes those, it also includes frightening provisions to ensure everyone gets the same level of care, whether we've paid into the system or not, whether we're legally here or sneaked across the border. As I've written, providing health care to 47 million more people, including illegals, with the same number of doctors, nurses, hospitals, etc., will greatly increase the already huge amount of medical-error-caused morbidity and mortality.
We must be given the time to carefully read, review, and debate Obama's mammoth scheme. It must not be rammed through prematurely. It could cost our lives.
"as of the day ObamaCare is enacted, you will only be allowed to sign up for the government plan"
ReplyDeleteWhere is this coming from? I actually wish that this were true, and that we are finally moving in the direction of a single payer which is not beholden to the stock market and thus is not motivated to dump ill patients who have paid-up policies.
Everything I've read so far is that we will maintain private insurance and create a public insurance pool for the otherwise uninsurable. It sounds something like California's public car insurance pool (which did not destroy the private car insurance industry.)
Where is it? Right here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=332548165656854
And here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPSHAqrS7RU
Forget your employer. Buy health insurance for yourself and yout family while you still can!
I was hoping for more than the Santorum/IBD points. I don't think that Dr. N would stoop to those.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone who hasn't had time to hear the back story on that piece of inside baseball, this is a conversation in Yahoo Answers about it:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090722124726AAfs4xy
Basically, the provision does not prohibit private plans. It enacts regulations on them, and the provision explains that private plans can be grandfathered in and exempt from the regulations and under what circumstances.
Only if *any* regulation on insurance means that *every* policy is "the government policy" can you argue that this ends private insurance. and unless we drop every insurance fraud statute from the books posthaste then were are doing business only with government plans as it is.
Wait, the insurance companies wrote the insurance fraud laws.
Don't expect to see them dropped anytime soon.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/24/news/economy/health_care_reform_obama.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009072410
ReplyDelete"The employees who got their coverage before the law goes into effect can keep their plans, but once again, there's a catch. If the plan changes in any way -- by altering co-pays, deductibles, or even switching coverage for this or that drug -- the employee must drop out and shop through the exchange. Since these plans generally change their policies every year, it's likely that millions of employees will lose their plans in 12 months."
It also says basically the same thing on the page you (Anonymous #3) provided.
One thing that does not change, and will never change, no matter which of the 2 parties is in change: the government wants power and control over the people. Republicans want it. Democrats want it. And when government finds a way to gain more power, it is very, very slow to give it up. When the government dictates what you can and cannot do with your health, it will have control and power over you like you've never seen before. And they will not let things like the free market and personal choice stand in their way.
To me, the CNN piece appears to be opinion rather than reporting.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's ok, but what conclusion does the CNN piece come to?
"The best solution is to move to a let-freedom-ring regime of high deductibles, no community rating, no standard benefits, and cross-state shopping for bargains (another market-based reform that's strictly taboo in the bills)."
Basically, that's the status quo.
It's not working, and it's getting very expensive.
I found the example of the young worker who chooses not to have health coverage most interesting.
My officemate has five dependents, and I have none. For me, the notion of taxing our employer-provided health insurance was not a big deal. For him, it was a very big deal, and it honestly hadn't occurred to me how large the benefit he was getting was.
I told him (jokingly) to put the kids to work - if they wanted coverage, they could just pay for it.
In reality, I would LOVE to be able to negotiate a higher salary with the company, since I have no dependents, and agree to take the hit if I acquire them.
It's not going to happen, and in fact what our company is is a risk pool - or a community rating.
At the end of the day, being part of a broad risk pool is how insurance is supposed to work; it is at its heart - even if run by corporations - a socialist venture, a group banding together to do something for the greater good.
By encouraging individuals to opt out of a risk pool, folks like the CNN editor are providing cover for the insurance companies to opt you out of their risk pool, based on what they choose.
Three firms rescinded paid-for coverage against 20,000 subscribers in just four years. Were those subscribers refunded their premiums? Examples include people being denied coverage and/or accused of fraud because of an incorrect prior dermatology diagnosis.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/26/us-healthcare-obama-barack-change
I think we will have to respectfully agree to disagree, because I still do not see how, as broken as health care in America is now, it will be better controlled by government.
ReplyDeleteGovernment will not make health care better. It will make it more expensive, according to the non-partisan CBO, and quality will NOT improve with more money and more government bureaucracy.
And by the way, you know that Congress, who has drafted this for us, has exempted itself from its own bill, right? They are not ever required to participate in what they have created for the rest of us, even if and when we are. If this plan is so great, why shouldn't they be the first to sign up?
There is a representative who is trying to change that:
http://fleming.house.gov/uploads/HR%20615.pdf
Another indication that this will get more expensive for the rest of us: an AP story.
ReplyDeletehttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090803/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_economy
"Two of President Barack Obama's economic heavyweights said middle-class taxes might have to go up to pare budget deficits or to pay for the proposed overhaul of the nation's health care system."
You know what I've learned from Obama and George H. W. Bush? Never, ever make promises about no new taxes. It's one you will not and cannot keep. And people will remember that broken promise.