I am finding the same information that tells us good stuff but not the bad stuff. I need to get a clarification on the bad stuff.
It is after midnight and I am listening to Jeff Bingamen (sp) on Cspan discussing the mandated purchase of insurance by citizens who can find insurance for something like 9.8% of their income. I am paraphrasing what I understand him to be saying.
He, as I understand it, is saying that there will be people who cannot afford insurance for the 9.8?% of their income, and they will be subsidized. '
Okay, I got that. Sounds fair.
Then there will be, he says, people who will buy health insurance, whether it's subsidized or not, whether it's 9.8% or not, whether there is a penalty or not, but because it is the right and responsible thing for them to do.
Okay. I got that. Sounds nice.
Then, he says, there will be people who will chose to not buy insurance they figure that the penalty for not buying it will be something like $500. and a basic policy would likely cost them something like $3,000. so they will figure they'll pay the penalty and then if they need serious health treatment, they'll drop into the ER and expect to be treated.
Then, (so help me, he said something very close to this) "THEY JUST WON'T HAVE ANY INSURANCE AND THEY WON'T HAVE ANY WAY TO PAY FOR TREATMENT"
?????
What about the penalty they paid? They pay a penalty and then we just have the right to turn them away from medical treatment if they are in a car crash, or get attacked by a shark while swimming, or happen to be in a house that is flattened by a tornado? Who are we kidding here? If we're going to have to treat them in the ER anyway, that's just what we're doing now, so how is that "reform" or "covering more Americans?"
This is NOT clear to me. This makes NO civilized sense to me. This is unacceptable to me.
Then I read tonight--it may even be in the articles you posted--that this current bill will cause an alteration in the extra premiums that are being collected by those insurance companies that are engaging in the Medicare Advantage plans. The short version of this subject is that Obama said he was going to cut "funding" for Medicare, I believe the Medicare Advantage plans were highlighted .
Now, Obama, and Obama supporters, say, "Yes, he's cutting funding, but services will not be cut. He's going to be cutting out the wasteful spending that is going on in the Medicare Advantage plans. So, although it will have less funding, the services will remain the same." Of course, the opponents of Obama are saying "Obama is going to cut services to Medicare Advantage recipients." Who knows?
This is NOT clear to me, and I am on my State's mandated Medicare Advantage Plan because of preexisting, long term, incurable diseases, i.e. COPD and diabetes, plus heart disease, plus stroke. I cannot find anywhere where it is spelled out what changes are scheduled for the Medicare Advantage Plan, but I am fairly certain it is scheduled for a large portion of any of the spending cuts.
I don't particularly like the plan, as the insurance company uses me as a cash cow and, until I became openly and seriously hostile to their persistent phone calls, they kept trying to sell me products and services I did not need just so they could bill the government the exhorbitant fees to make their profits. In addition, such medical products as I did purchase from them initially were of poor quality and unknown origin. The blood pressure meter was unreliable (an unreturnable) as was the thermometer.
In addition to that, since my hostility became known to them, they have been erratic in sending payment, in many cases refusing to notify me of unpaid balances until three to six months after the treatment which makes me have to pay out of pocket. In other words, if one does not serve as a compliant cash cow to the insurance company, the Medicare Advantage Plan company to which I was assigned by my STATE, (I was shifted from my former Federally serviced Medicare and Medicaid) is more than willing to infllict economic damage and harrasing type stress upon a 74 year old survivor of heart surgery and stroke. I hate the damned thing. They all belong in jail. But, guess what. that's what happens when one "privatizes" a public service.
At the same time, even hating the plan, it is apparently all my particular State is going to permit me to have. Since I have Joe Wilson, Jim DeMint, and Lindsey Graham running my health care opportunities, if they don't get what they want, they can arrange for some more State's Rights arrangements that I probably will like even less.
Who has information on this "buy insurance or be penalized and be denied medical attention" mythology? threat? promise? hysteria? whatever?
I don't want to hear the "oh, don't pay attention to the details" people who are trying to put a good face on this disaster. and I don't want the tea baggers brewing up some "be very afraid tea." I cannot find any source that clarifies what IS going to happen with this buy it or be penalized discussion.
