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But in regards to health care system and the situation I find myself in... uninsured.. there is NOTHIGN to own up to.
I simplyCAN NOT AFFORD it period!
I could if there were no pre-existing condition clauses.
You can be the most responsible person in the world and yet still find circumstances beyond your control that push you into a bad situation.
There is nothing, beyond not making more money, that I coud do at this time that is going to fix the situation. THE SYSTEM is broken and screws people like myself every day..
Hell.. it's screwing anyone.. most just don't know it yet.
Hell.. if there weren't even a recession in the first place I'd still be making the money I was making before, I'd still be in my home (because Id make enough to afford it) . That's not to say the recession is entirely to blame..... but it does play a HUGE part in the set of circumstances that I face.
It's easier for you to dismiss people like me and say "it's all your fault" rather than admit that the system is screwed and screws a lot of people.
Truer words were never written. It appers it's the pre-existing condition clause (in your case) that is the major problem for you. Can you not see that it would have been far easier to just strike that clause through a mandate and let the market adjust itself to it? Consider the savings to all of us.
The other comments you made about circumstances that can change due to a variety of factors, thus pushing people into bad situations are very valid. Have you thought about all the others who are in a somewhat similar situation economically - the are scraping by, paying their bills and insurance premiums, their co-pays, their deductibles - perhaps lucky enough to keep up with everything as it currently stands, and now will have to pay MORE for others who got "sweet deals" -- such as the exclusive union members who just negotiated a windfall at their (and your) expense and the states excluded from the madates? There is nothing these folks can do to change their financial circumstance but to earn more (so they can pay more) which isn't possible in this economy. Yes, the system is broken and is going to screw even more people than it has in the past.
Premiums will go up, co-pays will go up, deductibles will go up, benefits will go down. True "leveling of the playing field". You might say that's one promise that the Democrats have delivered on.
In my situation the company I worked for went chapter 7. Because of this I was unable to pick up COBRA in order to bridge the gap in coverage in keeping my ill wife insured. The new company's insurance will only pick us up in 90 days of employment first causing the lapse. I was unemployed for 4 weeks. I had the choice to pick up Hippa at $2300 a month for her only, add me at $3300 a month or pay $1200 a month for 10 months first before the insurance kicks for her. We just could not afford it. It does cost less out of pocket at this time without insurance than it does with it, but is not sustainable over time. Very risky. The company I work for now has a plan that many employees dropped because of one employee who's in his 60s is receiving kidney dialysis causing the rates to skyrocket. The company is trying to replace or add new group coverage to its employees.
What a mess.........
Truer words were never written. It appers it's the pre-existing condition clause (in your case) that is the major problem for you. Can you not see that it would have been far easier to just strike that clause through a mandate and let the market adjust itself to it? Consider the savings to all of us.
It isn't that simple. Why do think there is a pre-existing clause in the first place? Whose idea was that? If insurance companies can place restrictions such as this, putting Americans at risk, what other restrictions have they placed that most people don't think about before its too late? Many......and how can this have happened in the first place? Look there and you'll find why its taken a bill decades to get as far as it has.
Ok lets say you eliminate pre exisiting conditions. Let say you give people subsidies.
Lets fast forward 10 years in the future when the future healthcare costs have not gone down.
What happens to people who still can't afford the premiums/deductibles even after the elimination of pre exisiting clauses and their subsidies. They will try to get even more free benefits. These people will claim they can't afford the $50 co-pays for each office visit. What now?
It's like the housing collapse and these loan modifications. The government can keep throwing "subsidies" to modify these mortgages for these distress homeowners. But 50% of these homeowners have already re-defaulted on their re-modified loans. Why? Because the government thinks its easier to "subsidize" costs hoping the situation will get better instead of fixing the root of the problems.
To me, this is not healthcare reform. They haven't done anything anything to cut down costs.
1. There's no cross-state insurance competition.
2. There's no tort reform.
3. There's no rationing of healthcare
4. There's no reduction in salaries of some healthcare professional.
5. There's no punitive taxes for people who decide to live unhealhty lifestyles.
Correct these 5 things, you have true healthcare reform. However, in doing so, I would have make the insurance companies angry, the doctors angry, the malpractice lawyers healthy, and last of all, the free living americans angry.
We all need to make sacrifices in this system. It seems no one is willing to bend.
This Bill was never about reforming the system. It is about tranferring wealth to provide coverage to those without. Some of the uninsured truly need it. Others make bad decisions and expect somebody else to pay their bills. There are millions of families earning over $50k per year who choose not to purchase insurance as they deem it too expensive. They want the greedy CEO or executives to pay their bills. That thinking sickens me.
Ok lets say you eliminate pre exisiting conditions. Let say you give people subsidies.
Lets fast forward 10 years in the future when the future healthcare costs have not gone down.
What happens to people who still can't afford the premiums/deductibles even after the elimination of pre exisiting clauses and their subsidies. They will try to get even more free benefits. These people will claim they can't afford the $50 co-pays for each office visit. What now?
Do what the rest of the modern world has figured out. Get the big money eating private for profit insurance racket out of it and replace it with a non-profit. That does not mean that you ditch the private insurance companies. It means they need to be federally regulated not state by state as it is now.
Do what the rest of the modern world has figured out. Get the big money eating private for profit insurance racket out of it and replace it with a non-profit. That does not mean that you ditch the private insurance companies. It means they need to be federally regulated not state by state as it is now.
"Do what the rest of the modern world has figured out. Get the big money eating private for profit insurance racket out of it and replace it with a non-profit. That does not mean that you ditch the private insurance companies. It means they need to be federally regulated not state by state as it is now."
It is the only way. But all you complaining people who worried about socialized medicine put the kabosh on it and now what is happening isn't reform it's just what it says a subsidy to those who can't afford it and a few perks such as not excluding pre-existing conditions. If you don't think the insurance companies is going to come up with a new way to get more money to keep the ceo's pay what it is and the profits what they are your crazy. They will just get it from the gov't subsidies and those subsidies will just have to be increased and increased and increased.
Public option not for profit was the only way to go.
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