Healthcare reform

[kapkomet]

Yup. About my life. And a whole lot of others'.

And you're stealing 288,000,000 other's money and health care, and a whole lot of others not even born yet. Cool!

 

Ok, I'll stop now.

 

I really am just messing with you.

 

I'm getting my "health care" tomorrow and honestly not feeling really good about it, so I'm snarkier then usual.

[Rex Kickass]

^^^ Fearmongering.

 

I lost my health insurance in 2004 when I decided it was more important for me to move to a state where I didn't have to live in fear of losing my job.

I found a job that enabled me to regain some form of affordable health insurance in 2005. I lost that four months later when I left my job about three weeks before I was going to be laid off.

I wasn't able to find affordable healthcare at my new job, and picked up my own insurance in 2007 when after a year of looking I was able to find a decent plan that cost less than 200 dollars a month out of pocket. (And when you buy your own plan, its post-tax and not deductible.) Then I moved to a different state. And lost coverage because that kind of plan isn't allowed to exist in New York State. Replacement plans in my new state cost double.

This year, I got coverage again because I got a new job. I lost it, with my job in July.

In September, I'll be covered again.

 

I have had to argue with insurance companies for months that a pulled groin was not a 6 month old preexisting condition.

I had to worry about being dropped from my health insurance company because of the nature of a diagnostic blood test I had to have in 2007.

In college, an ER visit was not paid by my insurance company until after the bill was sent to collections, damaging my credit report.

 

I have more bad stories about health insurance than I have good. And I've had no major health problems in my life. I won't pretend that a government option will solve all my issues with health insurance coverage. It won't. I won't pretend that I would even necessarily take that government option for health insurance coverage. Depending on what's covered, I probably won't. But what it will do is force private insurers to offer comparable or better health care options for less. Why? Because the biggest competitor in all of this will be a government plan whose primary mission is to provide health care services, not make a profit.

 

Will this narrow profit margins in the insurance industry? Probably. Will that be a bad thing for the industry? Probably not, smart worthwhile companies will find a way to survive and thrive. And it will happen in an environment that might actually favor the health care consumer for the first time in generations.

[EvilMonkey]

I lost my health insurance in 2004 when I decided it was more important for me to move to a state where I didn't have to live in fear of losing my job.

I found a job that enabled me to regain some form of affordable health insurance in 2005. I lost that four months later when I left my job about three weeks before I was going to be laid off.

I wasn't able to find affordable healthcare at my new job, and picked up my own insurance in 2007 when after a year of looking I was able to find a decent plan that cost less than 200 dollars a month out of pocket. (And when you buy your own plan, its post-tax and not deductible.) Then I moved to a different state. And lost coverage because that kind of plan isn't allowed to exist in New York State. Replacement plans in my new state cost double.

This year, I got coverage again because I got a new job. I lost it, with my job in July.

In September, I'll be covered again.

 

I have had to argue with insurance companies for months that a pulled groin was not a 6 month old preexisting condition.

I had to worry about being dropped from my health insurance company because of the nature of a diagnostic blood test I had to have in 2007.

In college, an ER visit was not paid by my insurance company until after the bill was sent to collections, damaging my credit report.

 

I have more bad stories about health insurance than I have good. And I've had no major health problems in my life. I won't pretend that a government option will solve all my issues with health insurance coverage. It won't. I won't pretend that I would even necessarily take that government option for health insurance coverage. Depending on what's covered, I probably won't. But what it will do is force private insurers to offer comparable or better health care options for less. Why? Because the biggest competitor in all of this will be a government plan whose primary mission is to provide health care services, not make a profit.

 

Will this narrow profit margins in the insurance industry? Probably. Will that be a bad thing for the industry? Probably not, smart worthwhile companies will find a way to survive and thrive. And it will happen in an environment that might actually favor the health care consumer for the first time in generations.

Looks like at one point you had a good policy, but because of the maze of insurance laws that hurt their competitiveness, when you got to NY, you couldn't keep that one. Maybe fixing a few laws about insurance portabilioty and ability to compete across state lines would have saved you alot of grief.

[Rex Kickass]

Looks like at one point you had a good policy, but because of the maze of insurance laws that hurt their competitiveness, when you got to NY, you couldn't keep that one. Maybe fixing a few laws about insurance portabilioty and ability to compete across state lines would have saved you alot of grief.

 

Actually, the one that I lost by moving to NY was the one I had to fight for months about whether or not pulling a muscle in my groin in May was a preexisting condition from December. So I wouldn't call it a good policy. I'd call it a policy that I could afford.

