Drilling through the HC reform hype,

[Keukasmallies]

can you share with me the SPECIFIC aspects of the proposed legislation as it will impact you and your family? Assume it's 2014, you've paid four years of taxes to get the new provisions on line, how will the legislation impact your specific health care, e.g., MD visits, lab costs, emergency room visits, ambulance fees, hospitalization?

 

Please give me your interpretation of the specifics of the changes. Thanks in advance for the info!

[Nanker]

For those - unlike their elected representatives - wishing to actually read the full text of the proposed law, here as a public service it is.

[Keukasmallies]

Read it; my question remains: Specifically, how do you see the legislation impacting your family? For example, what happens to the Prescription Drug "donut hole"?

[IDBillzFan]

Read it; my question remains: Specifically, how do you see the legislation impacting your family?

You mean impacting my family beyond being forced by the government to purchase something simply because we're Americans? Or beyond the idea that we pay right now for something that won't actually take place for four years? You mean beyond the idea that this entitlement will bloat an already-bloated deficit regardless of the smoke and mirrors presented to CBO by removing the doc fix?

 

I guess it's hard to answer until I find out what my state is getting in return for a vote. Are we getting billions for new hospitals? Am I going to be standing in line with illegal immigrants because Reid a deal cut with Guitterez that allows them to take part in the deal?PO Will there actually be enough doctors and nurses to take care of the extra 30-47 million? Will joining a union help me get better treatment than a non-unioni person? Will the offerings be different if I live in Lousiana? Or Wisconsin? Cuz they have some sweetheart deals in this bill.

 

Or maybe the issues I'm raising are what you consider "hype?"

[keepthefaith]

can you share with me the SPECIFIC aspects of the proposed legislation as it will impact you and your family? Assume it's 2014, you've paid four years of taxes to get the new provisions on line, how will the legislation impact your specific health care, e.g., MD visits, lab costs, emergency room visits, ambulance fees, hospitalization?

 

Please give me your interpretation of the specifics of the changes. Thanks in advance for the info!

 

Simple.

 

I run a company and we provide health insurance to our employees now at ZERO cost to them. That's about 10 people. This "reform" will not lower our premiums, will mandate the levels of coverage we have to provide to employees and will significantly raise my tax bill. Based on a back of the napkin calculation, the annual tax increase will be equal to what we spend now to cover 7-8 people. In other words, it isn't enough that we pay to cover 10 people (not in my family) now, we have to also pay to cover a bunch of others that we don't employ.

 

So, as an employer, what will we do? We will look at ways to cut costs which include reducing our benefits, reducing wages or not providing increases that we might otherwise offer, cutting hours for some employees or even reducing our headcount or not hiring. If we were growing we might look at this differently, but our business has been flat the past 2 years with a revenue decrease expected this year.

 

Our health insurance carrier sold the company to Blue Cross a few months ago (shocking) which means we have fewer choices among the better providers. Without competition across state lines, we're simply encouraging the monopolistic character of the health care industry.

[Keukasmallies]

Actually, the issues you raise are not the hype I was referring to above. However, they are the things that make up some of the concentric rings of concern that certainly give me pause when I think of the legislation about to be A) rammed; B) stuffed; C) crammed; D) inserted; E) all of the above into my family's health care decision-making process.

 

 

So, the question remains: Are TBD posters on the HC issue posting because they understand the ramifications of the legislation on the well-being of their loved ones and themselves; or are posters just playing out another inning of the "our guys can beat your guys" scenario. If the latter, you may be in for a major jolt when the former comes home to roost at your house....

[Doc]

Actually, the issues you raise are not the hype I was referring to above. However, they are the things that make up some of the concentric rings of concern that certainly give me pause when I think of the legislation about to be A) rammed; B) stuffed; C) crammed; D) inserted; E) all of the above into my family's health care decision-making process.

 

 

So, the question remains: Are TBD posters on the HC issue posting because they understand the ramifications of the legislation on the well-being of their loved ones and themselves; or are posters just playing out another inning of the "our guys can beat your guys" scenario. If the latter, you may be in for a major jolt when the former comes home to roost at your house....

This is a bad bill no matter how you look at it/what side you're on. The BS about covering 49 million more people (a good portion of them being the poorest and the sickest because they don't take proper care of themselves, and that won't change) is just that. The healthy people out of that 49 million (about 8 million) who don't buy insurance still won't buy insurance, because it costs a hell of a lot less to pay the "penalty" of $650 than to pay thousands to tens of thousands for private insurance. And when people start getting wise that without a pre-existing condition exclusion, you can literally buy insurance when you want and drop it when you don't need it (that's what I plan on doing), it will further destroy the system, kill insurance companies, and further tax/burden the American taxpayer. What the crooks in Washington did was craft this bill so that they make money (that $650/year) off those who already don't and still won't insure themselves, while setting the foundation for insurance companies to go bankrupt as healthy people drop coverage for only when they need it, along with the companies not being able to raise rates accordingly, so as to go to government run health care. And we all know how well the government runs their programs.

 

If they wanted a real mandate, they would have made the penalty high enough that choosing to get health care made sense. There also would be some way to prevent people from just getting it when they need it (like a 3 month waiting period). No insurance works that way...because that's not how insurance works. And charging everyone the same regardless of how poorly they treat their bodies is typical liberal stuff.

[ExiledInIllinois]

I run a company and we provide health insurance to our employees now at ZERO cost to them.

 

Wow... Where to get a job like that? I work for the fed and gotta pick up about $200 every two weeks... The agency pick-ups just under $400 bucks every two weeks. God, I would love if they picked up the whole $600.

