In favor of a public option for Health Care?

[sgoodcore]

Contact your Senator as soon as you can, seriously. I just did; first time for me and its quite easy. A staffer answers, you tell them you want to make sure your senator knows you're in favor of the public option, they get your zip code, and you're done.

If you're in California here's Senator Feinstein's info:

Senator Dianne Feinstein

District Offices:

    Fresno: 559-485-7430

    Los Angeles: 310-914-7300

    San Diego: 619-231-9712

    San Francisco: 415-393-0707

[dutchrudder]

i would much rather have a single payer system, but i guess this will do for now

[steventangent]

I'm in favor of yelling yellaisdf;alkdjsf'pa sdf;lk ":LKJ :LJAHHHHHH SOCIALISM

[sgoodcore]

i would much rather have a single payer system, but i guess this will do for now

What's the difference between single payer and a public option?

[dutchrudder]

Because there's still private companies making profit off of americans and making them bankrupt

We need to get rid of health insurance companies altogether

I contacted my senator and reapresentative as well

[brettall]

I'm in favor of yelling yellaisdf;alkdjsf'pa sdf;lk ":LKJ :LJAHHHHHH SOCIALISM

We, up here in Canada, love our socialist system that came as an inevitable by-product of the government-funded healthcare system. Right now, I'm standing in line for bread and pork rations and texting on my government-issued (and monitored) cell phone! Later, we are going to plough the community fields! After that, we are going to kneel before our hybrid leader Stephen Harper-Lenin and thank him for the blessings bestowed upon us by the single payer healthcare system!

[sgoodcore]

Because there's still private companies making profit off of americans and making them bankrupt

We need to get rid of health insurance companies altogether

I contacted my senator and reapresentative as well

I think if a non-profit public option is provided there's not going to be too many private insurers left but I figure the market can decide that much. I'm just for well-regulated, responsible health care with people's care, not money, as the paramount concern.

[mcm1610]

Insurance in general gets me fired up. They make millions gambling on who they think is a low-cost, low-risk insuree while squeezing every penny and making you jump through hoops to get anything done. Working for an insurance company is about as low as you can go in my book, unless you're Fight Clubbing it from the inside.

[lokithelion]

Car insurance people have always been dolls to me. Just sayin'

[drabley]

Insurance in general gets me fired up. They make millions gambling on who they think is a low-cost, low-risk insuree while squeezing every penny and making you jump through hoops to get anything done. Working for an insurance company is about as low as you can go in my book, unless you're Fight Clubbing it from the inside.

I work for State Farm.

Seems to me that you don't understand the basic concepts of what insurance is. Insurance is the transference of risk, simply put. The more risk you wish to transfer to an insurance company, through either higher limits, enhanced coverage, or low deductibles, the higher your premium is going to be. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Insurance companies do not "gamble" as you put it. They evaluate and manage risk. Everything is actuarially calculated based on decades of data and statistics. You smoke -- you pay more. You fat -- you pay more. Want life insurance at age 77 -- you pay more. Your house on the coast or in a flood zone -- you pay more. Essentially, the greater the likelihood of the risk that is insured being realized, the greater the premium will be. Sure insurance companies make millions -- billions, actually -- but what's wrong with that? Isn't that what companies are supposed to do? Isn't that the basis of our entire economy?

What hoops do you jump through? The underwriting process -- is that what you're talking about? If you were going to take on my health risks, for example, wouldn't you want to know what you're getting into? Wouldn't you ask questions?

I don't get my insurance for free. I pay just like everyone else. I smoke. I'm somewhat overweight. My family has a history heart issues. So I pay more than someone who does not have these risk enhancers present. Seems fair, no?

If you want to gripe about your insurance, fine. But don't go saying shit about things that you don't understand. If you don't like it, go without and see how you end up.

And don't call me low. Ignorance is low. My profession is not.

[lokithelion]

Denying people who've paid their retardedly high premiums for years without missing a beat for a "pre-existing condition" that really isn't, like my friend's mom who couldn't get melanoma treated because she went to the dermatoligist 15 years earlier about acne and didn't tell her insurance company about it, is low and bullshit. Denying people coverage they've paid for is low. Charging people 12k a year for insurance that they might not be able to collect on when they need it is low. You might be an angel working at your company, but a for profit business that has a profit incentive not to supply the very service they are paid to provide is low. No one should die because of shareholders, yet I've had at least three friends whose health care was rationed by their insurance companies even though they were good customers for bullshit reasons. Thankfully only two died. The other one is now 500k in debt at the age of 24. But she wont have to pay it off. Her treatable disease will kill before she will have time to, but she doesn't have the money to stay alive. This country is fucked some times. This is one of those areas.

