Posted on 07/17/2017 10:17:34 AM PDT by Kaslin
“Two-hundred thousand people are going to die” If we pass the Republicans' Senate healthcare bill. Those words came from Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez last week.
Truthfully, it has been decades since Americans died because they lacked access to healthcare. In 2009, the sales-pitch for passing The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was that families and individuals with pre-existing conditions shouldn't have to go bankrupt after an emergency room visit, bout with cancer or heart attack.
We've made quite a journey from the sales pitch of financial implications to the assertion that a lack of health insurance results in death.
Perez’s argument is akin to saying “you will die because I don't have automobile insurance.” If you get into a serious automobile accident, they rush you to the emergency room. Even if the accident is your fault, you will not be denied care. Lacking automobile and medical insurance doesn't mean you die. Most people facing this scenario will recover with the potential of bankruptcy due to expensive medical bills.
Democrats need to stop playing obstructionist politics and participate in the solutions needed to repair the damage they created with Obamacare.
If not, Republicans need to fully repeal Obamacare and return us to the ‘free market.’
Free Market
Comparing health insurance to automobile insurance is a reasonable way to understand this complicated issue. If I have two automobile wrecks and get two speeding tickets in a single year, there's a good chance my auto insurance carrier will cancel my coverage or at least greatly increase my rates. I’m a high-risk driver in that scenario. CARTOONS | Jerry Holbert View Cartoon
If I am an unhealthy eater, smoke a pack of cigarettes per day and don't regularly visit the doctor for preventative care, I am the medical version of the aforementioned high-risk driver.
That said, we must have empathy for people with financial limitations, pre-existing conditions and severe medical problems who can’t obtain coverage or can’t afford it due to income and costs.
For families (or individuals) making less than national average income, who do not have access to workplace coverage, we should consider expanding Medicaid to cover them as a fail-safe option.
This means millions of Americans who are presently being subsidized by the federal government and their state will have more limited choices compared to those in the ‘self-pay’ free market. However, they will have affordable access to preventive, ongoing and emergency care.
People on the lower end of the economic spectrum need transportation to get to and from work. In many cases, they can only afford an older vehicle with high mileage lacking the bells and whistles of a luxury car. What many politicians are attempting to do with healthcare legislation is give everyone a $100,000 BMW regardless of whether they can afford it or not.
There has to be two markets for health insurance: A secondary market for people who cannot afford coverage (with likely longer lines and less options). Then, there should be a luxury market for those people paying their full health insurance bill while they simultaneously subsidize the secondary market through taxes.
There has to be a basic necessities policy (secondary market) with more limited access that encourages preventative care, doctors visits instead of emergency room visits and reasonable accountability required in healthcare choices. As those people stuck in the secondary market find economic, upward mobility, they will then be able to afford coverage from the free (luxury) market.
Missing from this healthcare debate is the fact that many Americans are simply irresponsible and unaccountable. There are millions of people taking advantage of the goodwill offered in Obamacare.
Handouts should be a bridge to the future - not a way of life. In giving those in need of financial assistance equivalent insurance benefits to those paying the entirety their full bill, we incentivize abuse.
No one is going to die if we repeal Obamacare. If Perez wishes to be taken seriously (or any Democrat for that matter) they should stop treating Americans like the useful idiots they believe we are and instead speak to us in real terms about the truth of what's at stake.
The emergency room is the doctor's office for the uninsured and the costs are passed along to the rest of us. An unexpected hospital visit to the uninsured is an almost certain trip to bankruptcy court. But, health insurance is not healthcare.
We have the best health care in the world and everyone has access to it. For this reason it disgusts me to see Democrats refer to health insurance legislation as a life or death matter. It simply is not.
You don’t get to drive the 'BMW' of health insurance on a ‘Yugo' budget.
“According the polls blasted all over the Media, the American people prefer Obamacare to Trumpcare by a 2 to 1 margin.”
The poll that mattered was done in early November, last year.
The individual mandate was the anchor that sank the Democratic Party.
My neighbor Bob, who normally despises politicians, had a Trump sign on his lawn. His individual gift from Obama was a $1,700 fine the year past.
