| For instance, for the right proclaimed that there would be "death panels" for seniors if the healthcare reform were passed. This is a lie. There are no "death panels" period. The section of the bill covers only end of life counseling by the doctors. In other words, the doctor gets paid for talking to the patients about their options when the opportunity presents itself by the patients concern and the discussion is completely voluntarily.
On the left, it has been stated that, by Valerie Jarrett, communication spokesperson for the White House, that "there is majority of support for democrats' healthcare plans." This was an overstatement. Some polling showed that a majority supported democratic healthcare plans but not as many as she implied. Another exaggeration by the left was by President Barack Obama that "the Senate Finance Committee approved a reform proposal that has both Democratic and Republican support." This too is an overstatement. There was only one republican who supported the proposal out of the committee and that was Maine's Olympia Snowe.
Nevertheless, the selling of healthcare by President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party has been piss-poor. When the benefits of the healthcare Senate bill are examined, there are some very beneficial attributes to the new law. As an example, immediate access to insurance for individuals for pre-existing conditions and the creation of high risk pools within 90 days, the Part D - Medicare Drug Plan starts closing the referred "donut hole," which is when coverage of prescription drugs coverage stops and starts up again ($2700 to $ 6154), takes effect immediately; and, if you have already surpassed this gap in 2010, seniors will get a $250 rebate. Small business gets tax credits up to 35 percent for contributing to healthcare plans of employees. Six months after implementation the healthcare reform bill eliminates pre-existing condition exclusion for children (approximately September 23, 2010) and it also extends coverage for children up to the age of 26 on parents' healthcare plans. In October, healthcare reform law extends state's Medicaid services for maternity and pre-natal care for high-risk population access (p 568). This section is specifically is to aid the populations in terms of infant mortality for minorities, low income groups, and domestic abuse to name a few categories.
Furthermore, the healthcare reform law prohibits rescissions by insurance companies, when a person gets sick and eliminates lifetime limits and restricts use of annual limits (by 2014 annual limits are eliminated completely). The healthcare reform law will increase taxes on tanning salons (July 2010), medical equipment and pharmaceutical industries (2011), Cadillac plans tax (2018) and persons with income of $200,000 or more and for couples earning $250,000 just to name a few. If you want more information on what is implemented in 2010 go here (a pdf link http://docs.house.gov/energyco... and for the full implementation go here (also a pdf link http://docs.house.gov/energyco... So what does the healthcare reform do? It provides standardization of the health insurance and regulates the private and governmental agencies. It provides a leveling of the playing field, which in turn, should lower cost since everyone has to abide by the same rules. The selling of insurance across state lines is unnecessary but with insurance exchanges will help the individual and small business will lower costs because of competition. It is unfortunate that the rhetoric and noise actually got in the way of the debate. The average person and family do benefit from this healthcare reform, and despite the objections to the "mandate" of joining by 2014, the moral imperative sets the precedent. Moreover, if this country is to recover from one of its worse economic downturn in its history it needs to start bending the cost care curve. Simply doing nothing was not an option, unless, of course, it is the desire of the special interests and "those" in charge to oppress, depress, and suppress the people from obtaining their American dream (whatever it may be).
Regardless, healthcare reform was necessary for this country. The initial cost may seem dysfunctional by doing it now during an economic downturn, but to wait any longer would have been even more costly. Presidents for more than a century both republican and democratic have tried to reform healthcare; and, it has cost the citizenry dearly. According to The Commonwealth Fund, if Richard Nixon had gotten his way nearly 40 years ago, when he initially proposed healthcare reform, our healthcare costs would be only 10.7 percent of our GDP, instead of 17.7 percent that United States is spending today (go to this link for more info http://www.commonwealthfund.or... The selling of healthcare was done poorly-the above mention benefits, costs, and consequences should have been the selling points for President Obama's administration instead of engaging with the numbskulls' rhetoric and misinformation campaign.
But alas, this too shall pass.... |
