Submitted by Andy from Washington DC in response to “What Are Your Issues”.
This historic Health Care Reform Bill will be a great benefit to people that have had a SCI. Here are just a few of some of the improvements I see:
+Will improve job prospects, because people with SCI will be able to get employer health insurance, without worry about a preexisting heath
conditions.
+Will help with better care, and lower cost to the states, if the people are injured with insurance, then without.
+It will improve Medicaid payments to providers, bringing it up to the standards of Medicare.
+It will provide more resources for care in the home, so people can stay in their home, if they choose.
There are other benefits that will be posted in the near future, but this is not finished, because the Senate is still trying to reconcile the two bills, so it is important for you to contact your Senators to complete this reform. Even now people are trying to kill this in the courts, prevent it in some states, and will be trying to appeal it after the midterm elections. This is way we need to get the word out why this is good for our members and good for everyone.
Good post, Andy. I couldn’t agree with you more. And I’m sure that over time, some of the detractors will come to see that healthcare reform was the right thing to do — morally and economically — that healthy citizens are also productive, tax-paying citizens.
Health Care Reform is NOT a great benefit!
Yes, there are a few provisions that are helpful but we would have gotten those without all the other provisions that will ultimately cause our healhcare to be rationed. Bigger government never provides us with a better solution in the long run. It may sound good, but we all know that it only gets in the way of real creativity, competition and long-term success. I won’t get any benefit as a SCI patient from this bill. Rather, I will get taxed more (believe me we all will whether they say you will now or not) and receive less care and needed supplies. Let’s do some real improvements by working on tort reform, increased competition and incentives for greater efficiency to drive down costs. That will allow everyone to affort adequate insurance. Without these, costs will only continue to increase…thus taxes as well and less services due to high costs. Let’s repeal this bill!
From my perspective, it’s a benefit, but one that may go away. In the quarter century since my SCI, the big pressure has been reaching my lifetime cap. I did once, but thankfully was able to get another policy, with another lifetime cap.
As a vent dependent quad living in Iowa, no private insurance means being put in a nursing home in order to receive care. You can tell me there are options, but try them on friends of mine who are already forced to live in them, one that has nearly died on several occasions due to poor care. Not having a looming lifetime cap is a large relief, and one that opens up new possibilities.
However, this insurance is through my father’s employer. His employer is a medium size business that I’m the largest drain for insurance, which costs the company quite a bit. The penalty assessed to a company without insurance is less than what they pay per employee per month.
So, while excited of boundaries that have been lifted, the reality of it disappearing is still a burden. This reform isn’t liked by many, but it does have benefits that can’t necessarily be measured in dollars.
I think we are off to a start. Just think about it. How many years have we been trying to get basic healthcare legislation passed. For a hundred years. We must realize that Washington is in a completly different time zone, the twilight zone. Just keep your eyes open as when one thing is given in one hand, the other hand can be up to no good. It’s a start.
@ Mark - why don’t you think this bill will benefit you?
Health care reform has added two important new ways to help people stay in their own homes rather than have to impoverish themselves and move to a nursing home or other institution:
Community Living Assistance Services and Supports – CLASS. This was Senator Kennedy’s bill. It creates a voluntary payroll deduction insurance plan that, once paid into for 5 years or more, will give people with disabilities a cash payment every month to spend on services and supports of their own choice to help them with activities of daily living. The benefit is not intended to be enough to pay for a nursing home. Rather it is meant to pay for services that will keep people out of a nursing home.
The Community First Choice Option – a state Medicaid option by which states can choose to make services and supports in the home and community the first choice for people with disabilities – rather than having to use existing, more limited Medicaid waiver programs to avoid nursing homes or similar institutions.
What matters me most about the President’s plan is this element about pre-existing conditions… Is there any vocabulary in this bill about wether or not there is a limitation on what insurance companies can impose if you have a pre-existing ailment?