[Pops]

Major new health reform benefits take effect today to help keep health insurance companies accountable, lower health care costs, guarantee more health care choices, and enhance the quality of health care for all Americans.

Starting today, insurers will be required to:
Keep you covered when you get sick:
Cover kids with pre-existing conditions:
Allow young adults to stay on their parents' plan up to age 26:
Remove lifetime limits:
Phase out annual limits:

For any insurance plan that goes into effect after September 23, 2010, your insurance company must:
Pay for preventive care like mammograms and immunizations:
Give you a better appeals process for insurance claims:
Let you choose your own doctor:
Provide easier access to OB-GYN services:
Allow you to use the nearest emergency room without penalty:

Many other new benefits of the law have already taken effect, including rebate checks for seniors in the donut hole and tax credits for small businesses.

It's probably easier to read here with links

Personally I would have preferred a single-payer instead of a insurance/pharma support bill but hey, you gotta start down the slippery slope somewhere.

[diemos]

It never ceases to amaze me that everyone was perfectly thrilled to have a system where the death panels were run by underpaid insurance company bureaucrats who actually profited from denying you care.

[ian807]

Single payer could only have happened in a sane political environment that had actual popular representation. That hasn't been present in Washington D.C. for a long time.

What we have are a few remnants of popular representation in a sea of corporate feudalism where the names of the Barons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch_Industries) are rarely uttered.

[Plantagenet]

Personally I would have preferred a single-payer instead of a insurance/pharma support bill but hey, you gotta start down the slippery slope somewhere.

Why do we have to start down the slippery path?

And, is this even the right time to be on this particular slippery path?

Why not focus instead on getting the deficit down and the economy revved up and getting job creation in the private sector going instead of doing things that will hurt the private sector and delay the recovery like increasing government regulations and raising taxes and creating a huge new expansion of government in the middle of the deep recession?

[Pops]

I would say plant that this is the perfect time to address the crazy escalation of medical costs because it impacts personal and public costs big time.

Unfortunately the bill didn't do that...

[Timo]

Personally I would have preferred a single-payer instead of a insurance/pharma support bill but hey, you gotta start down the slippery slope somewhere.

Why do we have to start down the slippery path?

And, is this even the right time to be on this particular slippery path?

Why not focus instead on getting the deficit down and the economy revved up and getting job creation in the private sector going instead of doing things that will hurt the private sector and delay the recovery like increasing government regulations and raising taxes and creating a huge new expansion of government in the middle of the deep recession?

Unfortunately, governments are not a business where the CEO or owner of that business gets to choose what products he/she wants to produce. Governments are beholden to every one, legal, illegail, healthy, sick, gay, straight, etc, etc, etc......... and there are thousands and thousands of new "customers" for government functions every single day. If some government got to choose which functions it chose to participate in, then it would cease to be a democracy. Last time i checked, we here in the US are still pretending to be a democracy. This world we all live in is far from perfect, and our government seems to be leading the way.

[ian807]

Why not focus instead on getting the deficit down and the economy revved up and getting job creation in the private sector going instead of doing things that will hurt the private sector and delay the recovery like increasing government regulations and raising taxes and creating a huge new expansion of government in the middle of the deep recession?

We will now have over-regulated health care because we couldn't have a sane debate about it.

It can obviously be done, because it has been done elsewhere. Canada has a very nice health care plan and they pay for it as does virtually every EU country. FYI, Canada has a heavily regulated banking sector and surprise! No crash!

Regulation does NOT equal bad in all cases. How would you like to eliminate all food safety regulations? How about traffic laws?

[PrestonSturges]

The insurance companies were only 3 years away from bankruptcy anyway, which they all admitted. Google some phrase like "financial death spiral."

The short term maximization of profit requires excluding everyone that gets sick or who has ever been sick. This shrinking pool forces prices higher and higher, and more people go without coverage. The hospitals end up eating the costs of these uninsured people. Once the operating revenues aren't enough to pay the fixed costs, they're broke.

