Health Care

[Gonz]

And you TOTALLY IGNORE the FACT, that all of what I posted above still costs you personally, money, because the rest of the world isn't as perfact as Gonz and those silly bastards just won't behave!

Too bad, it'd be a better world.

 

[randomJACKASS]

Too bad, it'd be a better world.

You are not and never will be a God, even though you believe otherwise. Deal with it!

None of us will be or should walk around thinking we are.

 

[Mirlyn]

If you can afford to pay your doctor, why should you be forced to aquire insurance? Just to please some beauracrat. Bullshit.

Point. Perhaps there should be a requirement to show you can pay the bills, kind of like proving insurance when tagging a car (just without actually holding a policy).

That says get in now or forever stay out. Otherwise, a provision would be made for later enrollments.

Dunno, my plan changes each year I re-enroll. I bet it'll change again if this goes into effect and the changes will allow it comply with the law and allow me to add people (and charge the shit out of me).

FYI: My insurance does cover the pill, but not the shrink.

We have high medical bills. They get paid, right along with everything else. Wanna know why? Because it's not your responsibility to pay my bills.

If only the rest of them would do the same. I pay for insurance because I cannot afford not to. You chose to pay it yourself. We both have a choice. I can respect that.

I think the bill would make a little more sense (still would not support it though) if you did not get fined for not taking insurance and could prove you're not being a burden/risk to society. Good luck proving that one though.

 

[Gonz]

Dunno, my plan changes each year I re-enroll. I bet it'll change again if this goes into effect and the changes will allow it comply with the law and allow me to add people (and charge the shit out of me).

You'll be able to maintain your private coverage since you are enrolled. Will your carrier be able to maintain its own staus if it cannot attract new business? Not likely. I can imagine my own carrier seeing the light & dropping everybody since the government is now picking up the tab *cough, hack, wheeze*

 

[Mirlyn]

You'll be able to maintain your private coverage since you are enrolled. Will your carrier be able to maintain its own staus if it cannot attract new business? Not likely. I can imagine my own carrier seeing the light & dropping everybody since the government is now picking up the tab *cough, hack, wheeze*

And if the carrier changes the plan to adopt new regulations, then I'll be able to add names to the policy. As they're for-profit, I can't see them rolling over and playing dead right away.

Perhaps they're "too big to fail?"

 

[Inkara1]

As for the 80k unemployed person getting dinged for 2k for no insurance, I'm required by law to carry auto insurance or get fined...just as much of a crock if you ask me. Just get the insurance and cancel it...works at the DMV, right?

Don't know about Kansas, but in California, insurance companies now tell the DMV when someone's policy is no longer in effect. That's because of just what you said — people who would get insurance for a month to register the car and then not pay it for the second month.

 

[Mirlyn]

Don't know about Kansas, but in California, insurance companies now tell the DMV when someone's policy is no longer in effect. That's because of just what you said — people who would get insurance for a month to register the car and then not pay it for the second month.

I think here too, and supposedly upon being notified they'll send out a Sheriff to seize your tags unless you can provide a new policy number. My friend was hit by someone who got insurance and then canceled it, so who knows. Guess it could have been before it was reported.

 

[Inkara1]

I don't think California sends the Gestapo out to find you... they just suspend your registration, making it illegal to drive the car, so if the cops just happen to run your plate through their in-car computer and find out about it, you'll be busted. they also take your proof of insurance in addition to license and registration when they pull you over for anything.

 

[randomJACKASS]

We have this nifty little thing called SR22. It makes more sense to just have insurance companies report perhaps, but see for the unfortunate who get DUIs and other serious criminal driving infractions, you have to have your insurance company file the SR22 (certification of your policy) and then report to the state should it lapse, at which time you are immediately suspended. This way the insurance company can double the rate, the state has two charges on you if they pull you over after you let it lapse including throwing you in jail. The lesson? Don't fuck up in Washington, you will pay dearly.

 

[Inkara1]

California has SR-22s as well.

 

[randomJACKASS]

Well then I guess the difference is that unless you have SR22 even a completely bogus forged insurance card will usually get you by in this state. You'd be an idiot to do it, but what can I say, I've known a few idiots.

 

[Gonz]

And if the carrier changes the plan to adopt new regulations, then I'll be able to add names to the policy. As they're for-profit, I can't see them rolling over and playing dead right away.

And as soon as anything changes in your contract -- such as a change in copays or deductibles, which many insurers change every year -- you'll have to move into a qualified plan instead (House bill, p. 16-17).

NY Post

SR-22 is standard about everywhere ther are drunks & keys.

 

[Gonz]

Even if you are for government controlled healthcare (a rose by any other name...), contact your Representative AND your Senators and ask them why the rush? Over a thousand pages & it has to be pushed through by the August recess?

Let it wait.

 

[jimpeel]

The ol' "It hasn't worked 'cause the right people haven't been in place" argument.

Health care will fail nationwide the same as it has in MA but the people trying to foist national health care on us will use this failure in MA against Romney.

SOURCE

Massachusetts Health Care Woes Could Cast Cloud Over Romney Bid
Analysts say that if former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's health care program continues to show signs of wear, he'll have to find a way to distance himself from it to have a shot at the GOP nomination in 2012.

