Costs, Coverage, and Kids: Kerry's Simple And Right Health Care

[DrFunkenstein]

John Kerry’s bold and responsible health plan will:

1. Let any American - if they choose - buy into the same health plan that the President and Members of Congress give themselves - with subsidies for those who can't afford insurance.

2. Automatically cover every child in America by expanding upon state Medicaid programs - with no applications and no questions asked.

3. Build on the system we have, rather than create a government-run bureaucracy with no choice and sky-rocketing costs.

4. Cover 75% of the cost for catastrophic cases, reducing the burden on insurance companies and lowering premiums by as much as 10%.

5. Reduce costs by emphasizing preventive care before expensive procedures become necessary.

6. Cut prescription drug price-skimming by enormous corporate middlemen that buy in bulk cheaply, but refuse to pass on the savings.

7. Cut medical bureaucracy and waste by up to 50% through new technology such as the digital record-keeping of medical information.

8. Reduce medical errors by up to 88% through this technology, saving the lives of up to 80,000 people each and every year.

9. Control costs by weeding out meritless malpractice lawsuits without taking away patients’ rights.

10. Provide targeted tax-credits to make health coverage both manageable and affordable for small businesses.

11. Offer the unemployed a 75% tax-credit to either buy into the Congressional Health Plan or pay for the coverage they already have.

12. Provide the health care America’s veterans deserve and are much too often denied.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/intelligentstrength/files/

Note: I put this list together myself from his speech, so it is not Gospel (if I got anything wrong).

[papau]

1. Item 1 is National single payer health by the back door - I like it!

"buy into the same health plan that the President and Members of Congress give themselves - with subsidies for those who can't afford insurance"

Insurance companies currently administer so how can they object!

BRILLANT!!!!


:toast:

:-)

[blm]

4. I think that's the most clever part.

How can Congress not offer the citizenry the same coverage they get? Especially when OUR tax dollars PAY FOR THEIR COVERAGE!

[sandnsea]

2. It's the perfect plan

This is exactly the plan as I read it too. I love this plan, it hits every single problem, plus some I had never thought about it. That's why I like this guy so much, he always gives more than what you'd hoped for.

[XanaDUer]

3. Healthcare is issue number one to me!

And Kerry's is the best-and DK's, too!

[acerbic]

5. Offer the unemployed a 75% tax-credit?

Hu-mor?

[sandnsea]

7. As opposed to... NOTHING????

Families wouldn't be in this category most likely because their income would be low enough to automatically qualify for Medicaid. So this would be targeted at the single unemployed person who currently gets squat. So supposing there's a $200 a month premium, it would cost $50 a month. Most single people on unemployment can swing that. My son earned $20,000, his unemployment was $800, and he definitely could have managed $50 a month for medical coverage. Not easily, but he could have managed it.

[acerbic]

8. Huh? Which one of us is misunderstanding what a TAX CREDIT is?

I thought it is a reduction to the taxes you pay. How do unemployed get a tax credit?

[sandnsea]

9. They worked to get unemployment

They would have paid taxes on those wages. But yes, the premium tax credit would have to be credited while on unemployment, like EIC is. Otherwise it wouldn't be too helpful. Good point and I'll see if I can get an answer.

[burr]

6. Will he stick with it?

After Clinton's bill died in Congress, that was the last we heard from this issue. No more legislation, no attempts at a compromise or in passing Cooper-Grandy.

Will Kerry let this issue die if his proposal does not pass? Will he also be persuaded by those who say that his plan was "dead on arrival?"

Why claim that malpractice lawsuits are meritless, when almost every state caps the damages that a person can recieve..even if they don't reimburse the person for excessive losses? State laws now favor industry over the consumer when awarding damages. It would be criminal to ban such lawsuits altogether, especially when state laws are already written to prevent such damages from exceeding state caps.

[DrFunkenstein]

10. Kerry Thrives On Great Challenges

The greater the challenge, the higher he rises to meet it. And the thing is - he seeks out challenges, he loves the big fights.

Secondly, his plan can pass. It cuts bureaucracy, cuts costs, and cuts through the middle men. The idea of giving people the same plan as Congress and covering all children is a very catchy and appealing one. If Congress opposed it, they would look like hypocrites.

