Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumbleLetter to the editor:
Public option would solve many problems
Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009 | 2:01 a.m.
Americans need a strong health care reform bill that includes the public option. All citizens, with or without health care insurance, need help.
Is the health insurance industry going to help us? No. Is the pharmaceutical industry going to help us? No. These two giants stand to lose billions if health care reform is passed with the public option intact.
It is this public option that just might lower health care costs and prevent these greedy industries from making even more profit at our expense. Without the public option there are only insurance companies.
We as individuals cannot rein in insurance and pharmaceutical costs, so the federal government must step in to help. Congressional Republicans yell: Keep government out of health care! A free market is best!
Yeah, right. It is embarrassingly obvious they want President Barack Obama to fail in this attempt to help all Americans.
Medicare, a federal health care program, works. True, it is not perfect (and this needs attention), but it mostly works. For example, a friend spent 27 days in a hospital. She has Medicare. She is fortunate.
Her hospital bill was $456,000. Medicare allowed and paid $46,000, and the hospital accepted this as payment in full. If she did not have Medicare, she would have owed the hospital half a million dollars. Such health care costs are the No. 1 reason for bankruptcy filings in the United States.
Those who think we do not need health care reform without the public option, please think again.
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
- Photos: Olivia Culpo, 20, of Rhode Island is crowned 2012 Miss USA at Planet Hollywood
- US Navy hopes stealth ship answers a rising China
- Photos: Derek Hough celebrates 27th birthday at Tabu Ultra Lounge
- Learning about Electric Daisy Carnival fans will help Las Vegas court them
- On the horizon: A quick look at projects poised to shape downtown
Everything Under the Sun
Blogs
The Kats Report
Joe Pesci remembers his own honeymoon in Vegas -- meeting the Rat Pack
Las Vegas Philharmonic says search for new music director to begin 'immediately' (1 Comment)
With Shenandoah project stalled, Wayne Newton hits back legally (7 Comments)
Where does a Playmate play when she turns 21? Vegas! (3 Comments)
Ice Ice Billy
The road to six-toed cats and Mayor Bubba
The Kats Report
David Itkin tells L.V. Philharmonic officials he's on his way out (14 Comments)
Diamond Dave sells it well as Van Halen pours out the power at MGM Grand (2 Comments)
- Locally owned and independent since 1950; Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, best news website in the nation & DuPont Award for broadcast journalism
senator max baucus is a clown...
his senate finance committee bill is a joke...
written by the insurance industry which has given him over $3 million...
will increase insurance companies revenues...
will increase insurance companies profits...
provides no means whatsoever to reduce the cost of health...
none...
zip...
zilch...
and this clown held up the country for 2 months for this piece of crap...
call max the clown at (202) 224-2651...
tell max the clown you are outraged...
tell max the clown he is a disgrace...
tell max the clown you will make a $100 contribution to whomever challenges him in his next election...
ask max the clown what it feels like to be a whore for the insurance industry!!!
"It is this public option that just might lower health care costs"
"that just might"
Is that an endorsement?
We should change 1/6 of the economy because it "just might" lower cost
There is no study and no proof that it will lower cost.
No where did i read max baucus in this letter, birdie, I'm gonna ask you something
WHO KNOW'S WHAT THE HOSE NOSE KNOW'S, SPEAK BEAK,
OMG WTF BBQ ASAP PDQ MDA ERA RBI SNL DUI AWOL BYOB KMG365 AGT, TO NAME A FEW. STILL CAN'T BELIVE KEVIN SKINNER WON AGT AND JORDON WON BIG BROTHER
Jill, the letter writer, said...
"Medicare, a federal health care program, works."
...she then went on to provide an example...
"For example, a friend spent 27 days in a hospital. She has Medicare. She is fortunate.
Her hospital bill was $456,000. Medicare allowed and paid $46,000, and the hospital accepted this as payment in full."
...So Medicare only pays 10% and still it is going bankrupt. And the hospital doesn't accept that 10% as payment in full because they make a profit but because the federal govt mandates that they take that meager 10% payment as payment in full. The hospitals and the doctors (because they bill separately) have to charge more to the paying customers, ie. the insurance patients, in order to make up for what they lose from Medicare patients. And you call this working? Think again.
