Healthcare Reform

I feel the Obamacare that was passed was so watered down and less effective because Obama was too preoccupied trying to play nice and fair with the UNFAIR and not so nice Republicans.

America needs healthcare reform and at least SOME aspects such as basic preventative care to be extremely cheap or free for everyone at any age/employment bracket.

I'd rather it stands as is to be worked up on as a foundation for change than to appeal it and start over.

If they would focus more on keeping what employed people have already (Im happ with my hubby's healthcare!), and just focus more on helping people that actually NEED help, then I'd be happy. Extend more to the unemployed and povery level. Leave me out of it! If I need to pay more, so be it as far as taxes. I'd rather help the needy and keep what I have.

Conservatives often claim to want reform, but many actually don't feel everyone deserves health care which is why they fight the entire concept and never tried to implement it themselves. They also made SURE there was no competition by not allowing the possibility of an affordable government option to those millions who can't afford the private insurers we have-the WORKING poor. And you don't have to be poverty level not to be able to afford the outrageous cost of private insurance.

And FYI to the people who think it would be helping shiftless crack heads: The totally non working welfare people ARE covered, its the working people who are not.

The only people I know who think America has a great health care system are A) the lucky few with insurance through their job or spouse's job who have no idea what their fellow Americans go through and don't care because they have the very UN Christian (despite what they claim) attitude of 'every man for himself' (because they have what they need).

and

B) people who have never traveled and believe the lies that it would be welfare or an odious foreshadowing to socialism and communism if everyone could go to the doctor when they needed to without a financial collapse happening to their family.

There's really no reason to discuss it anymore, it's never going to happen here. Obama barely nudged the system an inch using all his might against the Republican brick wall, and people are still screaming "Obamacare" (while going to their same doctors on their same insurance plans) . And if a Republican gets in next time, we'll be back to square one, and they can all rejoice.

So no worries tea party people, our insurance companies, drug companies, etc will not be losing their precious profits. But don't come crying to me when they refuse your care one day on a technicality. It happens. A lot.

I do not call it degradingly "Obamacare". I am a democrat. I watch Bill Maher. I am pro-choice. I am "liberal minded". I think pot should be legalized and taxed. And we'd be out of the recession. I think everyone should have health care. Is that so crazy??? 50 years from now, people will talk about the days of no free health care for all the same way we talk about slavery and segregation now - in a "can you believe things used to be like this???" way. I enjoy many services the "awful government" provides. Free public schools which in my area are pretty good. A really nice library walking distance to my house with a TON of children's programs, all free. My mail is delivered every day from a friendly postal worker. I have good roads around me. And so on.
As a note, in NY, we have something called Child Health Plus which is state subsidized insurance for kids. You pay based on your level of income. We have this for our kids, we pay for it but it is less than if we had to pay for family insurance. (My husband's job only pays for single person). The insurance is FANTASTIC. We have a top notch ped, and every service someone with "private" insurance would have.
Those of you who think the government will be making decisions about who gets to live and who gets to die...guess what --- the private insurance companies already get to do that --- and they're not elected people who care what "the public" think of them. They are making profits by denying care.
I know I'm ranting and raving - sorry - you asked for it! LOL!
I do not discuss politics unless someone else goes there, ever.
I am sure this is not going to be popular with everyone on this site. I know there are tea partiers and conservatives on here who will despise my answer. But there you go.

About that poll, if you ask people "Do you want MORE government red tape or LESS government red tape", you're going to get a high percentage against red tape.

But nothing compares to INSURANCE COMPANY RED TAPE. Hospitals employ entire departments just to deal with arbitrary insurance company BS. The for-profit health insurance industry takes 30 percent off the top of every dollar you send for "administrative costs". Medicare takes about 3 percent.

Obviously, the opposition to health-care reform is all about preserving the 30% portion of the pie.

Rasmussen is a "conservative" polling group, and asks questions that elicit a pro-corporate lobbyist response.

It's high time we joined the civilized world. What modern country does not have national health care. Only the USA. What modern country does not have a child allowance...that is money paid out to parents so they can outfit their children for school? The USA once again.
What modern country does not pay the salary of a new mother for four months. USA.
What country give big money to BiG OIL. USA.
What do I think. I think anyone who doesn't want to join the 21st century should find a really backward nation and move there. The rest of us can deal with being a full fledged nation.

