How soon to expect Health Care Reform?

[Lovedtodeath]

So if Obama is elected and goes along with his plans, when will I have insurance?? :bigear: I am very non-political, and don't vote. Just want to know if I should wait before scheduling some things.:D

[TXMomof4]

I would love to say as soon as he finds the money to pay for it. Unfortunately, not having the money has never stopped anyone in government from doing what they d*mn well please, so......

 

(only a little bit of sarcasm intended there)

[Jann in TX]

No matter WHO is elected President in order for any changes to happen to the health care industry or any other industry it has to start in congress. Just because a President 'WANTS' to see certain programs in place does not mean those programs will ever materialize.

 

One could almost argue that the elections for their state Senate or Representative are almost as important as the election for President... (just thoughts...)

 

I'm sure even Bush had items on his wish-list/agenda that he had to permanently suspend due to 911... (again just thoughts)

 

To answer your question, I would NOT plan on anything happening 'soon'. It may be YEARS before anything is done.

[susie in tx]

I don't think we can count on anything until the election has been determined. Then, we wait until January for the inauguration. Plus, there is no telling what any of the candidates will do first.

[Renee in NC]

So if Obama is elected and goes along with his plans, when will I have insurance?? :bigear: I am very non-political, and don't vote. Just want to know if I should wait before scheduling some things.:D

 

Actually, Obama does not intend to socialize health care.

 

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/

[Soph the vet]

So if Obama is elected and goes along with his plans, when will I have insurance?? :bigear: I am very non-political, and don't vote. Just want to know if I should wait before scheduling some things.:D

 

I'm curious and please choose not to respond if you feel this is an invasion of privacy but why don't you vote?

[lovemyboys]

So if Obama is elected and goes along with his plans, when will I have insurance?? :bigear: I am very non-political, and don't vote. Just want to know if I should wait before scheduling some things.:D

 

Then again, if you are a person who needs to get anything done or who has insurance, better do it now before socialized medicine changes our way of life to the likes of eastern European countries. Seriously, the panacea of Obama's plan will morph into the reality of years-long waiting lists for routine procedures, unavailability, lowered standards, no competition and overall poor quality. We have friends who have grown up in these systems.

 

McCain's plan to allow more freedom with health-care and to untie it from the particular company you happen to work for, further burdening that company with being a health-care expert, is a much better option. At least it's a step in the right direction. Socialism has made a mess of public schools, now we want to unleash it on healthcare????

[TraceyS/FL]

DH said last night he mentioned "hoping to get to it in the first term". I didn't watch..... but it wasn't implied it was happening in the first 30 days.

[tibbyl]

Socialism has made a mess of public schools, now we want to unleash it on healthcare????

 

Should we make police and firefighting entrepreneurial activities too?

[mrsdash]

So if Obama is elected and goes along with his plans, when will I have insurance?? :bigear: I am very non-political, and don't vote. Just want to know if I should wait before scheduling some things.:D

 

My mom went to the doctors and they asked her if she had another insurance policy to cover the things that her initial policy may not cover. She told me later that she should have responded "no, but Obama said he'd pay".:rofl:

[laylamcb]

So if Obama is elected and goes along with his plans, when will I have insurance?? :bigear: I am very non-political, and don't vote. Just want to know if I should wait before scheduling some things.:D

 

Depends on the "things." :001_smile: If they're important, I IMPLORE you not to wait. Both candidates claim that we're facing the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression, and yet neither has been willing to admit that his menu of new initiatives is essentially obsolete as a result of the bailout and the new economics of our situation. Aside from the politics, aside from everything else, there simply won't be any money for these things. So don't expect to see a new health care system rolled out anytime soon.

 

Sorry to be a "poopy face," as my kids would say, but I'd hate to see anyone put off needed "tuneups" while waiting for what may never be.

[elegantlion]

Probably as soon as we self-employed persons are forced to have it and pay for it ourselves, otherwise receive a fine. :glare:

[Renee in NC]

Probably as soon as we self-employed persons are forced to have it and pay for it ourselves, otherwise receive a fine. :glare:

 

That was Hillary Clinton's plan, not Obama's.

[lovemyboys]

Should we make police and firefighting entrepreneurial activities too?

 

Why? Don't you think those two organizations are well run?

 

:confused: Nobody's saying that gov't shouldn't/won't provide for basic services.

 

My point about health care is that for those who are looking forward to a more socialized system might do well to look into the reality of those systems that have been in place for years in other countries. They, like the impetus toward everyone owning their own home, started with good intentions (perhaps) but have morphed in to something totally different. Congress and healthcare reformers will all want their hands in this.