[keepthefaith]

Wow... Where to get a job like that? I work for the fed and gotta pick up about $200 every two weeks... The agency pick-ups just under $400 bucks every two weeks. God, I would love if they picked up the whole $600.

 

Another vote for individual choice. If you had that, you might be able to reduce your $5K annual cost.

[ExiledInIllinois]

Another vote for individual choice. If you had that, you might be able to reduce your $5K annual cost.

 

The problem is that I have too much choice. I can reduce that. I am going to have to piss or get off the pot becuase in 3 years, my portion as gone up by almost 100 bucks every two weeks (pay period).

 

I have just had Humana for so long (over 10 years)... And like them... They are just pricing me out. I am going to have to get lesser insurance (coverage) for my family and I.

[Alaska Darin]

Actually, the issues you raise are not the hype I was referring to above. However, they are the things that make up some of the concentric rings of concern that certainly give me pause when I think of the legislation about to be A) rammed; B) stuffed; C) crammed; D) inserted; E) all of the above into my family's health care decision-making process.

 

 

So, the question remains: Are TBD posters on the HC issue posting because they understand the ramifications of the legislation on the well-being of their loved ones and themselves; or are posters just playing out another inning of the "our guys can beat your guys" scenario. If the latter, you may be in for a major jolt when the former comes home to roost at your house....

The majority of us who think this bill is terrible think it's terrible because it's terrible. It'd be terrible no matter who was pushing it.

 

It's a terrible bill. Period.

[IDBillzFan]

The majority of us who think this bill is terrible think it's terrible because it's terrible. It'd be terrible no matter who was pushing it.

 

It's a terrible bill. Period.

You honestly have to be a blind idiot of epic proportions to think this bill has any value to it. And unfortunately, you only need 277 such blind idiots to make this embarrassing bill a law.

 

Gonna be bad. Gonna be ugly. And we're all going to pay dealer for years over years, as will generations to come. What happens in November is of little consequence once this bill gets through.

[DC Tom]

Actually, the issues you raise are not the hype I was referring to above. However, they are the things that make up some of the concentric rings of concern that certainly give me pause when I think of the legislation about to be A) rammed; B) stuffed; C) crammed; D) inserted; E) all of the above into my family's health care decision-making process.

 

 

So, the question remains: Are TBD posters on the HC issue posting because they understand the ramifications of the legislation on the well-being of their loved ones and themselves; or are posters just playing out another inning of the "our guys can beat your guys" scenario. If the latter, you may be in for a major jolt when the former comes home to roost at your house....

 

It's a bad bill, period. I'm against public, government-run and -provided medical coverage and treatment, but that would at least make sense.

 

This bill doesn't even manage to satisfy its own stated goals. It's a retarded, half-assed attempt to solve a problem by addressing a completely different issue through restricting a free market in the interests of making the market free.

[Nanker]

I'm against it because I want Louise Slaughter's constituent to have to keep wearing her dead sister's teeth.

Again, just exactly what the !@#$ is "health care", and what is it that we're supposed to be providing for every 98.6 that draws breath while inside the borders of this country?

 

My guess is that there's going to be an awful lot of dissatisfied proponents of this cluster when they realize that their orthodontia, bariatric surgery, sex counseling, Lasix surgery and medical marijuana isn't covered for free.

[DC Tom]

I'm against it because I want Louise Slaughter's constituent to have to keep wearing her dead sister's teeth.

Again, just exactly what the !@#$ is "health care", and what is it that we're supposed to be providing for every 98.6 that draws breath while inside the borders of this country?

 

That's easy: it's insurance.

 

 

My guess is that there's going to be an awful lot of dissatisfied proponents of this cluster when they realize that their orthodontia, bariatric surgery, sex counseling, Lasix surgery and medical marijuana isn't covered for free.

 

And homeopathy, and naturopathy...and don't forget the extreme fundamentalist Christians who eschew anything scientific for the power of prayer, and who under this bill would basically be fined for their beliefs (since they're not about to buy health insurance)...

 

Very poorly thought-out bill in so many different ways.

[keepthefaith]

That's easy: it's insurance.

 

 

 

 

And homeopathy, and naturopathy...and don't forget the extreme fundamentalist Christians who eschew anything scientific for the power of prayer, and who under this bill would basically be fined for their beliefs (since they're not about to buy health insurance)...

 

Very poorly thought-out bill in so many different ways.

 

Yes, and our illustrious President keeps pushing it having never answered the questions and concerns raised by so many citizens and members of the opposite party. Questions of genuine concern that deserve direct answers.

[Dante]

Simple.

 

I run a company and we provide health insurance to our employees now at ZERO cost to them. That's about 10 people. This "reform" will not lower our premiums, will mandate the levels of coverage we have to provide to employees and will significantly raise my tax bill. Based on a back of the napkin calculation, the annual tax increase will be equal to what we spend now to cover 7-8 people. In other words, it isn't enough that we pay to cover 10 people (not in my family) now, we have to also pay to cover a bunch of others that we don't employ.

 

So, as an employer, what will we do? We will look at ways to cut costs which include reducing our benefits, reducing wages or not providing increases that we might otherwise offer, cutting hours for some employees or even reducing our headcount or not hiring. If we were growing we might look at this differently, but our business has been flat the past 2 years with a revenue decrease expected this year.

 

Our health insurance carrier sold the company to Blue Cross a few months ago (shocking) which means we have fewer choices among the better providers. Without competition across state lines, we're simply encouraging the monopolistic character of the health care industry.

Your post is going to make me sick. Not because I think your wrong, but we have a business the same size. We have had a pretty lean couple years and we are trying to run it just as lean to match up. I just called a guy back to work for next week. Don't know for how long though if our premiums are going to jump that much. btw we pay half the ride not full like your company.