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In promoting his health-care agenda, President Obama has repeatedly reassured Americans that they can keep their existing health plans -- and that the benefits and access they prize will be enhanced through reform. A close reading of the two main bills, one backed by Democrats in the House and the other issued by Sen. Edward Kennedy's Health committee, contradict the President's assurances. To be sure, it isn't easy to comb through their 2,000 pages of tortured legal language. But page by page, the bills reveal a web of restrictions, fines, and mandates that would radically change your health-care coverage. If you prize choosing your own cardiologist or urologist under your company's Preferred Provider Organization plan (PPO), if your employer rewards your non-smoking, healthy lifestyle with reduced premiums, if you love the bargain Health Savings Account (HSA) that insures you just for the essentials, or if you simply take comfort in the freedom to spend your own money for a policy that covers the newest drugs and diagnostic tests -- you may be shocked to learn that you could lose all of those good things under the rules proposed in the two bills that herald a health-care revolution.
4. Freedom to keep your existing plan
This is the freedom that the President keeps emphasizing. Yet the bills appear to say otherwise. It's worth diving into the weeds -- the territory where most pundits and politicians don't seem to have ventured. The legislation divides the insured into two main groups, and those two groups are treated differently with respect to their current plans. The first are employees covered by the Employee Retirement Security Act of 1974. ERISA regulates companies that are self-insured, meaning they pay claims out of their cash flow, and don't have real insurance. Those are the GEs (GE, Fortune 500) and Time Warners (TWX, Fortune 500) and most other big companies. The House bill states that employees covered by ERISA plans are "grandfathered." Under ERISA, the plans can do pretty much what they want -- they're exempt from standard packages and community rating and can reward employees for healthy lifestyles even in restrictive states. But read on. The bill gives ERISA employers a five-year grace period when they can keep offering plans free from the restrictions of the "qualified" policies offered on the exchanges. But after five years, they would have to offer only approved plans, with the myriad rules we've already discussed. So for Americans in large corporations, "keeping your own plan" has a strict deadline. In five years, like it or not, you'll get dumped into the exchange. As we'll see, it could happen a lot earlier. The outlook is worse for the second group. It encompasses employees who aren't under ERISA but get actual insurance either on their own or through small businesses. After the legislation passes, all insurers that offer a wide range of plans to these employees will be forced to offer only "qualified" plans to new customers, via the exchanges. The employees who got their coverage before the law goes into effect can keep their plans, but once again, there's a catch. If the plan changes in any way -- by altering co-pays, deductibles, or even switching coverage for this or that drug -- the employee must drop out and shop through the exchange. Since these plans generally change their policies every year, it's likely that millions of employees will lose their plans in 12 months.
Originally posted by ProtoplasmicTraveler
What happened to common sense in America?
Originally posted by slicobacon
Originally posted by ProtoplasmicTraveler
What happened to common sense in America?
There is still SOME common sense in America. That is the only reason this thing hasn't been run through Congress like a runaway stimulus bill.
There are some Democrats who realize that this is NOT what their constituents want. They realize the Nation CAN NOT afford any of these bills.
They are starting to see Obama for what he is - a radical who cares not how his agenda actually affects this great nation.
Democrats need an enemy. Whether it's the climate, carbon, the military, smokers, obese people, whites, christians, etc. . .
I sometimes think the democrats think, republicans just have too much fun and have to be punished for it.
Originally posted by mikerussellus
I sometimes think the democrats think, republicans just have too much fun and have to be punished for it.
Classic line. And too true. Like you stated, they are in charge of EVERYTHING.
Why are they still so damn angry?
Last question. Do you currently have health insurance and a job?
Originally posted by whoshotJR
reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler
Why has no health care reform passed like this previously? MONEY. The big health care industry would not like this to get passed at all. The lies about this bill are being spread to cause panic and fear.
Just because people don't see things the exact same way as you doesn't mean they don't see clearly or are not awake. You spend most of your post attacking a side and that's just how they want you to react.
Please detail what part of the 1000 page bill you have a problem with and be specific. I highly doubt you even really know why you're upset about this outside of the fact a talking head ( who probably abuses prescription drugs) told you to be angry about it.
The main problem I have with the plan in general is this: It will end up costing more not less, with reduced services for those with insurance now.