I'd like to discuss what's proposed to change for the average person from a health care perspective. What benefits will you gain, or potentially lose, and at what cost? What stated impact will it have on the person currently insured through private insurance, working for xyz corp? If you don't know, what do you think will change, or what are people telling you will change (citations would be good for reference...not just that your neighbor told you) -I don't know the answers, but believe it's worth talking about. Really haven't paid much attention to it lately. It's getting a bit long in the tooth for my attention span and seems to change daily.

 

When you get sick your insurance company can,t get a hire gun to check if you crossed your "T"s and dotted your " I "s so they can cancle your policy,or raise your rates 40% because you used there sevice once.

But don,t worry to many insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyist in DC handing out campaign re-elect money for the bill to ever pass.

 

From what I hear about what's in the bill, I will be paying more for less coverage...unless I become a Florida resident where a backroom deal assures them of continued good coverage. I would expect everyone will be paying more, either for premiums or taxes. Allowing competition across state lines would probably reduce insurance premiums, but that's apparently not in the bill. Tort reform could also take a big chunk out of health care costs, but Obama and Pelosi don't want to tackle that because the trial lawyes are a powerful special interest group.

 

The article I read said the premiums would still go up and they would eventually level off, but it's the tax savings that make it cheaper. Not sure how that's going to work. If I have to wait till the end of the year, file taxes and then get money back, I'll be using that to pay the bills I incurred the prior year from having to pay the same or more for insurance.

 

I heard there is going to be some tort reform, not sure how much. Legal lobby is big. I don't want too much insulation for bad doctors though. They need to understand that if they take your left leg off and it was supposed to be your right leg, there will be major consequences. You can't have them and the hospitals fully insulated from the law. That to me sounds like a recipe for disaster on our part.

 

I haven't piped in yet because I'm not sure what's in it right now. Supposedly, they will give a 3 day period to inspect it. 3 days for 2000+ pages and 1/6th of our economy. Sounds a little quick to me.

 

CBO reported today, and the numbers look pretty favorable for passage. Not sure how it will all relate to taxes 5 years down the road.

Gotta figure there's going to be some sweetheart deals in there, regardless of what they say.

 

So if it does pass, does this mean everyone (congress/senate) will have to get back to work on the other problems the country has?

 

Question: If we end up with a system like Canada's, what are the Canadians going to do if they can't get needed treatment by crossing the border? I read a couple weeks ago that the premier of Newfoundland needed heart valve surgery and came to Mount Sinai Hospital in Miami. "I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics," he said when admitting he had created politicall fallout. He also said that if he had stayed in Canada for treatment, he would have been accused of pulling strings to jump to the head of the line for the surgery.

 

He was told that in Canada they would have to break some of his ribs to do the surgery. He contacted a friend who used to be a doctor in Canada and now lives in NJ if I remember right. His friend told him to look up a specialist in the US who did the procedure without having to break his ribs.