It's cost over life regarding health reform

[SHRED]

Without a universal medical coverage system, like the rest of the modern nations grant their citizens, then this is the sewage we get from our corporate lobbyist bought Congress.

It is cost vs. people's lives and cost is winning.

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Health care loophole would allow coverage limits

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR (AP) – 20 hours ago

WASHINGTON — A loophole in the Senate health care bill would let insurance companies place annual dollar limits on medical care for people struggling with costly illnesses such as cancer.

Adding to the confusion, the language is tucked away in a clause of the bill captioned "No lifetime or annual limits." Advocates for patients say it fails to deliver on that promise.

"The primary purpose of insurance is to protect people against catastrophic loss," said Stephen Finan, a policy expert with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. "If you put a limit on benefits, by definition it's going to affect people who are dealing with catastrophic loss."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iY4N1OnmEl-p6kEdB_ROs6toazbQD9CH9VBG0

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[MH1]

1. It always will be

even with 'universal care', there will always be some treatments that aren't covered, generally due to cost/benefit analysis.

By the way as soon as you say "universal coverage" you are including insurance companies in the mix and thus making it a for-profit system, right? It should be 'universal care' not 'universal coverage'.

[SHRED]

2. I meant "care"

[MH1]

3. Ok, makes more sense then!

:)

(seriously though isn't that a sign of the devious manipulation of the language of the debate? there is no such thing as universal coverage - that would mean insuring the uninsurable - but that isn't really insurance. Yet they have put the term out there over and over again so that now even people who don't support insurance being in the mix, accidentally say "coverage" instead of "care".)

[notesdev]

4. Somewhere along the line

there needs to be cost-benefit decisions made.

Yes this means that some people who might theoretically be able to be treated - although at high expense - will have to be allowed to die. And people who are very wealthy and can buy treatments that others cannot afford will do so, if not here than abroad.

There really is no getting around these basic facts of life, resources are limited and life is temporary in nature.

[FarCenter]

5. You can add years to each person's life but it would cost too much

Hire a personal trainer to make sure they exercise, a nutritionist to keep them on a restricted calorie diet, and a psychiatrist to keep them mellow.

This will, on average, add years to each person's life.

It would cost a lot, tho.