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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric who wrote (11836)	11/24/2009 9:01:08 PM
From: i-node	2 Recommendations Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42652

Pretty much everyone agrees, I think, that some reforms are required to deal with preexisting issues, coverage portability, etc. The travesty here is that the Ds have chosen to go for this "public option" (as a stepping stone to single payer), which has endangered health care reform totally. It is absolutely a case of putting politics before the national interest. "We'd rather have NOTHING than pass legislation that doesn't take us closer to government run health care", socialized medicine, whatever you care to call it.

To: Eric who wrote (11836)	11/25/2009 10:30:55 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 42652

I own my own business. I pay for my own insurance. My coverage is light, but it is not bankrupting me. The last thing I want is government coverage.

To: Eric who wrote (11836)	11/25/2009 11:49:13 AM
From: TimF	Respond to of 42652

Virtually all individual policies today only offer caps in the $2 million dollar or less range with large co pays If you want to have some sort of "public option" to deal with that problem, then deal directly with the problem. Have a a government "super-catastrophic" insurance program. You could cover everyone who has some other form of insurance (including normal catastrophic plans that kick in at thousands to the very low tens of thousands range, and also including Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP, which presumably are not going away) for all costs that exceed a million or two. It probably could be done as a private thing, but if your convinced that is must be handled by a government program, fine I won't fight the government super-catastrophic plan. It would directly address the problem you note, at a tiny fraction of the cost of the bills moving through congress (a tiny fraction both in terms of dollar costs, and the costs of federal interference). Then we could also work to lower the cost for regular insurance. Discourage excessive mandates, and allow an open interstate market in insurance policies. Then we can work on reforming Medicare, and Medicaid, without this big rush in to a trillion dollar program that could cause a lot of damage to our health care system.