Re: OT: Interesting article on the healthcare bill

[JoeRaisin <joeraisin2001@xxxxxxxxx>]

Robert L Bass wrote:
> "mleuck" wrote:
>>
>> Government and cost containment are incompatible,
>> only a fool thinks this will save anyone money. You
>> won't have to worry about it tho...
>
> Do you mean I won't worry because I'm dying? That
> doesn't make me stop caring. In truth, it makes a lot of things even
> more important to me. I know you don't believe it but I love my country
> and I want good
> things to happen here. I believe insurance reform will
> help everyone -- not just the currently uninsured.
>
> "According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill cuts deficits by
> $130 billion in the first 10 years, and up to $1.2 trillion in the
> second 10 years..."
>
> I may or may not be a fool. You definitely are wrong. Hope you're having
> a great night.
>

Except the CBO even said (in their cover letter) their numbers are not
accurate because they haven't seen the reconciliation.  Could be a moot
point anyway since the Senate parliamentarian is now saying that
President Obama would have to sign a health care bill into law before
Congress can amend it with a reconciliation measure.

I'm just having trouble figuring out why there is such a rush to pass
something that won't take effect for four (or more) years.

It's also a little troublesome that the mandate to get insurance (which
is troublesome in itself) is permanent but the tax credits to help poor
folks afford it are only temporary.  Even most democrats are now saying
that premiums won't go down.

The fines for not offering insurance to employees is STILL less than the
cost of providing it.  Incentive for business to let their employees
fend for themselves - employees who, at the lower levels, will only get
help paying for that insurance for a few years.

It doesn't provide people with the ability to select varying levels of
coverage like you can with most other insurances.  I would still like to
see HSA's with catastrophic coverage - I see what you said about the
HSA's not being interest bearing, but neither were checking accounts way
back in the day.  Sooner or later, if the market is allowed to work,
some HSA managers would start offering interest as a way to pull in
customers.

Right now, almost no aspect of our health care (or coverage) deals
directly with the consumers.  Employers make deals with the various
insurance providers, the insurance providers make deals with the various
care providers and everything gets rammed down the consumer's throat.

Let individuals shop around for insurance and doctors and you would see
a dramatic change.  Throw in some tort reform (if I were king it would
be heavy on DIS-incentives to lawyers who file the frivolous penny-ante
lawsuits that make up the majority of the expense) and you would see
prices plummet.

But since the government is run largely by lawyers, you won't see tort
reform any sooner that you will see industrial hemp legalized (another
of my favorite rants).  Lawsuits are just too damned lucrative to the
lawyers since, win or lose, the plaintiff (usually) and the defendant
BOTH write checks to the lawyers.

Our medical care system is not the horror show some make it out to be.
There are worse systems out there.  A friend of ours has a brother back
in the Philippines who went to the hospital with a serious gash on his
foot, he didn't have the money up front to pay for getting it attended
to so he was turned away.  By the time she made the rounds here and sent
him the money it was no longer a matter of cleaning the wound and
closing it up - infection had set in and his foot was amputated.

That wouldn't happen here.  Sure, they would charge him more 'cause he
didn't have insurance (which is bull, but I've already ranted on that
and the fact that it is Government policies that brought it about) but I
know the hospital here works with folks on payment plans to prevent
their credit report from being raped.

The point I'm making is that ACCESS (to emergency care, at least) IS
there.  If they would expand the medicare system (since they're already
raising the tax on it) to cover folks who can't afford insurance, allow
cafeteria policies (so more people can afford it) and let the market
work, a lot of the current problems would go away without expanding
government power and control.