Sunday, March 21

Health Care

The health care bill must be passed. It never ceases to amaze me why so many people vote against their own interests.

5 comments:

UrbanStarGazer said...

I think it's not an issue of voting against their own interests but not wanting to vote for a health care bill just to vote for a health care bill regardless of whether it's a good plan. I personally think that's one of the biggest follies that Americans commonly commit.

I agree that we need to reform healthcare but from what I've read and heard about this particular bill it doesn't sound like a good plan, it sounds like a "let's just get something passed so we can say we did it, even if it doesn't really do anything or help many people" bill -- kind of like Clinton's big revolutionary "I'm going to do something about the no-gays-in-the-military-issue" and then he passed the "Don't ask, don't tell" rule which does nothing because if they find out you're gay they can still kick you out.

From what I understand of this bill, it exempts companies with employees under 50 which account for over 90% of companies in America, it benefits those who can afford to buy insurance but not those who cannot, etc. In short, it sounds like crap. Not to mention the deals it was revealed that Obama made with the pharma industry in exchange for their support.

We should adopt a model where everyone gets basic healthcare and that companies can offer, or individuals can purchase, additional policies which offer more expansive coverage, etc. That would be a good bill.

It's like years ago, in California, there was a big push to reform auto insurance and one election year we had 7 or 8 bills to choose from and everyone thought they were supposed to choose one. I had to explain to practically everyone I knew that you could vote against all of them. That they should only vote for one if they really felt that one was worth passing.

Needless to say, one of them passed and it sucked (cuz they all actually sucked, I voted against them all) and as a result some insurance companies pulled out of California, it made it harder for a lot of people to get insurance, and it made it expensive to change insurance companies, and our insurance costs didn't go down --which was what it was supposed to do. So, we were all generally worse off, not better off.

I'm all for reforming health care but I would love to see us do it right instead of doing it just so the current administration can claim they did it when it's really a crappy bill.

emma said...

"I'm all for reforming health care but I would love to see us do it right instead of doing it just so the current administration can claim they did it when it's really a crappy bill."
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What bill ISN'T crappy any more?
What legislation really does what the initial authors wanted it to do?

Health care reform in this country is LONG overdue, but when the pharmacutal (sp) companies and the AMA lobbies pours billions of dollars to block any reform, I say a little is better than nothing.

It's disgusting that in this land of plenty there are kids, young adults, and the unemployed/under employed who do not have health insurance.
In this country good health care is now something considered for the rich only. Most annual raises don't even cover the rising health care increases.
Off the subject, but:
Also, enrollments for medical schools ought to be opened up for more students and medical school should be teaching more about alternative medicines, herbal therapy and things like that.
The drug companies run this country. Americans spend more for drugs than any other nationality. We finance other countries. No wonder Americans are more addicted on prescription drugs than ever before.

Urban, I know you're a big time Repub, but really . . .slamming Obama and Clinton for the things they do/did in office while giving a free pass to the Bushes and other Repubs is laughable. Bush did absolutely nothing to bring health care costs under control.

The Tea Partiers, the Birthers, other nutjobs, and other Repubs are bringing nothing to the table. They not only want Obama to fail. It goes beyond that. They want the country to fail. Look at Cheney . . why he's practically getting a hardon waiting for another terrorist attack to happen so he can say that the country was better prepared under the Repubs.

Brenda said...

i see the BS from the insurance comapanies on a daily business and it is sickening how much time they spend on NOT paying claims for people who have paid the premium for coverage. get a pre existing condition attached to you and you are screwed.
i don't have the time right now to go into this further, but i will be back.

my WV is fight. LOL

UrbanStarGazer said...

I didn't give Republicans a free pass on anything. Never have and never will. But I really believe this is passing a lousy bill just to say they did.

The problem is, this bill isn't going to give health care to most people. Most of the people without it now who can't afford it will still be without it if the bill is passed. It's lip service and nothing more.

Brenda said...

not providing health care for everyone only raises the cost for those who do have it. what don't people get about this?
health care providers have to charge an ungodly amount for services so they will get a reimbursement from the insurance companies. after all the paperwork, allowables, deductibles, copays, coinsurances, the healthcare provider gets next to nothing, the patient pays out the ass and the insurance company makes a nice profit from the premium that they received and payed nothing out of. so you tell me who is raping america.