What are the BEST provisions of this health care bill (for those who defend it)

[Liberation Angel]

and what are the worst?

I frankly am still trying to assess it.

I feel like a member of a jury who hears one side and then hears a totally different perspective.

What are the final arguments here?

What is the VERY BEST of this bill?

and the VERY WORST?

If it is going to pass and get signed we need to know...

AND

I need to know how I should assess Obama on this effort when it is all said and done...

so i could use some subjective DU intelligent final arguments on the bill as is and as it may be...

[Eric J in MN]

1. 30 million more people having health insurance is good per se,

...but I don't agree with accomplishing that by giving money to private insurance companies.

We could allow anyone to buy into Medicare instead, and provide better coverage for less money.

Cenk Uygur: "just do Medicare buy-in for anyone who wants it" instead of new industry regulations. http://is.gd/5rRHW

[Liberation Angel]

3. That is a great start

I agree

but as is I'd prefer single payer to buy in...

[doc03]

5. How does this bill give 30 million people health insurance ?

:shrug:

[Eric J in MN]

6. It doesn't. But the mandates and subsidies are expecting to result...

...in about 30 million more people having health insurance.

[Incitatus]

11. So they will be forced to buy health insurance, with government help if they are poor enough.

Does that mean they will really get the health care they need? What about co-pays and prescriptions. How much of their medical procedures will be covered by their insurance?

[doc03]

20. So they are going to make 30 million people pay

for insurance or be fined. What about the ones that lose their insurance because they or their employer can no longer pay the increased premiums?

[Mass]

2. The worst are the mandate and the fact that most important provisions do not start before 2014.

The best are increasing the ceiling for Medicaid, and the subsidies.

The very worst is the Nelson provision, in particular the state opt outs, which will put abortion out of reach for poor women. The other half is irritating, but not life threatening.

[Eric J in MN]

4. How will state opt-outs for the Nelson provision work? NT

NT

[clear eye]

15. The subsidies aren't all good. B/c they go to over-priced private policies

they will be terribly expensive and add to the upward pressure to raise the taxes on--guess who?--the MIDDLE CLASS. (You win.)

Or to cut other vital services.

[Mass]

16. The subsidies are not the problems. the over-priced policies are.

Subsidies would have existed anyway. Dont throw the baby with the bath water.

[ima_sinnic]

7. recc'd b/c of the call for sane presentation of facts (nt)

[FrenchieCat]

8. The Low Income Clinics are the best.....

There are $1.25 billion in new resources for community health centers in the bill, totaling $10 billion overall (there’s $14 billion in the House bill). I’ve written about community health centers before, which could provide a base of low or no-cost primary coverage for all low-income Americans in communities throughout the country. I actually think this is the best thing in the bill. Bernie Sanders is actually talking about this now on CSPAN. He says that 10,000 more communities will have access to community health centers with this legislation.
http://news.firedoglake.com/2009/12/19/whats-in-the-managers-amendment/

[Liberation Angel]

12. If the Socialist Bernie Sanders supports it

then why can't we?

This part looks really fucking good.

[FrenchieCat]

9. Also.....

They’ve banned pre-existing conditions for children immediately, starting in 2010.

[laughingliberal]

10. I don't support this bill but its best points are:

1) The expansion of Medicaid to those at 133% of the federal poverty guidelines
2) Bans denial based on preexisting conditions. This comes with a host of caveats. Aside from the fact that coverage may still be unaffordable for many and, therefore, the only people guaranteed to benefit from this are those who can afford the coverage and are going without due to denial. There are a couple of poison pills there which will allow insurance companies to raise premium prices without directly attributing it to preexisting conditions. This would be things like lowering your cholesterol level to get a reasonable (relatively) rate.

The first place I would start to look at the negative consequences of it might be the MA model. Many there mandated to buy insurance have policies with high premiums and out of pocket costs so high they can not afford to use them. Take that plan, add in the fact that this bill allows a higher multiplier than MA allows and you are getting the first glimpse of the overall bones of the bill. In MA the insurance companies are not allowed to charge anyone more than 2X what anyone else would be charged for the same policy. The bill about to be passed into federal law allows a 3 X multiplier.

[quiller4]

13. End to pre-existing condition madness, requires insurance companies

to pay out in benefits at least 80% of revenues, significant expansion of medicaid (with fed pickiong up the larger share of cost of that expansion), allows individuals to opt of of bad employer plans and collect subsidy to buy from exchanges... (a Wyden amendment that made it through)

[Eric J in MN]

14. But there is a loophole that the HHS Secretary...

...can waive the 80%-of-premiums-going-to-care requirement.

[clear eye]

17. Sheesh! n/t

[bigwillq]

18. K and R (nt)

[McCamy Taylor]

19. Best..a 20 year old with MS who earns $80000 self employed will finally get insurance

that she would ordinarily have to join a large company or marry somebody for. She can get some pretty damn good insurance, too, if she is single, since she can easily pay $20,000 a year to cover her $200,000 a year in predictable medical expenses.

How many of the nation's uninsured are upper middle class with cash to burn and catastrophic diseases? Not many, since disease is associated with poverty. I.e. the sicker you are the more likely you are to be poor.

But yes, it will help a small number of folks like that. Of course, we could get that woman insurance a lot more cheaply if we just expanded Medicare to include all the working chronically ill---not just those with HIV and renal failure.