Is there anything good in the Health Insurance Reform bill?

[Taverner]

Any whit of merit?

The Public Option is gone.

And now Kos is reporting that Insurance companies will still be able to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. WTF?

Is there anything good in this bill? At least a discount on aspirin or something?

[Oregone]

1. Every household will be allotted one magical gnome to treat arthritic ailments with ayurvedic herbs

And it will utter the mantra of magic words, "Public Option", while applying salves

[hughee99]

2. I hear they're printing it on recycled paper.

That's all I've found so far.

[percussivemadness]

3. Yes, it exposes the quisling Demopublicans so they can get voted out

[walldude]

4. Wait.. if they can deny pre-existing conditions then the mandatory

coverage has to be taken out as well... so if this is true then there is the one good thing.

[Taverner]

6. Unfortunately, I think they're keeping the mandatory coverage

[Old Codger]

19. They are

Keeping denial of coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and keeping mandatory coverage, so we will all have to buy it whether it covers us or not and the they defined pre-existing conditions to include birth.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. What bill? Are you asking this about the draft in the Senate? It would have to pass and then there

would be a conference committee to attempt to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions before we have a Health Insurance Reform bill. And then it must be passed by both houses and signed into law by the President.

[Taverner]

8. Oh come now, "defense by confusion" doesn't work anymore

Because there is a BILL - its being worked on by the so-called "Gang of 10"

Any other bills aren't being considered

[Kablooie]

7. You will be required to buy insurance by law now. That's good isn't it?

[Echo In Light]

9. Uniquely American HC "reform" = drops to knees & sucks shit straight from ass

[Kablooie]

10. I almost feel like exercising my constitutional right to use a gun.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. I think the flaws of the bill are highly exaggerated.

I was listening to an NPR report that the health insurance companies are absolutely pissed about the medicare idea. I'd wait for a better source before believing this pre-existing condition business.

[Taverner]

12. Do you have a link for any of its merits?

Seriously - if there was something good about this bill it might offset the many negatives

[emulatorloo]

13. Howard Dean has a diary over at Kos about why he thinks the Senate Bill is "real reform"

He has a caveat or two.


Daily Kos: We Can Do Both
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/9/812526/-We-Can-Do-Both

[Taverner]

14. Thanks nt

[emulatorloo]

17. See also "Weiner On Medicare Buy-In: 'This Is One Idea I Like A Lot'

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/weiner-on-medicare-buy-in-this-is-one-idea-i-like-a-lot.php

Weiner On Medicare Buy-In: 'This Is One Idea I Like A Lot'
Rachel Slajda | December 9, 2009, 11:33AM

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), one of Congress' fiercest supporters of the public option, has come out to support the Medicare buy-in proposal in the Senate Democrats' deal.

"This is one idea I like a lot," Weiner said in an email to the Daily News, calling the idea "remarkable."

Winning the support of Weiner, who has championed not only a public option but a universal single-payer system, could be a sign that the Dems' proposal may yet win over progressives, even without a public option.

The buy-in is a proposal to allow consumers between the ages of 55 and 64 to buy into Medicare.

It's a plan that "would perhaps get us on the path to a single payer model," Weiner said. "In a debate that hasn't focused enough on how to genuinely contain costs and deliver affordable health care, this is one idea I like a lot."

[Shagbark Hickory]

16. Howard Dean can kiss my butt.

He's been bought and paid for.

[emulatorloo]

18. (yeah right) Bernie Sanders and Anthony Weiner too?

[Shagbark Hickory]

20. Tony Weiner can now kiss my butt. Not Sanders though. When he says it's reform, then it's reform.

But he's not going to say that about this bill.

[emulatorloo]

21. "Bernie Sanders has been generally supportive of the new health care compromise", could be superior

to the public option passed in the House and the one in the Senate bill. (see KOS link below)

He likes the medicare buy in and want to add to it, something good:

http://news.firedoglake.com/2009/12/10/the-sanders-sweetener-a-universal-care-program-for-low-income-americans/


See also:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/9/812369/-Rep.-Weiner:-Medicare-Buy-In-Is-Path-to-Single-Payer

"Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) tells Rachel Maddow that if the health care reform deal reportedly reached by the "Gang of 10" Democratic Senators includes Medicare buy-in plus expanded Medicaid eligibility, it could be superior to the public option passed by the House and currently included in the Senate billSen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) tells Rachel Maddow that if the health care reform deal reportedly reached by the "Gang of 10" Democratic Senators includes Medicare buy-in plus expanded Medicaid eligibility, it could be superior to the public option passed by the House and currently included in the Senate bill"

===

For what it is worth the Medicare buy-in is similar to something Dean proposed in 2004 campaign.

[Shagbark Hickory]

23. Yes. I watched that TRMS interview BUT Sanders goes on to say that if...

it doesn't reduce costs then he isn't going to vote for it.
Col. Sanders has an "I" next to his name. That comes in handy for telling people what you really think.

[stray cat]

15. I think you need to read up a little - of course there is

But get source information and don't trust what you read on every web site.

[Cleita]

22. There's some good stuff regarding Medicare, but it seems to me that this

could have been done in a separate bill regarding Medicare so that our lawmakers could concentrate on bringing access to health care to those who don't have Medicare.

[Johonny]

24. I heard it's a secret government plot

written by insurance companies to favor government health care against insurance companies, that will destroy the free market with government health care at the same time force everyone into the market to buy private insurance. It is a form of socialism worse than Stalinist Russia that is also fascist in nature that must be done to save the American free capitalist economy. It will kill old people by declaring more people old enough to be on medicare. It will deny women the ability to use tax payer funds to get abortions with their private plans they pay for with their own money. It will produce death panels who's job it is will be to protect you from the kind of things Republicans did to Terry Schivo to protect her from death panels. It will preserve the existing insurance system because many people enjoy it or enjoy watching it slowly escalates beyond their means. There's something in it about cheese and standing alone.

I can't decide what is more confusing the health care spin or the health care bill?

[ieoeja]

25. List

1. Provide a medicare buy-in for ages 55-64.

2. Provide subsidies to the poor for the purchase of healthcare.

3. Require medical insurers to cover pre-existing conditions.

4. Create a government owned health insurance plan, with rates and coverage set by the government, and day-to-day management of the new plan outsourced to existing insurers so the government would not have to create a new department just to run it.


Had Obama never said word one about "reforming healthcare," but instead just proposed the above four bills and managed to get them through Congress ... you would be a thrilled. Of course, without the bigger plan to compromise on, he'd have never gotten these four passed.

And as someone reminded us on another thread, the number one, original goal of healthcare reform was to get everyone covered. They didn't get 100% coverage, but they got pretty damned close. Millions of people without health insurance today will have insurance when this bill kicks in.

[Taverner]

26. But #3 has been removed

Which pisses me off...