Real PROGRESSIVE reasons why the senate HCR bill is Hogwash.

[Garam_Masala]

Credit: I have compiled and expanded this list by reading whole bunch of other posters on DU.

No Single Payer....The best method of taking profit out of basic healthcare. According
to governor Dean, 27% of your private insurance premiums will go to to the CEO's and
management types.

No public option....This is the best option to foster competition. Without it the private
for profit insurers have no reason to keep your premiums low and competitive.

No expanded Medicare coverage....would have been a huge help to people with health issues in the
55-65 age bracket. This is the time in your life when many chronic diseases rear their ugly
head. Such as Diabetes, Arithritis, Hypertension, Prostate problems etc.

No drug re-importation....now why force Americans to pay much more than our Canadian
neighbors? I have vacationed in Mexico many times and was able to purchase American
pharmaceuticals much cheaper...makes no sense.

No cost controls....OK so the insurance companies can't cancel or reject you but they can
jack up your premiums? Does not sound like any real protection to me.

No renegotiation of drug prices...sure the Big Pharma needs their Big profits.

Capped annual coverage for care....is this the how the death panel scare gets a start?

Individual mandated coverage....yap, force us into the jaws of insurance companies or we pay
annual fines or if can't pay then go to jail!

Anti-trust exemption for insurance companies....why why why??? Most other businesses do not
have this protection. Why the health industry deserves this special preference?

A tax on middle class insurance plans....in the middle of a recession? Never a smart idea.

Taxes that start in January, but benefits won't start until 2014....This takes the cake and is
the most annoying to me. It is like making monthly payments for a car right away but the delivery
will be 4 years later! I bet not one of you will fall for that deal!

Millions will still be left without health insurance. No man/woman left behind is a bad thing?

[DontTreadOnMe]

1. Anti-trust exemption for insurance companies!!!!

Too big to fail?

[levander]

2. Never got the dirt on the taxes on middle class...

A tax on middle class insurance plans....in the middle of a recession? Never a smart idea.

Okay, I know about the tax on "cadillac health plans". But, here and there, I've heard mentions of not only a tax on cadillac health plans, but there being an additional 2nd excise tax on them. This 2nd excise tax, this is the same tax on middle class inurance plans you're talking about?

How did these taxes work?

[Garam_Masala]

3. Sorry have not had a chance to read the 2000 page bill

but I am going by what I have read in news articles and posts here.

Incidentally not many senators have seen the draft of the entire bill!

[ProSense]

4. "No Single Payer"?

Absurd.

[Armstead]

5. More ad hominum blather?

What do you believe in apart from blindly beating up on progressive critics of this bill?

[Cha]

6. You're one to talk.

[Armstead]

8. When people engage honestlyin debate i am more than willinjg to engage

But when people toss out dismissive one liners, I respond in kind

[ProSense]

10. Honest? You're acting out bitterness. That's all you're doing. n/t

[Armstead]

15. Pot, meet kettle

[Cha]

13. Yeah, you're just holier.

[Armstead]

16. And you aren't?

[Cha]

18. Nope, don't pretend to be.

[GreenArrow]

11. Pity you're not one to listen.

.

[Cha]

12. Listen to what? Propaganda?

[Garam_Masala]

20. Since when facts become propagand?

Or is it your way of responding when you you have
no facts to present?

[ProSense]

9. Single payer is not and never was a part of this proposal/bill. Speaking of blather. n/t

[Garam_Masala]

17. The president is on record of favoring single payer

in speeches since his first election in Illinois. How many speeches by him
have I heard pushing Single Payer in the last 6 months? Not many!
Why not? Does he not have a bully pulpit?

Again, I have never said Single payer was part of this bill. My
frustration evolves from the fact that the leaders in the party
never pushed it during the formulation of current bills.

So my list is just a compilation of what is lacking and what is bad
in the current draft.

[Garam_Masala]

7. I appreciate the recs and wish the unrecers would care to

jot down a one line reply as to where they find disagreement.

[amborin]

14. all those reasons & even more here:

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x58124>

[lapfog_1]

19. Bypass the state insurance regulations.

Insurance companies now have to operate within one state and adhere to the rules and regulations of that state, and many states have a robust insurance regulatory body. Under the current proposed Senate bill, insurance companies will be able to locate wherever they like and compete in other states USING THE RULES of the state where they have located. This allows them to completely bypass any state oversight of the business practices, disputes with customers, rates, etc.

It's a huge deal.

Insurance companies will locate to states that have corporation friendly regulations and courts... thus removing any chance of state insurance commissioners or other regulators from even examining what the company is doing in their state.

[depakid]

21. No end to ERISA premption

most group insurers can deny coverage/benefits in bad faith and will still be insulated form liability for the harms they cause.

In many cases- the harm is wrongful death- but the insured has no recourse (other than to pay an attorney out of pocket to recover the cost of the treatment denied- which is effectively no remedy at all).