It's Official - Reconciliation It Is

Galbreath34 said

At the risk of sending the Republicans into overdrive...

I agree, it's not the real answer, and I doubt we'd get a real answer if we had 95% one party in control of both houses and the White House. Still, it's been a growing problem since Reagan was in office, and it's been 17 years now since Clinton made the first serious effort. Something has to be done. My long term hope is that once you have everyone in, the pressure for deeper and more meaningful reform builds, and better plans (single payer, extended/better public option, all the way to UHC) can be put on the table and will only have the hurdle of improvement versus getting tons of uninsured into the system.

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I agree something needs to be done. I just don't think this will help all that much. The real problem is the cost. Fix the cost issues and it would be more affordable thus allowing more people access. Of course this would make doctors unhappy because it would cut into their salaries, so the politicians realize the only way to get the AMA to sign off on this is to choose the other option. Stick it to the people by forcing everyone to buy a bad product. The whole damn model needs to be blown up and rebooted. Wellness/preventive incentives and rewards for healthy living need to be paramount to reduce long term costs.

We need to get out of this mindset that we can do whatever we want without consequences to our long term health. Go along, do whatever you like and we have a pill to fix whatever your problems that may arise. It just is not working, well unless you are a stockholder for GSK or Pfizer, then its working just fine.

My fear is that this thing will pass. We all are forced to buy insurance, no one can be excluded because of previous conditions. Sounds great until you are thrown in a pool for those with a "condition" and your premium goes through the roof.

I have not read the entire bill but can anyone tell me what happens if you make more than the cut off for a subsidy but you fall in a high risk pool that would otherwise have not been able to find coverage. What is to stop the premium from being insanely high? I am hoping there is language that addresses this issue in the bill.

What about "special" treatments that are enormously expensive for cancer patients. Will the insurance companies be forced to pay for these treatments? Who decides who gets what care?