Reply #97: It's like the Iraq war, Bonobo. It helped millions. The only down side it that it [View All]

hurt millions more than it helped.

The Kurds were and are almost solidly behind the Iraq war. They will tell you right now about how many millions it helped. And they of course are correct, when you look at it from their point of view. Just as you are correct about this house health care bill, when you look at it from your point of view.

But from my point of view, this House HCR bill will do more harm than good over all and in the long run. I don't believe it fixes the basic problems of affordabilty and accessibility. It just puts off addressing those problems.

After the Senate is through with it, it will be worse than it is now. They will almost certainly remove the drug price negotiations and they will most likely remove the ineffective and useless PO so that it can't be made more effective and useful at some future date. But even if they don't, it still side steps the most basic aspect of health care reform, which is cost containment. And that is the basic problem. We are paying far too much and getting far too little, and if the house bill were to go through exactly as it is now written, we would still be paying far too much and getting far too little. That means we will see our benefits cut in the future because it's not sustainable.

This is what is happening in MA, where they outlawed pre-existing conditions, mandated coverage, and subsidized private insurance. They now are paying much more for their insurance coverage than before and than the rest of the country and so benefits are being cut as a result. They didn't solve the problem of affordability and accessibility. They just covered it up for a little while.

And that isn't a solution.