The fact remains that big insurance by refusing care to patients and reimbursement to doctors over typos has ticked everyone off. They have a monopoly over the whole process and a well financed lobby team (including Lieberman’s wife) and representatives on both sides of the isle.

A friend of mine recently laid off just he and his spouse is paying $2,500.00 dollars a month for his COBRA. Health insurance costs more than his mortgage. Anyone taking up the insurance industry’s cause doesn’t know what they are talking about.

If you think the insurance companies are going to voluntarily lower their cost while having a monopoly over the process – you are being disingenuous …Over 60% of all US bankruptcies are attributable to medical problems. Most victims are middle class, well educated and have health insurance – (The American Journal of Medicine)

The insurance companies and their representatives in Congress would love to perpetuate a business model that is crippling our overall economy – a bunch of great Americans aren’t they?

90% of the wealth concentrated in 1% of the population is no way to run a country but a heck of a way to establish a royalty ruling class. Yacht sales can not sustain 350 million people. I’m for the public option, competition and a level playing field or break up the big insurers like we did AT&T.

Paul Burke
Author-Journey Home

The Republican plan attempts to reform the system by creating high-risk insurance pools, allowing people to purchase health insurance policies across state lines, and instituting medical malpractice reforms.

The Congressional Budget Office, CBO, released its initial analysis of the health-care reform plan that Republican Minority Leader John Boehner offered as a substitute to the Democratic legislation.
http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/107xx/doc10705/hr3962amendmentBoehner.pdf

The CBO has a baseline estimate that 17 percent of legal, non-elderly residents won’t have health-care insurance in 2010. However after 10 years of the Republican plan, the CBO estimates that 17 percent of legal, non-elderly residents won’t have health-care insurance, so there would be no improvement. According to the CBO, theDemocratic bill will cover 36 million more people than the Republican Bill and cuts the uninsured population to 4 percent.

You must be asking yourselves, “You have to be kidding me”, but no this is the Republican plan and it gets worse.

The CBO estimates the GOP’s alternative will reduce $68 billion off the deficit in the next 10 years. However the CBO estimates the Democrats plan will reduce $104 billion off the deficit. Didn’t the Republicans say the Democrats were adding more to the deficit, I guess not according to the CBO?

Additional Problems with the Republican Bill:

Nowhere does the bill make it illegal for insurance companies to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions. As a result, consumers will never be fully protected and guaranteed coverage options.

The Republican bill states that it improves access through high-risk pools, but according to the bill, those states that currently do not have high-risk pools never need to develop them, and those states that have high-risk pools could close them.

Without any additional protections, insurers would be allowed to cherry pick healthy enrollees by marketing strategies, benefit design, and targeting those states with the least consumer protections.

Does not have policies to promote quality health care and efficiency of health care in private or public health insurance.

Does not give premium assistance for middle-income families that struggle to pay for health insurance.

Does not give increased support or options for states to build the platforms to improve the delivery system.

The bill caps the amount of damages a person injured can receive and will preempt state consumer protection laws.

So this is the best the Republicans can come up and dare to criticize the Democratic Leadership and the President? What the Republican plan will do is continue to have more people uninsured, more people denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions, and cost taxpayers more money. That doesn’t seem like a plan to me.

Well John Boehner here is the reality facing millions of Americans today!

–62% of U.S. Bankruptcies Involve Medical Bills

–Current Health Care Costs Already Fueling Job Losses

–One in Five Americans Forced to Postpone Care

–50 Million Uninsured in America

–Another 25 Million Underinsured

–Dramatic Decline in Emergency Room Capacity

–94% of Health Insurance Markets in U.S Now “Highly Concentrated”

–Employer-Based Coverage Plummets Below 60%

Wilson is just seeking attention-big surprise there. I do not believe in this economy that any member of Congress should be taking that automatic pay raise, should accept increases in staff or petty cash, or should continue to accept taxpayer supported perks. I refer you to the FITSNews article: http://www.fitsnews.com/2008/12/21/ok-so-barrett-did-try-to-block-controversial-raises/

Everyone knows that Congressmen & Senators would never give back one red cent of any taxpayer funded perks. It’s a publicity stunt.

If he were serious about fiscal conservatism & the taxpayer’s burden, he would have already given back his salary increases as well as the free vacations/junkets. etc., & pay for his insurance out of pocket.

Let him go buy insurance for he & his family like the rest of us have to do, OUTSIDE the government (employer) based plans. Any reform that is proposed will not take affect until 2013-until then we’re still stuck paying for this so-called conservative, who keeps voting for his own pay raise.

It’s been my experience that these guys get too many sweet deals & if they are allowed to buy into it, a plan “just for them” will quickly be supplied, to be paid for by taxpayers, & we’ll get stuck again, & probably for more money.

However, I would only support tort reform when physicians in this country learn how to police their own industry, & develop a method to do so. There are countless numbers of doctors that are not qualified to practice that commit grave medical errors each year (as in patient death) and are only disciplined after the hospital loses the lawsuit that is brought against them.

From the moment that risk management department of a hospital identifies the medical error, the chart is removed from medical records and referred to the legal powers that be so that it is out of circulation, the attorneys are called in, & a plan develops with the goal to get everyone off the hook. A physician who makes this kind of an error may be lose privileges on a temporary basis or may continue to practice.

Ask any physician how many of their fellow practitioners they can think of who never should have hung that license.

When they figure out how to manage this system with an outlook that is heavier on consumer protection, then I’ll back it 100%.

I’ll let you do the math to figure out how to change this situation.

If they pass a public option, then yes, the federal government, which provides the health care option for Congress, should and will participate. This bill is all for show.

A public option doesn’t penalize the rural parts of the state and the link doesn’t go to an article that supports that argument.

Currently health insurance doesn’t work in America unless you have enough money. Its time to fix it. What’s Joe doing about this, other than maintaining the status quo and allowing the insurance companies to make money hand over fist?