Freedoms Lost under Healthcare Reform

[Gil Dobie]

As much as I would like to see anyone that needs healthcare get healthcare, Congress still has some fine-tuning to do with the healthcare proposal, IMO.

CNN Link

1. Freedom to choose what's in your plan

The bills in both houses require that Americans purchase insurance through "qualified" plans offered by health-care "exchanges" that would be set up in each state. The rub is that the plans can't really compete based on what they offer. The reason: The federal government will impose a minimum list of benefits that each plan is required to offer.

2. Freedom to be rewarded for healthy living, or pay your real costs

As with the previous example, the Obama plan enshrines into federal law one of the worst features of state legislation: community rating. Eleven states, ranging from New York to Oregon, have some form of community rating. In its purest form, community rating requires that all patients pay the same rates for their level of coverage regardless of their age or medical condition.

3. Freedom to choose high-deductible coverage

The bills threaten to eliminate the one part of the market truly driven by consumers spending their own money. That's what makes a market, and health care needs more of it, not less.

4. Freedom to keep your existing plan

This is the freedom that the President keeps emphasizing. Yet the bills appear to say otherwise. It's worth diving into the weeds -- the territory where most pundits and politicians don't seem to have ventured.

5. Freedom to choose your doctors

The Senate bill requires that Americans buying through the exchanges -- and as we've seen, that will soon be most Americans -- must get their care through something called "medical home." Medical home is similar to an HMO. You're assigned a primary care doctor, and the doctor controls your access to specialists. The primary care physicians will decide which services, like MRIs and other diagnostic scans, are best for you, and will decide when you really need to see a cardiologists or orthopedists.

[Cap'n Cat]

Conkzaggeration.


How about the freedom to get your fat, lazy American ass in shape and keep costs down that way???

[Gil Dobie]

Conkzaggeration.


How about the freedom to get your fat, lazy American ass in shape and keep costs down that way???

This is covered under #2, and it's a Donk news media link

2. Freedom to be rewarded for healthy living, or pay your real costs

[Cap'n Cat]

Conkzaggeration.


How about the freedom to get your fat, lazy American ass in shape and keep costs down that way???

This is covered under #2, and it's a Donk news media link

2. Freedom to be rewarded for healthy living, or pay your real costs

Oh, OK.

[wildkyle]

I think it is funny that they are begging gop members to vote for the plan because they don't have the votes to pass it otherwise.

[CID1990]

If people are paying for their own health insurance, then the ability to keep your carrier is important. The only problem with that is that a majority of Americans who are currently insured are covered under group plans provided by their employers. The employer can change carriers at will. If the government plan winds up being cheaper, then employers will switch over regardless of what the employee wants. I think the percentage of people in this situation is somewhere around 60-65% nationwide.

I would suggest another option:

Make it illegal for employers to provide group health insurance. Force the insurance companies to compete for your individual business. Within five years the industry would be in full competition. They would look like the damn cell phone companies. When you switch to another carrier, you would get a phone call, offering you a free heart transplant or laser back hair removal if you just stay with them. I'm joking, of course, but unless there is real competition built into the system, no amount of voodoo government wrangling is going to bring costs down significantly. Making the health insurance companies deal with individuals instead of local governments and corporations would go a very long way towards this.

[ASUMountaineer]

If people are paying for their own health insurance, then the ability to keep your carrier is important. The only problem with that is that a majority of Americans who are currently insured are covered under group plans provided by their employers. The employer can change carriers at will. If the government plan winds up being cheaper, then employers will switch over regardless of what the employee wants. I think the percentage of people in this situation is somewhere around 60-65% nationwide.

I would suggest another option:

Make it illegal for employers to provide group health insurance. Force the insurance companies to compete for your individual business. Within five years the industry would be in full competition. They would look like the damn cell phone companies. When you switch to another carrier, you would get a phone call, offering you a free heart transplant or laser back hair removal if you just stay with them. I'm joking, of course, but unless there is real competition built into the system, no amount of voodoo government wrangling is going to bring costs down significantly. Making the health insurance companies deal with individuals instead of local governments and corporations would go a very long way towards this.

I heard Clark Howard talk about this four years ago. This has been intriguing to me for a long time, as I've had group coverage for a long time through employment (except for a while when I was in law school, I had my own private insurance). I definitely see the benefit in this, but would be shocked if it ever happened, because the public wouldn't take the initiative to see if they would benefit.