As the Democrats are pushing closer to final votes on health reform, the Republicans have been trying to persuade Americans that health reform is a bad deal. Let us know why you are either for or against health reform.
- Will health reform help people with disabilities and chronic conditions?
- Republicans and Democrats differ greatly on the issue of health reform. What do you think?
- Republicans and Democrats differ greatly on the issue. What do you think?
If you listen to the proclamations of the Republican party, health reform will increase costs, increase the deficit, and hurt Americans. A freshman Republican Congressman even went as far as to say health reform would be as bad as September 11 was for our Country.
Many of the ideas in the health reform legislation, however, are those that Republicans have supported in the past.. Is the “doomsday” scenario real?
On the other hand, if you listen to the Democrats, health reform will greatly improve access to health insurance, lower insurance rates over the long run, provide better care, and reduce the deficit.
Perhaps there is a widespread misunderstanding of what health reform is? That is certainly possible from looking at poll numbers from the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation. According to an article in the March 2010 AARP Bulletin, a recent poll found that more people were likely to support health reform after becoming aware that it will:
- Give tax credits to small businesses to cover employees
- Create health insurance exchanges for people to purchase individual health insurance
- Leave people’s existing health coverage alone
- Prohibit discrimination based on people’s preexisting medical conditions
- Help lower income people have access to health insurance
- Allow children to stay on their parent’s health insurance policy until age 26
- Help close the Medicare Part D prescription coverage “donut hole” that makes prescription drugs prohibitively expensive for many older Americans once they reach the donut hole threshold.
Some think the health reform proposal is a government takeover of health care. But we strongly disagree. People will still buy their insurance from insurance companies; the government is not taking over the insurance companies.
We are fighting for health care reform because it will make a huge difference for people with disabilities and chronic conditions. It will:
- Prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage, providing coverage that does not cover a preexisting condition or charging unaffordable rates for coverage for people with preexisting conditions.
- Prohibit insurance companies from imposing lifetime caps on insurance benefits. People with spinal cord injuries and disorders and other catastrophic injuries often blow through lifetime caps quickly, and then can find no other insurer who will cover them. Many are then forced into poverty and/or bankruptcy.
- Provide an insurance exchange where individuals and small businesses can purchase health insurance coverage. This will make it much easier to find insurance if you change jobs or move to a new state. And it will be a boon to small business owners who will now have a way to insure themselves, their employees, and their families.
We would like to hear your thoughts on health reform––the good, the bad, and the ugly….
We need healthcare reform, because our current system is broken. It doesn’t serve patients. It doesn’t serve providers. It doesn’t serve anyone, except for those seeking to game the system.
We pay far more for healthcare than any other country. Yet, too many people — including millions of children and millions of others with pre-exising needs — have little, if any, real access to care.
This is wrong. And this is unacceptable.
Greater access to healthcare is not only the right (moral) thing to do; it is also the smart (economic) thing to do, so let’s hope that our representatives in Washington do the right thing….
The worst thing Congress can do about health care reform is nothing. Health insurers are raising premiums astronomically — up to 39% per year by at least one insurer, and 25-38% per year by many others. With these rate increases, even employers who want to do their best for their employees will simply be priced out of the ability to provide health insurance. Under health insurance reform, individuals and small businesses will be able to buy insurance through an insurance exchange — where no one can be denied, or charged a higher premium, due to a disability or other chronic condition.
In regards to Peggy’s comments regarding rate increases: If I understand reform correctly it does not aim to end rate increases. The intention is to control it by way of a mixed committee that will decide if a rate increase is warranted and how much that increase should be. A number of states now have similar systems but hardly ever deny an increase. My home state of Connecticut (which is such a state) recently knocked an increase down from 17% to 11%. This being said, rates will likely continue to increase, just at a slower pace. How will the lesser hikes of even ten percent or so affect those who are self-funding insurance? I guess that’s unknown but in all likeliness some people will be forced to drop out of the game.
Couldn’t help tossing my two cents into this one. It’s a difficult topic to discuss in broad terms since interests vary greatly between groups. Those who purchase their own insurance might rate cost and exclusion for pre-existing conditions very high on their list of evils. Yet, another group who is employer insured and often less impacted by cost and exclusions may not think in terms of these evils but more in terms of quality of care/choice of care providers/scope and extent of services provided. Then there is the uninsured…
Both individuals and small businesses will much more likely be able to obtain insurance through the insurance exchange to be established by health care reform legislation.
Who read all thousand pages that will be voted on
the s— could hit the fan
“As the Democrats are pushing closer to final votes on health reform, the Republicans have been trying to persuade Americans that health reform is a bad deal.”