There are clailms that 31 million more people will be covered, but there are no claims that the insurance companies won't receive blackmail type increases to cover them. The same for the reduction, or correction in the disparity for the cost of women's health insurance. I haven't heard of any "price controls" being placed on Insurance companies. So, how are those prices going to decrease unless the government pays them off. I haven't heard about how the elderly's premiums are going to go up, but, well, they would go up anyway, but maybe they won't go up quite so much. Is that because, once again the government (meaning you and me and all the other taxpayers) are going to be blackmailed by the Insurance companies for the money. Why am I not hearing about cost control, or price controls being put on the insurance companies. What kinds of regulations and requirements for honesty are left to use against HMO's. Last I heard, during the Bush Administration (I think, but it could have been Clinton's) Congress passed a law that an HMO could not be sued for damages by a patient. Is that still the case? I don't know if they can be held liable by the government for fraud, even....or even effen!
Why am I not hearing about being able to bargain for cheaper drugs?
Why am I hearing that the costs will go down, when it is obvious that they are going to go up.
This is doublespeak. Voodoo economics revisited.
Where is regulation? Where is excessive profits? Where is the waste from fraud by the insurance companies being handled.
If Nelson continues to hold out for the anti abortion amendment....would rather see the bill die an unnatural death than concede the point...and we permit the wording to remain in the bill and sign it into law, it is the key unlocking the door to throw out Roe v Wade. Abortion is a medical procedure and it is not only being decided by religious/political bureaucrats, it is being decided by the bean counters for profits as well. The religious politicals have sufficient power to threaten a loss of government business if the Insurance companies do not join in with banning abortions. Will the women who are dying from coat hanger abortions be permitted live saving emergency treatment? Or will we permit them to just bleed to death?
I have no information on what has happened to determine whether or not immigrants, legal or "un" are going to be permitted to buy into, with their own money, ANY health care plan. If they cannot buy into our health care system and the right wingers have their way, they cannot receive government subsidized medical treatment, tell me what's going to happen when a busload of fieldhands gets caught on a railroad track, or slide off the side of a road into a canal? What does the local EMT responders do? Let 'em lay where they fell?
I am too tired to write anymore. But there are questions unanswered, important questions. This is bill has been so dragged to death with petty bullshit and bickering, leaks and threats, promises and failures that I don't think anyone who should know the answers to these questions has had time to realize the questions might even exist.
I wanna know about the issues left hanging up in the air. Whether or not someone is going to pay for Viagra or cosmetic surgery, electric motor scooters or prostheses, are things that could be worked out later. But how to deal with accident victims, old people, abortion, immigrants, college students, rich people who delilberately plan on sucking off the system by not being insured, when the supplements are going to kick in for the working poor and the small businesses, and if the small businesses are going to be required to provide insurance and penalized or subsidized if they can't or won't, and who is going to determine when an individual or a business could but won't?
There are too many closet doors with strange noises coming from within. I truly don't think I have too much longer to worry about this mess, but I have four children and they have children. And I know people who aren't yet as old as me who are in dire need of medical care NOW, and they cannot afford it. They are friends. They are human beings. They don't deserve to be treated like broken down cars left to sit somewhere and rot and rust away until they are no longer recognizable as the loved and useful beings they are.
These are some of my questions. If I wasn't so tired, I could probably do another ten pages. (I know, you're thanking your lucky stars I'm tired. lol. Really, Sooz, I wanna be informed, and I just don't feel like the President, or his spokespeople, or our representatives and senators (of either party) are giving us open and honest information. I'm old. I am slower at thinking than I was twenty years ago, but I am not stupid. I can understand plain english and the answers to these questions should be available to everyone, but especially to the elderly whose lives depend upon the ethical qualities of those upon whom they must rely for their very lives. WE don't have a hell of a lot of time to wait to be informed on our limited choices, and we certainly can't make a "comeback" if the world falls on our heads. Our trains have already left the station.
jd
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