It’s a familiar joke:
Patient: Doc, it hurts when I do this!
(Patient stabs himself in the eye)
Doc: Well then don’t do that!
What’s left out of the joke is the two hundred-dollar price tag that the doctor tacks on to those five words. This country has a problem, and it’s healthcare. It’s unavailable to some, and completely unaffordable to far too many.
Fortunately, the Senate is working hard to pass the biggest healthcare reform that this country has seen in decades. The bill will mandate that all American citizens have healthcare, and support this by “Healthcare Exchanges” in 2014, from which Americans can choose from similar healthcare plans from many different providers and compare prices. The bill will also increase medicare coverage to around fifteen million more Americans, and adds restrictions on insurance companies that prevent them from denying coverage based on preexisting conditions. The combination of all of these factors leads experts to believe that 94% of Americans will have health coverage by the end of the next decade.
Unfortunately, the bill has plenty of flaws. The first one is that it lacks a central, Federally controlled and nation-wide public option. The fact is, even with the new healthcare exchange opening up, there will still be a lot of people who will not be able to afford health insurance. This is exacerbated by the fact that coverage will be mandatory, and just like many states have instituted monthly fines for those who lack automotive insurance, people who lack health insurance can look at a fine of about $500 per month. That hardly seems like a solution to increasing healthcare coverage and lowering costs. A second issue with the bill is that it does not go far enough to regulate insurance corporations. While they do now have to give anyone a policy, regardless of preexisting conditions, there is no legislation to stop them from charging exorbitant rates to those people who do have some sort of major health issue.
I firmly believe that a complete overhaul of the system is necessary, and this bill is a good start, but it’s really not enough.
Article: Click Here
The White House Stance: Click Here
House Resolution 3590 (2076 page Healthcare Bill): Click Here
1 comments:
What exactly does it mean by "preexisting conditions" like preexisting diseases that you have no control over or existing before you switch insurance companies..I forgot what it meant exactly. I also thought that having a governmental option was a key component that Obama wanted, so that the insurance companies would have to compete against the government? They cut that out?
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