FOXNews.com

Monday, July 20, 2009

A new Rasmussen Reports poll out Monday shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney tied in a hypothetical matchup against President Obama in 2012, a better showing than Romney's would-be top rival Sarah Palin.

The poll, taken July 18-19, showed Romney and Obama tied at 45 percent each. It also had Obama beating Palin, the outgoing Alaska governor, 48 percent to 42 percent. The telephone survey of 1,000 likely voters had a margin of error of 3 percentage points. (With a +/- margin of error, how would a matchup with Palin be other than a statistical tie? +3 for her puts it at 45% and -3 for him puts it an 45%. It could go to 39% to 51% but that is unlikely. - j)

But while Romney's star seems to be shining bright, problems with his signature item in office -- a universal health care plan considered a model for the country when it was started -- could cast a cloud over his future political plans.

"It's a political albatross around his neck," said Thomas Whalen, social science professor at Boston University.

Massachusetts is struggling to keep the state's groundbreaking coverage program running. Against a massive budget shortfall, lawmakers are planning to cut about 30,000 legal, taxpaying immigrants out of the system, which requires nearly everyone in the state to have health insurance coverage.

Whalen said the state health care plan did not have a sufficient revenue stream from the start, and that Romney could face sharp criticism for that from fiscal conservatives in a 2012 Republican primary.

"He's highly vulnerable on this," he said.

But Ken Blackwell, the former Ohio secretary of state and candidate to be Republican National Committee chairman, said the Democratic "regime" in Massachusetts is to blame since the Legislature changed the plan that Romney originally put on the table. Romney vetoed a number of those changes when he was governor, but the General Assembly overrode him.

Blackwell acknowledged that Romney ultimately signed the bill and will have to separate himself from it or face political consequences.

"That's the challenge," said Blackwell, who now works with several conservative organizations, including the Family Research Council. "It's a tangible, observable, measurable mess."

Though Romney has not said whether he'll run in 2012, he's seen as a top contender, and one of his potentially pivotal issues against Obama could be government-run health care. Congressional Republicans are strenuously trying to alter a Democratic bill in Congress before it becomes law.

The former governor's political fortunes have benefited in recent weeks by the fall of competitors from both position and grace. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford got mired in a sex scandal over the affair he confessed to having with an Argentine woman, dimming his potential hopes for higher office. Palin then announced she would not finish her term as governor, leading to questions about whether she is a viable candidate to make a run for the White House.

Still, another potential contender could be insinuating himself back into the national policy debate.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, panned for his weak rebuttal to President Obama's first address to the nation as president in February, on Monday slammed the administration's economic policies and particularly the Democrats' health care proposals.

Citing his own health care credentials -- he was previously Louisiana's youngest secretary of health and hospitals -- Jindal wrote in Politico newspaper of his numerous concerns with the House Democrats' plan, which he said would diminish the quality of health care in America and give government too much control.

"The plan the House Democrats are developing is a radical restructuring of health care in America," he wrote.

Suggesting trouble ahead for Romney, Blackwell called Jindal "one of the smartest health care professionals" around.

"The contrast is going to be fascinating," he said.

Far from distancing himself, Romney defended his state's health care system during an event at the Massachusetts State House late last month.

He said the system led to plunging premiums while offering a healthy choice of options for consumers.

"It's working well. We got 440,000 more people insured than when the plan was put in place, it costs less than 2 percent of the state budget -- it's a plan that's working, it's a good model," he said.

Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, also pointed to Romney's plan as a possible model for a national overhaul. Romney contrasted his plan with Obama's framework, saying national proposals get the government too involved in the insurance business.

The state program has been a success in that more people have health insurance in Massachusetts than anywhere in the country. Less than 3 percent don't, compared to 15 percent nationally.

But with residents losing their jobs and enrollment increasing, combined with sagging revenue in a recession, the system is in trouble. Costs associated with the plan are expected to rise far more than originally anticipated in the coming years. The $1.3 billion annual program is up from $630 million in fiscal year 2007, according to a February report by Physicians for a National Health Program titled "A Failed Model for Health Care Reform."

Last week, Boston Medical Center, one of the city's largest metropolitan hospitals, filed a lawsuit against the state claiming it's being shortchanged by a whopping $181 million annually. The hospital claims the state is not adequately covering the costs of Medicaid, Commonwealth Care and the uninsured, saying reimbursement rates have dropped to just 64 cents on the dollar to cover the poor.

The latest move to cut out immigrants from the program is expected to save $130 million. But it's stirring objections.

Health Care for All, a Boston-based advocacy group, is taking hundreds of calls on its help line from people concerned about losing coverage.

"They will end up waiting until they get sicker, show up at emergency rooms, be incredibly expensive and those costs will often fall to the hospitals where people are being treated," said Lindsey Tucker, health reform policy manager at Health Care for All.

This puts lawmakers who want to preserve the program in a difficult spot. Patrick is urging lawmakers to compromise and still cover the group -- only to a lesser extent at lesser cost.

