8 Immediate Cost Benefits of Health Care Reform

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Ditto military and police. Retirement fund is good, too; keeps starving old people off the streetcorners.
You don't want health care coverage of any kind because you never get sick? How about if you or yours get into a car accident and ER bills are, say, $50,000 the first few hours? Can you write a check? Or would you lose your house? (Oh--I forgot....you would never get in a car accident, or be hit by a drunk driver.)

rh of CA 11:04AM September 28, 2010

Or, perhaps more appropriately, which part will their constituents say, "Yes. Get rid of that!"
The pre-existing conditions part? Not likely.
The no recissions part? Hardly.
The lifetime and annual limits parts? Yeah, right.
The emergency room part? Hard to imagine.
When it starts to sink into their heads that we have horrendous infant mortality and longevity statistics compared to the countries whose healthcare systems the GOP likes to diss, and yet we spend twice as much per capita as those countries on healthcare, will the outrage machine ginned up by the Republican Party really be a perpetual motion machine?
When people see who it is that wants to dismantle the benefits of healthcare reform, won't they be surprised?
Yeah, right.

Apphouse50 of MA 10:13AM September 27, 2010

eric after reading your post it leads me to believe that your one of those shallow people with the i.q. of an eggplant.

bruce b of NV 9:40PM September 26, 2010

Well, not that I voted for the current clown in the Oval Office but I am still waiting for the same healthcare plan he himself enjoyed as a a member of the Senate, as was one of his many promises.
It is true there can be no denial or cancelation of policies to people outside of fraud but the insurance companies can charge whatever they want and there is no cap on that either.
I am covered through my work as is my family so I literally have no cost for premiums. I checked for giggles to see what buying insurance for my very healthy family of two adults and 3 children under age 10. Keeping current coverages the same the cheapest plan I found was just over $1,296 a month and had $40. copay for doctor visits and for generic prescriptions.
If I did nto have insurance through work I would go without and just pay the max penalty imposed by the Obamanation Care Plan of $2,500 a year. That is by far cheaper than paying for insurance. I would go sit in the emergency room and speak only Spanish and carry no documentationw ith me so I would then get free healthcare like the 20 or so million illegal aliens do here already, for them there is universal healthcare.
The Obamanation Health Plan mandates people buy insurance from a private company at whatever rates the private company wants to charge and if not then person is fined by the government. The only thing missing from this is a gun in the ribs.

El Cid of TX 2:28PM September 25, 2010

Tim, the cost of the 'free' checkups and preventative care are more than offset by the premiums and the savings in early detection and prevention of more serious illness. This has been demonstrated multiple times, do a bit of research. We've not gone far enough, being the wealthiest nation in history, in providing the basic and simple step of assisting the less fortunate. I loathe those of us who would simply walk on by a dieing man, woman, or child - which is the choice you make when you deny access to health care.
It is incredible that those who cannot afford health care a labeled as lazy and/or stupid. People who are smart and productive face the lack of health care everyday due to myriad reasons, even having the insurance canceled because of a clerical error on their application. Again, research the failings and the horrific pain and suffering caused by health insurance companies in the name of profit.
This same greed is what has, again, nearly toppled this country's economy and put almost a quarter of the country out of work. Do those who've lost jobs because of the greed of the 'evil rich' deserve to also lose their health care? Aren't they the ones who had demonstrated clearly that they were productive, not lazy and stupid? But due to the calculated efforts to simply get more and more money out of the working class the rich get to send us packing, left to die in misery?
If that's okay with you I suggest you don't get the idea of Christianity that so many believe is a founding principle of this country. I don't, but if you do then you are a hypocrite to deny people in that situation access to health care. This should illustrate how slippery the slope is when you judge others without sufficient information, when you categorize everyone as lazy and stupid if they cannot afford health care.
The 'public option' and required health care are the best answers to increasing access and reducing costs. If you can do multiplication and division (perhaps that's beyond some of you) you will discover that by spreading the cost among more people will lower the cost to everyone. In my opinion we've not gone far enough by a long way. Health care should be regulated as to the profit percentage allowed, for starters. It needs to be a right, not a luxury.
It will work in that model (fixed profit) because people will make it work. Good doctors are in the field because they want to help, and when we reduce the cost of becoming a doctor we'll remove much of the need to be paid enormous salaries. The immediate reaction to my proposal is that it will kill the incentive to become a doctor, but the facts show otherwise.

Paul of VA 3:53AM September 25, 2010

To Eric of Ca,
If you have so much money want to provide healthcare for everybody please feel free, after all, it's your money. As for my money, I don't think I want you to decide how, when or on what I spend it. Especially when I comes to people to lazy to find a job that has health insurance as a benefit, to lazy to get improve their life situation or too damn stupid to do both.

Tim of CA 5:36PM September 24, 2010

When did we leave a free society and enter the nanny state of Obamaland? It's okay to expect health care providers to 'give' cancer screenings, vaccinations and well care visits uncompensated? So they don't have to pay for the equipment needed to do the screenings or the techs that run the equipment. Maybe the doctors don't need to payed for the time put in doing these well care visits? I suppose in Obamaland all the money to pay for these things is going to fall from the sky? I know, we'll make those evil rich people pay for it. I can see that I'm going to visit my doctor for a check up and I'll end up seeing a medical assistant cause my HMO doesn't want to pay a real doctor for a visit that it doesn't receive a payment for. Everybodies going to have health insurance...I doubt many will be able to afford it.

Tim of CA 5:31PM September 24, 2010

I don't think most people realize that this coverage up to 26 is charged for that person as an individual plan would be. This means that you won't get to keep your child on the plan just under family, you'd add on the cost of a typical individual plan as well. This seems like the cost for that entire plan would go up as much as 50%. Not that bad for coverage, but not as good as most people are thinking (same cost for family plan that is).

Will of MD 4:58PM September 24, 2010

Does anyone know if tricare north can now changed PCMs over the phone? When will "the Choose a primary care doctor and pediatrician" go into effect for tri-care north? I hope soon!!!!

Amby of DC 3:07PM September 24, 2010

Millions of people are benefiting from new consumer rights! Here's a great link to a blog carnival sponsored by MomsRising that brings together the personal experiences of families across the country who are being helped by health reform and the lowdown from experts on what these new protections mean for families.
http://www.momsrising.org/blog/healthcare-blog-carnival/#ixzz10BsstVbs

Erina of WA 1:38PM September 24, 2010