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That's for you and your employer to work out. Those without employer provided insurance are going to be mandated to dig very deep into their own pockets to buy private insurance. Why should they pay for yours, too, when they buy the products and services your employer produces?
Plans like yours run up the cost of medical care. Too many people with those plans run to the doctor for common colds or farts stuck crosswise. They take the new designer drugs at designer prices even though the older generics probably work better. They get tests they don't need because, after all, they don't have to pay. Get rid of those policies. That'll bring down the cost of health care.
Then get a job where there is healthcare coverage. Don't beg for millions of people to have their benefit removed because you don't benefit yourself.
Your "farts stuck crosswise" comment is complete b.s. There are just as many people who will go to an ER instead of a clinic or PCP because they know they won't have to pay for it.
Oh trust me I know that my insurance is extraordinarily generous - this by the way is provided by a small employer. My point i guess is that it's part of my compensation and if you take it away, then you better give me some or all of it back another way. OR provide me with insurance that is otherwise low cost or free. So obviously we agree that will not happen so no, employer provided health insurance is not going anywhere.
Or he can say "take it or leave it" and if you leave, hire someone who will take what he wants to pay.
Trust me, those people who will be compelled to buy insurance out-of-pocket aren't getting a raise from their employer to pay for it.
So if these people with no money for their medical care drop dead in the streets from living with bad health choices, who is gonna pick them up and pay for the cost of burying or incenerating them?
[MOD CUT]
What do you suggest for a program and how is it to be funded?
Last edited by Ibginnie; 01-21-2010 at 11:03 AM..
Reason: snarky commentary is not needed
What we can do is make the MEDICAL CARE ---not INSURANCE--- available to the people who need it. PERIOD! There is no need to FORCE AMERICANS into buying some mediocre overpriced government insurance which would end up with government (that doesn't have the foggiest understanding of insurance) partnering with the insurance industry to design plans which weren't even expected to insure everyone in the first place...not to mention it was COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL!
Anybody can get care right now. The problem is when the bill comes in the mail.
What is needed is INSURANCE reform, not health care reform. A single payer system would not only provide cost effective health insurance for all, but would save enough money to substantially reduce the national debt. I sugest that Canada's health ins. reform bill (only 9 pages, if I remember correctly) be studied to see how it can serve as a guide for U.S. reform.
Then get a job where there is healthcare coverage. Don't beg for millions of people to have their benefit removed because you don't benefit yourself.
This isn't about me. This is about people. People who have marginal jobs to begin with but are still stuck paying higher costs because other people's employers pay for their insurance. People who have lost their jobs, often through no fault of their own. People whose employers simply can't afford to provide insurance anymore. Your elitist attitude will last only as long as your good luck.
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Your "farts stuck crosswise" comment is complete b.s. There are just as many people who will go to an ER instead of a clinic or PCP because they know they won't have to pay for it.
Not all places have clinics. Most PCPs won't take patients who don't have insurance or who have Medicaid. Those people have no options.
And the comment isn't b.s. I know people who did it regularly both for themselves and their children even as the acknowledged they knew the doctor wouldn't be able to do anything more than they could do without seeing a doctor but, "..why not? I don't have to pay. The insurance will pay everything."
Incentivize the usage of HSA's... allow the amounts to roll over from year to year. Use this in conjunction with high deductible plans.
Do away with pre-existing conditions clauses.
Interstate competition, ability to buy across state lines
Tort reform... kick the trial lawyers out of our White House already
Cafeteria style plans... I don't want to pay for services I will not use (ie., state mandated fertility treatment coverage)
Make insurance portable... take the employer out of the equation
You (and others here) have some great ideas, but with the HSAs, I don't think they work well because wages are so low these days, much of the middle class lives from paycheck to paycheck.
Anybody can get care right now. The problem is when the bill comes in the mail.
That's not true. Most doctors will not take patients who don't have insurance or who have Medicaid and, increasingly, Medicare. Not all areas have clinics that will take people. ER will treat acute issues but they do not treat chronic conditions.
- Sell healthcare insurance across state lines. There's no reason that I should have had to change health insurance companies after moving to Washington DC. And my premiums should not have gone up because of that move. It makes no sense. Competition is the only way to stabilize premiums.
- Affordable catastrophic plans for everyone. Not mandated or government provided, but priced accordingly to remove barriers to access. High deductibles will keep those who need a Band-Aid and Tylenol out of the hospital.
- Tort Reform
I would add medical savings accounts to that list.
Also, go after people that are using hospital ERs as primary care providers for every little sniffle or ache, rather than having the taxpayer pick up the tab.
From a legislative standpoint, address each of these issues via individual bills, keep the legislation managable and actually have public, bipartisian discussion. And stop the da*m bribes and special deals to buy votes. The level of corruption that went on during the Senate health care legislation has to stop.
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