http://www.huffingtonpost.com/donna-norton/ipeaceful-revolutioni-thr_b_392912.htmlAnd now in another blow to kids, some children could actually end up worse under health reform than they are now. Must we dress our kids in pin-stripped suits in order to get their interests represented?
Under the current Senate health bill, most of the 7 million children currently covered by the popular and successful Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) would be moved to the new insurance exchanges created by health reform. The result? A recent study by First Focus finds that children moving from CHIP to the exchange plans would dramatically increase out-of-pocket expenses for their families. For example, the First Focus study estimates that out-of-pocket costs for a child living in a family earning 225 percent of the Federal poverty level would increase by 1,100 percent if the Senate were to join the House in repealing CHIP.
Why is this important? Too many women, children, and families are struggling with meeting children's basic needs for a healthy start like access to doctors' appointments. We know that when families are financially on the edge, an increase in health care costs can greatly reduce access to care. Preventive care and early intervention are crucial for addressing children's health issues -- and save money for all of us in the long run.
Earlier this month, Senator Casey introduced an amendment to the Senate health bill that will make sure the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) continues with full funding through fiscal year 2019. This funding is critical because it would allow CHIP to continue until we have concrete assurances that children's coverage in the new health insurance exchange is comparable or better than what kids currently get through CHIP.\
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/15/the-senate-bill-is-designed-to-make-your-health-insurance-worse/The SENATE Bill is designed to make your insurance worse
The sole defense of this massive corporate giveaway, formally known as the Senate health care reform bill, is that it would still do some “good,” helping millions of the uninsured. Unfortunately, the bill would dramatically worsen the quality of current insurance coverage for tens of millions Americans, thanks to the new excise tax on insurance plans. It is unlikely that any of the remaining “good” in this bill will outweigh the massive amount of harm.
Most of the “help” this bill will do is dubious at best. Help is being defined as giving insufficient subsides to Americans now forced by the government to buy extremely expensive, poorly regulated, junk insurance. Without banning annual limits and an extremely high out-of-pocket cap (which thanks to a massive loophole is not really capped at all), the insurance regulations are basically meaningless. Having this new, mandated “coverage” will not stop you from being bankrupted by accumulated medical debt should you get seriously ill. Insurance that does not protect you from financial ruin if you get sick makes a mockery of the entire concept health insurance.
The harm this bill will do thanks to the excise tax on employer-provided insurance benefits is enormous. The health care bill is designed with the goal of making millions of middle class Americans’ health insurance coverage much worse. That is not a bug, it is a feature.
The excise tax is meant to force your employer to cut back your insurance benefits, reduce your coverage, and increase your co-pays and deductibles. This is not the conclusion of partisan think tanks, bloggers, or activists, this is the conclusion of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
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Anybody defending this horrible bill needs to do some research. If you want to defend Obama's political career. Fine. But that's all you are defending.
Don't give me the bullshit line that people against this bill WANT people die. You don't know what the hell you are talking about.
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