As you must of heard, the House has passed both bills, the original health care bill and the altered bill. Many people in America opposed this bill, including myself, and even protested against the bill at D.C, also including me. This is not the end , the fight is still up and still Congress has a chance to repeal the bill. In addition to this more than 13 states are currently filing a lawsuit against the bill for being unconstitutional.
Let's talk about what is mainly promised in this bill:
1. Premium costs are going to go down
2. Quality will stay the same or get better
3. All will Americans will be covered
4. Competition will stay the same
5. A committee will be set up to decided the type of care people shall have.
So let's start off with one
1. The Government says that premium costs will go down and so it will become more affordable. ( No Public Option)
That is incorrect. A matter a fact the costs will increase. Why? New taxes will be placed on medications and other medical concepts. Let me give you a situation:
Private Insurance: Wow that bill passed , I hope I can cover all of these people
Government: Oh, by the way, we are starting a couple of new taxes on some medical stuff
Private Insurance : Well then, I want to make sure my business is going to survive because I am not making good profits so I will raise the prices of my coverage, since all the medical stuff will cost more.
So as you can see coverage cost will go up. Not good and false promise.
But before I go on, there has been theories that if we get the whole country on the plan it will lower costs. Hmmm, well that sounds just right, everyone contributing to the system and it will cover the rest. Oh yea that works ( yea right). Take this situation for instance:
• There are 30 people under a plan ,
• people 1 to 30 are the names
• Everyone pays the same low price to cover anyone who gets sick.
• So let's say person number one gets some sort of cancer
• Well we can easily take the money from the pool created by the people and use that money to treat person number one.
• But two years later after this H1N1 breaks out and infects people 1 to 25!
• Well we have to pay for them all somehow, let's check the pool
• Oh, ****, we don't have the money to cover them
• Government: *Cough* you guys are on your own , got to go , sorry
2. Quality will stay the same or get better ( Public Option)
Wow, this one makes me laugh. This promise will be easily broken. If you paid attention to the first promise and how it can be broken (can't pay) this one is even easier to break. Take it this way, if you can't afford the best quality you won't be able to buy it or you just wait until you can. Let me give you an example:
Insurance: Wow, taxes went up, and now I am under this system of a pooling money in...
Insurance: (picks up phone) hello
User 384699274: Oh Hi I need a hip replacement as soon as possible
Insurance: (Thinks in Mind) can I really pay for this? I can't deny him... and can't deny the other 1.2 million... (Talks to User) Ah sir
User384699274: Yes...
Insurance: About that replacement... can you wait like 4 - 6 months? ( hehe)
User384699274: ( Hangs up)
So simply the insurances will not have the amount of money to pay for all of this and will not deny you but will put you on a waiting list.
3. All Americans will be covered.
Ok that is just a lie all as one. There will always be uninsured. The MA model for this bill, had over 5.5% uninsured. Now imagine that on a larger scale. Not a pretty picture. Yes, there will be more people covered then there was, but at what cost? The Republican Plan, which I will explain on another post, does the same thing, covers all.
4. Competition will stay the same (Public Option)
Now Competition may stay the same as they say..., However, there are now talks that a public option will come into play. The public option is the government option. Now you say to yourself why will that bring competition down? Well let me give you an example:
Government Option: Well let's take over, first off lets lower prices
Private Insurance: Hehe, they can't lower their prices too much , because they will go out of business
Government Option: Well you forgot one thing!
Private Insurance: What?
Government: I will just raise taxes to help my Government Option out.
Government Option: Thanks big brother
Private Insurance: Well we will see who wins
Insurances 2 months 4 months 6 months 8 months 10 months
Government Tax same Tax increase Tax Increase Tax Increase Tax Same
Government Option $ 500 $ 400 $ 200 $150 $150
Private Option $500 $470 $ 420 Out Out
Prices Prices Prices Prices Prices
Now as you can see the Government has grown and taken out that Insurance. Now you say to yourself what's bad about that? Well quality will go down. When companies have a competition they fight for quality and prices because that what users look for. But when there is no one to have a competition with and there is only one option people have no choice but to join the option.
In the bill that was passed ( without a public option) it stated that competition will be stay the same to keep quality to same or get better. But that is very different when you have a public option.
5. A committee will be set up to decided the type of care people shall have. ( Both)
What is wrong with this? Well do you feel fine, with other people deciding what type of treatment you will have? I don't. I will tell you why. If that Government option wants to save money they will just refer to cheaper(crapper) treatment and decide what I will take into my body. What is next? People to check what you do to save money? If I want to do something that will raise my health costs, I don't want the government to stop me from living my life.
