so the health care reform bill

[dynamitekid]

Free preventative care for all

what exactly does that include?

[sgoodcore]

Free preventative care for all

what exactly does that include?

Check-ups would be one example, though I'm not sure what it encompasses.

[dutchrudder]

At least I'll be able to stay on my parents insurance till I'm 27. That's cool.

[Guest]

At least I'll be able to stay on my parents insurance till I'm 27. That's cool.

nice! ill try and get in on this.

[kidamnesiac]

My parents forwarded me some conservative rant email about why the bill shouldn't be passed...this morning AFTER it passed. I LOLd and replied simply, "It passed."

[joshnotgood]

This bill is 1 step forward.

[adammuzzy]

i don't really understand why anyone would have health insurance after this goes into effect unless they're already sick.

seems to me that the smarter idea would be to cancel your insurance, and keep paying the fines for not having any. and now since you can't be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition, just wait til you get actually sick to get it.

[kirbypuckett]

i don't really understand why anyone would have health insurance after this goes into effect unless they're already sick.

seems to me that the smarter idea would be to cancel your insurance, and keep paying the fines for not having any. and now since you can't be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition, just wait til you get actually sick to get it.

I've seen this comment a ton of times. I wonder if the "loop hole" is already closed or will be closed.

[jhog3411]

There's some good things about this bill but most of it is lousy. Has there ever been a federal entitlement program that didn't get screwed up and run into financial problems (Social Security, Medicare, Welfare etc.)?

Insurance under your parents until your 26? Yeah sounds great except for the cost of it and the unintended consequence of encouraging young people to not get a job. Why get a job when one of your biggest concerns (health care) is accounted for?

Look at Massachusetts. Wait, no one is saying look at Mass even though we instituted a similar form of universal health care a couple years ago. No one's premiums have gone down. The costs have skyrocketed and they are now figuring out how to drop people from the program because it has gone way over the initial estimates. And this was a state where a high percentage of people already had insurance.

It takes longer to get to a specialist in Canada and Great Britain than it does in the US. Our wait times will go up considerably. There's even polls out (published in New England Journal of Medicine, pretty reputable source) that say some doctors might retire rather than be told how to treat patients and get less money from gov't health care. Yet another unintended consequence. If you put 30 million more people in to the pool and keep the doctors the same or less, something has to give.

And don't say we're already paying for it in ER visits for those people. Less than 3% of the health care cost is from ER visits. And only 12% of ER visits are not urgent. Most people who use ERs have insurance. http://www.slate.com/id/2247051/

Gradual reform should be taking place. Let insurance companies compete over state lines, force insurance companies to treat existing conditions etc. Then if that is not producing the desired result, more expansive changes can take place.

[selfreliable]

Well if doctors are going to quit becuase they dont want to get less money than there just assholes. So much for their oath. Doctors and insurances are the two biggest scams in the world. Glad that they work hand in hand together for so long.

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

its fun to read all of these kids babble about the economic impact on message boards and facebook... since none of us will remember what anyone said in 2 to 3 years when the impact (if any) is felt.

[erikaboom]

Well if doctors are going to quit becuase they dont want to get less money than there just assholes. So much for their oath. Doctors and insurances are the two biggest scams in the world. Glad that they work hand in hand together for so long.

for doctors, I think that they should have more student loan forgiveness programs. They spend a lot of money and time in school and I understand they want to make money. If we make it a bit easier, financially anyway, for people to go to med school, then I don't think it would be as bad if they got paid less.

Teachers that teach in needed areas can get loan forgiveness (except me, I teach history and not needed anywhere it seems ) and they should extend this more to health care workers. I'm not too familiar with what is available currently, but my point still stands.

[Duff]

all i care about is how much more $$ is going to be coming out of my pay check every week becaause of this.

[¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

all i care about is how much more $$ is going to be coming out of my pay check every week becaause of this.

:'( :-/ :-* : ???

[dutchrudder]

Insurance under your parents until your 26? Yeah sounds great except for the cost of it and the unintended consequence of encouraging young people to not get a job. Why get a job when one of your biggest concerns (health care) is accounted for?

The cost of what? Why wouldn't I still get a job?

[mcm1610]

Because obviously saving 1-2 thousand dollars on health insurance is more valuable than having a paycheck. DUH!

What about the tons of people who go to school, graduate, and then can't find a job despite trying, like me? We're just fucked and neglected?

[adamlikesmusic]

What about the tons of people who go to school, graduate, and then can't find a job despite trying, like me? We're just fucked and neglected?

And lazy. Don't forget lazy.

[lokithelion]

Remember kids the only people who can't find jobs are lazy people, and lazy people don't deserve coverage. Or something.

[dutchrudder]

Here's a more detailed, year by year explanation of what the health care bill is going to do.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1914020220100319

[jhog3411]

I'm all for gradual reform, but I'm still waiting for the liberal friend or liberal pundit to point out how well universal health care is going for Massachusetts. The costs are out of control and much higher than anticipated and the premiums for MA are the highest in the country. Shouldn't we be using the first state to implement universal health care (which shares all the major tenets of the federal bill on a smaller scale) as a shining example?

[rtw88]

You mean like in Hawaii?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/health/policy/17hawaii.html

[jhog3411]

You mean like in Hawaii?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/health/policy/17hawaii.html

This is irrelevant. MA is the blueprint for the bill. No one is talking about Hawaii because the bill is not modeled after Hawaii, nor is it working there economically.

From the NYT article, "And there is growing evidence that as the economy has slowed and premiums have risen, employers have hired more part-time workers who are ineligible for benefits."

And from a slightly more non-partisan source than the NY Times (the Associated Press):

"Citing Budget Shortfalls, Only State With Universal Coverage Eliminates Funding After 7 Months"

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/17/health/main4527996.shtml

"Hospitals in Hawaii report $150 million in ’07 losses"

http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/510177.html%3Fnav%3D5031

And again, Pres. Obama is not holding up Hawaii (or MA) as an example.