I'm so glad (call me Port) about healthcare bill

[lola]

Oh, my, so glad. I was so pessimistic, and it passed, imperfect mass of compromises that it is. Our current "system" is wacky beyond belief.

[imec]

Sorry, does this refer to the passing of the health care bill?

[lola]

sorry, imec. Hit wrong key or something. Yes.

[imec]

Seems like a step in the right direction to me. Not saying for a minute that the Canadian system is perfect - far from it. But I can't imagine having to be worried about health coverage.

[lola]

It's a smallish step, but so hard won and so long overdue.

I have a colleague who has her husband on her own insurance at work, because he's self employed building custom cars. Both in their 50's. Recently she got the notion to follow her creative side and use theater costume construction degree, burned her bridge at work. Now her the only option seems to be COBRA insurance, available 18 month only at $800/month. She'd been at our organization 30 years.

Young people getting out of college with maybe a chronic disease, no jobs with benefits anywhere, no longer eligible for their parents' insurance. Etc. It's nuts.

[Deleted]

Yes, it was about time, and there will be no going back. When some of the opponents see how it actually works, they'll wonder how the country lasted so long without it.

[bixaorellana]

I so hope it's true that there will be no going back and that it indeed is only a first step.

Like Lola, I was so discouraged and disgusted by the lies of the conservative pinheads and all the castrating compromises done to the bill, that I almost didn't care anymore. Thank goodness there was enough perseverance and force to get it passed though.

Maybe, just maybe, those of the Starboard persuasion will come to realize that a Porty, "socialist" plan benefits everyone, and the US will eventually leave the 19th century and get the health care system it needs.

Although I'm nauseated by the power and opportunity for gain that remains in the hands of the insurance companies, I guess realistically the plug could not be abruptly pulled on them, simply because of the enormous numbers of people they employ.

[lola]

Lots of whose job it is to shift payment responsibility to someone else. But yes, I suppose you're right.

I

[hwinpp]

Then what's the deal with half the Americans not wanting it? That's one thing I don't get. Also, that the American government spends about double on health care that most European governments do (on a per person base) but only a fraction of the population gets coverage?

[Deleted]

Half the Americans "not wanting it" is a combination of not understanding the whole plan and poll question worded to pull the reply in a certain direction.

It was demonstrated that when Americans were asked about what they thought of the principal elements of the plan, one by one, there was overwhelming support for each specific item.

In terms of them wondering how they could have ever lived without it, that comes a bit later when they realize things like the fact that productivity is up because the population is getting proper medical treatment, hospitals are not overcrowded because problems are handled before they become serious, etc.

[Deleted]

Hmmmm... looks like we were rejoicing too soon. I just heard on the news that they have to vote all over again.

The first vote was "irregular."

[lagatta]

Another problem the lack of universal healthcare poses for the US economy is that it creates a lack of labour flexibility. Workers are bound to jobs that provide healthcare (even if they are unemployed, if their contract ensures continued coverage).

[lola]

I THINK, from what I read in NYTimes website, that the main parts of the bill are guaranteed to go forward.

The votes now are about "the reconciliation measure ... includes a broad restructuring of federal student loan programs that will help pay for billions of dollars in education initiatives. The flaws identified by Republicans were in the education section in the bill and did not appear to endanger the eventual adoption of the changes to the health care legislation. " Now it's about things like Pell Grants for education.

I usually try to ignore R. Limbaugh and his ilk, but Gail Collins' column this morning say he promised to move to Costa Rica if the bill passed. However, unfortunately Costa Rica has national health care. One pictures a man without a country, searching, searching for that place where hospitals won't be cluttered with undeserving poor.

[Kimby]

This is why health care is so expensive in America:

This is the new home being built for the administrator of the 3rd largest health provider in Montana.
He also just finished building a fabulous lake house last year.
You might wonder why he needs TWO 2-car garages, but what you can't see is the underground 13-car garage for his vintage car collection!

I think it should be called "WEALTH CARE" instead of health care.