[Amy loves Bud]

So if Obama is elected and goes along with his plans, when will I have insurance?? :bigear: I am very non-political, and don't vote. Just want to know if I should wait before scheduling some things.:D

 

You can't count on Congress to pass legislation for any of the presidential candidates platforms. Don't wait to take care of your health. It will likely be a long wait.

[Carol in Cal.]

At least 3 years, and probably more like 10.

 

Neither candidate, IMO, is being publicly realistic about the worldwide economic situation. Neither will be able to afford anything approaching health care reform for the foreseeable future.

 

And if the Clintons couldn't do it, with their significant mandate, certainly neither Obama nor McCain will be able to, either.

 

So at first they won't be able to afford to look seriously at it or develop a real proposal, and then later politics will stop them from making any progress. That's my prediction, anyway.

[Audrey]

My point about health care is that for those who are looking forward to a more socialized system might do well to look into the reality of those systems that have been in place for years in other countries.

 

 

I invite you to talk a walk North sometime and actually LIVE in my "reality" for a while. Ours is not a system without flaws, but taken in context and within the scope of "real" people's experiences, it is an excellent system.

 

Scare mongers need to quit pointing fingers at other systems and start thinking of how to improve their own reality. The US would have to come up with their OWN system, not rely on copying any other country's system (unlike the way they copy every single really good British tv show).

 

Scare tactics don't bother us here. We live the reality every day, and for the vast majority, we're very happy with our healthcare system.

 

PS. Also, give us back our hockey players, or we'll quit importing the good beer.

[kokotg]

 

:confused: Nobody's saying that gov't shouldn't/won't provide for basic services.

 

My point about health care is that for those who are looking forward to a more socialized system might do well to look into the reality of those systems that have been in place for years in other countries. They, like the impetus toward everyone owning their own home, started with good intentions (perhaps) but have morphed in to something totally different. Congress and healthcare reformers will all want their hands in this.

 

A lot of people think health care is a "basic service." I would also encourage people to look into the systems in other countries. By any objective standard, the US is pretty much at the bottom of the heap as far as quality of life, patient satisfaction, deaths from preventable diseases, per capita health care spending (by bottom of the heap, I mean we spend the most), infant mortality, etc. etc.

 

It's a bit irrelevant, though, since Obama is not proposing a single payer system like most other industrialized countries have. From reading this thread, it seems like there are a lot of misconceptions about there about his proposal...it's all available at his website for anyone who's not clear on the details.

 

As far as when....uh, probably not anytime soon. One of the drawbacks of democracy is that it's terribly inefficient. Our system was carefully designed so that no one would ever really get what he/she wants. I watched an interesting press conference many months back, when Obama and Clinton were going round and round about health care (she wanted mandates; he didn't, was the essential difference in their plans). Obama said something like, "look, by the time this goes through congress and everyone's rewritten it to death, it's not going to look anything like what any of the candidates are proposing right now." It's the sort of talk you don't hear later in the campaign--an acknowledgment that what you put on your website and talk about in your stump speech is your Utopian vision about what you would do if you were king instead of president. The long proposals you have to write are useful only as a way to see where your candidates priorities are, not as a window into what life will actually look like if your guy wins.

[dawn of ns]

Socialism has made a mess of public schools, now we want to unleash it on healthcare????

 

Socialism is to universal health care as Ford is to cars. I don't understand why people keep equating the two.

 

Many counrties with universal health care, like Canada, don't have socialized medicine.

 

Period.

[TXMomof4]

Should we make police and firefighting entrepreneurial activities too?

 

Police and firefighting are really run on a local level. Not a federal level. Which may be why they aren't completely screwed everywhere.

[Moxie]

So if Obama is elected and goes along with his plans, when will I have insurance?? :bigear: I am very non-political, and don't vote. Just want to know if I should wait before scheduling some things.:D

 

 

Gosh, I hope you're joking. What about personal responsibility? If you need medical attention, go get it. Work out a payment plan if you need help. Don't wait on the government, that's nuts.

[RoughCollie]

Probably as soon as we self-employed persons are forced to have it and pay for it ourselves, otherwise receive a fine. :glare:

 

 

That has already happened in Massachusetts. We pay $25K a year for health insurance as self-employed people.

 

We cannot afford to buy home heating oil, so I am thinking of paying the fine and canceling the insurance.

 

There's a scam going on with the health insurance rates, I think.

Edited October 8, 2008 by RoughCollie

[Lovedtodeath]

You can't count on Congress to pass legislation for any of the presidential candidates platforms. Don't wait to take care of your health. It will likely be a long wait.

 

Thanks. You and others have answered it for me.

