We've Lost...

[kwatters]

If an insurance company were to offer it, there would be nothing wrong.

This is the government forcing business to do things they don't want to do, and that is wrong.

Think of it from the point of the insurance company. Imagine you own a health insurance company.

I see it from both sides unfortunately.

Imagine you have a kid with pre-existing conditions. They graduate college and get a job, what are the chances of getting one with insurance benefits these days? If they lose insurance for any reason they are stuck.

 

[SemperFiUSMC]

I see it from both sides unfortunately.

Imagine you have a kid with pre-existing conditions. They graduate college and get a job, what are the chances of getting one with insurance benefits these days? If they lose insurance for any reason they are stuck.

Sad situation. Please explain why it is OK to bankrupt an insurance company and / or raise everyone's insurance rate to the point of unaffordability because the insurance company is forced to accept someone into the risk pool that is not a risk but an absolute certainty?

I wouldn't expect anyone else to pay for my preexisting condition. Why should I have to pay for someone else's?

The government's magic printer is about out of paper. The preexisting condition portion of the law is the one that will drive insurance companies out of business. Then what?

 

[ATOMonkey]

Would you sell life insurance to a dead guy? Car insurance after a wreck?

Now, aaaaay back in the day, insurance started out as a co-operative cost sharing thing. They did it mostly to pay for hospital costs, but it didn't matter if you had a pre-existing condition or not.

Unfortunately a co-operative is illegal in most states, and definitely illegal to operate one across state lines since all health insurance is state regulated.

 

[chraland51]

Those lying sacks of crap that we elected lied right to our faces in order to get our votes. I could not beleive how fast many of them seemed to change their positions from repealing bammercare to compromising on it. I know that the political process moves slowly, but I really feel betrayed by many who acted as if they actually cared about us and felt our pain. I also know that the republicans do not want to be viewed as the reason for gridlock the next two years because many of our less observant voters with think that they are just obstructionists. They are walking a tight rope, but their major concern is with their own jobs and power to the party and not good ole John Q. Public who is being saddled with more burden to pay for those who just seem to want something for nothing. You would not know that we are in recession. Everything keeps going up and up in price, but my paycheck which has been stagnant for the last 3 years. Actually, I have lost ground on that too with higher health insurance costs, loss of matching up to (get this) $15/per pay on deferred comp and a few other things that have made my takehome pay get smaller and smaller. I am glad, however, that I do still have a job to go to every day. I will keep chugging away as long as I can. However, when it gets to the point that I can stay home and collect a government check and maintain the same life style, I think that I will choose that option. After all, I have worked for nearly 40 years and have forced to contribute to the cause. I would like to see a little of it come back to me before I croak. I think that I can swallow my pride and become a worthless parasite like so many others have done before me. Nah, I do not really think that I could do such a thing. Just my two cents.

 

[BigMatt]

I am close to the HR department where I work, and we have had guys work here with diabetes, heart conditions, liver problems etc...

We add them to our pool and we have never had a problem with pre-existing conditions. Apparently, the insurance companies think that they can make money with these people on the roles.

I don't think an insurance company should have to insure a sick person though. They are in a position to make money. Insurance companies will be forced insure someone who just had a stroke and is going to be on life support for the rest of their lives and our insurance costs will go up. In effect, it is wealth redistribution just like mortgage relief, like unemployment extensions etc...

I have a guy that works at my company and he brags about how his sister gets $600/month in WIC on top of the section 8 housing she lives in. She has 4 kids and each of them get their breakfast and lunch given to them at school. She then turns around and sells the unused portion of the credit on her food stamp debit card for half price.

I don't mind helping the people that can't help themselves, but there is waste, fraud and abuse in every entitlement program out there and the republicans are feeding the beast.

 

[hornadylnl]

Those lying sacks of crap that we elected lied right to our faces in order to get our votes. I could not beleive how fast many of them seemed to change their positions from repealing bammercare to compromising on it. I know that the political process moves slowly, but I really feel betrayed by many who acted as if they actually cared about us and felt our pain. I also know that the republicans do not want to be viewed as the reason for gridlock the next two years because many of our less observant voters with think that they are just obstructionists. They are walking a tight rope, but their major concern is with their own jobs and power to the party and not good ole John Q. Public who is being saddled with more burden to pay for those who just seem to want something for nothing. You would not know that we are in recession. Everything keeps going up and up in price, but my paycheck which has been stagnant for the last 3 years. Actually, I have lost ground on that too with higher health insurance costs, loss of matching up to (get this) $15/per pay on deferred comp and a few other things that have made my takehome pay get smaller and smaller. I am glad, however, that I do still have a job to go to every day. I will keep chugging away as long as I can. However, when it gets to the point that I can stay home and collect a government check and maintain the same life style, I think that I will choose that option. After all, I have worked for nearly 40 years and have forced to contribute to the cause. I would like to see a little of it come back to me before I croak. I think that I can swallow my pride and become a worthless parasite like so many others have done before me. Nah, I do not really think that I could do such a thing. Just my two cents.

Please tell me you weren't the slightest bit surprised this was going to happen. There were many of us on here before the election saying this was exactly what was going to happen. But we were all ridiculed as libtards, anarchists, etc because we refused to tow the party line.

 

[BigMatt]

Please tell me you weren't the slightest bit surprised this was going to happen. There were many of us on here before the election saying this was exactly what was going to happen. But we were all ridiculed as libtards, anarchists, etc because we refused to tow the party line.

