Stop your grinning! Here it comes! The VOTE that will be heard around the country!
Like a song that will NOT end….the health reform debate has gone on and on and on and……..it is the time of a maximum of lying on both sides trying to influence a vote here and a vote there……
They say, whoever they are, that the passage of the health reform bill is close, very close…..The Repubs are still defying proper conduct in the Senate and as well as in the House…….Washington! The town misinformation built……But if you are interested in the newest version of the reform bill then I have what you need….
The AP did a great job putting together the facts, just the facts, they felt the bullsh*t and misinformation behind…..
IMMEDIATE CHANGES: Uninsured people with medical problems will have a workable alternative. The bill pumps $5 billion into high-risk insurance pools run by the states to provide coverage to those in frail health. Taxpayer-backed insurance won’t be free, but premiums should be much lower than what’s charged by private insurers willing to take those in poor health.
For people with private health insurance — about two-thirds of Americans — there would be some new safeguards. For example, insurers would be barred from placing lifetime dollar limits on coverage and from canceling policies except in cases of fraud. Children could stay on their parents’ coverage until age 26.
THE SELF-EMPLOYED: Starting in 2014, self-employed people and those whose employers don’t offer coverage would be able to pick a plan through a health insurance exchange, like a supermarket. It’s modeled on the federal employee health program available to members of Congress, which offers a range of private insurance. Small businesses could also join the exchange.
More than 30 million people would buy their own coverage through state exchanges, and nearly 6 in 10 would be eligible for tax credits to help pay premiums. The aid would be generous for lower-income families, less so for those solidly in the middle class.
SENIORS: Seniors have been understandably worried about the health care plan, since much of it is financed with Medicare cuts the government’s own experts say could be unsustainable.
On the block are subsidies to private Medicare Advantage insurance plans, which now enroll about one-quarter of seniors. The government overpays the plans when compared to the cost of care under traditional Medicare. That largesse translates to lower out-of-pocket costs for seniors in the plans, and the bill could trigger an exodus from Medicare Advantage as insurers are forced to raise their rates to stay in business.
But seniors stand to gain as well. Obama would gradually close the coverage gap in the middle of the Medicare prescription drug benefit. The so-called doughnut hole would start to shrink immediately, but it wouldn’t be fully closed until 2020. In the meantime, seniors in the gap would get a 50 percent discount on brand name drugs.
The plan also improves preventive benefits for seniors in traditional Medicare.
DOCTORS: Primary care doctors and general surgeons practicing in underserved areas such as inner cities and rural communities would get a 10 percent bonus from Medicare. But the more significant changes for doctors would unfold slowly. The goal is to start rewarding doctors for keeping patients healthy, not just treating them when they get sick.
The plan would use Medicare as a testing ground for new ways of coordinating care for patients with multiple chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, diabetes and heart problems, a common combination. Primary care doctors would become care managers for such patients, keeping close tabs on medications and basic health indicators.
EMPLOYERS: Obama’s plan wouldn’t require employers to provide insurance to their workers, but it would hit them with a stiff fine if even one of their workers gets a federally subsidized coverage. Companies with 50 or fewer workers would be exempt, and those with 25 workers or fewer could get federal assistance.
INSURANCE COMPANIES: Health insurance companies would face unprecedented federal regulation and particularly close scrutiny of their bottom line. A fixed percentage of income from premiums would have to go to medical care, otherwise insurers would be forced to provide rebates to consumers. That share is 85 percent for large group plans, and 80 percent for plans in the small group and individual markets.
There you have the facts…..like them or not……personally, I think it is a cop out from the Progressive stance held during the campaign……Rep. Kucinich is dead set against Obama’s bill…..he is a lone voice for 300 million Americans and NO one is listening….it is NOT reform it is a tweak that will be challenged at the next change in Congress and all will be for naught and then we can start all over again….You asked for it…You got it!
UPDATE: Kucinich was come around and will now vote yes on the bill……CBO report is in and the bill will cut budget by $394 billion in the 1st 10 yrs and $1.3 trillion in the next 10….
Well… I don’t know enough about the US system to fully understand that. However, as far as I can see, it does have its merits, as well as its shortcomings.
I know this is one small point, but it is typical of the utter failure of bureaucrats and legislators to think things through properly in all sorts of circumstances…. if you put in nominal thresholds like that (25 employees, 50 employees and so on), then you will get all “smaller employers” thinking VERY MUCH longer and harder about taking on that 26th or 51st worker than would otherwise be the case. That’s not something that is exactly desirable in today’s economic climate, is it?