Wrong!! That is liberal talking point bulls**t!! Republicans are not trying to persuade Americans that health reform is a bad deal, rather they are trying to persuade Americans that Obama’s and the Democrat’s plan to reform health care is a bad deal. BIG difference!! Democrats are pushing their own agenda and doing precious little to include Republican ideas into this gargantuan bill that will take us one giant leap towards socialized medicine. With the abysmal failure of Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, you would think Americans would dig their heels in on this one, but I think they are too busy watching American Idol to really pay attention to what is happening.
Can we give some credit to the intelligence of the American people please? Are people opposed to Health Care reform simply because they have been ‘persuaded’ by the Republicans?? This health care bill - just passed - allows the government to control 1/6th of our economy, an economy that is fragile to say the least. At the current time, government runs Social Security (bankrupt), Medicare (bankrupt), Medicaid (bankrupting states), GM and Chrysler (bankrupt, the Student Loan program (now HHH will act as a bank also!) and is trying to control the entire financial industry, the environment and immigration is next on the agenda. I am against this health care bill because I do not want bureaucrats telling me what medicine I can take, what therapy I can have and how much and which doctor I can see. This bill establishes 105-118 government agencies, will hire 100,000 people who mostly will know nothing about health care and who will become members of the SEIU union (which is certainly an economic problem) and spends trillions of our tax dollars over time. The actual health part of the bill could have been done separately, quickly and with the best interest of the American people in mind…..not as part of a government takeover of this entire industry.
Health care is long overdue for reform. How many industrialized countries are left where its citizens go bankrupt or die because they can not afford it or get denied health care due to preexisting conditions? The Republicans are the only party trying to hold the cards by saying that the majority of Americans do not want help care reform. This is probbly true simply because the majority of Americans are covered. The nation must be concerned also about the 42 million Americans that are not covered. Medicare & Medicaid are in dissrepair financially due to the high cost of services billed by the insurance companies, high cost of medicines, & high fraud & waste. The Social Security shrinkage is due to money being transferred to pay for 2 wars & high unemployment due to outsources, globalization, & pure greed by companies who move jobs elsewhere for higher profits employing fewer Americans. Someone has to pay taxes for this government to work. No one wants to pay taxes for the entiltlements of Social Security & Medicare, but most jobs created today are service jobs or manufacturing jobs that do not offer affordable health insurance or decent retirement benefits.Most people who have personal insurance or employee insurance are under some kind of managed care, their insurance has restrictions on medicines they will pay for & have to use service providers under that plan. The people who are receiving Medicare, Medicaid, or HMOs are all ready being managed to prevent fraud & waste. If you are fortunate to be able to get a student loan you should be made to pay it back. Millions of students have depended on students loans to pay for college exspenses; however,if you take the loans away only the wealthy will be able to receive a college education.
@ Matt - just and FYI - the Senate bill incorporated over 100 Republican ideas and amendments….. We do like our American Idol in the US - but health reform is much more important.
Personally, I hope that the availability of affordable healthcare without pre-existing condition exclusions will lead to greater employment opportunities for people with disabilities. This may actually help move some more of the 54 million Americans with disabilities toward employment, greater economic opportunities, away from federal and state programs and into the tax base.
The inability to, or fear of losing, access to healthcare has long been recognized as a significant barrier to employment for PWD. Maybe this will be what’s need to help get some PWD back into the workforce.
I dare to dream…
Jane,
You say don’t want bureaucrats “telling me what medicine I can take, what therapy I can have and how much and which doctor I can see.” I take it you don’t receive your care from an HMO. Do you have a problem with just those bureaucrats hired by the government? Is there something qualitatively better about privately hired bureaucrats telling people what doctor to see and what medicine to take?
What in the bill makes this a government takeover? Why are private insurance companies’ stocks reacting positively to this bill? Isn’t it because the market knows private companies are going to do very well when a large portion of the currently unemployed buy into the system?
I am very interested in your replies to these questions.
Our major issue in this country is our two political parties. Our forefathers knew that a two party system would be our downfall and took steps to try to stop this type of politics, and thus anyone who seriously thinks that politics isn’t corrupt or slaves to Corporate America hasn’t not been paying attention. George Jr. will go down in History as one of the worst administrations in history and I could go on for hours showing why, but my point is that the Obama administration has offered nothing different (besides health reform, granted) and has in fact continued nearly every single Bush program. Obama has almost the same political donors and thus has the same pressures as Bush did. Health reform will turn out to be the most expensive and destructive waste of tax payer money ever. I just wish I could offer a better alternative for other frustrated people, but I can’t and those that think that the tea partiers are the future, remember that Sarah Palin is an important figure to them.