Health Care Reform takes the first procedural hurdle in the Senate

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I work in the healthcare industry, and to a large degree "the poor" (as in those living below the Poverty Level) are already taken care of in the form of Medicaid. In fact, they oftentimes receive better healthcare than those with commercial health insurance.

The ones who are truly hurting are the working class, whose employers don't offer healthcare because they either can't afford it or don't want to offer it because of the expense.

I've been keeping up with these "Healthcare Reform Bills" for several months now, and I honestly believe that the entire healthcare reform agenda has become more about politics than about the People. I believe that we need healthcare reform, but not in the way that our Government is planning on doing it through these most recent Bills.

It seems to me like the Democrats are working much harder to secure political victories than they are at working to truly make life better for the ones whom they serve. The Republicans are no help either, in that they are either unable or unwilling to come up with anything better, and therefore have just resigned themselves to vote against anything that the Dems put on the table. Obama just wants SOMETHING to pass so that he can go into the history books as "The President Who Reformed Healthcare", even though it will cost billions of dollars to do it and it will not cover everyone who needs help.

Here's what I believe will happen. Those of us who pay our own health insurance (as I do for myself and my employees) will see significant rate increases in our premiums once Healthcare Reform is passed. At that point, it will become impossible for small business like mine to be able to offer healthcare to our employees, and we will more-than-likely have to go without health coverage for a significant period of time before any Government plan kicks in to cover us.

This will only exacerbate the current problem we have now, thus causing "crisis" situations for many of our doctors and hospitals. At that point I suspect the Government will have to "bail-out" hospitals just like they have done with banks and the auto industry, which will then lead to some type of Government-run healthcare system. My concern is that if this happens, the Government-run system could look very much like other Government-run healthcare institutions such as the Veterans Administration (VA), which is notorious for lower-quality healthcare than what many currently receive here in the US.

I would love to see someone step up who is willing to get their hands dirty and actually invest the time and energy that it is going to take to reform healthcare properly. I would much rather have QUALITY healthcare reforms that will actually help those in need while not hurting those who currently do have health insurance. I believe we need someone who is more concerned with the health and welfare of the American people than with his or her political career.

Here's what we need to reform healthcare properly:

1. Lower prescription costs. Drugs are expensive. I realize that it takes a lot of money for R&D, but I believe that we need more competition for LOWER COST DRUGS. So let's not have our Government make deals with drug companies to prevent international trade of drugs. Let's provide lower cost drugs for the little old ladies on Social Security who are making a whopping $600.00 per month and have to pay $750.00 per month for their prescriptions.

2. Increased efforts at identifying and penalizing healthcare providers for committing Medicare, Medicaid and Insurance Fraud. I have worked with physicians in the past who are committing blatant Medicare Fraud. After reporting them to the OIG (Office of the Inspector General - the Governmental Department that handles Medicare and Medicaid Fraud), I was told on more than one occasion that they won't even LOOK at a case of fraud that involves less than $1,000,000.00.

3. Tort Reform - Doctors screw up. Some deserve to get sued. Other times patients die because they are non-compliant, too sick, or it's just their time to go. Greedy patients and families who don't want to work for the rest of their lives shouldn't be able to sue for millions of dollars just because they see an opportunity to get rich. Tort reform would help weed out those who just want to get rich quick from those who truly deserve retribution for legitimate mistakes made by doctors and hospitals.

While I don't have it all figured out, I do believe that the focus needs to be placed on the PEOPLE, and not the POLITICIANS who are here to serve the People.

Bryan
 
Bryan,

In California, and I suspect the rest of the nation, you have to be basically destitute to qualify for Medicaid. You can't have more than $2000 in assets, for example. As you say, the working poor would be ineligible for this coverage.

I don't think there will be anything near the financial sector bailout. Primarily because the financial sector was engaging in extremely risky unregulated quasi-legal gambling, in the name of credit swaps, derivatives, hedge funds.

