Obama's Health Care Speech

I follow you, I just think I am going to end up with significantly lesser coverage if it's a "cattle call" type insurance plan. I don't even use my insurance that much, but it's nice to have the coverage just in case.

 

Have you had to use it yet? I mean really had to use it for more than a visit to your GP physician or just to get some prescriptions filled?

I racked up $25K in medical expenses within a few weeks earlier this year. I got lucky. I was employed with a company out of Brussels and thus had a very, very generous insurance plan that covered most of it. What got me was the fact that my doctor, his physician's assistants, his billing department and everyone else I encountered at the various hospitals were basically shocked that I was nearly 100% covered for many of the tests that were run on me.

It sounds to me like it more people than not get screwed by their "good insurance" when their health is at its worst and they need the insurance more than ever.

 

Refgal just found out yesterday that her employer has discontinued her health insurance. So now her and the two kids have NO COVERAGE.

Great. What the f*** do we do for them now?

Well...I got online and looked at a zillion health care plans. What did I find? I found that it costs almost $500.00 a month to get crappy coverage. There is a $40 copay per doctor's visit (up to a max of 4 visits per year). If anybody needs X-rays or any other kind of testing, the insurance pays 80% of it AFTER they pay the $7,500.00 deductible.

Wow...it is really sh**ty coverage. If somebody needs an MRI or a colonoscopy...forget about it. They simply will not be able to pay for it.

I am not saying that we need the government to provide health care, but this system is irretrievably broken.

Co-ops, if done correctly, will set a minimum standard of coverage. That is one of the things we need. Getting costs under control (especially admin costs) is the other.

 

I haven't really been following the whole healthcare bill, but I did surf on over to Obama's speech a few minutes into it. I watched the whole time, and game up with a few conclusions/thoughts on my own with a sheer lack of knowledge:

Some Republicans are douchebags.

It smells like the idea is a government-run insurance company whose job is to provide affordable coverage and offer competition in states where there practically is none (he mentioned that one state has 90% of its health insurance done by a single company). This doesn't sound like a bad idea, but cutting waste just doesn't seem like it will fund a $900 billion dollar project. He mentioned a few other places that the cash will come from, but it just doesn't seem like enough if you leave Medicare alone. Perhaps that's what the Republicans (and senior citizens) have a beef with? The potential impact on Medicare?

The plan seems aimed to make individual and small business healthcare affordable. If what Refman says is true (and I have no reason to doubt it), individual healthcare is extraordinarily expensive. The amount I pay my company for the health plan I currently have is miniscule compared to that amount, and I have a smaller deductible, smaller co-pays, and likely much better coverage. If I lost my job, I shudder to think where I would get the money for that.

I've had to use my health plan quite a bit over the last year due to an appendectomy and various stomach issues. It only cost me a few thousand dollars; steep, still, due to my somewhat large deductible ($1500), but I saw the uninsured cost was $30,000 for my surgery. $30,000. So folks without a job or working for a small business that doesn't offer such benefits would have two options: pay exorbitant costs for their own health insurance, or not have any and eat a gigantic bill if something happens. Both options, for lack of a better word, suck.

I imagine there are tens of millions of Americans that suffer from this problem. I'm all for a solution that decreases these cost due to government competition, and Obama really has my support 100%.

But then again, I don't know much about the details or what the Republicans are complaining about (and I really, REALLY hope it's not just politics). My only worry is that EVERYONE (including companies) will be choosing the cheap government-run plan, causing health insurance companies to go into a tailspin, eliminating even more jobs. However, as long as the government run health insurance is COMPETITIVE and not just hands-down better and we can get the $900 billion without cutting into Medicare, I don't see the problem.

Bottom line, we need some sort of reform. Obama's administration is taking a risk of a re-election by pushing his agendas in his first term, which is a breath of fresh air, so I am confident it will get done.

 

But we shouldn't have added to the deficit to give tax breaks to the wealthy (and many think we shouldn't have done so for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars), so that is not a valid justification.

