Consumers union: What they didn't tell you

[Omaha Steve]

Did you know that you and your family could choose the exact same health care coverage that members of Congress get under the leading health reform proposal?

Or that preventive care that can keep you healthy – like getting an annual physical, mammogram or colonoscopy – wouldn’t cost you a dime out of pocket.

And no matter your age, a pre-existing condition or your family history, you can't be denied insurance coverage.

Read more (http://www.prescriptionforchange.org/2010/02/health_coverage_you_can_count.html) and forward this email to your friends and family – too many people simply don't know how they will benefit from reform! Forwarding this message may be the most important thing you can do right now to keep reform on track.

Why don’t opponents want you to get these and other guaranteed benefits? Maybe they think that if you don’t know how health reform can help you, they can simply turn their back and walk away.

We think the more you know – and the more your friends and family know – the tougher it will be for our leaders to run from our problems, and the easier it will be to finish the job we sent them to Washington to do.

Please forward this email to all your friends and family so they can see what they would get from health reform.

* No company can ever deny you health insurance or drop your coverage for a pre-existing condition or if you get really sick.
* If you get cancer or other serious illness, there is no cap on the amount of needed care that your insurance will cover.
* No threat of losing your life savings to pay for care. Insurance companies can’t stop paying your claims and leave you with a lot of medical bills.
* Recommended preventive care will be covered without deductibles – checkups, colonoscopies, mammograms – no matter if you buy your own policy or get coverage through your job. Preventing illness before it becomes serious is the best way to save money!
* Programs to increase the number of primary care doctors, with incentives for them to practice in rural areas, so you get quality care no matter where you live.

We’ll be telling you more about how the health reform bill will improve your life in the coming weeks – and how you can make sure our leaders don’t walk away. In the meantime, help us tell everyone how they would benefit from health reform by forwarding this email to your friends and family. They want to know this, too!

Click here (http://www.prescriptionforchange.org/2010/02/health_coverage_you_can_count.html) to learn more about how health reform will provide you and your family decent, comprehensive, quality health care, no matter your age or your condition.

Sincerely,
Liz Foley
PrescriptionForChange.org,
A project of Consumers Union
101 Truman Avenue
Yonkers, NY 10703

[nickinSTL]

1. yeah...they can't drop you from coverage

but, AFAIK, they CAN raise your rates so high that you have no choice but to drop the coverage.

How is that helpful?

Because they WILL. If they can, they will.

[HughMoran]

2. Fuckin' cynicism

I'm going to have to pay $36k per year versus 15k/year because people like you are cynical and don't trust government. If you're a Democrat and you don't trust government, we've got problems, BIG problems.

[nickinSTL]

3. I don't trust a bill that seems to be written by and for the insurance

industry

I would trust government if the government did the right thing here.

While I would LOVE a universal single-payer system - GOVERNMENT-run, I'd be a lot happier with this reform IF there were controls on insurers raising their rates.

Add that, and I'll be satisfied with this being a good step in the right direction.

Without it, it just seems like a huge giveaway to the insurance companies.

I WANT HCR to succeed, I just have doubts about the current direction if there aren't limits on the insurers.

[HughMoran]

4. Talk to the Republicans about regulations.

"Republicans and Democrats are so far apart that any agreement is at the margins, such as requiring health insurers to allow parents to cover dependant children through age 25. Even a proposal to allow insurers to offer their policies nationwide, which in limited form exists in the Senate Democrats' plan, would be a disaster if implemented without strong federal regulations of the type Republicans reject. They would allow insurers to offer stripped-down policies, bypassing state consumer protection laws and unleashing a race to the bottom. People would end up with coverage that disappears when it's needed most and have nowhere to turn for help."

[nickinSTL]

8. I understand that the Repubs are the primary reason

that doesn't change the fact that without the protections, it's likely to be a disaster.

I'm not blaming Dems alone - though I think they could find a way to pass a stronger bill if they had the will to do so.

[Edweird]

7. You're right. We do have problems. Big fucking problems.

Like this:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7695937

So, yeah, a little realism can save a lot of 'buyer's remorse'.

[HughMoran]

5. Kick

I thought this was an important issue and that the main problem was getting the message out?

Oh, that's right, nobody on DU actually wants reform. :eyes:

[Moosepoop]

6. A kick and a rec!

:kick:

[eridani]

9. They just don't have to pay claims n/t