Posted on 10/03/2009 11:39:43 AM PDT by agooga
I'm actually a little optimistic that our reps may stumble into a compromise that doesn't suck.
The stalemate our reps are in right now is not going to last forever. Sooner or later they're going to start talking not about what they "want" but about what is possible.
I would actually tolerate (and in some cases welcome) some fairly extensive health care reform, short of any kind of public option. Some things I could live with:
-- Tort Reform
-- Buying across state lines
-- Getting a tax deduction for health expenses
Insurance company reforms including:
-- No cancellations
-- No denials of basic treatments
-- A public arbiter to settle disputes (???)
-- Coverage for pre-existing conditions
Reform of Medicaid and Schip, making sure that the poor are adequately covered, while the middle class are excluded.
I can't imagine another way out that will not draw us into the disastrous slippery slope that will be co-ops or "expanded medicaid" or other euphemisms...we need to privatize, make portable and drive down costs by opening a free market that means that the 1300 companies selling insurance have to compete with each other.
Performance based outcomes will propel the better providers to the top and the market will sort out the lesser programs. 25% of the "uninsured" are "the invincibles" (the 18-25 year olds) that feel no need to buy insurance...if they do not buy insurance they can contract with private fee for service firms that will compete and possibly make loans or give them credit for procedures.
The higher risk 50-65 uninsured (ineligible for medicare, but struggle with no coverage, low income, job loss or pre-existing conditions) get assigned to a "risk pool" that better performing insurers will ultimately compete for, because they are able compete for them at reduced rates, giving them good coverage and reasonable rates.
The elderly will be covered by medicare and the indigent will be treated pro-bono by participating hospitals. I would like to see THAT pool covered by University Hospitals, many of whom have billion dollar grants behind the universities and should make use of the interns and younger doctors to keep the indigent covered, much as many law firms do.
…"arcane"… "confusing"…
"hard stuff to understand,"..."incomprehensible"
…like the "gibberish" used in credit card disclosure forms!
We couldn't have gotten that list out of the Congress right after the 2004 elections, with a solidly Republican Congress, and President Bush in the White House.
The only reform that is needed is to abolish Medicaid and Medicare.
“We couldn’t have gotten that list out of the Congress right after the 2004 elections, with a solidly Republican Congress, and President Bush in the White House.”
It seems like most moonbats I talk to mainly go aggro over the
insurance companies— if you plant a hefty amount of regulations and reform on them, I find that a pretty 50/50 compromise. No?
Ditto most of the Dim Senator, not to mention Zero.
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