Personally, I'd much rather bite the bullet and raise taxes to pay for this than to add to rather than reduce the deficit.

 

First, here's Obama from tonight's speech...

Second, have you really tested your insurance? Chemo? Major operation? Chronic disease? Do you know if you have lifetime caps? Could your life withstand the scrutiny of a medical investigator looking for a "pre-existing" condition?

Here's Obama again...

Don't think too highly of your current insurance. It can be better and it can be cheaper and if we don't have reform, it will get more expensive and more difficult.

Not kids (that we know of), but people who can't pay...

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-me-dumping16nov16,0,2734413.story

 

Actually, that's about where the current approval rating is for the Republican Party nationally. Just because someone doesn't like Obama doesn't mean they consider themselves Republican.

 

Exactly!! I went into the speech with not much expectations, but I am very pleased myself.

 

I kind of feel sorry for that putz the next time he passes Pelosi in a hallway.

 

I don't. He pretty much earned himself lifetime appointment in his district and carte blanche in all his affairs.

 

Yeah, you are. In L.A., no insurance=GTFO

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Not a child, and not in Texas, but still an American citizen in need being told they won't being dumped because they don't have insurance. Ridiculous.

 

But the problem with the study is that they seem to ignore the fact that tort reform has been tried and test driven. It hasn't worked. Not even the 1% they claim.

I would love for doctors to have to pay less in mal practice insurance. That doesn't mean reduced health care costs though. It just hasn't.

The study would carry more weight if it was all still in the hypothetical. It's not in the hypothetical any more. It has been tried, and each and every time it has not resulted in lower health care costs.

 

Not so sure about that. He's a political pariah. EVERYONE is distancing themselves from him. Plus, he just gave his opponent more firepower than they'll ever need in a reelection campaign. And as if that weren't enough, he just got on the bad side of the office of the POTUS (a powerful office, indeed), every Democrat and moderate/centrist in both houses (and really, the entire country), and worst of all....Rahm Emanuel. He should expect a dead fish in the mail or a horse head in his bed any day now.

 

Here's my thoughts.

Obama's speech was good, and I think will carry over well with the American public. A few concerns:

1. Will the savings really materialize? I think passing legislation that pays for itself based on future savings is a bit of a hood-wink pull the wool over our eyes magic trick. I think Obama knows it, lets see if it sells.

2. Obama said our existing coverage won't change. Well, first of all, how can he guarantee that? If you change the laws around pre-existing conditions and other things - that means all policies will change, and there's no guarantee that insurers will make other changes with those policies. No guarantee that doctors will still accept all the insurances they do now or that premiums will not go up a bit.

3. Joe Wilson - I think he made a critical mistake. He's going to push a lot of independents into thinking that the whole town-hall ruckus was nothing more then a Republican campaign to make Obama look bad. This may have a big backlash with the independent votes. conservative votes will try to ignore it or just look past it, perhaps even calling him a hero...but they should not...the more attention he gets, the more people will associate Republicans in washington with the "grassroots" resistance to Health Reform. Not a good thing at all.

 

Under this plan, your insurance will not change at all. Is your insurance company going to reduce your coverage because of this plan? If you think so, tell me why.

 

I threw up in my mouth when I read this.

What Wilson did was obviously distasteful. It's worth noting that he immediately issued a public apology AND called the white house to apologize. I won't be surprised if he apologizes on the floor at some point as well.

That said, anytime anything happens does somebody HAVE to jump in with the race issue? Even though I didn't vote for him, I was excited for America to finally jump the race barrier and elect a black man president, but I am getting sick and tired of the fact that he's black being used as a mallet constantly. Look, politics is, was, and always will be dirty and often someone will do something distasteful. We don't always have to tie it to race.

George Bush got a lot of distasteful things said about him. Bill Clinton had a lot of things said about him that were out of line. Obama is just falling in line. The other side is always going to resort to "the same old politics" and try to discredit the president. That he's black doesn't make him any different.