Baucus comes up with a concensus bill that contains some real language to address the concerns of many Americans, and the far left screams that it is not enough. The left, as usual, wants it only their way and anything else is wrong - just ask them. You know, 57 million Americans did not vote for this administration, and I don't think all of them are wrong for wanting to have their voices heard in this debate. There is a middle ground that could help all Americans, lets find it and build on that.
Let's get real people, Mr Obama is a hologram president, you hear him, see him, fill in the rest
I am an American I don't need help with paying my insurance. I resent being told that I should pay higher taxes so others han have free medical services.
Medicare may "work" now but it is headed for inolvency. It was a stupid idea in the first place.
The author did not say how old her friend with the $500,000 hospital bill is. If we had national health care and the friend was over 60 she would probably been put on a waiting list which she would still be on. But hospice care will be free too.
Health care is only going to work when Americans accept that some difficult decisions have to be made, and not everyone can get every bit of medical technology treatment and still keep any system solvent.
There are people in their 90s who are kept alive with no quality of life, and who won't last long, anyway, but they're hooked up to machines for days or months because they have insurance that pays for it; there are the illegal aliens receiving multi-million-dollar dialysis at UMC; and so on. How about the example in this letter? Twenty-seven days for what, at what age? Did it make sense to do what was done? How about all the senseless, useless tests that are done either so docs aren't sued or because insurance will pay?
There's so, so much wrong with our health system. We don't need any kind of quick fix; we need a good, effective fix. Any government-only system is unlikely to be the best. Some kind of mix of public and private will probably work best.
But either way, people have to understand that you can't just spend, spend, spend endlessly, no matter what system you're under. And Americans are so unbelievably far from accepting this that NO health care system and NO reform is going to work.
"Baucus comes up with a concensus bill that contains some real language to address the concerns of many Americans, and the far left screams that it is not enough. The left, as usual, wants it only their way and anything else is wrong - just ask them."
Oh that's total BS. There isn't a single republican co-sponsor of your so-called "concensus" [sic] bill.
Her hospital bill was $456,000. Medicare allowed and paid $46,000, and the hospital accepted this as payment in full. If she did not have Medicare, she would have owed the hospital half a million dollars. Such health care costs are the No. 1 reason for bankruptcy filings in the United States."
While yet another anecdote that does not paint the big picture, you are completely wrong. I've known plenty of people which have negotiated down their medical expenses to a fraction of the original cost WITHOUT having to do bankruptcy and WITHOUT having to be on Medicare. The fact is, hospitals WILL negiotiate with you and WILL reduce the bill WITHOUT government intervention.
The public option is an overly expensive and not very intelligent solution to our problem. There are better and cheaper solutions we should examine.
On the Baucus plan http://www.cato.org/pressroom.php?displa...
The Good:
The plan drops the idea of a government-run "public option" in favor of co-ops. Government involvement with these co-ops would essentially be limited to providing start-up grants. The co-ops are unlikely to have much, if any, impact on the cost or availability of health insurance, but are far preferable to a government run plan.
The plan takes the first tentative steps toward allowing people to purchase health insurance across state lines. It would allow states to establish interstate compacts for insurance purchasing beginning in 2015. It would also allow insurers to develop national products that could be sold in any state. National plans would be exempt from state mandated benefits. This doesn't go far enough, and risks simply transferring regulation and mandates from the state to the regional or national level, but a first read suggests it is a step in the right direction.
The Ugly
The Baucus plan contains a heavily punitive individual mandate, a requirement that every American purchase a government-designed minimum insurance package. Failure to comply would result in a fine that could run as high as $3,800 for a family of four. Moreover, the mandate may not apply just to those without insurance today. While the summary says that those with "grandfathered" plans would not have to change their current plan to satisfy the mandate, it is vague about what qualifies as "grandfathered." The summary also says that employer-provided plans would have to be changed within five years to comply with new insurance regulations, and that "grandfathered" plans would not be eligible for any subsidies. It is unclear, therefore, whether people will be able to keep their current plans.
The Baucus plan imposes a 35 percent excise tax on health insurance plans that offer benefits in excess of $8,000. Insurers would almost certainly pass this tax on to consumers in the form of higher premiums. Roughly half of Americans, mostly middle-class, would be impacted. There are also "fees" on prescription drug companies, medical device manufacturers, and clinical laboratories. This is simply a way of hiding taxes, and will result in higher health care costs that will be passed on to consumers.
