Honestly, I have not been paying attention to this whole health care debate. I see that the House passed through some legislation. I see that the politically conservative are disappointed and that there are some frustrated about Obama preventing money from going toward abortion procedures. Can anyone tell me, a lower middle class American, why I should care? How does this change my life? What should I expect? I seriously don’t know.
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the archives near Emmaus 
Brian,
You should care because the federal government is going ot force everyone to buy health insurance and is hiring thousands of IRS agents to enforce it.
My insurance is already expensive and I don’t know how this is going to affect that. We need to reform the system; unfortunately, the government is ill-equipped for such a task.
So this does not provide insurance for everyone like the French and Canadian systems are supposed to do, but rather it forces everyone to purchase? How can the impoverished “purchase” insurance? I’m confused by why the Democrats–the so called small people’s party–would push such an agenda.
@Jason,
You already pay out of pocket or do you have an employer who does it for you? I am employed by a seminary and they cover my health insurance. Will they be forced to take more from my paycheck and if so, why?
Exactly Brian.
This is not real reform.
It is just a bad idea.
And it is why you should care.
If this is the direction it is going is it too late? Did the American people get duped into something that will now become unchangeable law?
Brian: The church has a certain amount alloted for my premiums, though the premium is higher than the allotment, so we pay that difference. When my wife was teaching, we were covered through the school board’s plan, which was much more comprehensive and less expensive.
I’m not really sure how this whole thing will work out. That’s one of my biggest concerns–no one has been able to explain the actual repercussions of its being passed.
I’ve noticed that everyone seems really in the dark. Some commentators I have read say that the document is 200 pages long and the only way to know what is going on is to read the whole thing! I don’t like the sound of that. I would have liked to have known what I was being signed up for before it took place. Even if they still passed a measure that was unpopular to the people I would be a tad more comfortable with disliking something I know rather than not being sure about anything!
Actually it provides subsidies for those who can’t afford to buy insurance. I don’t know that this bill will really impact the poor in any positive or negative way. It seems more focused on helping the middle class to get insurance and keep it.
You may not actually notice it much at all depending on your situation.
This from the NY Times might be of help. It’s more interactive.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/03/21/us/health-care-reform.html
Nobody was duped Brian, the people have been discussing the implications of this for months. The people were, however, ram-rodded into this plan despite their overall discent.
I’m considering a move back to Canada where health care at least makes sense.
Even if the people had been discussing this did it matter. If this is a bad plan, could we have done anything to stop it (other than not electing who was elected at the last election, which is further back than I am proposing here)?
@Bryan,
Thanks, I will have to look over this since I feel like I am still in the dark!
@Brian,
It’s not too late, but the Senate is going to try to use an unusual process to run this unconstitutional bill through.
But our government has three branches of government. Our founders believed in limited government. They were all sinners like us all, but they were wise, and that third branch will do the Obamassiah in.
Rod:
The bill is already passed. There’s nothing to run through. All that’s left is the reconcilliation fixes which isn’t an unusual process.
Obamassiah? Are you serious? As soon as someone starts saying stiff like that I tune out.
@Rod and @Bryan,
So there is disagreement as to whether the Senate can block this or disagreement whether they will block it?
Brian:
The Senate can’t block this bill. They’ve already passed it and sent it to the House which they voted on last night and is going to the president to sign. The Senate might not pass the reconcilliation bill (which amends the bill in matters related to the budget) that the House passed last night and sent to the Senate. The Democrats had already promised the house that they would so there’d be a lot of bad blood and pissed off representatives if the didn’t.
Well,
the latest update is that, the Democrats have 51 votes, to 40 Republicans and to 9 Dems/independents voting against.
However, the latest has it that one Democratic Senator may become a no vote, because of some other issues involving education funding.
So as I understand it the core of the bill has passed and there is no going back, there are just some details to be worked out. I am interested to see how this will play out. There is a lot of talk about this being good for business on one hand. There is a lot of talk about how it was be devestating to the very same thing. I get the feeling that this bill was passed for the sake of passing something though not as ideal as what Obama had wanted initially?
Am I correct?
@Bryan,
As I read through that piece on the NY Times website the only semi-scary part (for me) that was a bit vague was more taxes being taken out by my employer to cover their own cost. Of course, I have no idea if that applies to me or not. When we say tax increase do we have numbers?
Yes that’s pretty much correct. The reconcilliation bill is certain changes that the House wanted To the bill that they couldn’t get through the normal way because the bill wouldn’t have passed the Senate again with 60 votes (the amount needed to overcome a filibuster). So they’re doing it through reconcilliation which only deals with things that will reduce the deficit but which can’t be filibustered and only needs 51 votes.
I don’t think the bill was anyone’s ideal but rarely is any bill. It’s seen as doing a lot of good things and being a good start.
It’s hard to tell how it will be for business. On the one hand I think it will be good for small businesses who will now be more able to provide insurance for employees and receive some help with it. This will make small businesses more able to attract good employees away from large businesses that can afford perks like good insurance. It seems like it will also be good for the self employed who don’t want to be without insurance because they’re self employed and who don’t want to spend a lot of money getting it.
But I guess we’ll see.
I’m not too sure how the taxes work. I know the “Cadillac” plans, the high priced ones, will be taxed.
@Bryan,
John Hobbins provided this fact sheet and I have to admit I found it a bit discouraging. It seems like it may help the lower class a bit; it won’t do much to the upper class; it could hurt the middle class.
http://static1.firedoglake.com/1/files/2010/03/mythfactshcr-2.pdf
Brian:
That fact sheet by Fire Dog Lake is an interesting example of the liberal/progressive criticisms of the bill in how it didn’t go far enough. Honestly though there was really no way something like that would have gotten passed (I imagine they were wanting single payer universal health care or at least a strong public option). If you thought it got ugly while this bill was being debated all these months it would have been on a whole other level with a bill like Fire Dog Lake would have wanted. They (the Republicans) would have really been talking about repealing this bill and constitutional challenges, not to mention charges of government take overs and socialism.
Honestly we’ll see as time goes by what will happen. If nothing else hopefully it will continue getting tweaked as time goes by and its affects are able to be seen.
One of the biggest changes is for those who buy their own insurance because they are self-employed or work for a small business (under this legislation less than 50 employees) this law sets up ‘exchanges’ in each state that allow people, mostly from these categories, to purchase insurance. The benifit of this new system is that since everyone is now required to have insurance there will be more people paying into the system, which in turn decreases risk, which theoretically will result in lower costs to the consumer. The way it was before most people in those categories would only get insurance if they were already sick, making individual coverage very expensive and very unprofitable for the insurance companies.
In addition the law keeps people from being turned down for pre-existing conditions, which has recently become a very ugly problem. People have been dying of diseases that are relatively simple to treat, but they have no coverage for preventative care, and unfortunately are only treated when they develop an emergency, at much greater cost to hospitals and,more importantly, at much greater risk to themselves. I took care of a guy the other night who is a vegetable because he couldn’t afford something as simple as blood pressure medication. Very sad, and frankly not something I feel is compatible with this nation’s values…, but that is a personal opinion.
I don’t care about it. I heard that I’m going to be forced to buy health insurance or have to pay a fine. I can assure you that I will do neither and whoever from the government is reading this can come and get me! 😛
Nick:
You don’t have insurance right now? What would you do if you got really sick or badly injured?
Bryan: Pray or pay.