Healthcare Bill – Eat this or pay up

The Botom Line: This supposed healthcare bill that was supposed to lead to socialized healthcare is just the government creating another crappy, bureaucratic provider of swill while taxing those who aren’t content with any of the providers out there.
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It’s 10:43 at night and I just spent hours discussing the merits of using force against a tyrannical government, perceived or actual, among other things. I’ve also played with the new kitten (pictures forthcoming?)

This afternoon I received a story assignment on the weighty issue of concealed carry permit reciprocity, a.k.a. should states honor other states’ standards for concealed carriers when it comes to non-residents and ignore their own? Knowing I’d get no response, I decided to leave messages with Mark Warner, Jim Webb, and the sponsor of the bill, South Dakotan senator John Thune.

I also helped moderate a game of Bingo for high school journalism students current attending J-Camp at Virginia Tech.

But what I wanted to blog about all day, with Michael Steele and Obama going at it in the national media over this issue, is healthcare.

Prepare to enter the ****storm.
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The way I understand it there are two things going on here. One is the familiar debate of who should we trust to provide healthcare. The private, profit-seeking system? Or a public option with all the flaws and benefits of a tax-supported bureaucracy? The second thing that is happening is the actual legislation that is on the table. And I don’t really hear much about that from the mainstream media. So…let’s look into that.

What seems to be the problem?…Can you fill that out in triplicate?

Here is the bill that is currently going through the House of Represenatatives on OpenCongress.

Here’s some of what’s in it:

• The bill seems to allow existing coverage to stand so long as: a) people don’t enroll in this type of coverage after the bill was passed, b) the insurer doesn’t change the conditions, and c) insurer doesn’t target a specific group for premium increases
• It gives companies a “grace period,” looks like 5 years to pick plans that meet the standards.
• The bill outright says a “qualified health plan” (managed care program from a self-insured employer) may not impose pre-existing conidtions. It also limits the variance of premium rates (a.k.a. makes it harder to jack them up).
• Minimum services to be covered under qualified health plan: hospitalization, outpatient care, physician services, prescription drugs, rehabilitative and habilitative services, mental health and substance use disorder services, preventive services, maternity care, well baby, well child care, oral health, vision, hearing services to “children” under 21 years of age.
• Creation of a Health Benefits Advisory Committee and a Health Choices Administrator run by a Health Choices commisioner to enforce the above regulations as well as state regulations
• Has a subtitle for consumer protections in quality health benefits plans including fair marketing practices, grievance and appeals mechanisms, information transparency, timely payment of claims.
• Sets up a “health insurance exchange” to facilitate acceess to a variety of choices, including the public health option.
• There is currently a public option listed in the bill a.k.a. government-sponsored healthcare. It is only available through the Health Insurance Exchange (does this mean you need existing insurance before you can get it?) and must comply with the same standards as the other Exchange plans. It can offer basic, enhancd, premium and premium-plus plans (it sounds like they’re selling you a credit card).
• The Secretary of Health and Human Services sets the premiums and the bill calls for initial funding of $2 billion (which is paid back by the department of HHS). The premiums will be set at Medicare rates (I didn’t realize you paid premiums for Medicare?)
• If you make less than $43,000/yr as an individual or $88,000/yr for a family of four, the government will subsidize your premiums for the public option. Though, I think you have to get Medicaid if you’re eligible for it.
• Some reforms start in 2010, but it seems most of it doesn’t go into effect into 2013 (conveniently timed, no?)
• If you don’t have coverage (and you are deemed by the IRS as someone who can afford it), you pay a tax of 2.5% your adjusted gross income without exceeding the national premium. Sort of like the uninsured motorist fee, I suppose, except now we’re not just trying to charge you for potentially stiffing me on car repairs. We’re trying to charge you for not taking care of yourself. Shame on you, taxpayer. Shame on you. Get healthcare. *rolls eyes*

While I have no sympathy for the douchebag with the scarf paying 50% taxes, I feel sad that the cute chick on the bottom has to pay a “no health care tax” (also, that her birth control isn’t covered).

• Emloyers are obliged to provide healthcare or provide funds for healthcare, but small business get a tax credit that exempts them from this.
• The rich will pay this in healthcare taxes: 1% gross adjusted income for people making between $350K and $500K. 1.5% for those making between $500K and $1 million. And 5.4% from those making $1 million or more.
• The program expands Medicaid eligibility levels and supposedly improves Medicare and Medicaid (wow! how can it get any better??)
• Undocumented aliens receive no coverage.

So….that’s the big fixing of U.S. healthcare? This…

This sucks.

Someone somewhere (maybe some hobo on the street) led me to believe that voting for Obama meant someday I could look forward to breaking my groin bone and rolling into any hospital, waiting in excruciating pain for hours, getting treated like shit by a state-paid doctor and then leaving with a bandage on my groin without having paid a cent. I would prefer that to this.

While it doesn’t sound like the bill is particularly kind to health insurers, it doesn’t seem to provide any sort of strong competition that would make them really buck up. I support all the rules about not denying customers based on pre-existings and providing a minimum of things to cover, but…why does my public option look suspiciously like standard health insurance? Where is my magical, mediocore but free care that I need to have to go back to a doctor and let him feel my balls? Where is that?

Premiums? What? Why not just tax me? Isn’t that how the government is supposed to make money?

YOU’RE DEMOCRATS. TAX ME. TAX ME!! And tax those damn suburbanites too, not just those making over $350,000. But don’t offer me more damn premium insurance plans with varying degrees of ball-busting. Give me a nation of free clinics. Do it! Do it!

The reason I’m out of the capacity for reasoned argument is because it’s 3 in the morning. I just spend hours looking at that damn bill and it’s stupid. It doesn’t do enough and I’m not sure if it even provides tangible benefits. Though it does say that if I’m still not satisfied with any insurer that I get to pay a fee.

Fuck you, government. Seriously, eat a dick. That’s all I can say at this hour.

Oh, but here’s a guy who liked it. I’m jealous. I wish I could be content with a sack of poop wrapped in an elephant’s foreskin.

Picture unrelated?

What do you think?

Is this an improvement to the current healthcare system? Will we ever see the day when you can walk into a hospital and never get charged for it?