What the House Health Reform Bill Means for You

It means that I may no longer be able to afford the extra speech appointments for my son.

RIP freedom, we barely knew ye.

untrue. You will still be as able to have private insurance as you are now. This system we currently have does not work. These are minor reforms that fix the biggest problems with the health care system.

I really don’t understand how people can think the system works. My husband did not have employer based health insurance until he was 35 (fortunately he married me at 29 so my health insurance covered him). Many adults I know who work in arts or technology do not have health insurance. This weekend I received a letter from my gyn saying that she could no longer afford to take my (private employer based) health insurance. I could go on and on. I wouldn’t even call these horror stories, they are just typical. The bill passed in the House won’t solve all of these problems but it is a small step in the right direction.

The current system does have a ton of problems, mostly from a lack of the best kind of oversight there is—consumer oversight. There is also a bizzare sense of entitlement when it comes to health insurance. How is having to make the choice between finding another gyn, or paying out of pocket for the gyn you like, or possibly (though in this over-regulated, non-competitive market this choice is harder than it should be) finding a new insurance provider that big a deal? Furthermore, it was your gyn who decided not to take that form of payment, not your insurance co denying you treatment or anything of the sort. Your gyn made a decision about what was best for her/his business, just like deciding to no longer accept Mastercard. My guess, too, is that there will be many docs refusing the low-ball compensation of a public option because they will not be able to afford their expenses on the compensation, which based on what we know from Medicaid and Medicare will likely be far below market value. Other docs may refuse it based on the hassle of dealing with gov. paperwork headaches and the potential of red tape getting in the way of patient care by restricting testing or imposing wait times for procedures, or imposing “guidelines” that effectively create one-size-fits-all medicine.
Consumers, business owners, entrepreneurs need to rethink health coverage—not the government. I am a business owner and provide the catastrophic/HSA plans that the current administration seems to disdain so much and I have to tell you I LOVE it, and after some getting used to, so do most of the people I know with it. The best thing about this sort of coverage is the fact that it puts the consumer, not a drone at Aetna or Public Option Health Plan or Medicare in charge. If I think $250 is too much for a well-child check, I the parent, because I pay the whole bill, am empowered to negotiate to get the best possible care for the best possible price for my kid. If I was not pleased with bedside manner or some other aspect, there is no list to choose from, no paperwork to mess with, all I have to do is find me a better doc, and I have yet to find one who isn’t thrilled to take a patient self-pay w/HSA because that’s cash-in-hand without paperwork and waiting to be reimbursed. Of course doctors have to be more careful with self-pay patients because we are not limited by what our insurance will cover in the way of routine care, so if we get bad service, we can remove our business from him/her faster.
The bill passed by the house does get some points from me for opening up markets across state lines, because increased competition nearly always results in better service for consumers. But I fear the majority of the bill will mean more restrictions on the type of healthcare I am able to offer and purchase, because the other mind-boggling restrictions would drive so many good companies out of the market. Furthermore, Rep Frank, President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and others have been blatant about their penchant for the completely unConstitutional mandates and their desire that the public option should lead to single payer healthcare, which would be a nightmare.

As much as I hate the government forcing me to have insurance, there are two reasons I can live with it, as a part of a decent health care package: Any time a person without insurance ends up in the hospital and can’t afford the astronomical bill, everybody else ends up paying for it. The second reason is that people who choose not to buy insurance are often healthy people willing to risk that they won’t get sick. Taking these people out of the risk pool makes the cost of insurance higher for everyone else. I know many people on here will disagree, but for me, I can see forcing everyone to have insurance as a “necessary evil.”

Exactly Samsmomma - if people choose not to get insurance AND not to be able to go to the doctor,that’s one thing. But essentially I’m paying for their healthcare at the highest price point in an already overburdened system. We make people get insurance to drive a car. I don’t see how this is different. Our health insurance is very expensive, but I chose to pay it so that my family can have healthcare. If you don’t want insurance, then hospitals should have the right to refuse you service you didn’t pay for.

I think you are right. But you should cover more on this topic.