The Bloggers With The Most To Say
Health Care Reform: Good or Bad?
I know not everyone on here is an American citizen but the new health care bill just passed and I want to know what everyone thinks.
Here is a link from CNN that highlights the major points of the bill.
In my opinion I think it's ridiculous that I'm going to be required to pay for health insurance when I know I cannot afford it. Even though the government technically says that I am above the poverty rate I just can't afford to pay for health care when it wont cover anything. It is going to cost $940 billion to cover this bill. Another issue is the fact that it's going to make it harder for general practitioner doctors and consequently drive more people away from wanting to become a general practitioner. Who cares if we have health care if we have no doctors to treat us?
I'd like to add that I think the IDEA of health care reform is great. Yes, we need it but I think it should focus more on the insurance companies and how they scam people. We need reform that isn't going to drive us broke.
There are definitely good points to the bill but as a whole I'm not sure how I feel about it. It honestly makes me extremely nervous.
The other thing is what about all of those people that already have accumulated thousands of dollars in debt due to medical bills? Where is the help to clear that debt? I don't even know how I'm going to start paying the measly $4,000 I owe but what about people who owe significantly more than that? I know some people that owe $20,000+ and have no way to buy a house, car, or anything for that matter. This nonsense about how medical bills don't affect you getting a loan is total BULL SHIT because I just tried to get a car loan and guess what? I CAN'T because my medical bills. I have no other types of bills in collections, only medical.
Here is a link from CNN that highlights the major points of the bill.
In my opinion I think it's ridiculous that I'm going to be required to pay for health insurance when I know I cannot afford it. Even though the government technically says that I am above the poverty rate I just can't afford to pay for health care when it wont cover anything. It is going to cost $940 billion to cover this bill. Another issue is the fact that it's going to make it harder for general practitioner doctors and consequently drive more people away from wanting to become a general practitioner. Who cares if we have health care if we have no doctors to treat us?
I'd like to add that I think the IDEA of health care reform is great. Yes, we need it but I think it should focus more on the insurance companies and how they scam people. We need reform that isn't going to drive us broke.
There are definitely good points to the bill but as a whole I'm not sure how I feel about it. It honestly makes me extremely nervous.
The other thing is what about all of those people that already have accumulated thousands of dollars in debt due to medical bills? Where is the help to clear that debt? I don't even know how I'm going to start paying the measly $4,000 I owe but what about people who owe significantly more than that? I know some people that owe $20,000+ and have no way to buy a house, car, or anything for that matter. This nonsense about how medical bills don't affect you getting a loan is total BULL SHIT because I just tried to get a car loan and guess what? I CAN'T because my medical bills. I have no other types of bills in collections, only medical.
Tags: debate, healthcare, obama, politics
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Allison on -
I'm not here to fight with anyone on the internet, but as a Canadian who has enjoyed healthcare for her ENTIRE life I have to say congrats to your country.
I don't know how it will play out, but I really and truly hope it works out for you. From my prospective (from the Great White North) it seemed you guys had a system that just wasn't working.
So even though you are not happy with it - I am happy for your country.
-
Permalink Reply by Alex Weisman on -
So you are saying that because doctors stand to make less money due to reforms that it is a bad thing? While this bill does not actually fix the problem, at least it attempts to address it. We, as Americans, have dug ourselves into this hole. Healthcare is expensive because of the insurance companies. Doctors and hospitals make lots of money because they know that the people are not paying for it, the insurance companies are.
It will ultimately cost you more to go without insurance if you ever need serious medical treatment that it would to buy government subsidized insurance. Of all the things that my tax dollars could be used for, keeping people healthy seems to be on of the better choices. Certainly better than fighting pointless overseas wars simply on the basis that the USA has a bigger penis.
The real question is this: "Why are we so resistant to actually changing to a universal health care model?" I mean seriously, it seems to work very well in the countries that do. Would it really be so bad to kill off some of the insurance companies and HMOs who are guilty of creating the issues that plague the system now?
Reforms like this are based on the same principles as the health care benefits offered by many of this nation's [labor] unions. Many unions offer a health care pool, every member of the union pays in X% each month and is therefore covered. Every member pays the same percentage no matter how many jobs they are working or how much money they make. On the flip side though, a member of the union cannot forego the union coverage in favor of private insurance even if the private insurance is better coverage and cheaper because of the obligation to the other members of the union and the communal pool. So, the union would let you get private insurance as long as you still paid your insurance percentage to the union pool. As I understand it, this is pretty similar to how most universal health systems work, you can elect to get private coverage to make up the deficit in what the government covers, but you are still required to pay into the communal pool.
