I'll Probably Get NOTHING out of this Flawed Health Care Legislation. Nothing. Not a Thing.

[NYC_SKP]

:think:

But it's not all about ME.

Pass it, then don't give up one inch of ground in the effort to bring in a public option, expand medicare, whatever it takes to get there.

The following statement is excerpted from Congressman Jerry McNerney's home page:

Health Care Reform Package – What it Means for California Families

Health care costs continue to spiral out of control, hurting families and small businesses. Bringing down health care costs will strengthen America’s long-term economic security and make sure that every American can afford quality health care. Health reform will reduce health care costs for families and small businesses, improve patient protections, and allow Americans to keep their current coverage. This legislation is fiscally responsible, and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will cut the federal deficit by $143 billion over the next ten years and by $1.2 trillion during the second decade.

Immediate Impacts:

* Children with pre-existing conditions cannot be denied coverage
* Allows young people to stay on their parents’ insurance until the age of 26
* Prohibits insurance companies from dropping people from their coverage if they get sick
* Creates new tax credits for many small businesses to help them offer health insurance to their employees
* Provides many seniors who can’t afford the cost of their prescription drugs with a $250 check in 2010 to help offset the cost of medication

Fiscally Responsible Reform:

* According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, health care reform will reduce the deficit by $143 billion over the next ten years and by $1.2 trillion during the second decade
* Eliminates wasteful spending in health programs
* Increases efficiency through greater use of health information technology and safe, secure electronic medical records
* Emphasizes prevention and wellness to keep Americans from getting sick

Protecting Patients, Families, and Seniors:

* Guarantees that people who are happy with their coverage can keep their current plan
* Caps annual and life-time out-of-pocket costs for individuals and families so that nobody goes bankrupt due to a medical condition
* Prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage to people with a pre-existing condition like diabetes or a past illness and prevents insurance companies from kicking patients off a health care plan if they get sick
* Protects existing health care benefits for veterans, service members, and their families. TRICARE, TRICARE for Life, and VA benefits are fully preserved.

Controlling Costs:

* Harnesses the power of competition and transparency by creating improved state-based health care markets – called “exchanges” – where consumers and small businesses owners can compare and purchase high quality, affordable health care plans
* Restricts health insurance companies from unfairly raising premiums and sets standards to guarantee that premiums pay for medical services – not to pad insurance company profits

Guaranteeing Consumer Choice and Expanding Coverage:

* Creates new tax credits to help small business owners offer health insurance to their employees – 12,300 businesses in the 11th district are expected to qualify for these credits
* Provides assistance – called affordability credits – to help qualifying families and individuals purchase health insurance. Approximately 123,000 families in the 11th district are expected to qualify for these credits
* Allows young people to stay on their parents’ insurance until the age of 26 – there are an estimated 59,000 young people in the 11th district who could benefit from this change
* Improves consumer choice for everyone and will help provide coverage for 35,500 uninsured people in the 11th district

Improving Medicare for California Seniors:

* Strengthens Medicare for the estimated 90,000 beneficiaries in the 11th district
* Makes prescriptions more affordable for seniors by closing the prescription drug ‘donut hole’ for the 10,700 seniors in California’s 11th district who are affected each year
* Protects seniors by cracking down on fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare
* Eliminates out-of-pocket expenses for preventative services like cancer or heart screenings

Bringing the Next Generation of Medical Professionals to California:

* Provides incentives for physicians and nurses to train and practice in underserved areas – bringing more doctors and medical professionals to our communities
* Establishes incentives for doctors to become primary care physicians – the people who are the first lines of defense treating patients and preventing diseases

http://mcnerney.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=421:mcnerney-supports-reform-that-will-make-health-care-more-affordable-for-americans&catid=8:latest-news&Itemid=36

:patriot:

[knowbody0]

1. ha!

I was going to call the Whambulance for you. nice post, comrade.