FOXNews.com's Judson Berger and FOX News' Molly Line contributed to this report.

 

[jimpeel]

And then there was THIS about a year-and-a-half ago.

 

[jimpeel]

SOURCE

RNC Chairman Rips Obama Health Care 'Cabal'
RNC Chairman Michael Steele says President Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and key congressional committee chairmen are part of a "cabal" that wants to implement government-run health care.

AP

Monday, July 20, 2009

WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Republican Party on Monday accused President Obama of conducting "risky experimentation" with his health care proposals, saying they will hurt the economy and force millions to drop their current coverage.

Michael Steele, in remarks at the National Press Club, also said the president, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and key congressional committee chairmen are part of a "cabal" that wants to implement government-run health care.

"Obama-Pelosi want to start building a colossal, closed health care system where Washington decides. Republicans want and support an open health care system where patients and doctors make the decisions," Steele said.

Obama has repeatedly said he does not favor a government-run health care system. Legislation taking shape in the House envisions private insurance companies selling coverage in competition with the government.

Even so, numerous Republicans in Congress continue to level the accusation at Obama and congressional Democrats, and Steele did so in sharply critical terms.

"Many Democrats outside of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid-Waxman cabal know that voters won't stand for these kinds of foolish prescriptions for our health care. We do too. That's why Republicans will stop at nothing to remind voters about the risky experimentation going on in Washington," the party chairman said. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is Senate majority leader; Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Republican officials said they were supplementing Steele's speech with a round of television advertising designed to oppose government-run health care. The 30-second spot, titled "Grand Experiment," criticizes recent government aid to the auto industry and banks as "the biggest spending spree in our history" and warns of "a risky experiment with our health care."

In his speech, Steele broadened his attack beyond health care to question Obama's truthfulness.

The president "tells us he doesn't want to spend more than we have, he doesn't want the deficit to go up, he doesn't want to live off borrowed money. But he also told us he didn't want to run an auto company. President Obama justifies this spending by saying the devil made him do it. He doesn't want to spend trillions we can't afford, but he says he just can't help it," Steele said in the prepared excerpts.

The Republican chairman is making his speech at a time when Obama is struggling to advance his trademark health care proposal after a period of evident progress. Two of three House committees have approved their portions of the bill, while one of two Senate panels have acted.

But conservative Democrats have raised objections to some elements of the legislation, and efforts in the Senate to reach a bipartisan agreement have yet to bear fruit. Obama's attempt to impose an early August deadline on both the House and Senate for passage of legislation is in jeopardy.

White House officials spent Sunday defending Obama's health care proposals and stressing that Congress has not yet written the final draft of legislation that would dramatically reshape how Americans receive health care. Instead, they said, Republicans -- and even some Democrats -- should wait until a final bill takes form.

Getting it done by August, though, appeared to be pushed back. Administration officials said they still have a goal for the Senate and the House to pass separate bills before an August recess, leaving reconciliation of their differences for September or later. But they slid away from a once-firm do-it-this-summer demand.

"We think we can make that. We're working towards that," White House budget director Peter Orszag said. "And we have to remember, there are some who are advocating the delay simply because they don't have anything to put on the table. ... There are those who are advocating delay just as a desperation move to try to kill this."

Time would appear to be on the Republicans' side, however. A Washington Post-ABC News survey released Monday shows approval of Obama's handling of health care reform slipping below 50 percent for the first time. The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

 

[jimpeel]

SOURCE

Poll: Obama's Public Approval on Health Care Reform Slipping
Public approval of President Obama's management of health-care reform has fallen below the 50 percent threshold for the first time, according to a new Washington Post--ABC News poll.

AP

Monday, July 20, 2009

A new poll suggests public approval of the way President Barack Obama is handling health care reform is slipping.

The Washington Post-ABC News survey says since April, Obama's approval rating on the issue has declined from 57 percent to 49 percent, with disapproval rising from 29 percent to 44 percent.

The president's overall approval rating stands at 59 percent positive and 37 percent negative. It's the first time Obama's approval rating has fallen below 60 percent in Post-ABC polling since he took office.

The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Obama advisers are urging critics of their health care overhaul to wait for Congress to finish writing legislation before issuing verdicts.

The president will hold a round-table discussion today with health-care providers at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington.

 

[randomJACKASS]

Might be the 1.4 million a day in lies and propaganda the health insurance industry is pumping out daily. Who knows how many millions in perks your senators and representatives are being paid to kill this, keep profits high and screw people to the max.

 

[Gonz]

PAY CASH!!!! Fuck the insurance companies.

 

[jimpeel]

Best quote of the week on Obamacare:

Americans instinctively know their country is not Europe, and they have no desire to become France. They understand that somehow someone is going to have to pay for all this "free" health care Obama keeps promising. They know that Obama-Care, like Hillary-Care before it, will do less, cost more and provide fewer choices. They grasp the idea that you cannot serve more people with fewer doctors and provide better care for less money. And they know that trying to jam all this through Congress in two weeks is the last refuge of a panicked administration losing its mesmerizing grip on the people.
Doug Patton, July 20, 2009 in his article "I Was Wrong About Barack Obama"