The Baucus bill forces everyone to buy into, and subsidize, massive increases in profits for insurance. That is Robbery not Reform.
We will have nationalized "Romney Care." Massachusetts has mandatory purchase and plenty of competition between private insurance companies: yet "Bay State health insurance premiums highest in Country." (Kay Lazar the Globe). This is unacceptable.
I'm stunned at the refusal to accept the actual problem with our health care system. Unless congress is willing to force the Insurance Industry to lower prices and profit margin, they are not realistically addressing reform.
The Insurance Industry never lowers cost to the consumer. They lower prices by raising out of pocket expenses or denial of coverage, otherwise it affects profit margin for the entire industry. Any savings goes directly to stockholders. That is their job.
Without a robust and viable public option forcing the Insurance Industry to lower it's prices and profits, they will continue to take 25-30% off the top for exorbitant salaries, advertising, campaign contributions, lobbyists and stockholders.
It is because of "For-Profit" health insurance that: the U.S. is rated 37th (below Costa Rica); we have more deaths per 100,000 from treatable diseases than any other western nation. We spend $3-6000 more per person, 5-12% more per GDP on health care and we still don't cover 40+ million people.
ALL western countries have universal coverage because they require non-profit health care whether public or private sector, have a sustainable % of GDP and All have higher rates of survival from treatable disease.
A viable government run public is exactly like a non-profit private insurance without the advertising, exorbitant salaries, campaign contributions and billions to lobby congress.
We must face the fact that pitting profits against patients is economically unsound, unethical and a conflict of interest. It’s ghastly and unacceptable.
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J.E. Robertson
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Like Dr. Howard Dean has been saying, reform without a robust public option is not reform, and if that's what they are going to do, they need to strip all the money out of the bill, drop the mandates and set about enacting things like community rating and restrictions on pre-existing conditions and leave it at that.
Check out the site Dr. Dean and DFA have put up if you're interested. It's at www.AmericaCantWait.com
Enjoyed y0ur post. It makes us Oxen feel better when we see that others are mooo-ving in the same direction we are. ;-)
This is the part that always gets me. I always bring this up when discussing reform with someone who opposes it and never do they have an adequate response. They just brush it off. After all, we are America, and the possibility that we're doing something wrong even though the rest of the world has figured it out is not a possibility worth entertaining.
R