[Leopolds Ghost]

43. What difference would a Public Option make? This bill was DESIGNED to have a Public Option

To bleed off the high-risk cases and force everyone else into the private insurance market place. The sole goal of the current HCR push is to require every American to have insurance, on the theory that this will lower premiums for "non-deadbeats" who already carry insurance. That's according to the original proponents of the bill, when it was designed by insurance industry lobbyists at the Think Tank stage. They spoke about it years ago in the pages of Harpers, Washington Monthly etc. Long before Obama got elected they were planning this. The former insurance execs / insurance policy academics got on shows like CNN, CSPAN, Ed Shultz and argued that the public option is DESIGNED to be restricted to offer the appearance of choice while really the net effect is to pressure as many people as possible to purchase private insurance; the objective is to vastly increase private insurance and decrease the number of public users. And the "exchange" would simply be private insurers offering a lower standard of coverage "competing with themselves" in return for public subsidies.

[ixion]

2. If you think this bill is going to fix the insurance industry, or actually help people outside

the insurance industry, I think you're mistaken.

Please note that insurance stocks are pegging all time highs today.

[jdlh8894]

7. As Jonh Prine once said ---

"Common Sense don't make no sense no more"/ eom

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

30. No, they're not....

Of the five or six major, publicly-traded companies, about half are up slightly (1% or less) and the rest are down by about the same amount. And none of them are trading at all time highs.

And it would actually make sense for these stocks to trade higher today, because the market dislikes uncertainty. Regardless of the final shape of Healthcare Reform, having it be a "done deal" gives investors and analysts from solid ground upon which to make decisions.

[Gwoppi]

3. Well said.

eom

[Fumesucker]

4. And I'll get Medicaid..

But I still don't like it..

Opinions differ..

[The_Commonist]

5. Me neither.

But that's not why I don't like it...

[Fire1]

6. As it stands now, it will only help me when I retire, which will be

in June. Closing the donut hole is a great start, among other things.

[NYC_SKP]

14. Happy Retirement!

:toast:

I don't think I'll be able ever to retire.

I love work, as long as I can find work until I can't work anymore I guess I'll be OK.

:P

[Fire1]

15. I'm going to work! Just not in the classroom! But thanks

anyway!:hi:

[kestrel91316]

8. That's what I was saying all last night. It probably will shove me through the cracks,

and MY only personal hope will be for my business income to return to what it was before Bush. But I am looking at the big picture, and the long term. This is the first step of a long journey that we cannot give up on.

Keep your eyes on the prize: SINGLE PAYER. Start today to think of ways to incrementally improve healthcare access in the US, preferably chipping away at the insurance companies' ability to profit whatsoever from their shameful dealings........

IIRC, at some point with this bill, all insurance companies will be required to offer at least one NON-PROFIT plan. When they do so, we all need to buy that kind of plan and no other.

[NYC_SKP]

9. It might help me, I can't read the future.

But it's going to help millions of people and small businesses.

It's a kick in the ass of the status quo.

It's got warts and seething boils, but it's going to make a difference for a lot of people.

The work begins now.

Thanks for the reply.

[Dappleganger]

10. Awesome, K&R! nt

[paulsby]

11. i would get BAD results out of a good health care

bill. it's not about me either.

i have literally a PHENOMENAL health insurance plan covered 100% by my employer

no single payer plan, and no other nation's system would or does offer better benefits than i have now

it's not about me. i don't vote MY best interests. i vote what i think is best for the nation, and consistent with my principles.

i would hope others would do the same

[gorfle]

12. The problem is, it doesn't do anything for MOST PEOPLE.

The problem with this bill is, it doesn't do anything for MOST PEOPLE.

Thus MOST PEOPLE are highly pissed off about it.

You can't win elections when MOST PEOPLE are pissed off at their legislators.

[NYC_SKP]

13. Portability? Insurance coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions (in 2014), a safety net?

And other elements, I'd argue, do indeed apply to most people, or may apply at some time in their lives.

If they don't understand this, then yes, they're gonna be pissed.

[gorfle]

18. They won't.

The things you list affect most people, but not very often.

