health care reform

Please, offer your opinions, ideas, and insight on Obama's health care reform plan.

 

I don't agree with his reform plan. There are things people can do right now to keep themselves healthy, like eating better and exercising regularly. That's what I try to do. My eating isn't great lol, but I do exercise.

A lot of the health problems in America are preventable, but it's up to us to prevent them. We've got to be more active

 

This does absolutely nothing to address the contents of the plan.

 

OK,

Based upon what I've read, we won't be getting a single-payer system (e.g. Canada), but coverage will be guaranteed through employment or a public plan.

It will not eliminate private coverage, but force private insurers to adhere to new federal standards including: not denying coverage based upon pre-existing conditions, lower out-of-pocket expenses, maintain coverage regardless of the insured's health, et. al. Read more.

As it stands, there are 45+ million Americans without any kind of coverage and millions more who are under-insured with ballooning costs across the board. You can even get screwed if you are insured by out-of-network treatment, which seems to give providers the right to charge whatever arbitrary fees they see fit.

This is long overdue and closer to fulfilling a withheld promise textualized in the Declaration of Independence. All of that "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" bullshit doesn't hold water if your income is being swallowed by the collective responsibilty we should have to insure the health of every individual.

 

One premise of the plan is that we have 47 million uninsured and that we have to solve this problem. I think it should be considered that a significant portion of those are people can afford it and don't want it for whatever reason. Some citizens will be fined if they choose to not purchase govt health insurance.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/21/AR2009072103410.html

Another debated facet of his plan will be the part allows Medicare to pay for end-of-life counseling. Republicans are working this angle, arguing that it will lead to federal bueracrats rationing health care to senior citizens. It remains to be seen if blue-dog democrats and Peoria will be affected by the rhetoric enough to stall the plan.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...8/10/ST2009081002581.html?sid=ST2009081002581

I believe that some version of Obama's plan (watered down) will be signed, maybe before the mid-term Congressional elections but definitely before the next Presidential election.

 

Person A has a responsibility for Person B's health? Where did you get that? Apparently, you haven't read the Declaration of Independence, and you definitely haven't read the Constitution. I suggest you read them

 

Co-sign, the plan will have to be altered and concessions given in order for it to pass, but it will pass in the next 12-18 months IMO.

 

Here's what I think about the plan. I don't agree with it. The government has no business being in the health care business. I keep hearing about "40 some-odd million uninsured." You make it seem like all these people are on their deathbeds, and that if the govt doesn't step in and save them, they'll die. Many of those insured are younger people. I know, because I was one of them. I didn't have health insurance for years and guess what? I got along fine. In fact, I would get along fine without health insurance now.

And lifestyle choices do have a lot to do with health care. If you don't exercise, if you mostly eat fast food, don't brush your teeth, or if you smoke, chances are you're gonna have health problems. Instead of relying on someone else to take care of you, you can take care of yourself. I know you're gonna come back with some comment like "you're just spouting right-wing talking points" or something like that. Save it, because you sound like a broken record

 

Yes you are responsible for the health of your fellow citizens, which is why taxes are collected for agencies to enforce the rule of law (police) and various safety provisions (fire department, sanitation, health department, FDA). And whether you like it or not, you're already paying for the healthcare of "person B", because taxes are also used to fund treatment for the uninsured.

I won't get into a debate over the contents of either the Declaration or Constitution, because A.) you will lose and B.) this has less to do with its content than the ideological prism you use to interpret it.

 

Dex exercise and brushing your teeth only help in certain health areas. What if you got leukemia or wrapped your car around a tree in a single car accident and your car's med pay only has a $5000 limit. What are you going to do? Hope you have nothing because if you do it will be taken away.

The government is already in the healthcare business in ways you don't know. Look up Hill-Burton and other programs like it. Do you think you aren't paying for your fellow uninsured citizens already? When someone receives medical care at a facility and can't pay do you think the hospital or Dr. eats it. No, the cost is spread around to those who can pay. I worked in the accounting department of a hospital I've seen a lot.

 

Those are local issues. Local governments are responsible for public safety forces. Those are not federal responsibilities, despite the federal spending that goes to local governments.

I will lose? You're sorely mistaken. You really haven't read the Constitution, have you? It spells out the powers and responsibilities of the federal government. I didn't see anything about providing for people's health care. Did you? If you did, please show me where it is. Otherwise, don't bother responding

 

When WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam came along....we expected our poor and working class to go fight. They filled more than their fair share of barracks and body bags. But when the same people, the lower income classes cannot afford health care, the same society says "each for their own".

I think Obamas plan is a good start, but doesnt go far enough. We cannot reform our health care system without reforming tort laws and truly reforming our ideas of insurance.

 

http://www.healthreform.gov/

Very good link to get the facts straight from the source, I am reserving judgment until I see the actual bill.

 

They tried to ram this through without anybody getting a chance to look at it. Very dishonest. How are we going to pay for this?

 

Not true, there has been no effort to pass this bill without disclosure, that is patently false. To answer your question, here is what is being disclosed so far;

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fy2010_key_healthcare/

Financing Health Care Reform. The reserve fund is financed by a combination of rebalancing the tax code so that the wealthiest pay more as well as specific health care savings in three areas: promoting efficiency and accountability, aligning incentives towards quality and better care, and encouraging shared responsibility. Taken together, the health care savings would total $316 billion over 10 years while improving the quality and efficiency of health care, without negatively affecting the care Americans receive. These savings include:

• Reducing Medicare Overpayments to Private Insurers Through Competitive Payments.