We all know how the Massachusetts model failed. The state program is in debt up to its eye balls, the uninsured in over 4.5%, several hospitals are suing the program, costs of the plan are higher than ever, and more problems are arising! What have we done? This post is just a small portion issue in the bill, that just shows that this bill should be repealed, and done over again.
If enough responses come in I will post the Republican plan.
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Interesting post. I have a few comments.
ReplyDeleteThe lawsuits that are being brought against congress are considered futile by quite a few constitutional lawyers (at this time) and there are numerous bills that Congress has passed that use a similar method to this bill that have never been challenged. In fact, in a recent case it was decided that Congress has vast powers over interstate commerce which (if the Supreme Court follows precedent) should spell doom for the lawsuits.
While I can agree that premiums may go up, there are certain passages within the bill that may limit that effect. For that matter, couldn't the CEO just take a pay cut if he/she wanted the business to survive. Also, shouldn't the businesses be able to handle an increase in customers. The bill will force people to buy insurance (effectively the bill could provide 32 million more customers), so I would assume that that would increase the amount of money the company was getting.
I really disagree with the example on how the private insurance companies would deal with a massive epidemic. First off, Swine Flu (H1N1 refers to most flues that humans get) would not infect 83% of the population. The virus infects and damages individuals with weakened immune systems (young children, people over 65, pregnant women, and individuals with a chronically weakened immune system), such a figure would be far less than 83%. Second, are you suggesting that an insurance company should just drop patients when sick, if they can do that than why bother having insurance. Third, if 83% of the population was sick the government would have to act; it would be a national emergency. Finally, if 83% of the population was so sick that it would be cheaper for these companies to drop them than there would be mass panic, governmental collapse, and probably the collapse of civilization.
I disagree with your statements on the improvements in quality. First, I may have just missed it, but I did not see much about pooling money in the bill (okay, in a summary of the bill). I saw that the bill will prevent insurance companies from dropping you when sick, prevent insurance companies from charging you extra if you have a pre-existing condition, and allow people under 26 to stay under their parents program, but nothing about pooling money. Second, this depends on what one is talking about when using the phrase quality of treatment. Thanks to this bill many financially strapped college students will no longer have to pay for healthcare, many individuals will no longer be dropped because they are sick, and no longer will people have to pay for pre-existing conditions. Overall that seems like an improvement. Third, this bill will force people to buy health insurance; they will not just get it for free. It is unlikely that having an additional 32 million customers will hurt the companies that much. Fourth, then any insurance agency that does not do what you suggested will get more customers, while the ones who do will fail. The wonders of the free market.
Question, but when did they say that all Americans will be insured. It was clearly stated that it will an increase by about 30 million, but that is hardly all. Maybe we are listening to different groups.
Sorry, I went over the character limit and have to split the post up.
ReplyDeleteHere is the rest:
How would having a public option destroy all private healthcare insurers? First of all, increasing taxes is generally bad for re-election, so there would be a limit to how much they could tax. Second, other countries have similar (although not identical plans) which have yet to drive out all private groups. Third, countries that have universal healthcare have been shown to have a better healthcare system than the United States' private insurers, so I do not see how a decrease in quality is inevitable. Fourth, even if the public option was cheaper if the services were bad enough there would still be a market for private healthcare. Fifth, what is wrong with a decrease in quality? Insurance companies also lower their quality (or just drop people, or just increase premiums) when they start to lose money. Why is it a problem when the government starts doing such, but no problem when businesses do? Fifth, even if the public option were to pass there is little evidence that it would destroy the private healthcare industry. We have public and private schools, public and private military groups (Black Water), and public and private package delivery systems. If the private healthcare industry is so weak that it cannot withstand any competition than maybe it deserves to collapse.
As for this panel that the government will have, how is that any different than private healthcare companies? They have panels to decide your premium, when they will drop you, and what types of services you can get, all for the sake of profit. In fact, with a government panel you could have significantly more control over the treatment one gets.
What does it matter if the Massachusetts plan failed? Every other developed nation in the world has universal healthcare, and it tends to work there. Heck, according to the world health organization America ranks 37th in healthcare, while most countries with Universal Healthcare (who are developed) rank above us. For example, Canada and Britain rank 30 and 18 (respectively).