Strange as it may seem…

If you like your plan and you like your doctor, you won’t have to do a thing. You keep your plan. You keep your doctor. If your employer’s providing you good health insurance, terrific – we’re not gonna’ mess with it

Fact: Private health insurance not banned

Individual policies will continue to be available, but people will buy those policies through the national health insurance exchange, which will ensure that people with pre-existing conditions will be able to get coverage. The House bill also allows for existing policies to be grandfathered in, so individual purchasers who like their coverage will be able to keep it.

What is the insurance exchange?

The health insurance exchange is a marketplace that will offer affordable high-quality health insurance options. It will provide relief to families who have no insurance or do not get adequate insurance at work and cannot afford to buy it in the costly individual or small group market. It is also for small businesses that cannot afford small group health insurance. It is one-stop shopping that will enable you and your family to find a plan that is right for you. For workers at big companies with group coverage, you can keep what you have with new protections against unfair insurance regulations that could limit your coverage if you get sick. And if you lose your job, move or decide to leave that company, you will know that there will be high-quality affordable health insurance options available for you on the exchange.

Read the Consumer Protections page

No Discrimination for Pre-Existing Conditions
Insurance companies will be prohibited from refusing you coverage because of your medical history.
No Exorbitant Out-of-Pocket Expenses, Deductibles or Co-Pays
Insurance companies will have to abide by yearly caps on how much they can charge for out-of-pocket expenses.
No Cost-Sharing for Preventive Care
Insurance companies must fully cover, without charge, regular checkups and tests that help you prevent illness, such as mammograms or eye and foot exams for diabetics.
No Dropping of Coverage for Seriously Ill
Insurance companies will be prohibited from dropping or watering down insurance coverage for those who become seriously ill.
No Gender Discrimination
Insurance companies will be prohibited from charging you more because of your gender.
No Annual or Lifetime Caps on Coverage
Insurance companies will be prevented from placing annual or lifetime caps on the coverage you receive.
Extended Coverage for Young Adults
Children would continue to be eligible for family coverage through the age of 26.
Guaranteed Insurance Renewal
Insurance companies will be required to renew any policy as long as the policyholder pays their premium in full. Insurance companies won’t be allowed to refuse renewal because someone became sick.

Jonathan, are you suggesting that you’d be open to any suggestion Obama made? Because you wouldn’t be.

And the between”sticking with what you’ve got” or going on an affordable plan has one more option than the current system, which is to “stick with what you’ve got,” be it an employee-provided health care company that screws you or absolutely nothing.

And why can’t tyranny come in the form of big business? Why is it that anything the government does is tyrannical? Did you feel the same way when W was in power and performing illegal wiretaps and launching illegal wars? I have a feeling you didn’t, but if you did, maybe we could agree on a few things, afterall.

Also, do any employers provide spouses for people? Or even food? No, they don’t. Your string of hypotheticals was completely void of logic and they suggest that you don’t know how you really feel about anything going on in this debate.

when will the insurance industry A&U tactic of assessing those applying for their plans be BANNED? SEPT 1st?

I hope my cancer doesnt reoccur. Will Obama make it possible for me to get affordable coverage NOW? Inquring minds want to know.

Louie, the answer will be “when everyone has coverage.”

I’m amused by greggflynn’s posts above listing Obama quotes as “proof” of what reform will do. Let’s remember that there is, as of yet, no Obama plan per se. There are only several competing approaches in various committees. The NY Times is convinced that the Senate plan is where the real action is and that White House has already made deals to take public plan off the table there (though co-opts might fly).

The White House pages listing general principles and important consumer protections are guesses, or maybe suggestions abut the final direction of the reform bill. They do not have the force of law. So quit quoting them as proof of anything except what positions Obama’s people think are safe based on their poll research.

Link to Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/health/policy/13health.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Misinformation & Correction :

1. Rationing & A long Line :

With the help of upcoming IT system, the concern of a long waiting list probably doesn’t matter. And now that docs are liable for patient’s outcome, no intervention in the final decision is allowed other than ‘recommendations’ for best practices.

In the government-run, single-payer Medicare program, enrollees choose their own doctors, receive care in a timely manner. Similarly, the public option can be viewed as extension of medicare, exactly speaking, an upgraded version of it.

2. Saving & low Quality :

Most part of savings is made up of weeding out such wastes as so called “doughnut hole” , the unnecessary subsidies for insurers, the duplicate tests and unproven sham level of treatments, abuse, exorbitant costs by the tragic ER visits and so forth. As president Obama noted, the analogy of insulation, weatherization would be appropriate.