[DukeNukeEm]

Good speech Barry.

[Balta1701]

Michael Pollan had a fascinating op-ed piece in the NYT today on how actually achieving insurance reform and eliminating the concept of pre-existing conditions could produce huge savings...by creating a gigantic lobby in favor of healthy eating. For more details read the whole thing.

As for the insurers, you would think preventing chronic diseases would be good business, but, at least under the current rules, it’s much better business simply to keep patients at risk for chronic disease out of your pool of customers, whether through lifetime caps on coverage or rules against pre-existing conditions or by figuring out ways to toss patients overboard when they become ill.

 

But these rules may well be about to change — and, when it comes to reforming the American diet and food system, that step alone could be a game changer. Even under the weaker versions of health care reform now on offer, health insurers would be required to take everyone at the same rates, provide a standard level of coverage and keep people on their rolls regardless of their health. Terms like “pre-existing conditions” and “underwriting” would vanish from the health insurance rulebook — and, when they do, the relationship between the health insurance industry and the food industry will undergo a sea change.

 

The moment these new rules take effect, health insurance companies will promptly discover they have a powerful interest in reducing rates of obesity and chronic diseases linked to diet. A patient with Type 2 diabetes incurs additional health care costs of more than $6,600 a year; over a lifetime, that can come to more than $400,000. Insurers will quickly figure out that every case of Type 2 diabetes they can prevent adds $400,000 to their bottom line. Suddenly, every can of soda or Happy Meal or chicken nugget on a school lunch menu will look like a threat to future profits.

 

When health insurers can no longer evade much of the cost of treating the collateral damage of the American diet, the movement to reform the food system — everything from farm policy to food marketing and school lunches — will acquire a powerful and wealthy ally, something it hasn’t really ever had before.

[kapkomet]

Oh boy. The eating diaries, by Barry ObamaCare.

 

[Balta1701]

Oh boy. The eating diaries, by Barry ObamaCare.

Let me ask you this in reply...insurance companies have been going out giving people credits for things like staying in shape, or giving employers credits for things like maintaining a gym membership. Do you object to that? Because this would be exactly the same thing, except the insurance company giving credit for you eating your vegetables.

[kapkomet]

Let me ask you this in reply...insurance companies have been going out giving people credits for things like staying in shape, or giving employers credits for things like maintaining a gym membership. Do you object to that? Because this would be exactly the same thing, except the insurance company giving credit for you eating your vegetables.

I do when it's the government telling me what to do - here's why. They may give me credit for eating veggies, but they will deny me care if I eat a Snickers Bar. And that ain't right. I still don't understand why that line (the GOVERNMENT telling me, an individual) doesn't matter to you.

 

[southsider2k5]

I do when it's the government telling me what to do - here's why. They may give me credit for eating veggies, but they will deny me care if I eat a Snickers Bar. And that ain't right. I still don't understand why that line (the GOVERNMENT telling me, an individual) doesn't matter to you.

 

Especially because at least today you have the right to leave a private insuranace company. The bills already include provisions forcing you to have insurance, which means you have to be subject to any rule or regulation that the government saids you do. That is a an epic change in self-determination.

[Balta1701]

Especially because at least today you have the right to leave a private insuranace company. The bills already include provisions forcing you to have insurance, which means you have to be subject to any rule or regulation that the government saids you do. That is a an epic change in self-determination.

You have the right to leave the insurance company? Seriously? The only way I could leave my current insurance is to quit my job. Yeah, that's self-determination.

[HuskyCaucasian]

TPM-

To get people like Rep. Wilson off their backs, Sens. Baucus and Conrad have decided to toughen up the illegal alien provisions in the senate bill to address Rep. Wilson's concerns.

[Y2HH]

You have the right to leave the insurance company? Seriously? The only way I could leave my current insurance is to quit my job. Yeah, that's self-determination.

 

You can opt out of paying for company provided insurance...they can't force it upon you. I work for Blue Cross and even I can opt out.

[NorthSideSox72]

You can opt out of paying for company provided insurance...they can't force it upon you. I work for Blue Cross and even I can opt out.

But herein lies one of the major problems with the current setup. If you are lucky enough to have an employer that even provides it, you generally have only one choice for a plan. You can indeed opt out, but then you have to pay many times over as much for someone else, partially because of losing the company pay-in, but also because the insurance companies charge higher rates for non-group policies. This is why I've said that ultimately, the best situation is to have health insurance not be tied to employers.