I wasn't necessarily surprised by it, but I was disappointed. I was hoping that the people that we voted in, actually heard what we were saying with our votes.

 

[SemperFiUSMC]

I wasn't necessarily surprised by it, but I was disappointed. I was hoping that the people that we voted in, actually heard what we were saying with our votes.

The political reality is that there's no way to repeal it. If you got every Republican on board in both houses, it would be voted down in the Senate. Even if you got a few Democrat senators to sign on, Obamagonnaneedajob would veto it. There aren't the votes to override a veto in either house.

 

[BigMatt]

The political reality is that there's no way to repeal it. If you got every Republican on board in both houses, it would be voted down in the Senate. Even if you got a few Democrat senators to sign on, Obamagonnaneedajob would veto it. There aren't the votes to override a veto in either house.

There is no real way to repeal it in the next two years, but that is no reason to start accepting parts of the bill.

The Republicans should keep sending it to the Senate every week for repeal so that we would keep hearing about it for the next two years.

If that happened, the dems would lose their asses in 2012 and the first chance we had, it would go away.

 

[hornadylnl]

I wasn't necessarily surprised by it, but I was disappointed. I was hoping that the people that we voted in, actually heard what we were saying with our votes.

I don't understand the disappointment either. Many of us here knew this was going to happen.

 

[Arthur Dent]

What are you getting at?

Try reading the bill is what I'm getting at. The reason people are so against it is that they don't have a clue what it says. The most vocal are the most ignorant on it.

 

[ATOMonkey]

I've read it and I'm very much so against it.

 

[Arthur Dent]

I'm far from 100% on board with it, but there are provisions in there that are worth merit.

 

[ATOMonkey]

Like what?

 

[Arthur Dent]

Funding for programs that allows medical professionals to pay up to $140k of their student loans through medical work in times of emergency and through community programs.

Improved nursing home accountability. Standard for background checks of nursing home staff.

Prohibiting reduction in retiree health benefits by group health plans.

Prohibiting injuries from domestic violence being treated as pre-existing conditions.

An end to a lifetime maximum benefit.

That's just to name a few.

 

[ATOMonkey]

Pay for med school = wealth redistribution. Bad

Nursing home accountability = more spending. Nursing homes should be held accountable by the families that use them.

Reduction in retiree health benefits by group health plans. Setting up Federal Insurance exchanges isn't going to bring cost down. Bad idea

Domestic violence - I don't know what state does this, but I agree with this one.

Lifetime max benefits - This will increase the cost of premiums. Bad idea.

The easy way to make health insurance more affordable is to fix the root cause problems.

Those being that health insurance is regulated at the state level, and the regulations make it VERY difficult to pool people together who do not share common geography or employment. It also makes it very difficult to run a health insurance business across state lines, because you have to comply with 2 different sets of regulations. Not only that, but you can't pool the people from the two states together.

So, a law abolishing all regulation at the state level and setting up one set of rules for ALL insurance companies to play by at the Federal level would allow the 5,000 some odd insurance companies in this nation to compete against each other and spread out risk over a MUCH larger population.

Basically, the same way auto insurance is done.

Secondly, states have mandates for ALL insurance policies sold in their state. So, if you're a single man 20 years old, you still need to buy a maternity rider, extended stay hospital coverage, etc.

Mandates NEED to go.

The whole thing needs to be torn down and rebuilt. Trying to add on to the structure that is already there is going to be costly and ineffective in the long run.

 

[Arthur Dent]

They aren't getting their school loans paid for free. They have to actually work for it.

Nursing homes SHOULD be held accountable to the families but they are able to avoid that often enough for it to be a problem.

Prohibiting reduction in retiree benefits is bad how?

Lifetime maximums are an out for the insurance company. If you get sick and use up the maximum benefit you're hosed. Being in business doesn't entitle them to make money off everybody. Going into business is a gamble, which involves the potential for loss.

I'm quite baffled why health insurance companies are against the healthcare bill. With 340+ million guaranteed customers how can they lose?

 

[Eddie]

They aren't getting their school loans paid for free. They have to actually work for it.

Nursing homes SHOULD be held accountable to the families but they are able to avoid that often enough for it to be a problem.

Prohibiting reduction in retiree benefits is bad how?

Lifetime maximums are an out for the insurance company. If you get sick and use up the maximum benefit you're hosed. Being in business doesn't entitle them to make money off everybody. Going into business is a gamble, which involves the potential for loss.

I'm quite baffled why health insurance companies are against the healthcare bill. With 340+ million guaranteed customers how can they lose?

Insurance is a betting game. The provider is taking your wager and figuring the odds that you won't need a claim or that the overall number of claims for your pool will be less than the premiums minus the costs to administer the program. The Health Care Bill intruduces provisions that will make it harder for the insurance companies to estimate costs and increase their risk of operating at a loss. If they don't make money then there is no reason for them to be in business. I don't like insurance companies in general but I can see that they are being regulated out of business.

 

[Arthur Dent]

I think the insurance companies are against it because there is too much potential for reduced profit. They are less in control. I doubt they will see a loss, with such a large customer market that is forced to buy. The heady days of unlimited profit may be at an end for them, but they will still profit.

Like I said, just because you open a business doesn't entitle you to a profit.

 

[hornadylnl]

Like I said, just because you open a business doesn't entitle you to a profit.

Just because you exist or have a job, it doesn't entitle you to healthcare.