With that in mind nearly two-thirds of the cost of reform will come from reallocating money, overall, the financial architecture is looking good.

And let me stress : If you are a physician, and your pay is dependant upon your patient’s outcome, you will most likely strive to prescribe the best medicine available earlier in the process, let alone skimming the wasteful, unnecessary, and risk-carrying procedures.

3. Take-over ;

The runaway premium similar to the peak fuel price last year and left so many folks in despair insists on staying the course with the attitude ‘unchanged’, clearly this trend could bankrupt individual, business, and government. Now the government subsequently is tasked with these two main assignments, first, to address premium inflation, second, to expand coverage to all in urgent need.

In order to cover all and not to add to the deficit, the public option can not set the same rates of private market, rather, it needs to have BALANCING function to keep it in check in terms of INFLATION, too. Unfortunately, this ‘unavoidable’ direction is aggressively being accused by the runaway premium, citing government ‘take-over’ .

Under the circumstances the energy bill to determine human future and the other major issues are presently piled up, who wants to waste time making enemies ?, which also does not benefit the forthcoming election.

with the heartbreaking tears in mind (Nearly 11 Million Cancer Patients Without Health Insurance), private market also needs changes and should join together to complete this reform , as promised, otherwise, the runaway premium only has itself to blame while new firms are filling the void with competitive deals.
And It can be said that fair competition starts with a fair, sustainable market value.

However, Job-based coverage (indirect payment) and a limitation code over transfer, mandate code, and ample capital, reduced ER costs, IT base to streamline the administrative processes and trim costs might be favorable to the private market. Over time, supposedly, the public plan will concentrate more on basic, primary cares, and the private insurers will provide their clients with differentiated services.

4. Tax rise :

In the context the current health care wastes an estimated one-third – or about $700 billion – on unnecessary procedures, unnecessary visits to the doctor, overpriced pharmaceuticals, bloated insurance companies, and the most inefficient paper billing systems imaginable, health care reformers have often cited the system at Mayo Clinic as a model.

In modernized society, the business lacking IT system is unthinkable just like pre-electricity period, nevertheless, the last thing to expect is happening now in the sector requiring the most accuracy in respect to dealing with human lives. Apparently the errors by no e-medical records have spawned the crushing lawsuits, and these costs have led to the unnecessary tests, treatments, even further, more profits so far.

Thankfully, the pay for ‘outcome’ pack modeled after the system at Mayo Clinic is most likely to expedite the introduction of IT system, and the combined system is capable of shifting volume into quality in Medicare & Medicaid, thereby offsetting the 239 billions of estimated deficit, which is generated by $245 billions, the 10-year cost of adjusting Medicare reimbursement rates so physicians don’t face big annual pay cuts.

Supporters of the agreement say it could save the Medicare System more than $100 billion a year and ‘improve’ care, supposedly even a quarter of it might be enough to meet the goal of revenue-neutral. Moreover, in case this innovative idea applies to the public option, presumably it can lower the overall expense sharply, too.

And in respect to preventative program, surprisingly enough, the system today is designed around treating patients once they become sick, following ‘spillover’ and ‘levee breach’ , as too high level of preventable chronic disease accounts for it. By contrast, all of the excellent health systems seem to have one feature in common, an expansive, systematic preventative program demanding immense investments.

Some say the effect of preventative program is below zero compared with investments, or takes a long time even beyond next decade window, but if this program in the exemplary systems is disorganized, the odds are high that they will also face the same pressing need for reform in a few years. Like common sense, fire needs to prevent in advance or foil in early phase, and it would be the most cost-saving measure, in my mind.

Just like marriage, economy also undergoes up and down, however, economic downturn is not reflected in the employment-based system. The rising mental stress & ‘keep eating habit’ , which are the epicenter of a number of different diseases, might be traced to this insecure system and exorbitant premiums.
Once the health care reform provides the general public with peace of mind, the rising mental stress, obesity caused by the the deep-seated apprehension and exorbitant premiums may bend the curve surprisingly.
And reducing the tragic ER visits can lessen costs for the already insured, what’s more, the balancing function of public option could mitigate fast-rising premiums.

I guess If the cost of the reform is an issue Americans take seriously, then all of the ‘free’ nations in the world should withdraw the existing public policy. Instead, it might be the ‘will’ of reform to end disgrace. Here is the hope, while the runaway premium wound up in the collapse of middle class ranging ‘ from finance to mental health’ , alongside the peak fuel price and fast-growing mortgage rate, this time, clearly, the positive impacts involving massive job creation, promising stem cell research, several times more economic effects of ‘from bed to work’ , in return, will lead to economic recovery.

Thank You For Reading !