Under current law, Medicare overpays Medicare Advantage plans by 14 percent more on average than what Medicare spends for beneficiaries enrolled in the traditional fee-for-service program. The Administration believes it’s time to stop this waste and will replace the current mechanism to establish payments with a competitive system in which payments would be based upon an average of plans’ bids submitted to Medicare. This would allow the market, not Medicare, to set the reimbursement limits, and save taxpayers more than $175 billion over 10 years, as well as reduce Part B premiums. These overpayments threaten Medicare’s finances and increase the premiums paid by participants in traditional Medicare.

• Reducing Drug Prices. Prescription drug costs are high and rising, causing too many Americans to skip doses, split pills, or not take needed medication altogether. The Administration will prevent drug companies from blocking generic drugs from consumers by prohibiting anticompetitive agreements and collusion between brand name and generic drug manufacturers intended to keep generic drugs off the market.

The Administration will accelerate access to make affordable generic biologic drugs available through the establishment of a workable regulatory, scientific, and legal pathway for generic versions of biologic drugs. In order to retain incentives for research and development for the innovation of breakthrough products, a period of exclusivity would be guaranteed for the original innovator product, which is generally consistent with the principles in the Hatch-Waxman law for traditional products.
Additionally, brand biologic manufacturers would be prohibited from reformulating existing products into new products to restart the exclusivity process, a process known as ever-greening.
Finally, the Budget will bring down the drug costs of Medicaid by increasing the Medicaid drug rebate for brand-name drugs from 15.1 percent to 22.1 percent of the Average Manufacturer Price, apply the additional rebate to new drug formulations, and allow States to collect rebates on drugs provided through Medicaid managed care organizations. All the savings would be devoted to the health care reserve fund.

• Improving Medicare and Medicaid Payment Accuracy. The Government Accountability

Office (GAO) has labeled Medicare as "high risk" due to billions of dollars lost to overpayments and fraud each year. To save Medicare and Medicaid, increase quality, and make sure Medicare and Medicaid patients get the care they deserve, we need to rein in these abuses and use this money for reform. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will address vulnerabilities presented by Medicare and Medicaid, including Medicare Advantage and the prescription drug benefit (Part D). CMS will be able to respond more rapidly to emerging program integrity vulnerabilities across these programs through an increased capacity to identify excessive payments and new processes for identifying and correcting problems.

• Improving Care after Hospitalizations and Reduce Hospital Readmission Rates. Nearly

18 percent of hospitalization of Medicare beneficiaries resulted in the readmission of patients who had been discharged in the hospital within the last 30 days. Sometimes the readmission could not have been prevented, but many of these readmissions are avoidable. To improve this situation, hospitals will receive bundled payments that cover not just the hospitalization, but care for certain post-acute providers the 30 days of care after the hospitalization, and hospitals with high rates of readmission will be paid less if patients are re-admitted to the hospital within the same 30-day period. This combination of incentives and penalties should lead to better care after a hospital stay and result in fewer readmissions—saving roughly $26 billion of wasted money over 10 years. The money saved will also be contributed to the reserve fund for health care reform.

• Expanding the Hospital Quality Improvement Program. The health care system tends to pay for quantity of services not quality. Experts have recommended that hospitals and doctors be paid based on delivering high quality care, or what is called "pay for performance." The President’s Budget will link a portion of Medicare payments for acute in-patient hospital services to hospitals’ performance on specific quality measures. This program will improve the quality of care delivered to Medicare beneficiaries, and the higher quality will save over $12 billion over 10 years. Again, the money saved will be contributed to the Reserve Fund for health care reform.

• Reforming the Physician Payment System to Improve Quality and Efficiency. The Administration believes that the current physician payment system, while it has served to limit spending to a degree, needs to be reformed so that physicians are paid for providing high-quality care rather than simply for more procedures and exams. Thus, while the baseline reflects our best estimate of what the Congress has done in recent years, we are not suggesting that should be the future policy.

As part of health care reform, the Administration would support comprehensive, but fiscally responsible, reforms to the payment formula. The Administration believes Medicare and the country need to move toward a system in which doctors are paid for high-quality care rather than simply more care.

• Reducing Itemized Deduction Rate for Families With Incomes Over $250,000. Lowering health care costs and expanding health insurance coverage will require additional revenue. In the health reform policy discussions that have taken place over the past few years, a wide range of revenue options have been discussed—and these options are all worthy of serious discussion as the Administration works with the Congress to enact health care reform. The Administration’s Budget includes a proposal to limit the tax rate at which high-income taxpayers can take itemized deductions to 28 percent— and the initial reserve fund would be funded in part through this provision. This provision would raise $318 billion over 10 years.

 

I'm not even worried about it at all because I know that a deal will eventually get done. All the opposition can do is stall, they can't stop what is already inevitable.

This is just like an episode of "The West Wing" that's all.

 

Thats not false they were forced to slow down when the moderate Dems had questions on spending and other concerns.

 

That is how it has been portrayed by the media and the conservative right, I can admit this even though I am republican. Disclosure of the details, such as the link I posted, has been around since the beginning of the dialogue on this subject, many just *chose* not to read it or disagreed with the timeline of passing the bill by the end of '09 which is this administrations published goal.

 

You dont think whitehouse.gov is a biased source?

 

I would argue that there are no unbiased sources. You asked how they planned to pay for it, they have laid out their plan in principle, now as informed and concerned citizens we must interpret the details when a final bill is presented. The point I am making is that nothing is being "hidden". The hysteria coming from some in my party (I wish Palin would shut up about the mythical "death squads") and the general misconceptions that are being shouted and perpetuated at these town hall meetings make all conservatives look bad. I am advising other conservatives to read what has been disclosed, stay abreast of any changes, and make informed criticisms, not just start braying "socialism" and "no to higher taxes".