Via Hootsbuddy's Place I get to Obsidian Wings and this post about Bush's plans for healthcare. OW notes that Bush has slipped major reforms under the radar while everyone was watching his Social Security shakedown.
Emboldened by their success at the polls, the Bush administration and Republican leaders in Congress believe they have a new opportunity to move the nation away from the system of employer-provided health insurance that has covered most working Americans for the last half-century.
In its place, they want to erect a system in which workers — instead of looking to employers for health insurance — would take personal responsibility for protecting themselves and their families: They would buy high-deductible "catastrophic" insurance policies to cover major medical needs, then pay routine costs with money set aside in tax-sheltered health savings accounts.
(From the LA Times)
OW has a lot of sense to say on this, including:
the effects on people's decisions about health care will depend a lot on how much money they have. The rich are unlikely to care about a few hundred dollars here or there. Middle and upper-middle class people will probably make somewhat more intelligent decisions, although this will be limited by how complicated their choices are, and how much complex medical information they are able and willing to process. But poor people are likely to end up foregoing necessary medical care because they simply can't afford it. And this is bad. Second, this sort of proposal favors the healthy over the sick. If you have a chronic illness, you might spend your full deductible year after year, and never be able to set any money aside in your health savings account. To people with chronic illnesses, the main effect of this plan will just be that if they're insured at all, the amount they have to spend every year rises dramatically.
Yet as we have seen, a universal healthcare system in the US is not only affordable and sensible, it can actually save everybody money. Look at my posts on "The Great Divide" below for details.
On this one, it doesn't matter what your politics are, it matters whether you care about your fellow Americans. Make a noise and demand the best.
Update Chris Anderson at Interesting Times picked up on the same report about medical bills being the primary cause of bankruptcies as we did in yesterday's news briefs, but then gets into the nitty-gritty of the unpleasant facts.
Now consider this: if someone is uninsured or has poor insurance and then gets sick or injured and has to go to a hospital, how do they pay for their care? They often don't. When the hospitals come looking for payment these people declare bankruptcy as the only viable means of keeping the bill collector off their backs.
So who ends up paying for the medical costs? The cost gets spread around to those who can pay, thus raising the medical bills even higher and forcing even more people into bankruptcy!
And Bush wants us to think the problem is all those evil lawyers and their medical malpractice lawsuits!
Chris also adds his voice to those who think that universal health care is the obvious option.
Better care, better price, better country. Hows that for a slogan?
2 comments:
"On this one, it doesn't matter what your politics are, it matters whether you care about your fellow Americans. Make a noise and demand the best."
cold, Cernig... brr.. chilly. I'd like to think that that's how it is on EVERY issue. I read your two parter, and while it is excellent, I found it unconvincing. I think you read my post about Induction Bombs, and I think that was the problem... I'll go over your two parter tomorrow, and submit myself to an Induction Bomb- purely out of respect for you.
After all, you did win a Harkonnendog Award... ;)
Cheers!
Harkonnendog
A couple thoughts.
First. This week's headline is actually old news. The study was done after health care bills were identified as the number one cause of personal bankruptcies. This study found that approx. 1/2 of all personal bankruptcies was due to medical bills.
Second. What I have read some people (and CNN commentators) amazed at is that it doesn't matter if you have insurance or not. If you have a catastrophic illness and you don't have six months salary in reserves, you are screwed. My co-worker is a perfect example. Duo income family, one child, with a good HMO. A. had been at his new job less than three months and got meningitis. He was in a coma for almost three weeks and out of work for three months. His family lost their house, all savings, basically everything. He did everything right including challenging itemized bills, begging, and negotiating the bills down. After everything he ended up bankrupt.
Third. A and I work for the nation's largest health insurer, Wellpoint. We are health care providers who have crossed over to "the dark side". I spend my days talking to people with health insurance (& asthma). Over half of the people I talk to have trouble paying for their medicines month in and month out. Are these people the working poor? They make from $7.50-$12.75 an hour. Almost all of them are duo income families or single parent (invariably single mothers). So the household income is way above the federal poverty level. Granted, I speak to people who have a chronic illness which requires multiple medications to manage, however these people are not poor.
Fourth. I have to put my kids to bed and will comment on "The Great Divide" later, probably tomorrow.
Kirkrrt
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