[Pops]

Here is my little story of why our system is doomed.

My wife fell and broke her wrist, we have no insurance, the doc at urgent care put on a splint (a cast really) and said come tomorrow and see the orthopedist The orthopedist looked at the xray and told us if we had good insurance he'd operate but since we don't and the operation would cost $10,000, the cast the GP put on would do just fine.

It did, he charged us $600 for a consultations to tell us the GP did all that was needed and to take the cast off and tell us the GP did all that was needed. The urgent care GP and room that was all that was needed cost $150.

We have truly amazing medical capabilities in this country. But if we had had good insurance and had called the ambulance and gone to the ER and had the surgery and, and, and - the $150 that was all we needed could have added how much to the GDP?

$15,000?

[americandream]

Socialism contemplates the utter destruction of corporatism and its vested interests and its replacement with an egalitarian state devoted to the NEEDS of labour. Anything else is reformism or fascism, not socialism.

Major new health reform benefits take effect today to help keep health insurance companies accountable, lower health care costs, guarantee more health care choices, and enhance the quality of health care for all Americans.

Starting today, insurers will be required to:
Keep you covered when you get sick:
Cover kids with pre-existing conditions:
Allow young adults to stay on their parents' plan up to age 26:
Remove lifetime limits:
Phase out annual limits:

For any insurance plan that goes into effect after September 23, 2010, your insurance company must:
Pay for preventive care like mammograms and immunizations:
Give you a better appeals process for insurance claims:
Let you choose your own doctor:
Provide easier access to OB-GYN services:
Allow you to use the nearest emergency room without penalty:

Many other new benefits of the law have already taken effect, including rebate checks for seniors in the donut hole and tax credits for small businesses.

It's probably easier to read here with links

Personally I would have preferred a single-payer instead of a insurance/pharma support bill but hey, you gotta start down the slippery slope somewhere.

[Plantagenet]

How would you like to eliminate all food safety regulations? How about traffic laws?

No thanks.

[efarmer]

I heard a woman one day describe how she fell in Germany on vacation and broke a shoulder. The Germans did surgery and put pins in. And when she got home to America her doctor followed up and told her the job was perfect and had healed properly and removed pins. The Germans had told her since she was foreign that their state medical insurance did not cover her and they did not deal with her American insurance and so would have to bill her the full charge and she would have to seek recourse on her own.

She dreaded the fight with her American insurer and expected a $20,000 invoice.

The full boat bill came in for $1400 which she paid.

Oh yeah, the German procedure she received is not approved practice for insurance coverage in America. They would have done a much more invasive surgical procedure.

I am waiting for the idiots in Washington to do their last little piece of unfinished business for their corporate masters. Make it illegal to go leave the country for treatment, surgery, or to die painless and cheap and try to beat them and their partners out of the take on the racket they have set up.

Americans are going to figure out how to escape their health care system, you can count on it.

[Pops]

Anything else is reformism or fascism, not socialism.

Yea, sorry ad, I was being sarcastic; notice the is no mention of death panels either.

[dinopello]

Here is my little story of why our system is doomed.

I hope your wife is going to fully recover. I have my own story. In college, I shattered my elbow playing basketball. The doc said at a minimum he wanted to go in and clean out the bone fragments that were external to the joint but what he thought should be done is to cut away the bone to expose the interior of my elbow, clean it out good and then tie the bone back in with wires until it healed. He said if there were any fragments that were missed it would lead to arthritis down the road (said I'd probably get some of that no matter what). I was covered under my Dad's policy at the time so I had the whole operation. He found some little pieces and removed them that I have in a little vial. So, so far,25 years later no arthritis. If I didn't get the operation then who knows, maybe I'd be on chronic pain meds or something. I think health care is like art - you can't really describe what good is, but you know a mistake when you see it.

[PrestonSturges]

I heard a woman one day describe how she fell in Germany on vacation and broke a shoulder. The Germans did surgery and put pins in. .....The full boat bill came in for $1400 which she paid.......Oh yeah, the German procedure she received is not approved practice for insurance coverage in America. They would have done a much more invasive surgical procedure.

