U.S. healthcare revamp to require medical coverage

[Joanne98]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers plan far-reaching insurance market reforms, and would require that businesses and individuals purchase medical coverage as they seek to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system, an early draft of Senate legislation said on Saturday.

The legislation seeks to provide health coverage for all Americans and would prohibit insurance companies from refusing to cover anyone because of health history. It also would outlaw annual or lifetime limits on coverage.

The bill would require individuals and businesses to purchase insurance. The business community is likely to raise strong objections to the employer requirement in the measure, being drafted by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee headed by Senator Edward Kennedy.

The sweeping healthcare overhaul is a top legislative priority for Democratic President Barack Obama, who says he wants Congress to send him a bill by October.

To help small businesses and individuals without employer-provided insurance, the Kennedy committee bill would establish government operated "gateways" for them to purchase affordable medical coverage. The gateway, or insurance exchange as some have called it, would act as a clearinghouse that would help customers compare plans and prices.

The bill also provides for a sliding scale of subsidies to help people with incomes up to 500 percent of the poverty level purchase insurance. Exceptions would be made for poor people and some small businesses. The bill also would make millions more people eligible to join the Medicaid health program for the poor.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE55514G20090606

It SUX

:grr:

[Cleita]

1. Class war fare at its best.

The bill also provides for a sliding scale of subsidies to help people with incomes up to 500 percent of the poverty level purchase insurance. Exceptions would be made for poor people and some small businesses. The bill also would make millions more people eligible to join the Medicaid health program for the poor.

This calls for a two tiered system one for the affluent and one for the poor. The system for the poor systematically gets underfunded leaving them at the mercy of the only medical hacks who will take their plan as the years go on. Then a Republican government comes in and ends even those programs because they are too expensive. We need the money for war.

[Deja Q]

2. And businesses claim insurance is costing them too much money...

Just seems like a whole box of band-aids for something that needs proper stitching...

Next time I go to hospital, I'll smuggle aspirin if I have to. $20 each is a real ripoff when I can go to any warehouse club store; get a case (1800x as many) for only the same price...

[Tansy_Gold]

3. "Insurance" is a gamble, not much different from the lottery

Everyone pays into the pool, but only those who get sick or hurt "win." In the meantime, the insurance companies, like the "house," make sure the odds are in their favor, because they're gonna skim their fat profits right off the top. They have to pay all their execs' salaries and bonuses, provide dividends to their stockholders, pay for all their advertising and other overhead. NONE of that contributes to the health care of those who need it.

Any plan -- ANY PLAN -- that leaves the medical insurance behemoths intact fails to fix the CAUSE of the problem, but rather treats only a symptom.

Health care -- whether it's treatment for a catastrophic illness or injury, prenatal care, well-child care, immunizations, routine check-ups, chronic disease management -- should not be a bet against the house.

Just mho.



Tansy Gold

[MarjorieG]

4. mandate probably equal to a general tax in other countries, but still no guarantee for

coverage, health care, and only the best of what's available. Insurance cos. are still able to do as little as they please, unless companies have other requirements keeping them honest brokers.

[tsuki]

5. Won't work. The insurance companies will stick it to the public. And

laws mean nothing to them.

[dflprincess]

6. When you own most of Congress

you don't have to pay attention to the law.