Feds to design health insurance for the masses

[MountainMan]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government is taking on a crucial new role in the nation's health care, designing a basic benefits package for millions of privately insured Americans. A framework for the Obama administration was released Friday.

The report by independent experts from the Institute of Medicine lays out guidelines for deciding what to include in the new "essential benefits package," and how to keep it affordable for small businesses and taxpayers, as well as scientifically up to date.

And so the transition to socialism begins

The GOP candidates need to speak out against this today while it is again in the news.

[fettpett]

what now libs? I thought Obamacare was all about making it cheaper but the Government wasn't going be all up in your business and making you take anything specific

[Elspeth]

what now libs? I thought Obamacare was all about making it cheaper but the Government wasn't going be all up in your business and making you take anything specific

They lied. (Of course)

The fact that legislators are telling insurance companies what they can and cannot provide should be no surprise considering that, in order to pass the bill in 2010, Reid had to take coverage for abortion services out of it. While most people here believe that abortion is a grievous sin, look at the situation legally: abortion is a legal procedure. If Congress could exclude this legal procedure based on the opinions of a bunch of politicians, then the precedent has been set: Congress can exclude ANY legal procedure based on the opinions of a bunch of politicians. Hence the current situation of CONGRESS deciding what health care average Americans get instead of letting us buy the coverage we see fit.

The LEFT should be up in arms about this. When insurance gets over-regulated at the state level by the government (as it did in Virginia in 2006), the first thing that goes are domestic partner benefits for gay couples. Even if the insurance company wants to offer them because it believes it can bring in lots of gay customers this way, it can't: the government hath spoken. The LEFT should be furious, but watch the 99%ers on Wall Street not mention this at all. After all, Obama their Savior is doing it.

And as for the rest of us? Perhaps someone will try to shove down our throats the idea that taking the morphine shot and dying is better for society than us getting chemo, if we're older or less useful or something.

(Sorry if I seem to be screaming. I HATE HATE HATE Obamacare with a passion and think it is the worst thing for not only medical care but medical privacy in this country.)

[Wei Wu Wei]

hmm, I can see why people would oppose this.

How would you feel about a middle alternative, where the federal government can provide their own insurance policy something like medicare for people who want government health insurance, and let people with private insurance have whatever they are willing to pay for?

After all, I agree with many people here that the government should not require people to purchase private health insurance (the mandate), and I can understand why people want to pick their own plans based on their own needs and budgets.

This way, the government can provide a barebones package for people who don't want to buy private health insurance and people who do want it can purchase whatever they like.

[fettpett]

hmm, I can see why people would oppose this.

How would you feel about a middle alternative, where the federal government can provide their own insurance policy something like medicare for people who want government health insurance, and let people with private insurance have whatever they are willing to pay for?

After all, I agree with many people here that the government should not require people to purchase private health insurance (the mandate), and I can understand why people want to pick their own plans based on their own needs and budgets.

This way, the government can provide a barebones package for people who don't want to buy private health insurance and people who do want it can purchase whatever they like.

you don't fucking get it. IT"S NOT THE GOVERNMENTS JOB TO PROVIDE HEALTH INSURANCE

it's unaffordable

[Novaheart]

it's unaffordable

No it isn't. We're paying for universal care, we're just not getting what we are paying for.

I find it amusing when people who say that no one should be turned away from a hospital, or go on about the "charity once did this" routine, then are adamant that we can't afford to provide healthcare for all Americans. Which is it? Are we doing it, or can we not do it? Go down to your local housing project and tell me which one of those children you want to take off medicaid, which little asthmatic you want to snatch the rescue inhaler from. Pick one, now.

Then go to the nursing home and tell me which one of those people should be cut off. Which one of them isn't worth the price of admission? Which one is simply waiting to die and consuming resources in the process? Pick a granny, now.

You have a problem and you need to resolve it rather than continue in the BS cycle. That problem is that you are trying to justify your own greed and selfishness because you think it is consistent with your political philosophy. No, donating to your neighborhood church so that middle class kids can ride horses in the mountains at camp is not charity, it's deductible. Charity isn't putting a roof on some artifact of our cave dwelling ancestors. Charity is putting yourself in the place of the recipient.

[Wei Wu Wei]

you don't fucking get it. IT"S NOT THE GOVERNMENTS JOB TO PROVIDE HEALTH INSURANCE

it's unaffordable

If the government works for the people, then the people decide what the government's job is.

Also it's not unaffordable, it's about priority. The wars on the middle east have cost us over a trillion dollars, with some estimates over 3 trillion.

According to CBO estimates, the Bush tax cuts cost around $1.5 Trillion

We're spending between 1-3 Trillion dollars on wars while cutting $1.5 Trillion dollars in taxes mostly for wealthy people, and then saying we don't have enough money to provide health insurance to regular working class people.

There's also the bank bailouts but you get my point.

When it comes to cutting taxes for wealthy people, bailing out banks or major corporations, or invading a couple of countries and fighting decade-long wars, there is no question whatsoever about the cost, but when it comes to providing much needed help to working class families, it's suddenly a problem.

[Wei Wu Wei]

If an uninsured person grows ill, but it is not an immediate emergency, they will often avoid seeing a doctor because they cannot afford it out of pocket. If they grow more ill because of their lack of care, they end up in an emergency room where they must be treated, and if the illness is worse the treatment is usually more expensive (especially for things like surgeries).

If they have no money, they still aren't going to pay the bill, so who does? Everyone else.

It makes far more fiscal sense to pay less money to provide these people with affordable insurance so they can get proper treatment so everyone else doesn't have to pay for high-cost emergency care.

[Novaheart]

If an uninsured person grows ill, but it is not an immediate emergency, they will often avoid seeing a doctor because they cannot afford it out of pocket. If they grow more ill because of their lack of care, they end up in an emergency room where they must be treated, and if the illness is worse the treatment is usually more expensive (especially for things like surgeries).

If they have no money, they still aren't going to pay the bill, so who does? Everyone else.

It makes far more fiscal sense to pay less money to provide these people with affordable insurance so they can get proper treatment so everyone else doesn't have to pay for high-cost emergency care.

And this generates lots of people who have bad credit, which in turn becomes profit to places like Aaron Rents, pay as you go phone companies, third party utility guarantors, pawn shops, Amscot, and all kinds of slimy and predatory parallel businesses which cater to people who are ruined by hospital collection agencies.

[Constitutionally Speaking]

If the government works for the people, then the people decide what the government's job is.

.

Not unless they follow the PROPER procedures to CHANGE THE CONSTITUTION.

We are NOT supposed to be a nation guided by popular whims but by LAWS.

Of course those laws are to be responsive to the people, but not just by whim.