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[djeaton]

Here is an interesting article from a doctor about lots of people that "can't afford" health care, but seem to have plenty of money for what they actually want.  Puts that mandate forcing folks to purchase it in a different light.  This one bit says a lot:

A friend of mine sells private health insurance plans.  He told me of the 39-year-old father of two whose family was quoted a monthly insurance premium of $250.

"Are you kidding?" he said, refusing the coverage. "That's almost as much as my boat payment!"

[djeaton]

Slightly different "cost" here, but this belongs in the "why do something with one government bureaucracy when you can have two" department.  According to this article,

The committee, in its homestretch, also adopted a proposal by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia, to retain the Children’s Health Insurance Program as a stand-alone benefits package — rather than shift children and families onto plans to be offered through new state-run insurance marketplaces.

Makes no sense to me.  Why have the family get insurance with one set of benefits and cover the "children" part of the family under something totally different?  How is that going to cut costs and streamline things?  I can see keeping Medicare and Social Security separate, but why have different medical programs when a single family program could cover it all?
D.

[Seolfor]

The fourth arm of government is "administration". There once was three.

[djeaton]

I know it seems like some people can't applaud Obama for *anything*, but I do think he's done something recently that will bring down health costs.  He's applying $5 Billion towards medical research to try to prevent cancer.  It's part of the stimulus bill money.  Disease research could save billions in the long run.  I think it's a good investment.  Beats the fraud of global warming.

[djeaton]

How about this for some political honesty.

"I don't expect to actually read the legislative language because . . . the legislative language is among the more confusing things I've ever read in my life," Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.) told an online news service.  And Carper says he doubts his fellow members of the Senate Finance Committee will read their handiwork either.

Carper told CNSnews.com that the bill was "incomprehensible" and "hard stuff to understand."  

When we elect people that admit that they don't read the bills and can't understand them when they do, it SCREAMS for term limits.  Let's get these bums out of there!  How can *any* representative faithfully execute the responsibilities of their office if they vote on stuff without knowing all of what it actually does?
D.

[Seolfor]

It's the "press" who is the beggar at the banquet.

[roadrunner]

Term limits are already part of the system, just vote the bum out. It doesn't require more laws, just voters paying attention.

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Maine, a subsidiary of WellPoint, the nation's largest insurer, wanted the state to approve an average rate hike of 18.5 percent on its policyholders. Maine rejected the increase and now the insurer is fighting for the hike in court. The average annual premium of approximately $6,000 paid by Maine consumers to Anthem in 2008, these same individuals paid their own health care costs below the deductible. The average deductible as $7,250 in that year, and is projected to grow to an average of $7,570 in 2009... That means the average policyholder would have to incure a total cost of more than $13,000 in premium and deductibles, prior to becoming eligible to receive any health benefits under the policy."

Sick, sick, sick.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/AKXWP2HuxGE&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/AKXWP2HuxGE&amp;ap=%2526fmt%3D18&amp;rel=0</a>

[pippin]

Term limits would help a great deal in places like Chicago where there are block captains who go out and make sure everybody votes the 'right' way.  It would take the pressure off the poor people who have to live there and put up with the abuse.


Bribes...seats are sold...term limits would help.

[djeaton]

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Maine, a subsidiary of WellPoint, the nation's largest insurer, wanted the state to approve an average rate hike of 18.5 percent on its policyholders.

Wonder what the state health mandates are like in Maine.  When states mandate that insurance has to now cover X procedures and Y treatments and then expect the same or lower prices, it's "sick, sick, sick."  For example, according to this comparison chart that I found, Maine mandates coverage for hospital stays after a Mastectomy that only 20 other states do.  They mandate coverage for reconstructive surgery after a Mastectomy and cervical cancer screening that not all states do.  They mandate that you can have a specialist like a OB/GYN as your primary care physician.  They mandate treatment for eating disorders.  And while you have all of these mandates going on, you have stories like Maine cutting back what they pay pharmacists to fill a Medicaid prescription to the lowest amount in all 50 states.  Maine has the second largest Medicaid program in the nation, and the Feds continue to push more and more of those expenses to the States.  All these mandates and cuts elsewhere cost money, yet they want to cap the amount that the insurance companies can charge.  Sick, sick, sick.