My point of contention is the pre-existing condition….if the bill passes only children and young adults will be protected…..older people will still be screwed by the insurance companies…..if I try I can see it being called a “death panel”….
Of course, but then that’s the perennial problem with “private” healthcare, isn’t it? You can’t blame the insurers (whatever you think of them) for logically wanting more money for increased risk and you can’t blame people for wanting peace of mind.
My solution would be (for once) a simple bit of legislation that insisted that ANY health insurance should cover ALL BASIC healthcare throughout a person’s life at a FLAT rate that was the same for all people, regardless of the person’s age, sex, previous or current health. In fact I’d make it illegal for the proposal form to ask more than straightforward ID questions that are essential and NO health questions at all!
Special cover for other services above and beyond that basic level, like elective things such as IVF, personal choice cosmetic surgery and so on would be a different matter of course. It DOES work and the insurers and private medical facilities still continue to make excellent profits.
As I think I’ve said before, that would surely put ALL normal premiums up, but taking away this ridiculour interstate protection you have in place for the insurers would very quickly counteract that and probably more!
Back in the day, when I was the research for the Spanish newspaper, I was in Baghdad, yes Saddam was the man then, but every ciotizen that I spoke to had health care from birth to grave free…..education was K-university—-free…..okay he was a dick! But the people got services for all the cash the country was making off oil……..my interpreter was hurt in an auto crash and his hospital bill was zero…..he was from Palestine….but it made no difference….the health care was free……so I like the idea…..
Yes, so do I. Sadly, though, that’s not quite as straightforward as it sounds…
When the head of state is a dictator, he or she simply has to say something for it to happen. It’s relatively easy when anyone who doesn’t like it just disappears or turns up in a ditch and no one asks awkward questions. Then it just depends on the dictator having the right attitude to certain ‘people’ things.
There’s a lot to be said for SOME dictatorships… but then again, you can all too easily get people like Robert Mugabe floating to the top of the pond…
I know it’s not quite as simple as I sometimes like to make it sound, but the minute you take the detailed legislation (and all the stupid bureaucracy that goes with it) out of the loop, almost anything is possible!
Damn! The great minds, yet again! My post for Monday is along the lines of what human nature characteristics the different ideologies have……
I have a degree in public policy and you are completely right….K.I.S.S. is the best policy for policy….but in today’s world incrementalism seems to rule….saying that we can have what we want but over time…..that is because it gives both parties wiggle room…..a policy I find disgusting and cowardly….
I like it! By the way, the plan was sent to my Rep. in Washington and he did NOT read it….I got a note from his assistant that had nothing to do with the plan ….so it went into a douche somewhere…probably a shredder….I sentr a note back to them that said “Do not blow smoke up my ass and tell me there is forest fire”
Sounds about right 😆
If we can see the bullshit, why cannot others? Are we that much smarter than everyone else?
Well, to put it another way, I sometimes think we’d struggle to be more stupid than they are…
I think, though, that many people see it, but they are unable or unwilling to confront it, so they turn a blind eye to it in a sort of state of hopeless resignation.
Equally, as we’ve said, they are afraid of losing their “services” which they now regard as some sort of “birthright” (along with a 38″ plasma TV, dishwasher, juicer and all the rest) and, of course, they want it to be someone else’s responsibilty to pay for it all.
I’m making myself despondent here… 🙁
I know what you mean…the more I observe the habits of American voters…I want run and hurt somebody….lol
Brits are carbon copies 🙁
After all…..she is our Mother Country……
Ah, so you’re trying to blame us, then…? 😆
Actually, you might have a point, though, because (just like our Harrier jump jet for instance) the US usually takes everything that the UK starts, throws money and resources at it and turns it into what we were aiming at in the first place… Why can’t the UK think big for once?
Mind you, Gordon Brown must surely be seen as one of the biggest disasters anywhere in recent years, so in terms of cock-ups, maybe ours is is even bigger than yours this time around…
See? We’re getting better – even if it is only at screwing things up! 😆
Mind you Brown gets very little play in the news here…..with the exception of his upcoming election….Americans know very little about him or his opponent…sad to say……one of the reason that I wanted to get the newspaper….I want to learn more about the system and the EU…
My advice (like you’d want that!)… Cancel the newspaper subscription and just think of yourself as lucky! The guy even LOOKS like a devious asshole! 😆
My guess would be that you do not think much of Brown……LOL