 

I am all for satisfying curiousity:

 

My toddler has cavities and I need bc in place befor pg wreaks havoc on my weak body again.

 

Short answer: All men are imperfect. All men die. My only vote goes to God's Kingdom, which I hope is coming to the earth soon. I am not here to argue. If anyone tries to change my mind I will immediately ignore them and this thread.

Edited October 8, 2008 by Lovedtodeath

[Renee in NC]

That has already happened in Massachusetts. We pay $25K a year for health insurance as self-employed people.

 

Was that the absolute minimum plan you could get and meet the law? I assume your income is too high to qualify for subsidized insurance.

 

I am asking genuinely as I have wondered how the new health insurance requirements have affected everyday people. We would qualify for subsidized care as long as we made less than $117,000, but I have a large family.

[RoughCollie]

Was that the absolute minimum plan you could get and meet the law? I assume your income is too high to qualify for subsidized insurance.

 

 

 

 

No, the minimum plan plus its very high deductible costs only small percentage less than our plan. We don't have the money to pay the very high deductible. We chose ours because more of my medication cost is covered.

Edited October 8, 2008 by RoughCollie

[Renee in NC]

No, the minimum plan plus its very high deductible costs only small percentage less than our plan. We chose ours because more of my medication cost is covered. It is $600 a month.

 

Would you be without insurance if not required by law? Or has insurance increased that dramatically since the institution of the new law?

 

My father was paying $30,000 a year. He figured he was getting a good deal as his heparin shots and other prescriptions were $4,000 a month! He got a job with the city government because he just couldn't make enough to pay it anymore.

 

I wondered if Massachusetts law caused health insurance costs to skyrocket.

[Lovedtodeath]

I just looked into insurance for our family. It would cost us $9000 a year to pay the premiums and the deductible. Then we would have to get what we want approved, which is unlikely with my experience of insurance in the past.

 

Last year we paid over 10,000 in medical bills and only 3,000 could be counted on our taxes. People who have insurance through their employer automatically get that cost deducted from their taxes. The way things are set up now does not work for me.

[Melissa in FL]

Should we make police and firefighting entrepreneurial activities too?

 

Here those services are on the state and local level. It's not that I don't trust government to run services, I don't trust the FEDERAL government to run these services. I would protest really quickly if these canidates were talking about moving these services into the control of the fed!!!!

Melissa

[Melissa in FL]

 

And if the Clintons couldn't do it, with their significant mandate, certainly neither Obama nor McCain will be able to, either.

 

.

 

Yep, this is my thought too. Clinton campaigned on similar health care for all platform. After spending a bunch of money and Hillary going all over the country to come up with the best approach for this, it never happened.

 

Neither candidate could get it done on their own and I don't think Congress would with what is happening in the economy. McCain's health care proposal seems more realistic to getting done than Obama's, even though I don't want either plan. JMHO

Melissa

[cathmom]

currently we pay for a private health insurance plan for dh and me with after-tax income. As I understand it, McCain's plan would help us. It's refundable - doesn't that mean that we would get the money back even if we owe no federal tax?

 

I really have to go to his website and figure this out. Sometime before Election Day.

[RoughCollie]

Would you be without insurance if not required by law? Or has insurance increased that dramatically since the institution of the new law?

 

My father was paying $30,000 a year. He figured he was getting a good deal as his heparin shots and other prescriptions were $4,000 a month! He got a job with the city government because he just couldn't make enough to pay it anymore.

 

I wondered if Massachusetts law caused health insurance costs to skyrocket.

 

Our insurance cost us around $18500 a year ago, after the law went into effect, when we had to switch to a new policy. I chose the policy based on price and value. After one year, it shot up by $500 a month, for no reason that I can see, except that our insurance commissioner allowed the company to raise its rates. Right now, if you were to buy our insurance, it would cost you $27,600 a year. I guess the rates went up again and the insurer can only raise the cost once a year.

 

I fiddled around with the insurance rate calculator on the commonwealth's website and found out that the rates would be lower -- can't remember by how much -- if we were younger. I am 52 and DH is 59. I was surprised our high rates were because of our ages and had nothing to do with my health problems. Also, we are self-employed. I can make more money working for myself than I can working for someone else. There is no paid employment around here for 52 year old lawyers, unless I resort to doing something unskilled or semi-skilled which doesn't pay as much.

 

Yes, DH and I would be without insurance, and we'd pay a fine of around $1000 instead. It's a real humdinger of a problem because I have severe heart problems and could need health insurance in the future, even in the near future. We'd get insurance again once our finances improve, hopefully in a year.

