Are you one of the lucky 45 million

reply to post by Bunch


I believe that since the fiasco with the veteran medical facilities things has been better for the veterans lately, at least I hope so.

Quote from Obama Plan

The benefit package will be similar to that offered through Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), the PLAN members of Congress have.

Why reinvent the wheel? Notice the word similar in the quote. Why not just throw everybody into the plan that Congress has? You save money on committees, study groups, people to write up the plan, trees, and everything else that is involved in creating an implementing plan. That is the way one saves money.

At the same time let's do away with SCHIP and Medicaid and put those people in Congresses plan also. It would make it much easier to monitor 1 program than 4. After all What is good enough for Congress should be good enough for its Constituents. This would also save money.

quote from Obama's plan

[ quote] The Exchange will act as a watchdog group and help reform the private insurance market by creating rules and standards for participating insurance plans to ensure fairness and to make individual coverage more affordable and accessible. Insurers would have to issue every applicant a policy, and charge fair and stable premiums that will not depend upon health status.

This is nothing more than bureaucracy. Bureaucracy usually increases prices. Why are premiums high? Is it because Insurance companies jack them up or could it be because the premiums are close to the true cost that it actually takes to tend to a sick one?

Indeed, perhaps the most significant reason Americans are drowning in health care debt may shock you: Americans are getting far too much unnecessary care. Of our total $2.3 trillion health care bill last year, a whopping $500 billion to $700 billion was spent on treatments, tests, and hospitalizations that did nothing to improve our health.

source

Don't you think that this unnecessary care also contribute to the cost of premiums?

This is no different from Canada. What do you think employers will do once they see that Obama has created a National Health Plan? Do you really think they will continue to provide insurance if they know the government is willing to foot the bill. Employers are going to quit offering insurances and claim that that is the only way they can compete competitively globally. This will leave us with everybody going to a government healthcare.

We can't afford anymore entitlement programs

The cancer, Walker says, are massive entitlement programs we can no longer afford, exacerbated by a demographic glitch that began more than 60 years ago, a dramatic spike in the fertility rate called the "baby boom."

source

We can't afford to keep up with Social security and Medicare. This health plan would only add to our problems.




I think Ron Paul says it best for me.

And I think you've stated it correctly — should — but I don't see it as a right, which is different for me because you have a right to your life, you have a right to your liberty and you have a right to the property you earn, but you don't have a right to a house or a right to a job and you don't have a right to medical care because that involves a violation of somebody else's rights because they have to take it from them.

PDF Format- Worth Reading

Obama and McCain both mean well, but giving handouts is not the answer.

reply to post by jam321


We do have the money to pay for this, this would be the first time in a while that the Federal Governemnt would do something to the benefits for all the citizens, not just Big Oil, Big Pharma and the Bear Stearns of the world.

reply to post by Bunch


I see no way he can pay for it. You count what we already have, things he says he will increase, and add all his new initiatives including this plan and I just can't see where the money will come from.

Obama intends to pay for his plan by repealing the "Bush tax cuts for the rich." But there have been no tax cuts for the rich.

source

This is a non-partisan report that was done recently.

reply to post by jam321


Thats your opinion and I respect it. The reality is that the money is there but like you said not with what we have now. That where repealing the Bush Tax cuts, cancelling the subsidies to Oil companies, rasing taxes for the TOP 5% and eliminating unnecessary spending comes into play.

Also ending the War in Iraq that has been a burden to this country Treasury. The fact is that there is money we just have to put it to better use.

One thing they could do, is cut the big insurance companies out of the loop. They are the middle man, and we can't reduce costs and offer health care to all with these corporate insurance companies sucking up money by getting between the patient and the provider.

Unfortunately, they are big contributors to both parties and lobby hard to keep their greedy hands on the neck of the golden goose.

We spend more p/c than any other nation for health care, and we get less out of it than many. We don't take care of all either. Insurance companies suck a lot of blood out of the turnup inmho.

Obama will cut taxes for hundreds of millions of AMericans. More then McCain will. he will also end the fiasco in Iraq. That right there will get us hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

Did you know with what we spend in a month Iraq we could have paid for the SCHIP program for 10 years? Hmmm, save American lives for a decade or kill Americans for a month.

reply to post by jam321

Look I am all for covering every child in the United States and would be willing to pay the taxes for the children. But I see no reason why my taxes should subsidize other people health care and I am left paying my own bill with no help. This is a plan where only a few will benefit. Similar to other government programs that subsidize rent, subsidize utilities, and welfare in general.

I would only like to point out one thing about your post. You already pay for other peoples healthcare. And it has to do with the moral integrity of the healthcare system. I will give you an example.
If I didnt have health insurance and lets say I break my leg. I go to the ER and tell them I dont have insurance, they will still treat my broken leg and then they will bill me. Lets say the bill is $5000. They send the bill to my house and say I owe the full amount or I can option for a type of financing. I dont have to take the financing, I can just send them $10 or $20 dollars and they cant make me finance the balance and they are going to have a hard time turning me over to a collections agency because I pay them every week. They cant set a minimum payment and they cant make me pay the full amount and they cant charge me interest. So I can continue to pay them $10 a month until the balance is paid. Which would be 41 years! In the eyes of the hospital, this is a loss. So to recoup that cost they increase the cost of xrays, MRIs and other procedures and pass that cost onto the people who have insurance.
A lot of people who have insurance, dont get 100% coverage, they have co-pays and a lot of procedures are only covered 80%, so if they have an xray done, they have to pay 20% of that cost. The hospital is charging more for xrays due to the loss taken from the person without insurance and the person with insurance pays 20% of that higher rate. Not to mention as hospital and procedure costs go up the insurance company has to cover their costs, so they raise their rates.

So in the end you are paying for the healthcare of those who dont have it anyway.