I also doubt that employers will be dropping coverage. There is nobody forcing them to provide coverage today - they do that today to try to attract good employees and to reduce hits on productivity due to ill health. The health plans that really need a kick in the pants are the individual plans and those available to very small businesses - with ridiculously high deductables and copays, limitations on pre-existing conditions, etc. The name of the game is group coverage, and the bigger the group, the better. If the health care reform bill can allow small employers to become part of a much larger group for insurance purposes, then I think we'll see better coverage for lower rates than they currently pay.
 
What puzzles me endlessly

is why the entire rest of the civilized world has been able to solve this problem and the US, alone, can't.

The only thing I can think of is that too many lower to middle-class white people resent the idea of Negroes and Mexican immigrants being treated decently, so they cut their own noses off to spite their faces.
 
is why the entire rest of the civilized world has been able

It's called you basically tax the freakin hell out of income and no one has much income to take home and you end up with average health care--what Iv'e seen and heard of in Britain and Canada.
 
I prefer the better system we have now and figure out a way to help the woring class who are squeezed in the middle. That's where reform needs to be.
 
Bob,

What you've heard is, I'm sorry, there's no way to put it gently, is totally wrong.
Completely, absolutely.
I've lived in Europe for 26 years now and, really, the information you're getting is wrong.
Would you like some independent sources?
 
It technically costs us 1.5% of our taxable income for Universal Healthcare.

Yes Dollars go into healthcare otherwise, but here are our standard tax tables.

Our system isnt perfect, but I'm comfortable in the fact that a Visit to my GP costs me $16 out of pocket, most of my medications cost no more than $30 per script and that if I needed life threatening surgery I have the choice of going through the public system, or paying the gap payment and using my Private Health Insurance.

My Private Health insurance costs me $130 per month and covers hospital, dental, optical, alternative therapys, physio, chrio and almost anything else you can think of. Based on the 1.5% medicare levy, I pay about $60 per month for my Universal Health care. That would seem to be a lot less than the US for the guarentee that I'll always have the care I need, and the comfort of knowing if I ever need to go to an emergency room, I'll walk out of there with no cost to myself.
 
I think there should be some health care reform, to benefit senior citizens and the working poor, and working in a hospital I see first hand that those on Medicaid usually get better coverage than we do.
I think the reforms they are trying to push are a big mistake and will only cause more harm than good, I am very much against the current reform plans.
 
Nathan,

The going rate for paying 100% for employer based group coverage here is about $400 to $500 per month. Currently I pay about $90/month for my share of the employer coverage (about 20%). Doctor visits are a $20 copay. ER: $100. Hospitalization, after a $1500 deductible, basically paid for. Meds, $20 generic, $30 brand name, $50 non-formulary. I do 3 mo mail order prescriptions, and currently pay about $60/month for medications. This will go up to $80/month once my "stockpile" of blood glucose test strips runs out - and I'll have to switch to a different meter system.

When I was unemployed at the start of the year, I was paying close to $400/month to continue my employer based group health insurance. Then Obama stepped in and subsidized these payments at 65%, so I was paying about $140, which wasn't so bad. It was complicated by the fact that my former employer failed to renew the group policy properly, but was still accepting my payments, and around June of this year I started getting dunned by the HMO (Kaiser) for hundreds in medical bills they say were retroactively not covered. Nice. It took until September to straighten it all out, with the assistance of the Department of Labor. It gave me a very sour view of medical insurance company practices (yes, they can retroactively cancel your policy). So I'm all for this reform bill and hope it passes sooner rather than later.
 
Good grief Bob are you brainwashed or what and worse you've gone made me have to agree with Keven for once,, I'll never live it down, well I will but it makes it sound more dramatic. A pox on you and your house!!!!,, I hope you have insurance to get treated for it LOL
 
The real Holy Grail, in this dispute is obviously the American Antitrust Laws that ALL health care Insurance companies, enjoy in the U.S.A. To think outside the box, why not import foreign health care, from the Insurance to the Doctors and nurses, just as an experiment. I once worked with an IV nurse, that became ill while visiting her native Phillipines, her diagnosis heat exhaustion and electrolyte imbalance she was in the hospital for 2 days receiving fluids. She showed me her bill (now this was in the 1990's) it was $35.00. If you have been blessed with good health, the reality is a nice short ride in an ambulance is approx 1K. Lets try some Hontoyfujidai, healthcare. Having worked in the healthcare system for over 21 years please know ALL hospitals are as top heavy with management, executives and a chief for every job division, as General Motors. Many hospitals also outsource housekeeping, dietary, laundry, pharmacy and some of the nursing staff, to reduce retiree entitlements. It's a complex snake pit behind the scenes and Kudos to President Obama for having the GUT's to tackle this mess. Obama 2012.... alr2903
 
