Middle Class Healthcare Reform? Bend Over…

[Better Believe It]

Middle Class Healthcare Reform? Bend Over…
by Donna Smith
Common Dreams
May 18, 2009

It's coming. You and me and every middle class, working person in this nation is about to start handing over more and more of their hard earned cash to the private insurance industry, courtesy of our own elected members of Congress and our very popular President. Fire up those Treasury Department presses. We're going to be printing and providing money for insurance companies like no bail-out we've seen yet this economic crisis cycle.

First, no matter what percentage of your take home pay it takes, you will be legally required to buy private health insurance. Second, if all you can afford is a policy that leaves you financially exposed to bankruptcy and foreclosure, then you will still be legally required to purchase that private insurance product. Third, should you fail to buy a policy, you will pay a fine.

Like it so far? Feeling free and protected? Like the choices so far? It gets better.

The private, for-profit insurance industry has made concessions we are asked to celebrate. First, they'll issue every one of us a policy provided every one of us is legally forced to buy coverage. Second, they stop discriminating against women because they have uteruses and child-bearing capacity, provided we all have to buy their product. And third, and this was a real coup according to our leaders, the insurance companies, medical equipment folks and providers will slow the rate of increase in charging for their products to charge just a bit less in terms of percentages of overall costs than they had planned to do and as is predicted. Laughable concessions sold as real compromise.

Wait. There's more. In order to make sure every single American buys the private products from insurance companies and knowing some families won't make enough to afford what is offered, we'll all chip in and pay our taxes to subsidize those who cannot afford to buy the pricey plans. So, when each of us calculates our own monthly costs for healthcare, we'll need to factor in not only our own health insurance premium, our co-pays and deductibles, our medications and other out-of-pocket costs, but also the percentage of our payroll taxes dedicated to pay for the subsidies for low-income folks, the agencies to collect the fines paid by health-insurance-mandate-evaders, and the agency envisioned to be our clearing house for selling us the private product we're all forced to buy. If our real costs are added up, there will be a substantial increase for most middle class families.

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/17-0

[Sebastian Doyle]

1. Fuck this mandatory corporate RomneyHillaryCare horseshit.

It's time to catch up with the rest of the goddamn planet. Single Payer NOW, no more excuses. To HELL with the corporations and the tools who apologize for them.:grr:

[truedelphi]

15. I got your back on this one.

Single Payer Universal Health CARE and NOW!

[pleah]

2. The new health care plans= we are going to serve you shit and you're going to like it!

Any time the insurance industry, medical industry and the pharmaceutical industry are involved with health care, be prepared to bend over.

[Faryn Balyncd]

3. K & R

[nichomachus]

4. Frequently asked questions: Single-payer health care

http://www.pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php

Worth a read.

[Better Believe It]

5. Thanks for the link

[Prophet 451]

6. I live under "socialised" medicine

I swear they only use that term because it sounds like "socialist".

I promise, socialised medicine isn't as bad as you've been told.

[nichomachus]

7. When 90 percent of the population

has never been outside of the US -- and half of those that have were only on a cruise ship, it's easy to spread propaganda like this.

When I told my right-wing sister that I was going to spend a month in Spain, she was worried about what would happen if I got sick. I told her I'd go to a doctor or a hospital. She was convinced I would die, because everyone knows they practice third-world medicine.

The level of ignorance is astounding.

[Prophet 451]

8. *headdesk*

Just... wow. Spain isn't the best healthcare in Europe but "third-world", it isn't.

[nichomachus]

9. Do the Spanish let people

die on the floor of the emergency waiting room, while they mop the floor around them -- like we do in the US?

[Prophet 451]

10. Uh, no

AFAIK, the US is the only place in the civilised world that does that.

[nichomachus]

11. Begging the question

of whether we are really part of the civilized world -- or just an "associate member."

[Prophet 451]

13. Open question

Far as I can tell, being part of the civilised world depends on riches and firepower.

[cabluedem]

20. Anyone who saw "Sicko" knows US Healthcare is a ripoff system of for-profit plans. nt

[Prophet 451]

22. I know that, you know that....

Conservatives have yet to explain to me how a private insurance system that has to make a profit can be cheaper than a public health option which doesn't have to make a profit.

Oh, and teh NHS budget works out at around $2000 per person, per year. How much does the average American pay for their health insurance?

[JimWis]

12. K&R

[truedelphi]

14. Gosh, I am so excited about all this change that I can hardly wait! n/t

[Wednesdays]

16. K&R

:kick:

[OneBlueSky]

17. two brief observations . . .

first, if you build on a dysfunctional system, what you're left with is -- well -- a modified dysfunctional system . . .

second, as long as the insurance companies are permitted to siphon off a third or more of our healthcare dollars for things that have NO relationship at all to the provision of healthcare -- well, that's 30% of untold billions that are effectively being stolen from us for corporate profits, advertising and marketing, CEO salaries and perks, and all the rest . . . that's money that we're paying to those companies for exactly nothing in return . . .

not a way to build an efficient and effective healthcare system . . . but then again, that's not the goal, is it? . . . the goal is to maintain corporate profits at all costs -- and those costs are the difference between a functional system that serves the American public and a dysfunctional system that serves the corporations . . .

[florida08]

18. this sure sounds familiar

This Congress and this President are about to give us healthcare reform that will make the middle class burden for payment higher and will even more deeply restrict personal choices in medical care. And they are about to do it all with great fanfare claiming just the opposite.

Apparently we have a one-party system regardless who we vote for

[area51]

19. It's long past time we joined the 21st century, instead of staying in the 17th.

How long will we continue to stand by while 100,000 people die due to lack of healthcare in the U.S.?

How many people each year are forced to quit their jobs and apply for disability because they couldn't afford medical care?

Is single-payer healthcare just for "commies"?

Does everyone in 1st-world countries try to escape to the U.S. in order to share in our obscenely expensive, rationed healthcare?

Does everyone in 1st-world countries clamor for getting rid of single-payer, or public-insurance based healthcare, so they too can die like dogs like we do?

Physicians for a Nat'l Healthcare Plan have done their research, and have FAQs here.

[cabluedem]

21. I dont see anything about covering pre-existining conditions from day one. nt