There should be a 90% tax on campaign contributions. That would help pay for this evil monstrocity they are trying to foist on us and lessen the number of lies fron these incompetent, crooked, fools that we are forced to listen to.
Jlb, I think politicians should face a monetary penalty if their project's cost exceed estimations. For example, if they say X Project will cost $350 billion and it costs $600 billion, all the politicians who voted for it and the bureaucrats that administered it should face losses in income and property to cover the difference (yes, even to the point of impoverishing them).
Should penalties should encourage politicians and bureaucrats to be wiser stewards of OUR money.
jib101, I like your thinking...
Surely Mr. Gibbons is not "completely right" in his assertion that the letter writer is "completely wrong" when she states that a public option (as in ONE option out of many) should be available to 45 million currently uninsured fellow Americans. Since we do not know the exact specifics of the public option at this time, to dismiss it outright with a simple claim that there are "better and cheaper solutions" sounds suspiciously status quo.
Congratulations to the "anecdotal friends and acquaintances" that cleverly negotiated their way out of bankruptcy.
Why are the big pharmaceutical and health insurance industries so fearful of and opposed to any public option? The 1.4 million dollars they spend each day to lobby against and defeat the public option speaks louder to me than the words used by those who reject it outright as "government intervention" or "too expensive" a choice.
Put the public option in the final bill. Let's see how quickly the current players are inspired to enhance their policies, practices, and prices. This is the USA. No one should HAVE to negotiate their way out of bankruptcy with a hospital. No one should have to worry about the cost of seeing their Dr.
Now, for the next intelligent idea"single payer, anyone?
Jeje
The status quo may actually be better than the public option. The public option is that bad of an idea. Considering its goal is to get uninsured people insured, when half of the uninsured are already available for government insurance policies smacks of a stupid idea.
As for insurance companies being fearful, they are also fearful of lifting state restrictions on insurance competition...one of the solutions I suggested would be cheaper and smarter...which by the way is also not the status quo.
Single payer isn't an intelligent idea either. You really have to drop the ball on basic economics to think its a good thing to do.
Patrick Gibbons:
Single payer is a good idea, it works for the
rest of the world. They live longer than us and
are less broke than us. We should at least try a
public option.
The single payer is not a good idea. Americans live much better than Europeans do. We have much more disposable income and a much better standard of living. In Europe the people live in tiny cramped apartments, they drive dangerously small uncomfortable cars and have very little money to spend after they pay their outrageous taxes and living expenses. They do live longer but that has little to do with healthcare. In this country we have a number of problems which include drug use, alcoholism, diabetes, and a huge problem with obesity. Go down to the mall and look at the number of fat people. Go to te supermarket and look what the people buy. I was in a store yesterday and they had at least 120 lineal feet of freezer space loaded with crap that no one should be eating. Go to a fast food place and look at the disgusting people in there. Morbidly obese and ordering a triple bacon cheeseburger with a double super size fries and 48 oz soda. Yes America has health problems but it is not a lack of care but a lack of personal responsibility. I would never trade our healthcare for that in Europe.
In 1994, Tennessee launched an ambitious public insurance program to cover its uninsured. The plan, TennCare, fulfilled that mission but nearly bankrupted the state in the process.
As originally envisioned, the Tennessee plan expanded Medicaid, the government health-care program for the poor, to cover people who couldn't afford insurance or who had been denied coverage by an insurance company.
With an initial budget of $2.6 billion, TennCare quickly extended coverage to an additional 500,000 people by making access to its plans easy and affordable. But the program became so expensive that Tennessee was forced to scale it back in 2005.
LarryVegas-Hawaii and Massachusetts also had state run health care plans and both have been dismal failures. Anything liberals come up with is destined to fail.
"All citizens, with or without health care insurance, need help."
Thanks Jill, but I'm a citizen and I don't need help. Speak for yourself. Personally I prefer less government intrusion in my life.
The problems in the above mentoined states
proves the huge need for affordable health
care in America. Lets all work together for
a better system.
Obama never wanted the public option.
It is dead as a door nail.
As for this, "Medicare, a federal health care program, works. "
Uhmmmmmmm.....Medicare unfunded liabilities according to Medicare trustees stands at around 74 trillion dollars.