IS ANYONE WITH ME?

Albert has, clearly, never had to investigate welfare or anything similar. When my husband got laid off, we tried to see if he could qualify. We quite literally CANNOT afford to have him without it. He has chronic health conditions.

In Seattle, where the average one-bedroom apartment is now hovering at $700 (often more), a couple can make $1400. (In light of the economic downturn, it was increased to $1700ish.) For an individual, it was around $800.

If you earn the minimum wage ($8.55) and work 25 hours a week, you wouldn’t qualify. This is why there are terms like “Working poor.” They make too little to survive, too much to get help.

That said, I think taxed benefits is not a good way to go. I found it quite amusing when everyone was decrying a national plan that would be similar to Medicare. Sure, Medicare has a lot of problems. But here’s the deal: For a relatively modest amount ($90 a month) you’re covered. If you want better care, you can buy a better plan. But everyone will be covered.

The effects of this?

Employers will have more money to hire employees (or at least not fire any)

The government won’t be spending money helping hospitals that deal with poor who can’t pay. (Both as charity and as non-payment.)

People will see doctors more readily, which means fewer big medical bills. (People routinely die of things like staph infections. Others wait until they’re so sick, the bill is HUGE and they can’t pay.)

Again, hospitals won’t have to cover so much of these bills.

A healthier America, which includes better ability to work (thereby paying taxes) and fewer preventable illnesses, such as diabetes 2.

But I think it could have a huge impact on this economy. Employers have more money to keep employees/give raises. More jobs/more money equals more taxes.

And incidentally, self-employed people DO get a tax break for paying their health plans. It’s not big enough, in my humble opinion. But it’s there.

Oh and by the way, my husband’s insurance through the Washington State Insurance Pool (thanks to repeated MRSA infections, he was rejected by insurance companies) is $502 a month. We earn just under $3300 a month. So with our rent and his insurance, more than one-third of our income is gone.

Finally, I think we should subsidize medical school educations, which would enable doctors to charge less. And, if everyone were covered, the medical costs that did still trickle down would be significantly smaller.

the less amount of people who are ill will just make us a stronger country.

think about if you have kids…people who don’t have health coverage send their kids to school sick, and they get every other kid sick, and well, that costs you sick days staying home with the kids.

think about grocery stores and where you eat…you think all of those people working there have coverage behind the scenes…i bet their illnesses travel with the food you consume.

and as for medicare/aid…that would be a solid system if it did not continue to get pillaged along with social security by our greedy govt on both sides of the isle to pay for their pet projects.

i believe in more regulation, instead of less…less leads to corruption, and just more costs out of our pocketbooks.

I understand that we don’t want government take over of healthcare – that is NOT even on the table. What we’re likely going to get is a mandate that everyone has to have coverage and then subsidies provided to the middle class people who make too much to qualify for medicaid, but too little to be able to afford $10-12k a year for family coverage.

Find me a family in the $40-50k a year range that has $12k free in their budget. Even if they have no consumer debt and cancel their cell phones, cable tv, run the heat at 60 degrees all winter, there’s no way they can afford it.

We do have to tackle the cost aspect of insurance. Someone tell me why an MRI in Japan costs $100 and here it costs $1000. There is no insurance solution that’s going to work without a cost containment solution. Insurance costs are up 117% in the last decade and are expected to continue on this steep trajectory as far into the future as can reliably be predicted. That has to stop, and I don’t mean rationing. I mean recovering excess costs that medicaid pays out to private insurers (it’s corporate welfare pure and simple). It means taking a look at executive pay – why should Bill McGuire make 430x the average income for running a medical insurance company?! He resigned 2 years ago over a stock scandal and got a $1.1 Billion golden parachute. 1 in every 700 spent on healthcare went to him in 2005! Think about that for a minute.

#1…

utility de-regulation has been a nightmare.

now imagine if health care coverage did the same thing…so say you buy package a….which doesn’t include xyz….but then something bad happens, and your spouse needs xyz….can you imagine the out of pocket….not a good idea.

Expand on #3. Not sure what you mean.

#2 would do wonders for lowering the cost of health care in this country. A doctor’s biggest expense is malpractice insurance. Get rid of frivolous lawsuits and put caps on judgments. The most egregious acts of malpractice should be punished, but most lawsuits are because people don’t understand that medicine is not an exact science.

As far as #1, I think less regulation would help. Allowing people to shop across state lines for insurance would create nationwide competition. The problem is that each state mandates what policies in their state covers. So, if you live in a state that forces insurers to provide for fertility treatments, then all people who buy insurance in that state must subsidize that. Allow people to buy only what they need and add other things ala carte — prices should come down.

here is a recap of it:

1. RICO act the insurance companies. foreign countries with private coverage have longer life expectancies but at way lower costs…it doesn’t add up

2. reform medical lawsuit laws, and lower of medical malpractice coverage for doctors.

3. allowance of medical students who have outrageous college loans to repay their loans after 5 years of medical service so they do not burn themselves out trying to repay their loans at the cost of their patients well-being.

if anyone cares for me to elaborate, i will reply…it was a really good one, i promise.