Dear All, Today's NY Times has a story about how & why proposed national health care legilsation may hurt sooome conssumers.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/health/policy/25view.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y  Yours iin Him, Deb

"As it stands, we’re on the verge of enacting a policy that is due to explode, penalizing many of the very people that it was ostensibly designed to help. "

This is exactly how I have felt on government healthcare all along.

While we hear about the need for universal coverage so that those who can not afford healthcare can recieve it, our government has increasingly been cutting programs like Medicare and Medicaid. These programs give medical coverage to those who can least afford it. How can the government afford to cover those who have no insurance currently when they can't afford to cover the ones already on the government programs??

If the point is to tell people they have to have insurance and the government only forces companies to take those who previously would have been denied then who is paying the premiums. Those who can afford insurance have it and those who can not, don't. We are back to the fact that rather than expanding the current ability to cover low income people, they are decreasing due to lack of funds. So who is paying?

This worries me.

 

Dear Brandy, I have a "shameful secret."  While I have beneffitted from Medi-Cal (Medicaid) for more than a decade, I agree with you that single-payer or other governmental universal insurance payment plan will not work.  The reasons you set forth are cogent.  Furthermore, single-payer ro other governmental universal insurance plan would be managed care for everyone, & right now even people on Medicaid & Medicare can avoid being in manaaged care (ie, can get their choice of providers & specialists).  Love in Him, Deb

Medical insurance - private or government sponsored needs a major overhaul when it comes to fraud, wasteful spending, complicated jargon & rules and administrative mistakes . Everyone could get reasonable healthcare if these areas were reformed. Of course the private companies don't want to be told how to streamline and secure their businesses so they will resist any kind of reform mandated by the Government. Government run insurance isn't just Medicare /Medicaid. The VA and military are also Government run. And there are physicians who work in the White House and anyone on Capital Hill has access to them at any time (including visitors for emergency purposes). The problem is there is profit to be made by keeping people sick (repeat business). In other countries, the focus is on maintaining wellness. PBS Frontline ran a special comparing 6 countries and it was very informative.

Brandy:

These programs give medical coverage to those who can least afford it. How can the government afford to cover those who have no insurance currently when they can't afford to cover the ones already on the government programs??

My oldest falls into this category and he's irate that he can't qualify for reasonable health care.