 

[Y2HH]

But herein lies one of the major problems with the current setup. If you are lucky enough to have an employer that even provides it, you generally have only one choice for a plan. You can indeed opt out, but then you have to pay many times over as much for someone else, partially because of losing the company pay-in, but also because the insurance companies charge higher rates for non-group policies. This is why I've said that ultimately, the best situation is to have health insurance not be tied to employers.

 

I can't speak for anyone else, but the last 4 jobs I had, all provided multiple choices in health insurance, from HMO, to PPO...and aside from my consulting days when I was out on my own, I've never once worked for a company that didn't provide it. :/

[Y2HH]

I can't speak for anyone else, but the last 4 jobs I had, all provided multiple choices in health insurance, from HMO, to PPO...and aside from my consulting days when I was out on my own, I've never once worked for a company that didn't provide it. :/

 

To reply to my own thread -- this is also probably why I don't have ill will toward insurance...I've never had a problem with it, and every job I've had provided it...so it's kind of an out of sight out of mind thing to me.

[Balta1701]

I can't speak for anyone else, but the last 4 jobs I had, all provided multiple choices in health insurance, from HMO, to PPO...and aside from my consulting days when I was out on my own, I've never once worked for a company that didn't provide it. :/

Certainly isn't the case for me or my family. And I can't speak to your timetable, but things have gotten much, much worse over the past 10 years or so. I'm a youngin' and I've clearly noticed that.

[NorthSideSox72]

To reply to my own thread -- this is also probably why I don't have ill will toward insurance...I've never had a problem with it, and every job I've had provided it...so it's kind of an out of sight out of mind thing to me.

Most don't, and even if they offer a couple or three plans, they are with the same provider. That isn't really choice or competition of any kind.

 

 

[Y2HH]

Most don't, and even if they offer a couple or three plans, they are with the same provider. That isn't really choice or competition of any kind.

 

While that's fine for you and others, I'm perfectly happy with what I have and what I've had in the past. And therein lies the rub...in order to make you happy, we have to take away what I currently have/like having and that, in turn, makes me the sad one.

 

I offer no solution...because to me, there is no problem. It's a pretty complicated issue, so I won't pretend to have the answers...all I know is I like what I have, and because you don't like what you have, I'm going to lose what I have...so you suck.

[StrangeSox]

No, you won't.

[NorthSideSox72]

While that's fine for you and others, I'm perfectly happy with what I have and what I've had in the past. And therein lies the rub...in order to make you happy, we have to take away what I currently have/like having and that, in turn, makes me the sad one.

 

I offer no solution...because to me, there is no problem. It's a pretty complicated issue, so I won't pretend to have the answers...all I know is I like what I have, and because you don't like what you have, I'm going to lose what I have...so you suck.

The reason there is so much yelling about healthcare is that for MOST people, the current state is not good. You are among the fortunate few.

 

Also, under the NSS Plan^tm, you wouldn't lose anything you currently have.

 

[Y2HH]

The reason there is so much yelling about healthcare is that for MOST people, the current state is not good. You are among the fortunate few.

 

Also, under the NSS Plan^tm, you wouldn't lose anything you currently have.

 

I would if it no longer existed.

 

Just because I don't have to participate/leave what I have, doesn't mean what I have will/would still exist...and I can tell you as a person who works in the industry, it would not still exist as it does now. So yes...I would in fact lose what I have.

 

Tricksy language may work on the masses, but I'll call you on it...and I call Obama on using it.

[Y2HH]

The reason there is so much yelling about healthcare is that for MOST people, the current state is not good. You are among the fortunate few.

 

Also, under the NSS Plan^tm, you wouldn't lose anything you currently have.

 

Actually, that's not right.

 

Most people ARE happy with what they have, a vast majority in fact. It's a minority that are in need...so let's stop spreading that lie.

 

330M Americans -- and only 40/50M are uninsured or in need of better alternatives.

 

That simply doesn't add up to MOST.

[Balta1701]

Actually, that's not right.

 

Most people ARE happy with what they have, a vast majority in fact. It's a minority that are in need...so let's stop spreading that lie.

 

330M Americans -- and only 40/50M are uninsured or in need of better alternatives.

 

That simply doesn't add up to MOST.

It's not just the uninsured who are unhappy with their current health care situation. It's an awful lot of the insured too. And it would be even more if they actually had an understanding of how much of their salary was actually going to pay for health care costs under the current system as well.

[ThunderBolt]

Reports are coming in that Joe Wilson is now getting substantial financial backing from both his constituents and other donors. Looks like it's working both ways.