All I am going to say is we need universal coverage.
So many moms are stuck working FT because they are the ones who have the familiy's health coverage. I have noticed moms mentioning that on here all the time. So many people would love to open their own business but do not because they wouldn't be able to afford health coverage. It is pathetic and it is holding our society back big time.
And oh yeah I noticed someone posting on here the other day saying just to add her daughter to her plan would be $300? Pitiful.
Universal coverage now!!!!!!!!

You really like stirring the pot on political issues, don't you. Voters DO think less government red tape is great, until it doesn't work.

The for profit insurance companies that give their top level people huge bonuses do so by throwing sick people off of insurance (recission) and not accepting anyone with previous illnesses. YOU might think that this kind of competition is fair and equitable, but just wait until this happens to you or your family members. Then maybe you will realize that federal involvement and a real CHANGE in how health care is dealt with in this country is sorely needed.

Dawn

Yeah, because insurance companies are so motivated not to screw their customers as long as there's a free market and no regulation. Oh, wait. No they're not.

Our current system of privatized insurance is a mess. We ought to scrap the entire thing and go with a single-payer system. Medicare for all. Perfect? No. Better than what we have? Yup.

Health insurance for all (which is what we got) is not the same as health care for all (which is what we need).
The whole health insurance system which sprang up has DRIVEN the unreasonable rise in costs - it doesn't focus on getting things priced in a reasonable way - it merely juggles methods to pay prices that are higher than anywhere else on the planet.
Our health care costs do not behave like a free market because it hasn't been a free market since at least the 70's.
We spend way more and get way less bang for the buck.
"But we NEED high costs to pay for research for new cures".
What's the point of a cure if you can't afford to use it?
There are a few insurance free doctors offices which work on a cash/carry basis - they work so very well because they don't need a large staff to juggle mountains of insurance required paperwork and as a result they charge about 1/3 the price of offices which work with insurance.
People can AFFORD health care at 1/3 the price.
(Too many people fall through the cracks when health care is employment based - we need to get away from that.)
So I say - ditch health insurance industry altogether, lower prices to 1/3 the current rate and THEN our whole country should be able to afford care for all like every other industrialize nation has managed to provide.
Additional:
Where in the constitution does it say we need to maintain roads, schools, police and fire departments? Where does it say the handicapped need special parking spaces and where does it outline a need for special education?
It's a great document, but when it was written health care meant you live till you die (life expectancy in 1776 was 35 years, by 1900 it was up to 47) and there was a whole lot of snake oil that passed for 'medicine' (no government regulation means snail oil is totally fine!).
Somalia has the smallest government (more or less none) and I don't see where reducing government to the point of anarchy would do us any good.

There has to be some sort of reform. The cost of health care is simply getting out of control.

Is it really a right for every American to have free healthcare? Can someone please tell me where I can find that in our Constitution?

Someone has to pay for the free healthcare people. It isn't really free. You get that, right? Oh, and you do understand that Obama and the rest of the liberals who pushed this through, along with their families will never be subjected to the level of care that we, the little people, will receive. You DO understand that, right?

One more thing, did you know the entire state of Nevada got a partial waiver? Harry Reid's home state. Hmmm?
http://www.askheritage.org/how-about-a-national-obamacare...

Leah, public schools and libraries aren't free. Taxes pay for them and New Yorkers pay extremely high taxes, the second highest in the entire nation.
http://247wallst.com/2011/07/21/108558/3/

I am amused by people saying "free" healthcare. It isn't free! Get a clue. I am so tired of hearing about the "mean" republicans; the "I don't care" republicans. Enough! No, I do not like Obamacare. It is not free. Our insurance at work went up a huge amount this year? Why? Someone has to pay for Obamacare. I am all for meaningful reform but not universal. Yes I am lucky to have very good insurance but I made the choice to have it. Its a CHOICE not a right.

While there has to be some sort of REFORM - Obamacare MUST be repealed..

It is NOT the Government's responsibility to care for the people...The Constitution guarantees you life, liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness...just because it guarantees you life - doesn't mean you can change it up to mean that the Government MUST care for its citizens...