Appnut's opinion

With the greatest respect I raise two issues with Appnut's expressed opinion. I see no evidence that the US healthcare system produces superior results on any parameters. Secondly does Appnut not fear that at the single stroke of an insurance compamy employees' pen or unemployment or illness he could be stripped of his currently satisfactory cover with NO RECOURSE OR AVENUE OF APPEAL?

Peter
 
Well...

.....we have been down this road before.

Nathan has a great point as does Panthera.

European countries have some of the best 'all encompassing' health care for their people in the world - bar none. No matter who you are or how ill you are, you can see a doctor without it costing a fortune....

It is the same here. I can see a doctor (GP) for $30 and have pretty much most standard prescriptions for about the same amount. To top it off, if I spend more than about $1200 per year on scripts, the Government (Yep...the GOVERNMENT) effectively pays for the majority of my script cost and I pay about $5.00....

When Australia went into a free trade agreement with the US, US pharma tried to force our governments hand and remove the PBS (pharmaceutical benefits scheme) which sets a limit that the government pays for medications....We, both as a government and a population, won that one...US pharma lost...

I pay my own private health insurance - most Australians do, should they wish it. It isn't, nor should it ever be, a benefit of employment IMHO. This, in conjunction with the medicare compulsory contribution based on my annual taxable income is about $2000 pa....including a rebate for my private health insurance. How much do your employers 'value' their contributions for your health at?

So, after a one off payment of $500 if I am hospitalised as a private patient (I could choose to go public and avoid it), I can choose my own doctor or have the one appointed, can go to a private hospital or go public...and the vast majority of the bills are covered...no mortgaging the house....

...and I only pay that payment once in a calender year...regardless of how often I may end up in hospital.

If I am unemployed, a pensioner or even living on the streets and/or have no private cover, I can still go to a doctor, get inexpensive medications etc....for virtually nothing....

I can choose to have 'branded' or generic medications....

The lists go on and on....and quite frankly, it is high time the US in general admitted that 'We've got it completely wrong'.

When you have a significant percentage of your population who work hard yet who can't afford basic medical care, that is WRONG.

When you have people who deserve the dignity of health and care, yet are denied it because they may be unemployed and have no private cover, yet have more assets than medicaid allows, that is WRONG....on so many levels it makes my blood boil.

..and I, for once, make no apologies if I offend someone with these comments. In the stoke of a pen, government could make the US truly great again by doing one key thing - looking after your own population.
 
I don't know a huge amount on this topic

But anyone here can walk into a hospital or doctor's for free and get the care they need. A pescription costs around £7 and is free providing you meet certain needs (low income, over 65, under 16, under 18 and in full time education, unemployed, and so on). This, in my opinion, is how it should be.

My Grandparents visited family in Boston in 1995. Whilst walking in a park they saw a little girl fall off a swing and smack her head on the floor, she didn't respond straight away when her mother ran to see her, but she did come round shortly, although was clearly concussed. My Grandparents went over and told the woman they would phone for an ambulance, she thanked them but told them she couldn't afford to pay for one and would that the girl would be "fine".

As far as I am concearned, in a wealthy country such as the U.S., a situation like that is appauling.
 
Bob

We don't tax the hell out of people for health insurance reason. The costs of the health care got out of control in the USA. That's why health care got so expensive. If the costs get back to an affordable level, health insurance for everybody is in reach without a considerable rise of taxes.

Louis
 
Peter,

As weak as the gutted bill is, there is still quite a bit of good in there for those who do not enjoy your and my great good fortune.
One of the consequences of opposing everything and anything Democrats support is that truly poor people suffer.
 

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