Obamacare

• Intex wrote on 2010-10-28 22:33
  I seriously don't understand why everyone is so against the Obama health care reform.
  "America's health care system is already great."
  "It's just forcing us middle class Americans to bail out the poor."
  Seriously, why the hell do people keep thinking this.
  
  America probably has one of the worst health care systems in the world.
  While we have one of the best response and care systems, the health insurance industry is a failure.
  If you don't buy health insurance you had better pray to every god in the world you don't get sick.
  If you do buy health insurance but you find yourself with cancer a few weeks after switching to a new plan, your health insurance will try to drop you by arguing cancer was a pre-existing condition.
  
  Both of my parents have worked in the general medical field for over 20 years and they have nothing but scorn for the system.
  Currently you are expected to sign up for a health insurance policy and usually you have to pay a lot for a decent policy.
  Your health insurance company will give you a list of the doctors that are signed with the company.
  If you get healthcare service from unsigned doctors you will have to pay a huge amount out of pocket.
  
  Doctors must sign contracts with these companies and basically accept any low rate the insurance company offers to pay.
  This means you either choose to have patients and be underpaid or you don't accept the patient pool.
  Depending on the size of the company you could kill your business by rejecting a contract.
  Recently my parents cut out United Insurance since it paid so badly.
  
  For those without good healthcare do you guys think Medicaid helps them out?
  Medicaid pays sh--, really.
  For the same procedure that costs $100 for private insurance, Medicaid pays like $40.
  In many areas there isn't a huge pool of people that rely on Medicaid meaning doctors can save time and money rejecting ALL Medicaid patients.
  There was a small child in the news who died of a tooth infection that hit the brain, his doctor rejected him because they relied on Medicaid.
  My parents recently dropped Medicaid after the disability payment did not increase at all to keep up with cost of living.
  
  If you aren't eligible for Medicaid but you do not have a healthcare plan you're going to have to pay a lot more for any checkup, vaccination, and etc.
  Even the more generous doctors charge more because it's just a huge inconvenience and there's no guarantee you will stick to their business.
  
  I'm not saying Obamacare is the cure all for medical insurance but it's a huge step in the right direction.
  The plan is trying to stop insurance companies from dropping every pre-existing condition patient.
  If you don't like the insurance you're paying more for, you can switch to the government program and get good coverage for less.
  We can't keep blocking every single change saying that it's not perfect.
  If we keep doing that we are just backing the old failure of a healthcare system.
  
  Extra read AP Poll: Many think health overhaul should do more - Yahoo! News
• Cucurbita wrote on 2010-10-28 22:34
  Its the first step to having a health care system that is a little more canadian.
  I like it.
  
  At least, I suppose I like it because I'm one who benefits from it. Children being able to stay under their parent's health care until 26 (or was it 28). Its excellent and cheap.
  
  Its indeed costly, and it does hurt a few people. So I'm not going to say its perfect at all. But the previous health care wasn't working. At all. If people are against it, then I suggest they come up with a better system rather than demanding it goes back to how it was.
• Intex wrote on 2010-10-28 22:39

  At least, I suppose I like it because I'm one who benefits from it. Children being able to stay under their parent's health care until 26 (or was it 28). Its excellent and cheap.

  
  The old system was that children not in college will be dropped after 21 years old.
  Children over 21 but still in college would be covered.
  
  The new system lets everyone under 26 stay under their parent's health care plan.
• spazzyorbit wrote on 2010-10-28 22:45

  Quote from Cucurbita;197506:

  Its the first step to having a health care system that is a little more canadian.
  I like it.
  
  At least, I suppose I like it because I'm one who benefits from it. Children being able to stay under their parent's health care until 26 (or was it 28). Its excellent and cheap.
  
  Its indeed costly, and it does hurt a few people.

  
  
  Deficit-neutral, and who does it hurt, exactly?
• Cucurbita wrote on 2010-10-28 22:46

  Quote from Intex;197514:

  The old system was that children not in college will be dropped after 21 years old.
  Children over 21 but still in college would be covered.
  
  The new system lets everyone under 26 stay under their parent's health care plan.

  
  
  Again, like I said.
  Beneficial to me.
  
  And quite honestly, a lot of people.
  
  Most young adults who graduate high school and don't go to college can't afford health insurance on top of everything else. And they would've been cut out from health care.
  