If I pay my premiums then you cover whatever happens to me. This pre-existing condition bullshit is criminal and murderous. I hope you're one of the guys who gives the people what they pay for, maybe if there were more like you in your field there wouldn't be a need for reform.

[drabley]

And also -- insurance isn't the problem. It's the health care system that's fucked up. I personally don't see what a public option will do to correct it -- it just means someone else will pay the same bill.

Poor service, inefficiency, duplicate and unnecessary procedures, complete lack of preventitive care: these are the hallmarks of our health care system. And they cost a fucking fortune.

I went to the hospital last month. I was in there for approximately an hour and a half. I had a very painful stomach virus and was concerned that there might be an actual problem -- appendicitis, gall bladder, spleen -- there's too much shit in your stomach that can go wrong so I wanted to err on the side of caution. I received one barf bag, one IV, one dose of pain/numbing medication, one "bed" for an hour, one blood test. I saw two nurses and one doctor for about 15 minutes cumulatively. The doctor told me I had a virus, wrote me a prescription, patted me on the head and said it'll be okay, son.

My bill was over $2100. The provider discount lowered my bill to roughly $1200. My deductible is $2000. They wouldn't let me leave until I paid $250.

$2100 for that. You've got to be fucking kidding. And you wonder why health insurance is so high. Maybe if they weren't being charged $2100 for an aspirin and a pep talk, the prices would go down a little.

[dynamitekid]

Yea, I had a similar situation. I cut my finger open and I had to go get stitches. The emergency room bill came to $1500. ugh.

[sgoodcore]

Capitalism is about competition, its about companies doing things differently to attract customers. Companies differentiating themselves from others and competing. At the current time there's no real competition in the health insurance industry. They're all the same basically. They do the same things, they have the same weird pre-existing condition crap. What a public option will do is create competition in an industry that won't self-regulate.

I get insurance. What I don't get is why when I pay for dental insurance and I need periodontal work the insurance won't cover because they did more than two sectors of my mouth in one visit. That's fucking stupid and its only done because there's no option and every insurance company does the same. In the majority of states in the union a single provider of insurance covers more than 50% of the population. In Hawaii 78% of the people are on the same insurance plan. Where's the capitalistic competition leading to better service? Its nowhere, that's where a public option, with no care about being more than break-even, creates a great amount of competition.

You don't see this silliness in car insurance, at least not nearly as much, because there's massive competition. That's why you see a TON of car insurance commericals and NONE for health insurance. There's no need for commercials about health insurance because you don't have choice.

[drabley]

There's no doubt that there are unscrupulous companies that will attempt to deny coverage or twist informaition to their advantage.

Fact is, you get what you pay for in that sense. People often shop for the lowest price, which is a huge mistake for something as important as insurance. If company x's premium is significantly lower than company a, b, c and d that should throw up flags immediately. But it doesn't, more often than not, and people wind up in situations where they find out the details of the fine print in their contract at the most inopportune time. Not all contracts and not all companies are the same.

Pre-existing conditions are, and will always be, excluded. Think about it -- would you offer me full coverage if you knew I had a cancerous tumor removed 4 years ago? Nobody in their right mind would.

[dante3000]

There's no doubt that there are unscrupulous companies that will attempt to deny coverage or twist informaition to their advantage.

Fact is, you get what you pay for in that sense. People often shop for the lowest price, which is a huge mistake for something as important as insurance. If company x's premium is significantly lower than company a, b, c and d that should throw up flags immediately. But it doesn't, more often than not, and people wind up in situations where they find out the details of the fine print in their contract at the most inopportune time. Not all contracts and not all companies are the same.

Pre-existing conditions are, and will always be, excluded. Think about it -- would you offer me full coverage if you knew I had a cancerous tumor removed 4 years ago? Nobody in their right mind would.

The price thing is all relative. When all the companies are "balls up your ass, deep" expensive, maybe you'll go with a company that is low enough to just give you the shaft. The problem is with healthcare costs spiraling out of control even cheap insurance isn't cheap.

That said, I'm active and healthy, don't smoke, don't drink regularly, have a single partner who I'm committed to (my wife) and have only been to a hospital for two physicals in 3 years. Yet, I'm sure my company has paid for far more than just those two physicals. Where's my rebate?

Also, I am very happy with Kaiser over all but they aren't perfect.

[drabley]

I support the public option, but I think it could have real adverse effects.

The healthy people -- the good risks -- that essentially carry health insurance for catastrophic scenarios are generally content with their existing coverage. These individuals are less likely to elect a public option for their needs.

The unhealthy or high risk individuals -- the bad risks -- pay significantly higher premiums based on the likelihood that the benefits paid will far exceed the premium earned. These are the people that will gravitate to a low cost public option.

Without the good risks to counter balance the bad, or at least not the proper proportion of them, it will be very difficult for the public option to remain solvent, let alone break even.