 

Trouble is, DH doesn't want to take the risk with my health, and I do. I can buy nearly two tanks of heating oil for the cost of one month of health insurance -- but I have to buy health insurance instead of oil.

Edited October 8, 2008 by RoughCollie

[Renee in NC]

See, this stinks. I don't think it has to do with Massachusetts law, though, does it? It's really the same problem for ALL self-employed people. We are self-employed as well, but not making much. We just go without - even the cheapest plan is more than we can afford.

[Ria]

It's not up to the president; the most he can do it try to get some legislation passed. But honestly? Socialized health care is not going to happen in this country.

 

Ria

[unsinkable]

I invite you to talk a walk North sometime and actually LIVE in my "reality" for a while. Ours is not a system without flaws, but taken in context and within the scope of "real" people's experiences, it is an excellent system.

 

Scare mongers need to quit pointing fingers at other systems and start thinking of how to improve their own reality. The US would have to come up with their OWN system, not rely on copying any other country's system (unlike the way they copy every single really good British tv show).

 

Scare tactics don't bother us here. We live the reality every day, and for the vast majority, we're very happy with our healthcare system.

 

PS. Also, give us back our hockey players, or we'll quit importing the good beer.

 

You can't have any of the Staal brothers back. Or Craig Rivet. Or any cute defenseman with a French last name. Or any goalies. I guess you can have the show-offy forwards. :D

[Audrey]

You can't have any of the Staal brothers back. Or Craig Rivet. Or any cute defenseman with a French last name. Or any goalies. I guess you can have the show-offy forwards. :D

 

 

Well that's just no deal at all. ALL the ones with French last names are cute!

[TeacherZee]

Well that's just no deal at all. ALL the ones with French last names are cute!

 

The Canadians have already said what I was going to say regarding what happens when you have universal healthcare. But I want my hockey players back too. Especially since ALL north americans lack the ability to pronounce the names:D:D

[Stacy in NJ]

Part of the problem is the each state mandates specific coverage. For example MA may require a certain amount of inpatient psychiartic days for certain diagnosis. Some states, and I'm sure MA is one of them, are completed loaded to the gills with these requirements. The more requirements the higher premiums. It's a catch 22. People want their coverage to cover every medical treatment/illness under the sun but then they complain when their insurance premiums are sky high.

 

I'm not shilling for McCain here but his plan includes an option to purchase out of state insurance. You could look into plans available in less regulated states like Neveda, for example, and purchase a less costly program.

 

People don't realize that one of the biggest aspect of the high costs of health insurance is how the insurers are regulated within each state. There's a corrupt relationship between insurance regulators, health care providers (mainly hospitals), and insurers.

 

Hospitals and providers lobby the regulators for more mandated benefits. Insurers are happy to include these mandates as long has premiums are allowed to increase as well. Because employers pay the balk of the premiums for most people, they don't necessarily see the total cost of their benefits. Employers get a talk credit on the portion of the premium they pay for.

 

Small business people and others who need to buy health insurance outside of a group policy should be screaming their heads off. You need to be asking for a huge tax credit and the ability to buy "out of state".

 

Just some thoughts.

[Stacy in NJ]

Should we make police and firefighting entrepreneurial activities too?

 

 

In my community we have volunteer firerfighters. No government subsidy necessary.:)

[kokotg]

In my community we have volunteer firerfighters. No government subsidy necessary.:)

 

not for salaries. But I'm guessing they don't buy their own trucks or maintain the fire hydrants themselves.

[Stacy in NJ]

I invite you to talk a walk North sometime and actually LIVE in my "reality" for a while. Ours is not a system without flaws, but taken in context and within the scope of "real" people's experiences, it is an excellent system.

 

Scare mongers need to quit pointing fingers at other systems and start thinking of how to improve their own reality. The US would have to come up with their OWN system, not rely on copying any other country's system (unlike the way they copy every single really good British tv show).

 

Scare tactics don't bother us here. We live the reality every day, and for the vast majority, we're very happy with our healthcare system.

 

PS. Also, give us back our hockey players, or we'll quit importing the good beer.

 

My older sister is a nurse in Northern New Hampshire. 40% of her hospital's patience are Canadian. Where will those people go when they no longer have access to our system?

[Stacy in NJ]

not for salaries. But I'm guessing they don't buy their own trucks or maintain the fire hydrants themselves.

 

 

Right, Our community via donations pay for those things. They just completed a firehouse renovation and purchased two new trucks. All with funds raised within the community.

[kokotg]

I stand corrected :). We have a volunteer fire station in my community but, AFAIK (i.e. no one's ever asked me for a donation), the equipment is paid for with taxes.