Healthcare Reform

[ariannawyn]

Peliosi pulled it off. I am amazed. I figured for sure it would go down in flames and we would have to wait ANOTHER 17 years for them to try again.

Now we see if the Senate can pull the same rabbit out of the hat, and then after THAT, we see who was right, who was wrong, and which Congresspersons pay for their votes in November.

My Congressman, Jason

Comments

[baron_steffan]

I'm oddly ambivalent. On the one hand, something needed to be done. On the other, not sure this was it. So they prohibit insurances from hated practices like denial for pre-existing conditions. So...everyone who *doesn't* imagine that the insurances are going to cry higher costs and raise premiums astronomically, please raise your hand.

Everyone is afraid of the Big Bad Wolves of socialized medicine and single-payer healthcare, yet that's the norm in the civilized world, and it works. We really need to totally nuke the US healthcare system and start over from scratch. From scratch. Really. But that will never happen.

[retiredmaj]

Oh it's worse than that....the listed penalty to a company, per employee, for failing to provide health insurance is a tenth of what a company pays for its premium, per employee, right now. (Maybe a little bigger, maybe a little smaller, depending on the plan.) If I'm a CEO simply interested in the bottom line, I can vastly improve my balance sheet by simply dropping my insurance coverage and paying the federal penalty. (There are multiple other fails...I won't hijack the post by listing them.

We absolutely need health care/health insurance overhall. I think you have the right idea...nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure. But this bill ain't it, and the people who needed to "win," aren't gonig to.

[ariannawyn]

Why do you believe companies that offer health insurance now will get rid of it once it's mandated? That makes no sense. Companies don't currently offer health insurance because the government, or anyone else, forces them to. They do it because it's part of a package of benefits that will help them attract and retain quality employees. That won't change. Nuking their health plan would be self-destructive to the company, as most of their good people would leave. Sure, at current unemployment levels some stupid CEOs might figure that could save a buck that way because they currently have their employees over a barrel, but once the economy picks up they will still lose those experienced workers. The cost of training new workers is very high, so any boss with an ounce of smarts has no incentive to reduce benefits that way

[retiredmaj]

The company "nuking" it's health plan in a major metropolitan market *might* wreck the company. I'm not so convinced it will in a smaller market such as the one I'm in. Especially in this economy. Whether these poor conditions continue to hold until 2014 will remain to be seen (I certainly hope not.) If a couple of major players to do it to improve their bottom line, it'll set a precedent that'll be hard to kill

[ariannawyn]

For every dollar an employee spends on health care under a company plan, the employer spends five.More like four at my company. I know how much my benefit cost my company because I was on a COBRA plan for a while. I paid $1000 a month for a family plan on Cobra, and about $200 under the company. Stupidly, Johan's death made no difference - one adult plus two kids was the same as two adults plus two kids. But my company has been downsizing its healthcare plan over the years. Currently they're trying to push everyone into HSAs. I expect that will become mandatory at some point

[retiredmaj]

Hell, I'm already *on* government-controlled health care. So no, no "Cadillac" plan here. And yes, it's better than having none (when I can a find a physician willing to accept me as a patient because of the lousy reimbursement rate and bureaucractic nightmares that comes with it).

Don't mistake me, I want what you want, sane health-care delivery in this country....we just disagree on the path.

[ariannawyn]

Agreed.

A Thought Experiment

[baron_steffan]

In terms of nuking and starting from scratch, think about this. Why is it a given that healthcare be tied to employment in the first place? Yeah, okay, it's kinda worked, so far, but why is it an axiom? It makes as much sense to tie, oh idunno, trash removal to employment. Or cell phones. The company gets a break on cell-phone coverage because of the scale. If you want a direct-pay account, you have to pay more, for less features. And if you change jobs, you have to switch from Verizon to Sprint. When I say we have to re-think healthcare, that's what I'm talking about, not these little piecemeal sops and tweaks. Yeah, we have to nuke our healthcare system from orbit, and start over from an utterly clean slate.

Re: A Thought Experiment

[ariannawyn]

I agree completely. As I said in a previous discussion, single payer, baby.

So, you got a path from point A to point B in the current political climate? If so, I'll happily vote for you.