on a cold and quiet Monday morning....

[lagilman]

So, it looks as though we shall have some changes in health care.

I hesitate to call it reform... but changes may be just as good.

May. We'll see.

I'm not leaping up and down joyful -- too many compromises were made to bring people to the table who should have been there already, for decency's sake -- but... I'm not displeased, either.

Time will, as always, tell.

Comments

[mela-lyn.livejournal.com]

Considering these changes mean we'll be paying a crap load more taxes so people can take advantage of the system... no, I don't see this as good. I work hard to pay for my own insurance (well, my husband does at the moment). Now I'm going to be paying for people like my bother-in-law and my sister's father-in-law to sit on their ass and not work despite being capable. I'm very unhappy with where this is heading.

[lagilman]

Hrm. You already were paying for people to take advantage of the system. There are so many freeloaders and whatnot on unemployment, social security, etc. The nature of the beast encourages some to abuse it. Plus, you're paying every time someone without insurance has to call for an ambulance, or walks into an ER because something treatable got out of hand, or they had nowhere else to go. Hospitals are subsidized entities.

However, if the system at the same time allows people who work really hard but don't have jobs that offer employee-sponsored insurance (not only freelancers but people who are kept from working the required 20 hours/week that qualifies, or can only take part-time jobs for other reasons), then that's a real and valuable plus that will reduce the above-mentioned costs, going forward.

And yeah, taxes help pay for this new plan. Taxes also help maintain roads I don't use, unemployment insurance I'm not eligible for, being self-employed, and schools I don't have kids attending. Pisses me off. I pay the taxes anyway, because IMO that's how we keep the country intact and moving forward.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I remain distrustful of the sneaky stuff tucked in here and there to buy the incremental votes necessary. We'll find out the real cost a few years down the road . . .

I also don't think health insurance is gonna get cheaper. We'll just get fined for not having something we can't afford. Catch 22.

[lagilman]

"Cheaper" went away the moment they killed the public option. At this point I'm hoping that we've gotten the increased access for non-traditionally-employed folk who would otherwise have exactly one option at 3x the price point, and risked having it yanked at a moment's whim of the insurance companies.

And yeah, too many compromises were made... but I'm not sure killing the entire thing would have been better, because it would have taken another 40 years to get this far, if we did at all. Living through history-in-action sucks, mostly. Easier to judge thing after a decade's passed.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

We will be eligible for Medicare in another few years. If it still functions. Which seems to get us, at least, out of the target for fines . . .

[lagilman]

what's this "we," white man? :-P

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

This is *not* the royal or editorial "we" . . .

Although we are not amused.

[spiffikins]

While I am truly disappointed in what we ended up with, my hope is that once there is *something* in place, once we've made it to the point where they got over the giant hill of getting legislatio npassed that says "healthcare for all is a right" - that the specific details of how it is done, will continue to be refined and changed and improved.

I truly hope that this is just the beginning.

[anisosynchronic.livejournal.com]

What I regard as "people taking advantage of the system" are the ones who get the Viagra/Cialis and the medical expenses for surgical mitigation for the ravages caused by high heel shoes paid for out of mandatory insurance premiums--I want the shoe companies and advertising industry charged for all the expensed of the latter (it's tens of millions of dollars annually). What kind of a system makes other people pay for "lifestyle" drugs (the former example) which result in unplanned/unwelcome pregnancies and e.g. HIV epidemics in the likes of Century Village (retirement community in West Palm Beach) which add to the medical and social expenses, but which make women pay out of their own pockets for pregnancy termination even when there is a non-viable fetus that's likely to die and go septic inside them?!