  

  Quote from spazzyorbit;197518:

  Deficit-neutral, and who does it hurt, exactly?

  
  
  Actually, I have no freaking clue.
  
  I was just listening to some guy on NPR whining his ass off about how bad it is for him and a lot of other people.
• Falsetto wrote on 2010-10-28 22:52
  His health care insurance reform was a large band-aid for sure, but unfortunately health insurance companies are a business. They are not there to look out for your health, they are there to make a profit regardless of how you turn out in the end. Rates will continue to rise, and the unfortunate part of the healthcare insurance reform; we will soon be required by law to purchase insurance from a private company.
  
  Private systems work perhaps when you want to choose what kind of potato chips you would like to eat or something, that's called capitalism. Healthcare is not the same issue, people need to live, it shouldn't have any part of a stock market or a business. I don't know how that makes any sense logically in any other way besides people screaming about communism taking over our lives.
• Lan wrote on 2010-10-28 22:54
  When Canada first started its health program it cost billions and put us in debt. I don't understand why people think it would be any different in the US.
• Intex wrote on 2010-10-28 23:00

  Quote from Lan;197533:

  When Canada first started its health program it cost billions and put us in debt. I don't understand why people think it would be any different in the US.

  
  If the government is in debt I'd rather have something out of it.
  But really, look at the nations with the best healthcare systems-
  The World Health Organization's ranking of the world's health systems
  France and Norway both have the "socialist commie" healthcare systems but they're at the top of the list.
  
  For a nation with so much wealth we have such an outdated health care system...
• Falsetto wrote on 2010-10-28 23:02

  Quote from Lan;197533:

  When Canada first started its health program it cost billions and put us in debt. I don't understand why people think it would be any different in the US.

  
  
  Whether that is the case, and whether or not the legislation was effective; take a look at these statistics.
  *I was going to use the same page Intex just listed*
  
  Also, The United States spends more on it's healthcare than an other country in the world.
• Cucurbita wrote on 2010-10-28 23:13

  Quote from Lan;197533:

  When Canada first started its health program it cost billions and put us in debt. I don't understand why people think it would be any different in the US.

  
  
  I'd rather be put in debt due to health care rather than because we're digging through Iraq.
  
  God that war is so pointless. I took an entire class on Conflicts in the Middle East and I gotta say, no matter what we do, those people are going to keep fighting.
• Ailyene wrote on 2010-10-28 23:16
  I thought that most, if not all countries, were in debt (government-wise). That's what I learned in high school social studies anyway.
  
  Anyways, no matter how wonderful a change can be, there will always be people bawwing about it. Even for the most ridiculous reasons, there will still be people doing it. Probably a lot of people who do the bawwing don't even know what's going on.
• Lan wrote on 2010-10-28 23:17

  Quote from Ailyene;197563:

  I thought that most, if not all countries, were in debt (government-wise). That's what I learned in high school social studies anyway.

  
  
  ...yeah >_>
• Cucurbita wrote on 2010-10-28 23:18

  Quote from Ailyene;197563:

  I thought that most, if not all countries, were in debt (government-wise). That's what I learned in high school social studies anyway.

  
  
  Its true. Everyone is in debt, and in a way where we can't really negate everyone's debt. Its not really strictly speaking, a monetary debt.
  
  So obviously if America owes Nation X 50 billion dollars, and Nation X owes America 20 billion dollars, its not as simple as canceling the 20 billion dollars and America oweing Nation X 30 billion dollars.
  
  But debt is debt, and America has a ton of it. And it will show later.
• Lan wrote on 2010-10-28 23:21
  The amount of debt in the world is greater than the amount of money currently in circulation...since I've taken no economy classes I don't know the outcome of this will be.
• spazzyorbit wrote on 2010-10-28 23:24

  Quote from Falsetto;197528:

  
  Private systems work perhaps when you want to choose what kind of potato chips you would like to eat or something, that's called capitalism. Healthcare is not the same issue, people need to live, it shouldn't have any part of a stock market or a business. I don't know how that makes any sense logically in any other way besides people screaming about communism taking over our lives.

  
  
  Which is why many people were disappointed when the public option was taken out of the bill. A public option would drive costs down because the government isn't in the business for profit. (This is what a lot of the apocalyptic communism declarations were thrown at.)