I don't understand why Amercan's see the national health care in the US bad. Considering that the US is the only free democratic country in the world that does not have it. I think all the hype and rhetoric about loss of freedoms and liberty is just that. What exactly is unliberterian and un-American about giving free or lower cost health care to those who cannot afford it?
It is a loss of Freedom!
This is the latest reduction in choice and opportunity and it won't be the last. More and more we find it harder to live a life free of BIG BROTHER!
I'll give an example in just a second but let me first say that this bill was a bad idea because it doesn't really care about healthcare. This bill is about power and ideology.
If you want to talk about reducing health care costs then they should have banned health insurance for anything other than major medical or emergency care. Health insurance for everyday use is an abuse.
I am on a health insurance committee and I know that the rates go up for a group when the groups claims go above 79% of what the Insurance company has brought in from that group in premiums. That 21% is the company's overhead and profit margin. Now consider that labor is the most expensive aspect of overhead and that doctor's offices have to hire a minimum of 2 folks just to chase insurance companies and handle the new HIPPA privacy policies which exist primarily because of the transfer of information from doctors to insurance companies. By my calculation 30-40% of the average person and employer premiums are going toward something other than actual health care. Now the govt comes in and is going to create another piece in the middle of that and save everybody money...oh wait except for the taxes that we will all feel trickle down, just as recently displayed when five of Americas largest companies announced that their retirees would likely be kicked off private insurance and onto the inferior Federal programs because of the estimated costs from this bill for the companies.
On a side note the bill didn't even help with litigation reforms which everyone agrees would help health care costs go down.
To make matters worse and to give an example of a loss of choice and opportunity, some people in America have found a way to provide cheaper and better health care that will now be illegal under the new bill.
Some doctors refuse to take health insurance currently and save on the labor overhead and simply charge a small fee (similar to a co-pay) for a visit. They have more time with their patients because they aren't filling out insurance paperwork. They don't have the vast HIPPA issues because they aren't sending information to insurance company's on every visit. They don't have to meet with Insurance companies or association to be in their group. The list goes on.
Then there is the business fellow in Florida who solved his health care problems for his employees that is not considered health care under this bill. For the sake of time I won't describe that one, just type in "hotel-mogul-starts-own-health-care-system" in google and read about it. Smaller companies could have banded together and done this as well and this would also work for the migrant worker as well, which this bill does not address.
This last example is one that I have been trying to get my employer to consider, because the savings for everyone would be huge and would actually enable the company to provide everyday health care, major medical/emergency insurance, while also having new funds available for new hires. Talk about a stimulus plan.
The govt is not interested in helping the poor, even if people are. Govts are more concerned with their budgets, stabilizing and satiating the fickled public and thereby what new and wonderful thing "great" politicians can do for its people. Surfdom survives!
We are becoming a nanny state like the rest of the world and this bill gives them one more reason to reach into our lives and exercise control. If we are not eating healthy enough, that's a problem for the govt's bottom line and I have already heard discussion of fines and taxes for such things. As if they aren't fickled enough from one moment to the next about whats good or bad for you to eat or do. At the end of the day the govt has to balance its budget and it will do it by removing choice and opportunity (wait lists, etc) from current list of health care freedoms.
We are a country established people wishing to escape religious tyranny in order to worship the way they saw fit, and also to live as they saw fit. And There were many kinds of people, not just Christians who came to this country just to live as their consciences dictated not as govts dictated. Its in our collective blood and culture to desire choice and opportunity which this bill removes.
There were better options and our government was tired of listening and just wanted to do something. I don't know if you watched the 8 hour health care summit saga but I did, and they as much said that. They said, "We have talked and debated for a year and its time to act," and to that most people would say no sir time should not be the dictator of actions in a government
of the people, by the people, for the people - the people are the dictator of actions; but time
was the dictator in this case because of political expediency for politicians.