If need be, deal with Medicaid reform next year, keeping in mind states need freedom to make the health care system work better and cheaper.
The federal individual mandate needs to go this year.
If need be, deal with Medicaid reform next year, keeping in mind states need freedom to make the health care system work better and cheaper.
The federal individual mandate needs to go this year.
I like that. It is a push to work and not just a requirement.
I have no adverse reaction to giving money to hospitals other than they are bureaucracies, and bureaucracies shuck, jive, hide, double-speak on their way to corruption.
If there were a way to control that, I'd be on board.
I wished I had written the following article, but didn’t, but I borrowed it...it’s a good read:
I agree 100% with Rand Paul about allowing Americans to negotiate with real numbers behind them versus individually. Farmers of America (over 1 million) can negotiate a price for the entire group that will blow away any individual trying on himself or herself to get the insurance.
The issue with what Paul is asking for is that it cannot occur under reconciliation. It would require 60 votes in the Senate. I truly believe that Phase 3 will occur! Our president and Dr. Tom Price will see to it. As a matter of fact, the House has already passed 4 Phase 3 bills. 3 of which are embedded in the current bill. I wrote the following below as a followup to another Treeper’s question.
The Republican House has already passed four bills to cut the cost of medical care. One is pretty huge. Tort Reform legislation.
http://www.thebenefitbureau.com/house-passes-bill-allow-tax-credits-used-pay-cobra-plans/
From the article linked above:
Phase 3 is actually four pieces of legislation:
While the Senate was working on its own legislation to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, the House moved ahead with a second piece of legislation to further chip away at the landmark health care law.
The aforementioned Broad Choices for Americans Act (see below)
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2579
(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow the premium assistance tax credit to be used for unsubsidized COBRA continuation health coverage.
(Under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 [COBRA], an individual may continue to receive coverage under an employer-sponsored health plan after an event that would otherwise end coverage, such as a termination of employment. This bill applies to COBRA continuation coverage if the premiums are solely the obligation of the taxpayer.)
The Verify First Act (see below), which would bar illegal immigrants from receiving tax credits under the ACA or the AHCA.
https://congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2581
(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to prohibit advance payments of the premium assistance tax credit from being made to an individual unless the Department of the Treasury has received confirmation from the Department of Health and Human Services that the Social Security Administration or the Department of Homeland Security has verified the individual’s status as a citizen or national of the United States or an alien lawfully present in the United States.
The Veterans Equal Treatment Ensures Relief and Access Now (VETERAN) Act (see below) which would allow veterans the choice to stay in the Veterans Affairs programs or instead get financial support for a private health care plan.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2372
(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to specify that, for the purpose of determining eligibility for the premium assistance tax credit, an individual may not be treated as eligible for coverage under certain Department of Veterans Affairs health insurance programs unless the individual is enrolled in the program.
The bill applies to the premium assistance credit under current law for tax years ending after 2013 and, if the American Health Care Act of 2017 is enacted, the modified premium assistance credit that would take effect under that bill after 2019.
The Protecting Access to Care Act (see below), which would cap malpractice payouts at $250,000 for damages that don’t have a direct economic impact, like lost wages or medical expenses.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1215
From the article linked above:
The statute of limitations is three years after the injury or one year after the claimant discovers the injury, whichever occurs first. For a minor, the statute of limitations is three years after the injury, except for a minor under six years old, for whom it is three years after the injury, one year after discovery of the injury, or the minor’s eighth birthday, whichever occurs later. These limitations are tolled under certain circumstances.
Noneconomic damages are limited to $250,000. Juries may not be informed of this limitation. Parties are liable for the amount of damages directly proportional to their responsibility. These provisions do not preempt state laws that specify a particular monetary amount of damages.
So you have invented a new way to post articles without using the established FR article-posting methodology?
He should have done so as soon as he became majority leader, and especially after dingy Harry Reid left the senate.
Tort reform! Who knew this was passed by the House. I certainly didn’t know, but it’s BIG news.
Thanks, HL.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.