Thirdly, I'm not sure how you got from "weeding out" meritless lawsuits to "all lawsuits are meritless and should be banned." Kerry supports patients rights and progressive tort reforms favored by groups like Public Citizen.

[blm]

11. NO...after the Clinton bill died, he took measures

that he knew would pass and along with Kennedy helped craft the CHIPS bill. You know, the one that expanded healthcare to ALL children in the country and that many governors like Bush used to pump up as THEIR success.

[burr]

12. I believe the political alliances existed to do much more than CHIPS....

maybe not everything that he was pushing for in 1993, but at least he could of passed some of the bipartison measures supported in 93 and 94 by people like Jim Cooper and John Chaffee. Instead, IMHO..he allowed his fear of political defeat to get the better of him.

I just don't want to see this happen again with another Democratic President.

[blm]

14. I was referring to Kerry's work to craft CHIPS.

Kerry and Kennedy did not let the entire healthcare issue get lost.

[burr]

15. I agree...

that Kennedy has been one of the true champions of this cause. Those reforms that did pass during the Clinton era wouldn't of been possible without him.

Every rightwing nut that is insured because of COBRA today, owes most of this to Ted Kennedy, their favorite Democrat to hate.

[blm]

17. Can't acknowledge Kerry's work?

Just because Hatch insisted on being named to the bill, which automatically removed Kerry's name, doesn't mean that he didn't deserve credit. Hatch's aides planted stories saying that Kerry dropped the ball on it. That's horseshit and so typical of Hatch.

[Duder]

13. Democrats unveil ideas for health coverage

'Kerry's plan puts greater emphasis on cost controls than Dean's does. Kerry would have the federal government cover patients whose annual medical bills are very high so insurance companies don't have to spread the cost of paying for their care among everyone else. The Massachusetts senator says new technology could cut overhead by hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Kerry estimates his plan would cost $72 billion a year, but critics say it would take years to get everyone covered.

Dean's plan is based on what he did as governor of Vermont and would cost an estimated $88 billion a year. He said it is intended to give everyone coverage as soon as possible, not to fix everything at once.

"Once everybody's in the system, then we can have a big fight about how to change it," he said. '

http://www.detnews.com/2003/politics/0306/09/a05-186480.htm

[DrFunkenstein]

16. Alot Of Kerry's Costs Are Upfront

Kerry is willing to take a hit upfront by helping invest in preventative care and technology that will save tons of money in the long run.

"A quarter of the money America spends on health care goes to non-medical costs - basically the time spent paying bills and handling paperwork. No other industry is so inefficient. While banks have cut their costs to less than a penny per transaction using computers and technology, a single transaction in health care can cost as much as twelve to twenty-five dollars - - and not a penny of that goes to care.

I have seen the impact that technology can have in veterans' health. It used to cost the Veterans Administration nine dollars to pull an entire medical record. With computerized records, it costs nothing.

Putting modern systems in place requires an investment on the front end. That's why I propose to help hospitals and other health care providers pay for up front cost with a technology incentive bonus. And for insurance companies that do business with the government, using modern technology will be required.

These technologies don't just save money, they save lives. A killer like AIDS is responsible for less than seventeen thousand deaths a year. But a recent Institute of Medicine study found that between 44,000 and 98,000 people a year die of medical errors. Computerized medical records and support software can reduce medical errors by as much as 88 percent. As many as 80,000 lives saved each and every year."

[burr]

18. If we're paying for this system, why don't we have access to our records?

Strange how insurance companies want to keep tabs on who is heathy and who is not. Who is more likely based on genetic bloodwork, to develope a medical problem and who less likely? Who are the profitable people to insure, and who are the unprofitable people? Who should be charged the high primiums, and who should be charged the low primiums?

This does cuts costs for the insurance companies, but what does it do for those who still deserve some privacy in today's predatory healthcare system?

[DrFunkenstein]

19. Bush Drops Protection on Medical Files

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration on Friday officially eliminated many protections for the privacy of medical records by issuing final rules that allow doctors and hospitals to distribute patients' health information without the patients' written approval.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0810-07.htm

Kerry is a strong proponent of medical (and internet) privacy.