All hail health care reform

First of all - I've been slacking off with posting. I was going to blame it on being left speechless by the healthcare reform bill, or maybe blame it on the cold I got despite abusing Vitamins D and C for the past few months, or blame it on my PC crashing, but the crux of it is, I was too lazy to be eloquent. I have a lot of opinions, but making something coherent out of them with the keyboard is often too much trouble.

Excuses aside, all is right with the world now that the President has signed the healthcare bill.

I suppose I should be happy for the some of the changes. After all, the insurance companies will be slipping their necks into tight little nooses that should keep them under a bit more control than they've had in the past. And now:

approval will extend coverage to 32 million Americans who lack it

Why does this sound suspiciously like 32 million Americans will just be ‘given’ health insurance, when clearly that's not the case?

The bill will ban insurers from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions

It’s about time, but what punishment will insurers think up to make up for having to comply with this rule?

For the first time, most Americans would be required to purchase insurance, and face penalties if they refused.

There you go – punishment – that’s the way to care for the people. Punish them if they don’t pay for something you want them to pay for. And ‘most’ – that means there are still people who won’t be required to buy health insurance. Will they be the super-rich, the super-poor or just people with the right connections?

health care for all Americans

This is not what the legislation is about. It’s about getting everyone to buy health insurance

[Insurance companies] would be forbidden from placing lifetime dollar limits on policies, from denying coverage to children because of pre-existing conditions and from canceling policies when a policyholder becomes ill.

This all sounds great – but as we’ve seen with the credit card industry, it’s just a matter of time before insurance companies come up with ways to punish their customers for every new law they have to obey

Parents would be able to keep children up to age 26 on their family insurance plans, three years longer than is now the case.

This is a step forward, and will help millions of young adults maintain health converage, but remember, it still won't be free.

$900 billion in tax increases and Medicare cuts combined

Ah – there you go! Cut healthcare costs by taking coverage away from the elderly and charging taxpayers. I just don't understand why Congress didn't think of that sooner.

So weigh in - do you think the healthcare reform will actually help the majority of Americans, or will it ultimately cause more problems than it cures?

Apparently you get only what you pay for

I came across this disturbing article from November 2009 about a clinic in New York that provides two separate entrances for patients: one for people with health insurance and one for people who will be paying out of pocket for their health care.

It’s fascinating [in the same way a train wreck is fascinating] that the insurance side is overcrowded, overbooked, and patients receive a lower standard of care. The ‘boutique’ side of the clinic, for people who have the money to pay their own way [note, not for the ‘uninsured’ who will be expecting the government to compensate the doctors – this is for people who can write a check, fork over cash or charge the hundreds of dollars it will cost for their treatment or diagnostic care] provides faster access to appointments, an actual conversation with a doctor and immediate test results.

Is this the ‘broken’ part that ObamaCare is supposed to fix? Is health care reform going to make it so that since we all be required to have health insurance, we will all get ‘boutique’ type care? Or will health care reform simply widen the gap – longer wait times, a lower standard of care for entire population...except for those who either a) choose to pay above and beyond the cost of their health insurance for ‘real’ health care, where they actually see a doctor and are treated like humans rather than cattle, or b) the ‘criminals’ who opt not to pay for health insurance but instead save up their hard earned cash in order to pay for better service.

Maybe it’s time we held not only the government accountable for the travesty that the health care profession has become, but doctors as well. Do you think we’d be better off we all just had to pay for a doctor visit out of pocket? If doctors wanted ‘customers’ they’d have to lower their prices...or would that simply make health care only affordable to the wealthy...wait...yeah - sort of just like the situation in this article.

Maybe healthcare should just be free for everyone, you know, like it is most of the other developed nations of the world. Profits be damned. Oops, did I say that out loud?

Let them eat cake

This post over at NaturalNews.com deftly sums up my feelings on the healthcare reform bill currently wending its way through the greedy hands of Congress.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s asked how forcing people to pay for health insurance will solve the problem of UNAFFORDABLE health care. Since health care these days is equivalent to health insurance, the government is essentially saying that peasants who have no bread should eat cake.

I highly doubt that our President is the reincarnation of Marie Antoinette [who likely never uttered the famous quote anyway], but whoever came up with the idea to force the American people to pay for something they already can’t afford is certainly not on our side. Should we be concerned that members of our own government are so far removed from the lives of the average person that they cannot comprehend how this ‘mandatory’ insurance will affect us?

I could write volumes on my opinions about the health insurance industry, most of it fueled by frustration at the rampant stupidity with which the insurance companies are run. I won’t go there. Today anyway.

In the mean time I would just like to wonder, when push comes to shove, can we fight laws that are clearly detrimental to the health and wellness of the entire nation? Or is it too late for us to banish the monster we have summoned?