"Health Insurance Reform"

I heard a clip on the radio. It was about passing something through Congress this year. About it being a high priority. It sounded like Obama. The phrase that jumped out at me is the quote in the title of this thread.


Bring on the unrecs.

The first time I heard it I bolted upright in my chair and thumped my husband and said 'Listen!'.

By the time it is finished, It will probably have as much teeth as Credit Card reform did.

Which is a tad more honest. If he'd just drop "reform" from the statement and replace it with "profit protection" he'd be being completely honest.

Care is not being reformed. What is being reformed is cost and access to it (through insurance). I have private insurance and I need it reformed. I also need for my friends who don't have insurance to have access to it (whether private or public).

as many people with insurance can attest to. And not much is being done to control cost - at least of private insurance.

In HR3200 even the public option has a $5K annual out of pocket (plus premium; both premium & out of pockets depend on income) for a single person. But we probably don't have to worry about that as the Democrats now seem willing to dump the idea of a public option as well. Which really doesn't matter when you consider the CBO says that by 2019 only 10 million would be able to use the public option.

Little about the actual delivery of care needs much reform, although for profit hospitals need to be pushed to hire adequate staff.

The for profit insurance industry has failed miserably all all levels.

Insurance worked reasonably well when it was non profit. Once they started to focus on profit and not on delivery of service, the whole system started to fall apart to the extent that people who haven't gotten sick yet are just paying for the illusion of coverage. People who have gotten sick are left completely out in the cold.

Their need to suck as much money out of the system and pay as little as possible to stay in business has also squeezed hospitals nearly to death, forcing dangerous short staffing just so they can manage to keep their doors open.

The insurance industry is slowly killing us with their need to deny coverage, services and payment in order to maximize profit.

That's the part that needs reform.

I'd prefer to be discussing health care without insurance companies, but unfortunately, they wield too much power.

:-(

And in fact, that is what single payer is in and of itself. Of course, it needn't be like that.