Posts tagged ‘Health Care Reform’

There are a few immediate benefits to the passage of health care that I thought it prudent to share.

The one that I will see affect others is the provision that allows dependents 26 and under to be covered under their parents plans. With the economy the way it is, and college and grad school and all of that, twenty-somethings are staying at home longer and remaining jobless longer. This provision is great, and will cover a lot of people.

Here is a list, courtesy of HuffPo, along with my comments.

As soon as health care passes, the American people will see immediate benefits. The legislation will:

Prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;

This provision is essential, and will expand to include adults in 2014. Better late than never.

Provide immediate access to insurance for uninsured Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition through a temporary high-risk pool

Prohibit dropping people from coverage when they get sick in all individual plans;

This is a sick practice of insurance companies, now illegal.

Lower seniors’ prescription drug prices by beginning to close the donut hole;

Seniors need to save money!

Offer tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;

Woohoo! Small business usually gets ignored by the government.

Eliminate lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;

Require new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations without cost-sharing;

Ensure consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;

Require premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs.

The bill pays for this numerous ways, but my favorites are an increased Medicare tax for the rich as well as a tax on investment income for the rich. They need to pull their damn weight in this country after making their money on our backs.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it taxes orange people.

The Health Care debate has been a disastrous one and the failure of the Senate to draft a meaningful bill is an embarrassment to the Democratic Party. I am a progressive liberal, but I am not a Democratic apologist. This debate has sucked. The question is this: Is it worth passing, even in its watered-down form?

The House bill contains a public option, taxes the wealthy to pay for health care, and rescinds anti-trust exemptions for health insurance companies (for some reason, it is legal for health insurance companies to be monopolies, nice).

The Senate bill would’ve had a public option, but Joe Lieberman said no, so they took it out. Then the Senate bill would’ve extended Medicare benefits to people 55+, instead of the current 65+. But Joe Lieberman said no, so they took it out.

It is farcical that one man could have so much power to destroy progress in this country, especially when, only in September, he suggested the Medicare expansion! Why the flip-flop? Honestly, it doesn’t matter. It happened, and Democrats caved.

Howard Dean came out and said the bill isn’t worth passing. Lots of liberals and progressives agree. But lots disagree. Many say that something is better than nothing.

The argument that Deanish people come out with is this: At this moment in time, we have the power (via reconciliation, which prevents a Republican/Lieberman filibuster) to pass real, sweeping health reform. The insurance industry has lobbied heavily to water down the bill. Progressives have “compromised” (by this I mean agreed to drop their goals without getting anything in return) away tons of facets of this bill. We CAN have a public option to compete with a malicious, monopolistic industry. Or, we CAN expand Medicare, which is a successful and actually inexpensive program that insures Americans. But we are squandering that in favor of “compromising” with a group who defines “compromise” as “capitulation”. Why bother half-assing it, or quarter-assing it, when we don’t have to?

Personally, I am partial to this. Here’s why: I voted for Obama, and I routinely vote for Democrats, because I believe that they are less harmful to the middle class than Republicans, and, in terms of values, are closer to mine. I believe that government should protect people not just from terrorists, but from predatory lenders and corporations and poverty and sickness. The government should provide security of all types for its people. FDR outlined this in his State of the Union in 1944. But Democrats, ever eager to avoid conflict, are not bothering to provide this security for people. Instead, they are seeking the votes of individuals who just keep on wanting more and keep getting it. This is not compromise or good government. Health Care reform as it stands is getting very unpopular. But a lot of the unpopularity is actually from liberals, who think that reform hasn’t gone far enough. So, why did I help vote in a Democratic president, and majority, when it will not fight for the middle class? Hey, I have health care. I don’t need this bill. But lots of people do. People shouldn’t have to fear that not having a job means their kids can’t go to a hospital. Money shouldn’t trump health, ever. This is supposed to be the greatest country in the world, but being healthy can bankrupt those without insurance. And a Harvard study says 44,000 Americans die every year because they have no health care.

This is morally wrong.

So why are Democrats allowing America to continue allowing its people to die? This is unconscionable negligence.

Now, let me be clear: Republicans and conservative Democrats (i.e. those owned by corporations) are the real problem here. Republicans consistently do whatever industry tells them and routinely refuse to even consider another perspective. Their solution to health care has been tort reform. Really? That’s a joke. Everything they have said about health care is absurd. The Republicans in the Senate haven’t even offered an alternative plan, other than to uniformly demagogue anything that Democrats say.

I will never vote Republican. That is not to say Democrats are perfect, they are not, not at all. But they are better than the alternative (social conservatism mixed with religious fundamentalism mixed with anti-union, pro-corporate agendas = bad for the middle class).

So, this bill, in its current form, will force people to buy insurance, but it will subsidize poor people. This sounds nice, even though it’s more paperwork for the poor, who tend not to be good with paperwork. But okay, good. It also stops recission, which is the insurance company practice of dropping people for dubious reasons. Although, they still can make their service inconvenient and expensive. It eliminates caps on coverage, which is great for the very ill.

Here’s the big question then: Is the bill worth sacrificing the big meaningful things, to get the little, slightly helpful things?

I don’t really know.

The health care compromise floating in the Senate is, believe it or not, a good deal. The government has had government-run health care for a long time: Medicare. The proposal expands Medicare coverage to people 55 and older (the current age is 65) and expands Medicaid for the poor.

Don’t forget, Nancy Pelosi called this incarnation of health care reform a stepping stone, and this expansion of Medicare is a huge stepping stone, far bigger than a public option.

The public option had already been watered down in the House, then further watered down in the Senate. It may as well not exist, since it really won’t help very many people. Industry has been so entrenched in government for so long that when they speak, lawmakers listen and people, who desperately need help, are ignored. Hey, the poor don’t have money or clout, so who cares about them?

But this compromise, which I think is really a coup for progressives, will, in fact, help the poor and those over 55. It’ll lighten the burden on companies that provide insurance to employees (not that I care about the “burdens” of soulless corporations, but, hey, let’s get them on our side) and Medicare, despite being government-run is actually efficient and helps people. It’ll be even more efficient once health care is overhauled, per the Senate’s waste and fraud reduction measures.

This development has been framed as a concession to moderates. I have no problem with that. Let moderates, and maybe even a conservative or two, think that this is compromise. Let them call it whatever they want. Expand Medicare, help people that need it. That’s the bottom line.

Despite the best efforts of poor-hating Republicans, Democrats voted for cloture on the Health Care Reform debate and the bill will come for a vote soon.

America will be better off if people do not have to choose between money and health.  Last time I wrote about health care, I talked about somebody I knew having incurred a large debt due to injury.  He still cannot pay this debt.  And he definitely has, if not brain damage, then serious brain issues, because he constantly messes up his speech due to his fall. But he cannot go to a doctor.  He has no health care to pay for brain scans, which would be roughly $3,000 a pop.

And this is the greatest country in the world?

Maybe we can say that when we take care of our people.

Thank you, non-Republican Senators, for voting for cloture.  We can only hope reform will ultimately pass.

I literally jumped up and down when I heard health care reform passed the House last night.  Yes, that’s strange, but such a momentous occasion deserves it.

While the Senate must vote and approve and then the bill must go to conference and all of these other hurdles must be jumped over, we can take comfort in the fact that we have made a huge leap forward in helping the poor and the sick.

Thank you, House.