Real Health Care Reform

Anyone wonder why it took a week, after voting to pass a healthcare reform bill, for the Senate Finance Committee to post it for the public to view? All 1500 pages are now available to read here: http://finance.senate.gov/press/Bpress/2009press/prb101909.pdf Turns out that Senators from "red" states are taking care of themselves in this bill. Senator Harry Reid's state of Nevada will be exempt from increased Medicaid expenses that other states will face, for the first 5 years of Obamacare. | Continue reading this entry »

The healthcare reform bills working their way through congress have a lot of fundamental features that people just don’t want. A recent survey conducted by the non-partisan research firm International Communications Research found the following: 71% oppose the individual mandate Only 21% said they would support a law saying everyone would have to obtain health insurance approved by the government, or pay a tax of $750 or more every year. 68% oppose reducing seniors’ health benefits One | Continue reading this entry »

I recorded this to explain the penalty that will be imposed on anyone who does not follow the government mandate to purchase health insurance. While forcing people to buy health insurance is really not the best way to approach things, part of the purpose of this mandate is to bring in enough money to pay the claims of the unhealthy. As things are being structure, this is not going to work. | Continue reading this entry »

The Senate Finance committee just approved a healthcare reform bill that is projected by the Congressional Budge Office (CBO) to cost $829 billion. They are even predicting that it will reduce the deficity by $81 billion. Don’t believe it. Since the actual bill has not been written yet, the CBO is estimating the cost based only on conceptual language. The CBO has acknowledged that the actual legislative language could result in significant changes in its estimates. Unfortunately for those | Continue reading this entry »

The Public Option is not really about what it purports to be about. | Continue reading this entry »

The Senate Finance Committee just approved the Baucus bill, effectively voting to raise health insurance premiums on most Americans. Wow! A lot of people in Congress have never been in business, and are seemingly pretty clueless to how it all works. But business owners get it. A poll in December found that 73% believed health care costs will increase if health care reform legislation is passed. And that was before the latest changes. Anybody who has the slightest clue how insurance | Continue reading this entry »

Well, a lot of the Democrats are upset to find out that the plan they are pushing is going to cause rates to go up. Have they thought about how ticked off people will be when they realize that this great healthcare solution that congress passed for them is making their health insurance even more unaffordable. You'd think that would have some of them thinking twice about voting for this bill. But maybe there's a scheme going on here. Because once this solution comes crashing down, the response | Continue reading this entry »

Sometimes, predicting the future is easy. AHIP has now analyzed the provisions in the current healthcare proposal, and they've come to the same conclusion. According to Karen Ignagni, AHIP's president and chief executive, "The report makes clear that several major provisions in the current legislative proposal will cause health care costs to increase far faster and higher than they would under the current system. Between 2010 and 2019 the cumulative increases in the cost of a typical family | Continue reading this entry »

Why I like to call the senate bill the "Health Insurance Premiums Increase Bill." | Continue reading this entry »

The Senate should be voting on a bill next week. As it stands now, the bill mandates that starting in 2013 everybody must carry health insurance. It will be guaranteed issue, so everyone will be approved no matter what your health condition. Typically, when coverage is guaranteed issue, the rates are much higher. In the five states that currently have guaranteed issue laws (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine), rates are at least twice as expensive as here in Colorado | Continue reading this entry »