Congrats USA! Health care for all!! ??

Ceili wrote:

Ok, I've been watching and hoping that this would happen. I don't quite understand the logic behind the anti-health care movement. Some seemed to hate it because it was a Democrat's platform and the rest mostly just seem to really dislike other Americans, or at least contributing to their well being. I've tried, really I have to understand the debate, the nay side, but I'm afraid I don't quite understand the problem. But I'm happy for you all, none the less.


Hope you are too.

I am not happy with it. Government was NOT created to do this. Government has NO AUTHORITY
to do this. It is another act of USURPATION.

As far as I am concerned, I don't give a rat's ass about the whole thing. I will probably not be around twenty years from now.

I feel sorry for the young people who think that they will be getting something for nothing. I have visions of the medical profession degrading into mediocrity, as the best and the brighest young people will stay away from medicine like the plague. Who wants to be told what to do by a bunch of self serving bureaucrats?

I am appalled that people who have paid for expensive medical coverage will be taxed, so that people who have put little into the system will be covered.

Remember, if the government taxes to give services to people who do not give their share to the economy, the money has to come from somewhere. And guess where that money will come from?

Be afraid..................be very afraid. This is only the beginning!

IMO, it only promotes the general welfare of health insurance companies and big pharma, while forcing people to buy their product or face the threat of fines and/or jail.

I feel sorry for the young people who think that they will be getting something for nothing.

(or maybe right now we are getting nothing for something)

Here are a few reason why I believe I'm right.

1) There is nothing in this bill to eliminate the anti-competitive nature of today's insurance industry. There are states in this country where one single health insurance company controls over 90% of the market. The health-insurance companies have a special deal where they cannot be sued for anti-trust practices. You say we're going to have increased competition, but there is nothing in the bill to accomplish that. If you look at things at a state by state level you'll see that there really is NO competition in the health insurance market. That's one of the problems that this bill does not address.

2) Many millions of those 32 million people don't have insurance because they've been deemed, up to this point, un-insurable. Which most often means that there is no price point where they can be insured at a level where their input (in money) exceed the expenditure of the insurance company. A person with diabetes for example is many many many times more expensive than a healthy 25 year old. These people with diabetes will now have to be covered and insurance companies cannot deny them coverage....and they can't charge them more...that means they'll charge you and me more. These people aren't all healthy or low-risk.

3) Several pieces of this regulation end practices that insurance companies use to reduce costs (denying people for pre-existing conditions, recision, etc). With those practices now illegal, those costs that were saved will have to be absorbed. They will be absorbed by all of us.

4) Several new taxes are going to be levied on the insurance companies; those taxes will cause rates to go up.

5) Plans are going to be more standardized and low price plans are going to be outlawed as well. For example, I have a plan right now called a high deductible plan. I pay for every healthcare cost under $3000/yr. Every doctor visit I have, every prescription I have to buy, etc, I pay for up until $3000; then my insurance company kicks in. This plan costs me very very little. This plan would be outlawed under this new plan. Plans are now required to cover things like mental health services, substance abuse services, alternative medicine services, etc. This will raise the prices of any plan out there that doesn't currently have those services. Even though I'm a man, I'll be forced to buy insurance that covers pregnancy services. Women will be forced to buy insurance that covers testicular cancer. Etc.

6) Insurance companies will not be able to price based on risk anymore; people who are 600lbs overweight will be charged roughly the same as the marathon runner. This will raise the price for the marathon runner.

Just a few of the things that I think will drive up costs for everyone, and we haven't even seen the full bill yet. You'll see as the months go by that there are even more things that we haven't seen yet.

Please don't read this as me being opposed to the bill. I support much of it. I think the insurance companies are despicable and I'm very glad many of their more egregious practices are being outlawed.

But to claim that this will make everything cheaper for those currently insured is laughable. There is no way it will be cheaper for the currently insured. Cheaper for people with illnesses, yes. Cheaper for drug-addicts, yes. Cheaper for people who smoke like a chimney, drink like a fish, and eat like a pig, yes. Cheaper for [my brother] or me, or the millions of us who are generally healthy....HELL no.

I'm willing to pay these increased costs, both by means of my premiums going up and by means of higher taxes and higher prices for goods from companies who are now going to be fined.

Be afraid..................be very afraid. This is only the beginning!

I dont get it. Is the USA so stupidly inefficient or so pathetically poor it cant do what the rest of the rich world does ? It sounds like the end of the world from some of those here. Would the world be heroically saved if poor people in a rich country died from preventable and curable illness ? Perhaps we should stop innoculations, then the rich can die with the poor.