And you want us to trust you?

“There’s a reason the Obama health care plan is being rushed through Congress this summer — because the American people would likely never support it if given time to absorb and understand such fine print. If the union carve-out isn’t sufficient to excite public anger, wait till you hear about the version of the Obama plan prepared by Senator Edward Kennedy, which would specifically exempt Members of Congress from many of its provisions.

As the U.S. Office of Personnel Management notes, Members of Congress “enjoy the widest selection of health plans in the country.” According to page 114 of the Kennedy bill, a similar array of choices would not be available to other Americans in the future. Instead, they would be shunted into health insurance plans under the straightjacket of whatever the government decides is a “basic” plan.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124581677678245833.html?mod=googlenews _wsj

The Washington Post reported that the CBO cost estimate for another draft version of the bill is $1.6 trillion. In the same story, Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) was quoted as saying the price tag easily could reach $2 trillion. For sake of argument, let’s assume the middle estimate of $1.6T is valid and it would cover 16 million Americans.

Why didn’t Mr. Obama downplay the $1.6T CBO report as sensationalism, and point out that it actually would cost a “mere” $160 billion, on average, per year? Perhaps it is because once he starts to break down the number into understandable chunks, he risks spotlighting the relatively high per-capita cost of his program.

A hundred and sixty billion dollars per year is $13.3B per month to insure only 16 million people. That works out to about $833 per subscriber. That might be a good price for a 75-year-old, but Medicare already covers them. Mr. Obama wants taxpayers to insure Americans in their 30s, 40s, and 50s.

A quick scan of the Anthem Blue Cross website shows that society could get a much better deal in the private sector — even without a 16-million person group rate. A Santa Monica, California 50-year-old male can get a $3500 deductible HSA policy for $172 per month. That includes drug coverage and no co-pay for office visits after the deductible is met.

I for one stayed home. I cannot support the present lame proposals on healthcare from the president and most of congress.
Note: I was not the only one from the St. Louis area whom stayed home. Folks do believe in healthcare change, but not lameness on this issue. Many folks favor a “single-payer” approach to the healthcare mess.

I support HR676, the best proposal “not on the table”. Jailing single-payer folks at the senate hearing was not the best way to “win frineds and influence people” approach. Nor was the exclusion of single-payer folks from the Obama healthcare summits.

“Stacking the deck” on healthcare to favor multi-payer programs is going to be counterproductive for some of the organizations involved in the political area.

A hundred and sixty billion dollars per year is $13.3B per month to insure only 16 million people. That works out to about $833 per subscriber. That might be a good price for a 75-year-old, but Medicare already covers them. Mr. Obama wants taxpayers to insure Americans in their 30s, 40s, and 50s.

A quick scan of the Anthem Blue Cross website shows that society could get a much better deal in the private sector — even without a 16-million person group rate. A Santa Monica, California 50-year-old male can get a $3500 deductible HSA policy for $172 per month. That includes drug coverage and no co-pay for office visits after the deductible is met.

This is a great bargain (assuming you can really get this price)? The devil is in the details. What is covered. A healthy 50 year old person would never exceed the deductible. Then, if he ever gets seriously ill, the insurance company will just terminate the policy. All of the money spent on the plan goes away. The person will then fall into the public system after all of his assets are gone. Wouldn’t it have been nice if the premiums had been paid to the system that is ultimately responsible?

Hmmm . . . Blue Cross

Antoin says  ::  June 29th, 2009 @ 2:17 pm EST
Ralph– Here are the conditions of which an insurance company can cancel your coverage– All of them legitimate. However, you do bring up a valid problem with people that are uninsurable because of pre-existing conditions. I don’t have an answer for that. What I do know, from personal experience, is that socialized health care works even worse. In your example the individual could very well have to wait six months to even get an appointment and then if he gets he may very well find out he’s to expensive to treat and sent home. There is Canadian girl running around on anti- socialized health care that flat out would be dead if she hadn’t left Canada and its six month waiting list to come here for treatment. Of course we can expect the pro socialized groups to call her a liar which she definitely is not. They won’t face reality that in fact the U.S. has the best medical care available anywhere in the world. We have some problems with our system but not big enough to scrap it in favor of socialized medicine. Here is that article:
Can a health insurance company or health service plan cancel my policy for membership for any reason?
As a general proposition, insurers and plans cannot cancel an individual’s coverage under a policy or plan arbitrarily. In addition, federal and state laws prohibit discrimination based upon race, national origin, gender or age. Some states have been proactive, as well, in the area of discrimination involving particular medical conditions or traits. For instance, some states prohibit insurers and plans from denying health care coverage to, or canceling health care coverage of, persons with mental dementia (such as Alzheimer’s disease) or human immunosuppressive virus (HIV) or mental illness.
Health care insurance policies or plans can be canceled (rescinded) if there is a material omissions or misrepresentations made by the insured or member in the application for coverage. Recession, in general, works as follows: when you apply for insurance and sign an application, you answer questions and provide information about the medical history of anyone who will be covered under the policy or plan. In doing so, you must reveal any serious medical condition or treatment that might reasonably affect the decision by the insurer or plan to undertake the risk associated with providing the coverage.
Even if the policy or plan is issued and premiums are paid, the insurer or plan can cancel or rescind the policy later if they discover that the policyholder or insured did not disclose in the application significant medical history. The result is that the insurer or plan does not pay for the care that was rendered, the policy is canceled and the premiums that were paid on the policy are returned to the policyholder less a reasonable cost of insurance associated with the period of time during which the policy was in force.
A limited form of cancellation can occur involving reduction or elimination of benefits. Other than a requirement of reasonable notice, insurers and plans may reduce or eliminate benefits, unless the contract or plan prohibits it or limits it. In some states there is a major exception known as “vesting,” which means that if the insured or member already has a claim or has received benefits for a particular injury or illness, they may continue to receive the benefit even if it is otherwise canceled. http://law.freeadvice.com/insurance_law/health_insurance/healt_insuran ce_cancel_policy.htm
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