The $64,000 question is all of this- What is "affordable" and who or what makes the determination?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Are premium prices expected to come down? By how much? Is the reduction in prices going to come through tax credits alone?

[Freddie Stubbs]

1. The government decides, of course

[ShortnFiery]

5. No, the blue dogs'/DLC's masters on K Street are "the deciders."

;)

[joeycola]

8. Bingo.

[DireStrike]

10. I think that's now synonymous with "the government"

Lobbyists are in charge.

[Tansy_Gold]

2. And it hasn't even been passed. So we don't know how long

we will have to wait for any results, much less what those results will actually be.

I sit here, uninsured, underemployed, making barely $20K a year. I'm 61, widowed, with plenty of marketable job skills but well, you know the rest of that mantra. I am in pain right now, my hip is screaming and I don't know what from. A trip to UrgentCare will cost $95 -- I know because I've been there twice before -- but I have no idea what the treatment will cost. Even the diagnosis may involve more than an office visit. X-rays? CAT scans? I can't pay for it.

Well, truth is, I can. I can put it on credit cards recently paid off and put I thought that was forever. I can empty my very meager savings, which was the last emergency fund against replacing my 10-year-old 160,000 mile vehicle. My one asset is my home, free and clear but in a market where its value is about half what I paid for it three years ago.

I'm four years away from Medicare. Private insurance -- I have two non-life-threatening pre-existing conditions -- is financially out of the question.

So I toss down another four ibuprofen, plug in the heating pad, and hope it goes away.

That's the only hope I've got left.

Obama destroyed any other kind. No, he didn't destroy it. He stole it.



Tansy Gold

[joeycola]

4. So sorry to hear of the pain and the circumstances. I am not

one to give his speech much hope. He did say 4 fours before it would kick in. I know this is hard to hear for you--and many others out there. I do not understand the four year wait at all. It is NOT moral!!

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. He did say that immediate coverage would be available in a "high risk" pool

in the interim before a Public Option was available.

I have no idea why it would take four years to set up a public option when Medicare itself was up and running in less than a year.

[joeycola]

7. Here is his speech. I am rather confused about that part..........

He was talking of pre-existing conditions as far as I can tell.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/09/AR2009090902218_pf.html

...........For those individuals and small businesses who still cannot afford the lower-priced insurance available in the exchange, we will provide tax credits, the size of which will be based on your need. And all insurance companies that want access to this new marketplace will have to abide by the consumer protections I already mentioned. This exchange will take effect in four years, which will give us time to do it right. In the meantime, for those Americans who can't get insurance today because they have pre-existing medical conditions, we will immediately offer low-cost coverage that will protect you against financial ruin if you become seriously ill. This was a good idea when Senator John McCain proposed it in the campaign, it's a good idea now, and we should embrace it.

[Tansy_Gold]

11. Who will be "The Exchange"?? Is this the co-op shit again

under a different name? Will it just be a cheap-ass version from the existing insurance giants?

"Immediate" doesn't really mean "immediate." It means "immediately" after the bill is written and presented to congress and debated and voted on and compromised and conferenced and then presented to Obama for signature, and since Biden is talking about the bill being ready by Thanksgiving -- A WHOLE FUCKING YEAR AND THEN SOME AFTER OBAMA WAS ELECTED (but who's in a hurry anyway) -- and someone else mentioned "the end of the year," we aren't talkin' any time soon. If ever.



TG

[TorchTheWitch]

9. the answer to that should be obvious

In 4 years we'll already have either reelected Obama or elected someone else. That in itself should tell you he knows this will not work at all.

However, it does give me 4 years to try to find another country that will accept me as a citizen who believes healthcare is a human right and who actually has a party that is representative of the average working person and a government not beholden to Big Biz.

[mmonk]

3. Those paid to represent American corporations will make

the determination what is affordable.