Some few people will take advantage of these benefits prior to the next election, but not enough people will do so to offset the millions more who see no benefit whatsoever.

Most people are not going to see any tangible benefit to the "reform" for a long time, if ever. Certainly not in time for the backlash that is coming in November.

[Motown_Johnny]

19. good thing these changes are permanent

[gorfle]

21. Until the next bunch comes into office and repeals it.

Nothing is permanent.

[Hekate]

26. Like they've repealed Social Security and Medicare? Hard to do once people actually see it work.

[gorfle]

28. But everyone benefits from Social Security and Medicare.

It's hard for me to see how everyone will benefit from the current Health Care Reform legislation.

[Posteritatis]

35. I'm not sure if those are comparable at all anymore

Remember that they tried to kill the reconciliation package literally a few minutes after the main bill passed last night, that there was another attempt to repeal the entire thing today, and that every state with a Republican attorney-general is trying to fight this to the Supreme Court now, with as good a chance as not of getting the whole thing declared unconstitutional the way the Supreme Court has been lately.

I can't think of any federal legislation in the US in the last, well, ever that had that kind of immediate reaction, even though I can think of a few that bloody well should have. The conservatives of today are very different from the ones who were around when Social Security and Medicare were established; it's a vastly more polarized crowd with an entire lifetime of the Cold War and a further twenty years of increasingly distilled neoconservatism informing their worldview.

Conservatives these days fear nothing more than expansion of health care coverage or access. The Republicans will fight the next congressional election, and the presidential one after that, chiefly or even entirely on the issue of repealing this bill, and unlike the Democrats with the Patriot Act are much more certain to follow through. If they win a majority in one house or another they will continuously push for the repeal of the whole thing.

That's the main reason I'm worried at some of the delays in the bill out to 2014 or later; if one or both houses of Congress or, heaven forbid, the president switches parties by then they'll put more energy into trying to dismantle this than they put into going after Iraq.

[Kind of Blue]

38. 13th Amendment, Civil Rights Acts, Child Labor Laws, 19th Amendment, Voting Rights...

the list of what's been repealed is astounding, isn't it :rofl: That argument is a joke.

[Abq_Sarah]

41. How many people

Can realistically take advantage of the portability? Your new employer isn't going to pay the majority of your premiums under a plan they didn't negotiate.

[Hekate]

27. When you -- like my son -- suddenly get a treatable but essentially permanent illness, perhaps then

... and apparently only then, will you recognize how important it is to have insurance that cannot be taken away. He's 32, employed, with good-enough health insurance -- but in this day and age surely you recognize that employment is one of those things that can disappear faster than you can say "outsourced."

With insurance tied to employment with a company that can afford to insure its employees, and with insurance corporations permitted to exclude those pesky pre-existing conditions, how well do you think a young man with a new seizure disorder will do trying to refill his prescriptions, visit the neurologist, and get good health coverage?

MOST PEOPLE be damned. This is personal with me.

Hekate

[gorfle]

29. You are a sad anecdote.

You are a sad anecdote, but I still feel, from what I know of the bill right now, that it will do little for most people other than increase their costs. Consequently, I think most will be enraged by it, and I think it's going to be a Democratic disaster in November.

[Zhade]

36. Oh, he'll have insurance -- that he can't afford to use.

And let me say now, I'm sorry that he will suffer for it due to the inability of this president to keep his promises.

[Motown_Johnny]

16. what if someone you care about benefits from it? Doesn't that count as you getting something

if only indirectly?

[NYC_SKP]

20. It would, it does, and this is true for anyone who isn't ensconced in a gated community...

...trying to figure out whether to get a Rover or a Land Cruiser as their fifth or sixth set of wheels.

good point.

:toast:

[Cleobulus]

17. All I want is to be able to afford to get surgery so I'm out of pain...

for the first time in almost 5 years, and yes that's selfish, its also too much to ask for out of this bill, and I'm working class. If its not going to help me, who else is it not going to help?

