"No one will ever again go broke just because they got sick..."

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

"No one will ever again go broke just because they got sick..."

---Chris Dodd talking about the senate HCR bill.


This is not a comment against Chris Dodd or the bill or the concept expressed.

Just noting that, as with so many things, a social safety-net needs a fine weave.

I assume the average American would go bankrupt in short order if she couldn't work for six months due to illness even if all healthcare were free.

I applaud the sentiment but it should be "No member of the middle/professional class will ever again go broke just because they got sick..." since that's the class that might have enough saving/credit to make it through a period of disability, but not to pay a $300,000 hospital bill.

People who are two paychecks away from living in their car go broke before the first medical bill arrives.

I am NOT suggesting that it is politically feasible to institute AFLAC-type supplemental temporary-disability insurance for every American but I would certainly have that in my ideal-bill.

It's like dental... healthcare without dental makes about as much sense as healthcare without mental health. People end up sick or dead from easily treatable/preventable dental infections but hey... teeth aren't part of the body.

[AndyA]

1. No, they will go broke trying to pay the premiums that will be mandatory.

:wtf: are they thinking?

They are just doing the dirty work for their corporate masters.

They're working so hard for us...see? Oh, and please send money so those bad Republicans don't take our seats. :eyes:

America to Congress and Obama: Thanks for nothing, crooks.

[Duke Newcombe]

7. Beat me to it.

Or...they'll not have to go broke, because they can't afford the premiums in the first place, and will just get sick and die quickly.

[FormerDittoHead]

14. ...and deductables and co-pays and for things that will not be covered like DRUGS.

yes. Great job controlling the price of drugs those guys did...

[Laelth]

2. Demonstrable lie. I think I am going to be sick. n/t

:puke:

:dem:

-Laelth

[amborin]

11. total lie! there are caps, for starters! plus, disguised "pre-existings" n/t

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

3. Simple question - have they had a vote? Did they actually move and get the cloture vote?

If they haven't this could be very premature. I hope they get cloture and I hope the bill is greatly improved in conference. They sound like they have gotten cloture, conferenced and passed the bill already.

My next question is, when it comes out of conference, do we have to go through the debate and cloture hoo-ra yet one more time, or will it just be a simple up or down vote?

[napi21]

4. Vote is to be Monday from what I hear. n/t

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

8. It cannot be improved in conference, as a practical matter

The conference bill faces the same 60 vote filibuster deal so Lieberman and Nelson ensure that there can be no liberalizing in conference without killing the final product.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

9. Then I want toknow what happens to the uninsured with prior conditions

The national High Risk Pool in the House Bill is the only mechanism I have seen so far for taking care of them. The Senate Bill still allows discrimination for prior conditions until 2014 (the BASTARDS!)

[sandnsea]

5. $5,000 in debt is broke to me, but still

At least I'll get to see a doctor and get health care if I'm sick. I quit giving a shit about medical debt a very long time ago and recommend it to anybody in the bottom 50%.

[Honeycombe8]

6. Yeah, right. And there really IS a Santa Claus. nt

[kenny blankenship]

10. They'll go broke before they get sick. HUGE improvement.

[highplainsdem]

12. What a lie. I felt sick just watching that press conference.

We need single payer.

We need the sort of genuine universal healthcare for our citizens that other countries manage to provide for theirs.

We needed Obama to remember his campaign promises, when he was against a mandate and for a public option.

Instead, we're getting an insurance-industry bailout wrapped in hyperbole and lies by the president and Democratic senators.

[budkin]

13. Who the fuck is going to pay for their premiums Chris??? And how about the limits?

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

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[Cass]

18. So many of them are...they just don't get it.

Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Garam_Masala]

16. Right, they will go broke when healthy!! eom

[Joe Bacon]

17. You WILL see a repeat of the Catastrophic repeal!

When people see their tax bills, when they see the premium increases, when their employers drop their group health plans, when the IRS starts collecting the fines, you will see a repeat of the repeal of the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage circus.

Just wait till you see Joe LIEberman running down the street, chased by an angry mob, the same way Rostenkowski was chased in 1991.

The Republicans will milk this for every penny they can and they will get back in and repeal this bucket of shit.