I happen to have been lucky in that I got a job that has great benefits, but I see many of my friends who are worried about getting even the slightest bit sick because they can't afford to see a doctor let alone buy a prescription drug if they needed to. How is this OK?
If you don't currently carry insurance, what value do you place on your health? Without insurance I would imagine you probably don't regularly visit the doctor or go to the dentist. So, is your health only worth something to you when you are ill or injured? We spend a lot of money on preventative maintenance of many things in our lives, why not your health?
So, is this bill the best solution? Probably not. However it still fixes a lot of major issues that we have. LIke poor college students who can't afford insurance and currently can't be covered on their parent's plan after they are 23. With this bill they will get another 3 years. That is great, and you don't even have to be a poor college student, any non-dependent child up to the age of 26 would be eligible for coverage. As twenty-somethings I think this should be a major selling point to all of us!
(this may provide the impetus for a blog post, especially since I have already written most of it...)
-
Permalink Reply by Andy Jones on -
Sorry that my response is so short, but I can only really say: I agree completely.
I am from England, and pretty much everyone here I speak to about it can't comprehend why a big part of America is so against public healthcare.
-
Permalink Reply by Shinxy on -
I'm from Australia and I agree completely too.
Everyone I've spoken about it to here thinks it's ridiculous to not want it.
-
Permalink Reply by Johana Hill on -
I was living in London for a number of years and the healthcare is amazing. I registered with my local GP and after that, anytime I go to the hospital I just give out my doctor's name and that's it. I get taken care of.
-
Permalink Reply by Johana Hill on
-
And of course I was paying tax.
-
Permalink Reply by Heather on -
You make great points! I have to agree with you on most of them. I had health insurance and I paid almost $200 for it a month and my deductible was $2,500 with copays of $50 each time I wanted to go to the doctor. I ended up going to the hospital ($1,250 in bills) and my insurance covered nothing, as well as a follow up to get my stitches out which I had to do twice and pay $50 each time. I obviously canceled my insurance after wards. My company is extremely small so it does not offer benefits and I make $10.50 an hour in the Washington DC area where the average household income is $100,000+ so there is absolutely no way that I can afford to live with the costs of ANY health care.
I know that we do need health care reform but I in no way think that this plan is the right answer. Yes it is better than nothing but inevitably it is going to suck us dry until they can come up with something better.
Also this plan is completely different from what they have in Canada and Europe so it's really hard to compare.
-
Permalink Reply by Tiffani D. on -
Not here to start any debates, but I have lived in the UK, and here in the US and, I feel a lot better knowing the U.S. is now on board with most of the industrialized nations.
I am the exact type of person who needs this health care reform: Part-time worker, full-time student who cannot get health insurance, one because I can't afford it, and two I can't get it because I'm a part-time worker. What happens if I get into a car accident (already happened last Sept.)...and I can't pay those huge medical bills (that's what's happening now)? Or I get really sick, and feel like I can't go into a hospital because I really couldn't afford to pay $900 for some nurse to look at me for 5 minutes, and send me on my way?
I totally feel you on this $940 Billion dollar tab, that hurts, but as I understood it (I could be wrong, i frequently am) its going to be taken care of w/ what the country is NOT spending in the existing health care system in 10 years.
Its going to cost a little bit of money for the healthcare, but I can guarantee you, it won't be nearly as much as what Kaiser Permanente wants to charge me if I were a full-time employee at my job.
-
Permalink Reply by cooper on -
I blogged a little on my opinion last night. It's an insurance companies wet dream.
We needed health-care reform — no question. The cost of insurance, pharmaceuticals, and the medical care itself, is unsustainable on into the future. I see some medical professionals as just as culpable. I have seen a $345 dollar bill for a twenty minute visit for 6 sutures for someone with insurance, where the charge for the same service without insurance would be $790 person. This happens a lot and is a coercive practice already used by insurance companies. Most clinics, doctors and so on are aware if these kind of coercive practices but never call out the system which allows this kind of thing.
In the case of the bill that just passed the joke is on the people, for not fighting for real change, and demanding it. We did not get or demand a national health care and public option, but the insurance companies still got their mandate. Strange how that worked out, right into the hands of the corporations again.
I can only hope this 2700 page monster, full of bribes and concessions, get shortened and made better over time. That we needed something done is not in doubt though, the sad part is because of the way our legislative system tends to work if it did not get done this time it was not like they could have said "let's take a few months and redo it"... it would not have gotten done at all for this presidency - maybe longer. Some people couldn't wait that long.
It is really the way our legislative and political system works , both procedurally and philosophically, that needs to change.
© 2012 Created by Lisa.
