[Kobi]

Originally Posted by Prudence

I dont like the supreme courts decission.. I think it has found a loop hole in what apears to me a movement almost toward dictatorship. Im sure the taxation point was argured quite well on the floor of the supreme court and it won out. Ok .. so we can be taxed.. got it.. how about if at the end of the year.. the medical community has to turn over its billing to the federal govenment(see where this is still going) so that each who files income tax is matched up to that list to see if they have any outstanding medical bills .. if they do then tax them....Either way the federal govenment is "dictating" something as individual as your privite health care issues.. be it from the consumer or the provider.. They want that informantion. If this is truly upheld.. you will find that there will be limits then placed on procedures and recovery times for indivuals, services will be cut, it will eventually be that you will have to go through a governmental process to see if your condition is even worth addressing by the health care community. They will be dictating what meds can be dispensed .. at what cost and rate.. because they can only tax a certian precentage Heath care is not a one size fits all. I do understand that privite insurance will still exsit.. until it doesnt. The most basic of human instint is survival..What would you do for a person who is standing over you holding the very pill that would enable you to take your next breath. Its a wolf in sheeps clothing yall.

Originally Posted by Prudence

Oh yeah... I forgot to mention I dont like the way he passed the bill to begin with.. it was underhanded without congressional approval, thats why it ended up on the surpreme court floor to begin with. That is not how this country is run. You dont go into a debat room in the middle of the night and come out with new laws while the lawmakers slept. I dont see this as a conservative or democrat issue.. its a process issue. And thats scarry to me.

I can understand your concerns. The act is not without its flaws. And, it is somewhat different from what we are used to. Change can be scary and worrisome. Plus, anything that is government propelled makes me twitch.

There is both good stuff and bad stuff in this act, tho I am thinking the good is outweighing the bad....at the moment.

What I like about this act is that it levels the playing field, somewhat, for everyday people who do not have access to insurance or the care it provides. This affects an estimated 250 million people in this country. Most of those people are the "working poor", minorities, women, children, immigrants, the unemployed etc.

It also eliminates caps on lifetime dollar limits which is good for people with catastropic illnesses including premies. Doesnt take much for medical bills to send you into bankruptcy.

It also stops insurances from denying coverage to those with pre-existing illness or for jacking up the price of their policy to some exorbitent amount. Insurers have tried to be more and more creative in defining pre-exisitng to absolve themselves from the costs including stupid shit like denying coverage for newborns who have congenital or genetic problems, trying to deny coverage for genetic cancers in adults etc. That's kind of sick in my book.

It extends coverage for young adults under their parents policies, for early retirees in limbo between private coverage and medicare, for those who want to change jobs but have been reluctant to do so because of the loss of insurance etc.

It requires free preventative coverage for the general population plus specific stuff for women and children. See full list here: http://www.healthcare.gov/news/facts...ices-list.html

It will do some good stuff. Like everything else in life, good stuff has trade offs of not so great stuff.

I was not fond of mandated health care when Romney enacted it here in this state. I was not fond of the cost of the program to taxpayers and the new taxes it generated. I was not happy when businesses started dropping their health insurance because it was way cheaper to pay the fines than it was to provide the coverage.

Being one of those privileged little fuckers, I was not fond of any of it....until I needed it. My $700 a month COBRA was running out. I needed insurance. I jumped thru all the hoops and got my insurance, pretty close to the same coverage tho with limited providers for under $50 a month.

With the economic meltdown, the loss of jobs and the insurance they provide, million of people in this state were unable to afford the COBRA payments on their family plans - over $1000 a month. But, they could get affordable and relatively equal care for considerably less.

Without mandated health care and the options it provides here in Massachusetts, I and a shitload of other people would have been up the creek without a paddle.

I am also old enough and worked in health care when Nixon introduced HMO's and PPO's as a cost effective alternative to major medical policies back in 1973. The reaction of the general public and of many people in congress was much like we hear now i.e. death committees, people dying in the streets because they would be denied care or medication, limited care, limited access, a path to socialized medicine, etc. There were glitches of course but none of the doomsday projections ever materialized, and we managed not to convert to socialized medicine in the process either. Having successfully negotiated this path before, I am hopeful we can do it again.

The biggest deterrent we have to things going too wonky is the sheer power and economics of the health care industry itself. They are not going to give up their obscene profits without a damn good and very public fight.

The way this bill was passed didnt surprise me too much. Two sides unable to come to an agreement leading one to force the issue. Seems like typical politics to me. The republicans holding congressional hearings on contraceptives and only inviting male and male religious leaders to testify about the appropriate use of my vagina and uterus was much more disturbing to me.

I hear your concerns tho. Have a few of my own. I am hoping we, as a country, still have some of the ideals of a republic our forefathers set forth to guide our actions in stuff like this.