Undermining Obama; Undercutting the Public
Submitted by Dr. JG Kaplan on Mon, 2010-01-18 21:36
Kuttner's "A Wake Up Call's a must read....
It describes how interest groups are undermining Obama, undercutting his pitch to the public, and making it neigh " impossible to put on the table more fundamental and popular reforms, such as using Federal bargaining power to negotiate cheaper drug prices, or having a true public option like Medicare-for-all."
Read how the "politics got horribly muddled," and how "The bill helped about two-thirds of America's uninsured, but did almost nothing for the 85% of Americans with insurance that is becoming more costly and unreliable by the day -- except frighten them into believing that what little they have is at increased risk of being taken away."
RE: "The Reality of
RE: "The Reality of Healthcare Reform" (my blog on HCPLive.com)
Warning: each of us is one medical catastrophe away from personal bankruptcy! Can we let healthcare reform die? At minimum, the 30 million who do not have access to affordable, continuous health care, our collective ethical responsibility, must be covered. Without access, this population and those marginalized by insurers' and supplier's profit motive will be more costly, downstream (e.g., ER care is expensive and quite fractionalized); failure to prevent is so inefficient; and, delayed diagnosis and treatment is intolerable.)
Beware how the insurance companies will game the system and still get around health care reform. For example, in Brad Jacobson's "Whistleblower Reveals How Health Insurers Can Game New Insurance Bill: Though Senate bill cuts 'pre-existing conditions,' it still allows insurance companies to create 'pre-existing' categories to raise rates." Indeed, 'health factors' like chronic disease, age and yes, by association, preexisting conditions "would continue to play into how much individuals can be charged in premiums and how many of them may be forced into high deductible plans."
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