I have a pretty decent health care plan, but I don't fool myself into thinking that everyone is so lucky. When my cousin's child was diagnosed with leukemia, their provider took good care of them, but when the same thing happened to my neighbor, who was insured at about the same level, he and his family went bankrupt because their insurer decided to deny coverage. Most of us who are insured are happy with what we have and won't want to change anything, and we can't honestly think that this bill will eventually become law with anything more than cursory reforms to the private insurers. The public option will end up as a last resort and no better than anyone else, but an option nonetheless.
P.S. - Just FYI curtis, the original London bridge was rebuilt in Arizona in 1971.
Bluemax, that statement is patently false. No one can be denied emergency medical care at all in the USA, by law. Additionally, we do not suffer from the illusion that the govenrment will take care of us, when in many places people die because the GOVERNMENT doesn't treat them on time. I'd rather take my chances where I can help control the outcome than to be in a place where I have no choice except the public dole.
What is WRONG with you Americans? You're BONKERS! The ONLY civilized nation in the world that lets their citizens DIE if they can't afford to pay the most expensive doctors in the world!
Lets also not forget about certain vice presidents, who for no apparent reason own man sized safes and tried to tell us all they were part of the special 4th branch of government.
"With the arrival of ObamaCare", lulz. As if the USA hasn't been being turned into a totalitarian police/nanny state under every single US President since at least Wilson. Yeah, it's TOTALLY Obama's fault. And maybe some other Democrats, right? Certainly, no REPUBLICAN Dear Leaders can be held accountable for THEIR desecration of the Constitution, for THEIR crimes against humanity, for THEIR actions and policies of waging war on liberty and individual freedom.
Boy, those former Presidents must be some real myopic idiots if they're only just now realizing that America is turning into a nanny state.
Others have already discussed the heinous nature of the mandatory clause so I won't go into that.
Amazingly, we are also told that the "public" option will increase competition, yet the government already stifles competition by not allowing insurance companies to operate across state lines. So in essence, we get the government trying to fix the problem it created.
Additionally, if anyone believes that the public option will pay for itself, as President Obama has stated, I have a bridge in Arizona for sale. When it gets subsidized, and it will, it will then definitely put the insurance companies at a disadvantage in the market, and they will go find other businesses, which will then leave us all with only one choice. I know many believe that would be great. I, however, do not. I've been involved in business at the international level for more than 20 years. When we set up branches in Great Britain - a single payer country - in order to provide competitive compensation, we have to offer supplemental health insurance because no one who can afford to do so would use their government run healthcare program. Unfortunately, with the direction that the two versions of the bill are taking, there are only 3 or 4 options available for coverage, and they must meet the government's standard, so here is what we are left with: a single payer system that will be poor in quality, and no ability to buy supplemental insurance to compensate!
I don't get the mandatory clause. By adding that he really helps the hype against himself and his plan. There has to be some way to help poor legal Americans citizens afford healthcare with out taking away choices for the rest of us. Choices are what make a free society. And it's tough enough to feel like I have a choice when my voting choices are corrupted party blue or corrupted party red. It's like paper or plastice either way it's still a colostomy bag.
I can see it now. The government tells Obama he has to stop smoking or he won't be covered, then because of the clause that makes health care mandatory he could face jail time because of not having insurance which he would have if the government hadn't taken over the health insurance industry.