[David]

What would health care cost a family anyway?
Assuming a family of 4:
$13,000 = $250 per week = Annual costs and deductible (how much is paid directly by employers as a benefit?)
$  7,570 = $36.40 average deductible paid per week per person
$  5,430 = $452.50 premium paid per month...again even if half is paid by employer that means $ 2715 or $226.25 per month is actually paid by employee.

It's not free if that is what makes it sick. I can get an individual policy without an employer paying anything for $100 plus deductibles

David

[roadrunner]

Who do you get your health insurance from? What are your deductibles? Are you under 25? How can you get insurance for $100/month? No wonder you don't think there's anything wrong with the system if you are being honest.

Most people's insurance for a family of 4 is about $1000/month. Even if the employer pays half, that's still quite a hefty sum for many people. Also, how are the employers supposed to foot the bill, even for half of the premiums for all their employees?

Wellpoint in Maine wants to raise premiums 18.5 percent! Mandates have nothing to do with it since they haven't changed in the last year, as far as I can tell. That's just outrageous by any standards especially since the economy experienced deflation.

[David]

I'm in my late 40's and live in a state controlled by Republicans. Wild out of control social spending has not crippled us yet...although the libs want to empty the state's surplus.

Since we're also a red state, share less of the stimulus package, but that's OK, perhaps we'll keep control of our lives a bit longer.

David

[pippin]

   What was with that press conference with all the doctors in little white coats?  Omigosh!  that really looked dumb!  BUt I guess that's how you can tell they are doctors!   Wow, if I get a lab coat, can I be a doctor?

Or maybe the idea was for them to all look alike...everyone exactly the same...no one stands out from the crowd...the individual is no longer important..Maybe that's the underlying symbolism...

Nawwww....couldn't be....

[djeaton]

This from the New York Post:

AS the health-reform bills move through Congress, the prognosis for Medicare pa tients gets worse and worse.

The Senate Finance Committee bill (generally called the Baucus bill, after Chairman Max Baucus) robs the elderly to cover the uninsured -- like snatching purses from little old ladies. The House bills already cut future funding for Medicare by $500 billion over the next decade. The Baucus bill would slash a similar amount, just when 30 percent more people enter the program as baby boomers turn 65.

The Baucus bill also puts new limits on what doctors can do for patients in Medicare:

* A "race to the bottom" provision (p. 102 of the revised chairman's mark) would take effect each year for the next five years. The provision penalizes doctors who end up in the 90th percentile or above on the cost of what they use to treat their patients, compared with national averages. The intent is to force down the cost of care, year by year. Yet this blunt instrument can't determine which care is actually wasteful -- it will punish doctors for treating high cost patients with complex conditions. Inevitably, it will lower the quality of care.

* Even more devastating is the amendment Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) got inserted into the bill (revised chairman's mark, pp. 102-3). It gives the Secretary of Health and Human Services the power to define quality, cost-effective care for each medical condition and penalize doctors who spend more on their patients.

The law establishing Medicare in 1965 barred the federal government from interfering in doctors' treatment decisions. Slowly, Medicare regulations have begun unraveling that protection. Now the Cantwell amendment finishes the job.

So as we have a 30% increase in Medicare patients, we are going to cut the expense of the program, punish the doctors that treat the most patients, "define" what they are allowed to do to them, but nothing is going to be rationed.  Riiiight....

[roadrunner]

Since we're also a red state, share less of the stimulus package, but that's OK, perhaps we'll keep control of our lives a bit longer.

What state? A lot of the red states are taking more than their share of the stimulus package, and most of the red states take more generally from the government than the blue states. That's a fact easily verified, as I've done previously. But you didn't say how you can have a $100/month health plan for someone in their 40s. What insurance company? I'd really like to know since no one else seems to be able to find that.

Pippin, doctors generally wear white coats, but maybe you hadn't noticed. I wouldn't make such a big deal of it.

Why do you think there's an increase in medicare patients? If you've been added to the rolls, have you had to deal with rationed care? Seems to me, Daniel, you had rationed care prior to being put on the Medicare roll.

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