[sgoodcore]

I would, being a good risk, switch to public in all likelihood. Further, Medicare has actually kept its costs lower than other insurers. That all said there's no guarantees but what we do have right now is atrocious. That's all I know. We need to work towards getting things fixed.

And what do they say, a ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Well right now health insurers don't provide enough compensation for preventive care. This alone would make them money in the long run but they only see the short-run bottom line. Having a public option providing preventive care in spades would go a long way to reducing total health care costs.

"The perfect is the enemy of the good."

[drabley]

Capitalism is about competition, its about companies doing things differently to attract customers. Companies differentiating themselves from others and competing. At the current time there's no real competition in the health insurance industry. They're all the same basically. They do the same things, they have the same weird pre-existing condition crap. What a public option will do is create competition in an industry that won't self-regulate.

I get insurance. What I don't get is why when I pay for dental insurance and I need periodontal work the insurance won't cover because they did more than two sectors of my mouth in one visit. That's fucking stupid and its only done because there's no option and every insurance company does the same. In the majority of states in the union a single provider of insurance covers more than 50% of the population. In Hawaii 78% of the people are on the same insurance plan. Where's the capitalistic competition leading to better service? Its nowhere, that's where a public option, with no care about being more than break-even, creates a great amount of competition.

You don't see this silliness in car insurance, at least not nearly as much, because there's massive competition. That's why you see a TON of car insurance commericals and NONE for health insurance. There's no need for commercials about health insurance because you don't have choice.

Competition is necessary, I agree. But charging less for the same risk (and ultimately the same hospital bill) won't really solve anything but empty wallet syndrome.

Public option will bring about some price change, sure, but the underlying issue will remain as is.

It's like hanging a picture over a hole in the wall.

[sgoodcore]

Capitalism is about competition, its about companies doing things differently to attract customers. Companies differentiating themselves from others and competing. At the current time there's no real competition in the health insurance industry. They're all the same basically. They do the same things, they have the same weird pre-existing condition crap. What a public option will do is create competition in an industry that won't self-regulate.

I get insurance. What I don't get is why when I pay for dental insurance and I need periodontal work the insurance won't cover because they did more than two sectors of my mouth in one visit. That's fucking stupid and its only done because there's no option and every insurance company does the same. In the majority of states in the union a single provider of insurance covers more than 50% of the population. In Hawaii 78% of the people are on the same insurance plan. Where's the capitalistic competition leading to better service? Its nowhere, that's where a public option, with no care about being more than break-even, creates a great amount of competition.

You don't see this silliness in car insurance, at least not nearly as much, because there's massive competition. That's why you see a TON of car insurance commericals and NONE for health insurance. There's no need for commercials about health insurance because you don't have choice.

Competition is necessary, I agree. But charging less for the same risk (and ultimately the same hospital bill) won't really solve anything but empty wallet syndrome.

Public option will bring about some price change, sure, but the underlying issue will remain as is.

It's like hanging a picture over a hole in the wall.

Well here's where we diverge I suppose as twins. I understand the underlying math well. But fact is health insurers make billions so the public options has billions to play with.

[lonesomexloveus]

i used to work at a doctors office and they have to inflate the prices they charge for everything insanely high, because they only ever see a small fraction of that price tag from the insurance company. so while it seems like a lot to the consumer, in the end, they're pocketing much much less than that.

i'm not saying it's right or wrong, but that's just the way it is.

[drabley]

Humana used to pay for gym memberships, at one point, for customers in Arizona I believe.

They stopped.

[sgoodcore]

Humana used to pay for gym memberships, at one point, for customers in Arizona I believe.

They stopped.

Well of course, having a gym membership and going are two different things. I'm just saying something like at least one physical a year should be free of charge.

And what it comes down to for me is this:

We as a country and as a world need to look after each other person. We are our brother's keeper. If it costs me a few extra bucks to help someone stay alive I'm good with that. We need to be peaceable and give in to the better parts of our nature to start thinking about others more often than ourselves. If that means I pay another 1K in taxes a year, fine. That means less records for me and a better life for someone, cool. I'm good with that.

[drabley]

Humana used to pay for gym memberships, at one point, for customers in Arizona I believe.

They stopped.

Well of course, having a gym membership and going are two different things. I'm just saying something like at least one physical a year should be free of charge.

Agreed.

If the public option really takes off, I fully anticipate the government imposing sin taxes on things like cigarettes and alcohol that are obvious health risks.

[sgoodcore]

Well of course, having a gym membership and going are two different things. I'm just saying something like at least one physical a year should be free of charge.

Agreed.

If the public option really takes off, I fully anticipate the government imposing sin taxes on things like cigarettes and alcohol that are obvious health risks.

Fucking A they should. Inelastic demand baby. Hell, if we have the infrastructure legalize marijuana and pay for it all and then some baby.