I read a column today by Peggy Noonan. It was interesting to read what she thought of how our President has pretty much squandered any good will the people had towards him as a politician.
I remember back in December has I was wretching my guts out from chemotheraphy, and thinking about how someone with no health insurance would basically be out of luck in getting the extensive treatment I was getting....I know it crystalized in my head the idea that there must be a way to have comprehensive health care for all without sending us all to the poorhouse.
Now the Obamacare law is before the Supreme Court, and many speculate the law will be tossed...which is a shame since there ARE some good points in the law. I can't beleive Congress passed it without a clause that if part of the law is found unconstituional, that part gets tossed and the rest stays. So how does a Constituional law professor (Obama) push a law thru knowing that without the severability clause, the law might be unravelled???
Didn't it have something like 25,0000 pages? The president,congress,and the senate never read it.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure about the number of pages. Remember there were actually several healthcare bills tossed around at that time. One has to be careful to make sure they are reading the correct one. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is the one that Obama signed into law. I have read part of the law, so I don't think it is that long of a document.
ReplyDeleteYes, there are some aspects of the law that is good; such as the change in accessing one's records, making it easier for one to see and get copies of their records. Before many hospitals make it difficult (one has to wonder if they were worried about lawsuits).
The mandate for insurance came about because they wanted to force insurance companies to cover existing illness at the time one took out the policy which of course then removes the risk and insurance is a risk based enterprise. The insurance companies are hoping you will pay in many years of premiums before they have to pay for any healthcare costs. That is how insurance is suppose to work. Otherwise, insurance companies will go broke.
Therefore, if the mandate is struck, all that needs to be done is to remove the covering existing illnesses at the time the policy is brought; those two could be removed and the rest of the law remain in place.
The problem over the years is the idea that insurance companies provide healthcare. They don't. Hospitals and doctors provide healthcare. Yet nothing about why medical costs in the US are so bloody higher than in other countries for the same treatments. Of course Canice and I disagree here as she is pro big corporations and I am not; however, in my opinion the problem is that of corporate healthcare. I proposed not touching corporate healthcare and simply place a public healthcare system in place beside them. Perhaps expand the VA programme and build at least one VA hospital in the centre of each state to help treat those who can not afford corporate healthcare. When one does not need hospital treatment, state operated clinics can coverage other treatments. The corporate healthcare should not mind, after all, competition is what capitalism is all about, correct?
secretcorners wrote today at 11:30 AM
ReplyDelete" Of course Canice and I disagree here as she is pro big corporations and I am not; however, in my opinion the problem is that of corporate healthcare. I proposed not touching corporate healthcare and simply place a public healthcare system in place beside them. Perhaps expand the VA programme and build at least one VA hospital in the centre of each state to help treat those who can not afford corporate healthcare. When one does not need hospital treatment, state operated clinics can coverage other treatments. The corporate healthcare should not mind, after all, competition is what capitalism is all about, correct?"
Canice- I think if the mandate is struck, then send the whole think back to Congress, and trim some of the 2700 pages which were associated with enforcing the mandate, then insert a INCREASE to Medicare tax, and expand Medicare/Medicaid...along with cost containment.
They also need to start doing something about the hospitals scamming (and that is what it is, scamming) Medicare/Medicaid. I have read where hospitals are ordering double tests when it is not necessary; and placing more difficulties on the patient, over charging, double charging etc. The fraud in Medicare/Medicaid is rampant because it is the ideal that the taxpayers are paying for it. That steals money from the system that could go to help more people. There is a reason that Medicare/Medicaid costs keep going up and it is not because of the system, it is because of the hospitals.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that should be in the bill is to stop the monopoly the drug companies have in the US. There should be no reason a person in the US can not buy their medicines from Canada.
Really, there is no excuse there can not be a National Healthcare System in the US. People bitch about having to pay someone else's costs. Well guess what, that is the case for a lot of other things those same people enjoy; such as a nice highway system they drive on, clean drinking water, and sewage treatment. We all pitch in and share the costs of providing a lot of services. Everyone will get to use the National Healthcare System, not just the poor; even the ones that bitches about having to pay someone else's costs.
ReplyDelete