[treestar]

22. I've always been for it because of who it would help

Regardless of personal results.

I think it may possibly help me, though.

[jtrockville]

23. Think of how many MORE people we could help IF

we didn't subsidize insurance industry executive compensation and shareholder profit.

[NYC_SKP]

24. While I'm at it I can think about what we could do with the Defense Budget.

It matters not to the current bill.

Dreaming is good, though.

[jtrockville]

25. Money spent on insurance company profit is relevant

to a discussion on health reform. Sadly, defense spending isn't.

[pundaint]

40. Defense spending is what separates the richest nation in the world from the best standard

of living in the world. Defense spending is relative to all Government spending because is is the burning of half our available funds every year, and establishes a tradition of graft, secrecy, and lack of responsiveness to Public inquiry that has spread to all things government. Scoundrels condone and support it, and starve the remainder of public administration to feed the growing cancer.

[graywarrior]

31. Yes!

You rock!

[eridani]

32. So where in the hell is the ENFORCEMENT? How does it happen

--if the anti-trust exemption remains intact, and DiFi's proposal to create an actual oversight agency got shot down.

[NYC_SKP]

33. It's a great question. As I ponder the passage and what the future may bring...

I think there will be a reshuffling of priorities, especially from the party of no.

Once it sets in that they lost, they should be refocusing efforts on protecting constituents.

Of course they'll still obstruct, but the dynamic may change and some of them might ask for oversight in ways that might help this bill become less flawed.

I know, that might be way to rosy a view, but still it should be interesting to watch.

[eridani]

34. I really want to believe that sometimes

The PTB are all aligned against that, but maybe if we keep hitting the regulation issue, who knows?

[NYC_SKP]

45. Now that they've lost, some Repubs will try to spin this as their own, they did with stimulus $$$

To the extent that they can benefit their constituents and take any credit for help this bill provides, there are ways in which they'll be a little less obstructive.

However, regulation is a matter EASILY overlooked by members of BOTH parties, so, yes, it's up to us to hold all of them accountable for strict regulation.

:donut:

[pundaint]

37. Enforcement is hiding with Reform, we wont see any of that while we can still remember the details

of this scam.

[Kind of Blue]

39. KnR!

:patriot:

[notadmblnd]

42. I wont either, but my son will

he'll have coverage until he's 26.

[ipaint]

44. Whatever veneer people like to put on this bill to make it go down easier

the facts are the industry bought it and reform will be minimal. Whatever costs the industry the least or allows them to shift the costs elsewhere will be lauded as ground breaking reform.

The government "prohibits" industry from doing a lot of things. Doesn't stop them, in most cases they either pay a paltry fine or drag out the court proceedings for decades.
Regulatory agencies are full of industry lobbyists and lawyers many of the ex-politicians. The deck has been permanently stacked against the good of the people for 3+ decades.

The rot at the center of the government can't be ignored, glossed over or gradually undermined. The choice is to do what is right or to do what is in their financial self-interest. The latter has been their choice spanning my entire adult lifetime.

Maybe you can gloss over the screw job with a bunch of industry talking points that leave many more questions than answers but I've seen this before and it may fool some but not me.

The cesspool that destroys reform starts here-

Health Sector Campaign Contributions and Lobbying Totals, 1989-2009*

All Years-

Total Contributions- $944,969,972
To Current Members of Congress- $376,172,916
Total Spent on Lobbying- $3,590,912,402

2009 Only-

Total Contributions- $57,029,709
To Current Members of Congress- $40,515,330
Total Spent on Lobbying- $576,402,070


http://www.opensecrets.org/capital_eye/health.php

Until this system of legalized bribery and extortion is dealt a death blow find some neophyte voter, preferably born post reagan, to sell the promise of future rainbows and sunshine to.

Most of them don't recognize the neo-liberal bootstrap even though it is tightening around their necks. They make good marks for lists of pr talking points accompanied by little to no critical analysis. Questioning authority has been bred out of them.