I heard an interview of a US tourist in France that thought they had broken their arm. The French said they could pay cash. No waiting, because there was no room of people filling out forms or lines of uninsured people. They were done with x-rays and results in half an hour, and the bill was $60. She thought there was a mistake and she was being charged the copay, but she was told that was the whole bill.

[diemos]

Another amazing thing about the whole health care debate was how no one showed the slightest interest in how people else where in the world organized their health care. Even when it was pointed out that most places in the world had better outcomes with half the cost and everyone covered.

Point that out and all you would get was a glazed look and a knee jerk monotone "America has the best health care system in the world. If you don't like America why don't you get the hell out."

How can a democracy work when the vast majority is incapable of critical thought and their brains just regurgitate slogans and soundbites.

[PrestonSturges]

American health care is like a Dr. Seuss cartoon where water would be delivered to your house by a long line of people with teaspoons passing the water from spoon to spoon. You call in your order and the people on the street rush to line up to your door and somewhere miles away they start dipping water out the lake with a spoon. It's inconceivable that someone would say "Hey if we just scrap this crappy system, we could get this service much cheaper."

[Plantagenet]

"Hey if we just scrap this crappy system, we could get this service much cheaper."

Didn't you notice? We did scrap the "crappy system" earlier this year.

We've got Obamacare now.

And wouldn't you know it----Obama and the dems lied when they claimed it would be "much cheaper"....in fact, insurance rates are going up and insurance policies are being cancelled faster then ever under Obamacare.

[Sixstrings]

Starting today, insurers will be required to:
Keep you covered when you get sick:

True, but they can raise your rates to up to THREE TIMES the market rate for a healthy person. Better than no coverage at all, but they're counting on people not being able TO AFFORD the higher premiums.

Cover kids with pre-existing conditions:

True, but do they have offer children's policies at all? I read something on Huffpost about insurers no longer providing child-only policies. That's a way around covering kids with pre-existing conditions -- just don't cover any kids at all.

Allow young adults to stay on their parents' plan up to age 26:

A useful reform, but also a sad admission that the teenage dependency years now run into the latter 20's. Sort of kicking the can down the road, hoping that jobs will materialize for all these unemployed youth.

Remove lifetime limits:
Phase out annual limits:

Don't know the details, but sounds good.

For any insurance plan that goes into effect after September 23, 2010, your insurance company must:
Pay for preventive care like mammograms and immunizations:
Give you a better appeals process for insurance claims:
Let you choose your own doctor:
Provide easier access to OB-GYN services:
Allow you to use the nearest emergency room without penalty:

Pathetic that these are considered "big reforms." I'm sure there are built-in loopholes for all these by the way. And any "appeals process" is always going to be weighted in favor of the insurers.

Many other new benefits of the law have already taken effect, including rebate checks for seniors in the donut hole and tax credits for small businesses.

Americans, rejoice! While Canadians and Germans and Swedes have REAL universal healthcare, our seniors get to have their donut hole covered. Whoopee.

Personally I would have preferred a single-payer instead of a insurance/pharma support bill but hey, you gotta start down the slippery slope somewhere.

The only improvement I see is at least having the opportunity to buy insurance (even if it is 3 times market rates and you can't afford it, at least there's a chance for you to somehow raise the money). And the up to 26 year old child coverage, that will be useful too (though again, just one more bill among many that parents have to for their twentysomething adult kids).

So really Pops these are weak reforms, and come at the high cost of government-mandated purchasing of private policies. Insurers make out like bandits compared to the few crumbs of reform they've thrown our way.

[PrestonSturges]

It's not a solution, but since the health insurance CEOs admit the industry the industry was already heading for financial collapse, further changes are coming. Of course, now they and the GOP will blame Obama, and the public is not interested in the fact that the executives had said something entirely different under oath. Sworn testimony can't get in the way of telling a good story.