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StumbleLETTER TO THE EDITOR:
Goals health care reform must meet
Sunday, Sept. 6, 2009 | 2:04 a.m.
The national health care debate must center on how health insurance will be reformed nationally; without this, health care will change little or will deteriorate from where it is.
Important changes in health insurance legislation are long overdue. All preexisting condition restrictions must be ended; all diseases must be covered for everyone.
Catastrophic insurance coverage must be provided for all; no one should be financially destroyed because of personal or family-related catastrophic or long-term illness or accident.
Medications must be available at reasonable costs as pharmaceutical companies have had monopolies on specific drug products for decades; exorbitant profits have been made at the expense of the working public. That is not fair. It is unconscionable that identical medications can be purchased reasonably from Canada or European sources while prices in the U.S. are out of sight.
There needs to be competition between pharmaceutical companies to lower production and retail costs. The Medicare “doughnut hole” for drug costs must be eliminated; it is unreasonable to expect senior citizens to expend about $4,000 before full Medicare coverage kicks in. What average American senior can afford such an expense?
Determination of specific treatments and recommended medications must remain the domain of doctor and patient. Insurance companies have no business dictating or limiting treatment or courses of action permitted by a doctor.
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Now if the Democrats could come out with a plan like that we could get somewhere.
McCarran-Ferguson Act (1945) passed within a year of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling ending anti-trust exemptions that insurance companies had enjoyed for decades.
No one is seriously discussing striking down McCarran-Ferguson today.
It's not part of the current conversation in the House and Senate bills. McCarran-Ferguson is "a big, messy problem that would be very difficult to unwind ... I don't see any part of this legislation that's going to try to reform McCarran-Ferguson,"
The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies writes in an online posting this spring that any change to McCarran-Ferguson "could decrease market stability, reduce affordability and availability of products, stifle innovation and expansion, diminish industry efficiency, and ultimately, inhibit rather than increase competition in the insurance marketplace."
Instead of going after the root of the problem - an existing federal law Democrats want to have a public option which would not really do anything.
We need to reform auto insurance as well. Pre existing tickets and accidents should not count against a driver. DUI convictions make auto insurance more expensive and that is wrong.
Some people have cars that cost more to fix than others and that makes insurance costs go up as well. We need one price for all.
Then we can fix home insurance. Why should I pay more just because my house is bigger? Why should I have to buy flood insurance just because it floods in some places. One price for all.
Charge everyone more so I can get mine cheaper.
listen to the brilliant birdie...
it is very very simple...
you either support the excessive profits of the greedy pig insurance companies and their very real death panels and the excessive salaries of the money grubbing whore doctors...
or...
you support reform and the public option which is the every best means to drive the cost of health care down...
period...
end of story...
Hey neiman1. You forgot to mention Life Insurance.
I pay more because I smoke, drink, like wild women and skydive.
The insurance would not let me increase the amount of my death benefit.
I think the government should take over the life insurance system so we can all have the same coverage for the same cost.
I am fortunate to have some very excellent and highly professional doctors. One of them I know thinks of his career as a wonderful hobby and is extemely caring and helpful to his patients beyond what most would find today. He recently commented that the proposed changes in medical care will surely turn his hobby into a job; to him that would mean the joy of taking care of people would soon be gone.
It seems that proposed national health care changes are eventually going to do the same thing to medical care that National No Child Left Behind initiative has done, and is doing, to teachers and the profession of teaching; they are killing the joy of teaching with their miniscule management and oversight policies, test emphasis strategies, and uniform student outcome goals. Medicine could very well go that way as well. It may already be to late to stop the snowball effect of governmental oversight in medicine.
Spend, spend, spend....deficits, deficits, deficits...tax, tax, tax...Spend, spend, spend....deficits, deficits, deficits...tax, tax, tax...Spend, spend, spend....deficits, deficits, deficits...tax, tax, tax...Spend, spend, spend....deficits, deficits, deficits...tax, tax, tax...Spend, spend, spend....deficits, deficits, deficits...tax, tax, tax...Spend, spend, spend....deficits, deficits, deficits...tax, tax, tax...
Hey SgtRock, are you calling the "Bird?"
Me thinks the "Bird" is over at Heidi's getting his "public option" looked at. It does not seem to stand on it's own anymore. I hope Heidi can fix it, if not, the President will have to remove it during his next speech.
Every man,woman and child in this country
needs health care ,period. That is the goal
we should be working for. NOBODY LEFT OUT.
SgtRock: Spend, spend, spend...Bush, Bush, Bush, .deficits, deficits, deficits...forgot to tax, Spend, spend, spend....Bush, Bush, Bush, deficits, deficits, deficits...forgot to tax, tax...Spend, spend, spend....Bush, Bush, Bush, deficits, deficits, deficits...forgot to tax, ...Spend, spend, spend....Bush, Bush, Bush, deficits, deficits, deficits...
Bush left the present administration with no options other than to spend to keep the economy from imploding. Personally I don't care if the big three automakers went to their graves. If they couldn't learn to compete with imports in 30 years then they deserve to go under, but putting hundreds of thousands of additional americans out of work at that time would have been the knockout punch to the american economy and the possible end of a great Republic.
The President is getting us through it with great success. Put the blame for the present deficit spending where it belongs and own up to the mistakes of the past eight years that saw peace and prosperity changed into the near downfall of our great country.
Hey Sgt Rock. Here's another one of these guys that can't get George Bush off their mind. How long will it be before they realize that Bush is no longer in the White House? 3 1/2 years from now, when Obama does not win his reelection, These guys will probably blame Bush for it.
If Obama did not want the job, then why did he run? Hillary would have taken it...
Hey Willie. It's time to turn around and look forward. You keep looking back for George, but he's not there anymore...
(Larry, you are smart and your comments are right on but don't give them any ideas.)
How about food? Why should people have to eat Top Ramen and 70% fat ground beef?
Isn't food is a right just like health care? Even people who are unable to afford health insurance or whose employers don't offer it have access to care.
There are discount clinics. There are University teaching clinics that see patients for what they can pay. The emergency room, although not ideal, is available for care.
It is the Top Ramen of care, not a lobster dinner, but it is care. There are discount pharmacies and hundreds of medicines available for $4 at Wall Mart. Maybe none is as good as signing up with one of those new VIP docs but"..
The point is that maybe the system needs to be fixed but the illusion that everyone should be given a gold plated package of health insurance regardless of personal choices, bad habits, bad choices, etc is just that. An illusion.
Life no more owes you that then it does rib eye steaks in every pot.
I know this type of talk about personal responsibility, differences in access to services, etc makes you Libs crazy but those of us who have worked our asses off and sacrificed all of our lives to get ahead are not quite ready to turn over all of our hard earned money to you.
Remember, any of you reading this that are still paying taxes; you are free to send all the money you want to your hero Obama. Get out your check books and give till it hurts.
pbim-thank you, I couldn't have said it as well myself.
LarryVegas: I think it's wise to see how we got where we are. The Rock says Tax, spend, deficits. The new spending and increased deficits are due to horrible economic policies of the drunken sailor in the White house for the past 8 years.
My taxes haven't gone up a nickel.
Both the Republicans and Democrats have let this country down. It's time our elected officials to represent not dictate.
larryvegas:
President Obama is doing exactly what the
majority of Americans voted him to do.
So the majority of voters wanted more debt and more czars?
President Obama ran in the middle and promised independent voters he would govern from the middle. He has not and the independents will take him and others out of office during the next couple of elections.
I appreciate the love.