For all the fuss people make about Obamacare, nothing has actually happened yet, so I don't know why they are freaking out.

How people can afford healthcare in this country, unless they are rich or it is paid for by their company, is beyond me. It would seem to me that anyone facing paying 1/4 or 1/5 of their monthly take-home pay out of pocket for health insurance, just to ensure that they aren't bankrupted by their medical costs, should relish the assistance.

But for some reason, many people don't want the help and would prefer to pay an obscene amount for their health care. There are any number of countries that have a good health care system in place, whose systems we could copy.

I don't know the exact details of "Obamacare" (but I know they don't include Death Panels), but something must be better than what we currently have.

As a nurse that works at a major academic medical center I can tell you what healthcare reform has done to hospitals....cut funding. As a result staffing is being drastically cut to unsafe levels to try to make up the amount of money they are losing. As a result of staffing cuts patients aren't being adequately monitored and mistakes are being made. Nurses are also extremely unhappy with their profesion as a result of being so overworked(for example I just got off my 2nd 13 1/2 hr shift in a row where I had no break) which is going to lead to burnout resulting in another major nurse shortage. So Obama's "healthcare reform" to me means hospitals will be a scary place to be..for patients and staff.

I often find it interesting when people speak of the private industries administrative costs. The government doesn't do that and how many billions of medicaid and medicare fraud is there? What you have to look for in private business is if they are spending dollars it is only to save more.

The problem with costs isn't about who is running it but how. HMOs made it too easy to get procedures done, whether you need them or not, because it is just one small copay. If you have a choice between procedure X which cost $1,000 and procedure Y that cost $15,000 you are going to pick procedure Y even though procedure X would fix your issue. Why? Because regardless of what you pick you are only paying maybe a $100 copay. You want the most for the money without regard for the effect in aggregate.

Costs went up when we got away from high deductible catastrophic coverage and until we go back the costs will continue to grow.

Ack! I hate the only the rich can afford health coverage. I was making $30,000 a year and supporting my family. I still found money in my budget to pay the $227 my health coverage cost. Sure I didn't have any mad money but at least I was paying for my needs.

I agree with parts of it. I don't think people should be forced to get healthcare insurance and small businesses should not have to go bankrupt to provide insurance but I also don't think that those without insurance should automatically get government coverage. Without insurance, you can work with the hospital or doctor's office to pay the bills or get discounted billing or at least all should be able to. The parts I do like are that children can not be exempted from coverage for pre-existing conditions and no lifetime maximum on coverage though I think that does not take effect until 2014. My son has a medical condition and his meds cost $13000+ every month which will increase as he grows which luckily is covered by insurance but that lifetime max really adds up fast. Plus without the pre-existing condition elimination, I would have trouble getting private insurance if we ever had jobs without benefits or went into business for ourselves. I am sure there is a lot of "tweeking" to be done and yes I think it was not fully considered and thought out before passing but that happens in everything.

I personally think Obama-care is a wasted taxpayers money...

like others - I FIRMLY believe that is it NOT the U.S. governments responsibility to provide health care to its citizens...

while TORT reform needs to be done...bottom line? it is NOT the governments responsibility....one poster asked - where in the Constitution does it state "provide health care"? IT DOES NOT!!!! Life, liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness...doesn't mean you are GOING to be happy - but you have the CHOICE to PURSUE it!!!

And Stacey hit the nail on the head - NOTHING IS FREE!!!! Someone somewhere is paying for it!!
And while Rasmussen is Conservative - at least it's not Mother Jones leaning left and giving out distorted information....like any other MEDIA organization - it will produce polls or other reports that slant it towards their way of thinking....

We could get rid of illegals - here in California - that might put us back in the black again....we spend BILLIONS on illegals here - money, rent/housing, food, medical care - hell - we take better care of the illegals than we do our OWN CITIZENS!!!!

There is so much more to say - but this has been beaten like a dead horse...

Personally I think doctors should get paid based on the positive outcomes they help produce, rather than simply the services they provide, but I"m not sure how that would work in the real world. If anyone else has any thoughts on this I'd love to hear.