And they don't "care" about us any more than they care for our health.

If Americans reject the idea of a big health care bill, it's because we've been pumped full of the idea that all capitalism is good and anything that smells of socialism is bad.
Then we go to church on Sunday and profess our belief in the Golden Rule. (I think there's a different kind of gold that's being worshipped here.)

[gertie]

Ok have any of you actually read this thing? It mandates people buy health insurance and will be penalized if they do not. I happen to live in a state that mandates car insurance coverage and I can tell you how that has gone. Oh, it started out the mandatory coverage was reasonable enough for married adults over 25. But you also had to have it for your teens, in fact, you had to have it even if they did not drive. Yup. Your kid turns 16 and your insurance starts billing you for them at a rate which is at minimum $100 US a month, at least as of the time my older daughter turned 16. I did shop around at that time and finally got told look the state insurance board set that, that is what it will cost you wherever you go. sigh. And the base rate for individuals has gone up and up every year at a rate higher than inflation rates, oft times, because the government has ensured the insurance companies will make a set rate of profit vs costs from the base policies. So basically we just got a law that says your friend MUST pay the $800 cobra coverage, or purchase individual health insurance and hope to all that is holy she and her husband qualify for some government subsidy. Given that the only government subsidy we qualified for when my daughter went to college was federally guaranteed student loans, even though we are a one income family, I don't have high hopes for your friend on that one. Particularly if she has any money saved or any assets such as a paid for house. We were told we could not get any grants for my daughter's college because we had a retirement account and a paid for house. I really do not hold my breath this will in truth end up any different than car insurance in my state or the school funding assistance situation. I'd be happy to be proved wrong...I just have seen the nature of politics in this country and find it unlikely. I'm pretty sure the end of the whole deal will be even more money and even bigger houses for people like that CEO, Kimby. Follow the money. I'm sure all those insurance lobby people will still be chortling with glee four years from now when this all takes effect. I read the sliding scale will ensure a family making $30,000 to support four persons would be expected to pay around 4 percent of their income, or around $1200 a year for insurance. That sounds like a pretty large bite for a family struggling at the poverty line to me.


There is a very old joke and it goes like this:

I'm from the government, and I am here to help you.

[Deleted]

The fact that the bill was changed in the early days from comprehensive government coverage to coverage by private insurance companies is the bit that would worry me the most if I were living in that country.

[gertie]

Yeah, I wish we'd get something more like say France. But I don't see it happening. Then again, I don't suppose anything they did would be perfect so I guess one does what one can.

[bixaorellana]

I really, really agree w/Kerouac in #15. My only hope is that with the status quo changed somewhat, the blockheads who are clinging to their legalized victimization may become open to more logical changes to the US health care system.

And Gertie, your comments after "follow the money" in #14 are so pertinent, especially your mention of the insurance lobby. Until the entire US public objects strenuously to the whole phenomenon of lobbying, they'll continue to be fleeced like the sheep they are.

[Kimby]

Apr 2, 2010 17:38:51 GMT Kimby said:

This is why health care is so expensive in America:

This is the new home being built for the administrator of the 3rd largest health provider in Montana.
He also just finished building a fabulous lake house last year.
You might wonder why he needs TWO 2-car garages, but what you can't see is the underground 13-car garage for his vintage car collection!

I think it should be called "WEALTH CARE" instead of health care.

Impossible to capture the whole house in one photo - the first photo was just the front facade, the back wing is actually much larger than the front:



Yes, that's real slate they're installing on the roof. (They ordered too much, so if you need any....)

[Kimby]

Apr 21, 2010 14:41:03 GMT gertie said:

There is a very old joke and it goes like this:

I'm from the government, and I am here to help you.

I heard it this way:
What are the 10 scariest words in the English language?

I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you.

[fumobici]

I'd frankly be more afraid of having to rely on whomever lives in that obscenity to approve my health care expenses.

[Kimby]

(Our insurance through Mr. Kimby's job is actually with this guy's company! So he should thank us for our part in making his McMansion possible.)