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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Health Care Bill
Ok, no one is starting this thread, so here I go.
Why do most of the people who are against the bill and line up in front of the federal building in downtown Austin are mostly older people who are getting their meds on medicare!! They are part of the so called "social system"!!!
Re: Health Care Bill
Because they are misinformed. I found that a lot of the most vocal lay opponents of the health care bill were really just regurgitating things they heard on Fox News or from some right-wing pundit.
because I don't believe lining up in front of a federal building in Austin is going to change anything, unfortunately. Otherwise, I'd be there. I'd also write & call my congressman, but he already (thankfully) follows my line of thinking. Yesterday was a sad sad day.
And I don't really consider myself misinformed, thankyouverymuch.
6-yr-old Elena and 4-yr-old Julia.
My Blog! All about my girls and quilting
Now, now, let's not make sweeping generalizations. I oppose this bill and I'm not regurgitating anything nor do I consider myself terribly misinformed. There's good and bad to this bill. In my case, I think the bad outweighs the good.
Even if they get their meds from medicare and could/may benefit from the bill... I can still understand being against it. There are a lot of financial ramifications to this bill (i.e. the estimated $940B cost), among other issues.
... and backing away cause I try really hard to stay out of politics on this board and in life
This.
i agree we need health care reform. but i don't want the government handling my health care. the gvmt does a crappy job of managing medicaid, medicare, military health care, schools, the post office.... why add another venue for their failures? :P my fil has the military health care (why can't i think of what it's called?) and has to go to temple for the slightest thing. once there, he (and whoever drives him, usually my husband) has to wait for well over an hour before he's seen for his 5 minute appointment. and then they usually tell him they can't do anything until he comes back in a couple of weeks. wth?
my sil has medicaid for herself and two kids. she has no desire/need to get a job, and hasn't had one in six years (she's 26, healthy). when i was out of aubrey's asthma meds and having a hard time coming up with the hundreds of $$ to pay out-of-pocket while our health insurance lapsed, my sil said she could give us some of her kids' - they had plenty in their stash, including some that were over a year old. my taxes paid for those meds to sit in her cabinet, clearly she doesn't really need them and wouldn't have taken them if they weren't free to her.
as someone who's self-employed and would benefit from free health care, i would rather pay more out of pocket than to be told where i could/couldn't go and have to deal with ridiculous waits (first to get the appointment, then at the appointment itself).
if the government-run health care systems already in place were successful, i'd be singing a different tune.
as for picketing the capitol, i have a job. no time for such demonstrations. and don't think it'd do much good if i joined them.
I'm just so confused by the whole thing. My questions, and hopefully someone can answer them....
1. Do you HAVE to get the government plan, or can you stay with who you currently have?
2. Does it get paid through everyone's taxes, or do the premiums for those of us who already have insurance go up. Where's these billions of dollars coming from?
3. I love my insurance right now. DH's company pays his and my premiums so it's free to us, and it's pretty good coverage from BCBS. Do I have to sign up for this universal thing? (ok that was the same as question 1)
4. So is it for sure happening now? I keep getting confused on who has passed what version and so on.
I hate politics...
here's my understanding so someone correct me if i'm wrong!
From what I understand, you can keep your old insurance. If you like your current insurance, you don't have to do anything. I believe that BCBS might have the right to change the policy when it renews, though. Insurance is not supposed to change much for those who are insured.
I don't know the answer to question two, but I think it depends on your tax bracket. For question three, I believe that the bill has to be passed with a majority vote in the Senate and then get signed by the President. If the Senate makes changes to the bill, then it has to go back to the HoR (and then back to the Senate and then to the Pres.). I last heard that the Senate is voting on Weds., but I'm sure that could change. If the legislation is passed, some things will be effective immediately (most importantly, that people with pre-existing conditions cannot be denied insurance) and some things will take several years to go into effect.
oh ditto AustinMimi about it being a done deal. the last step of course is Obama having to sign it but I hear he's expected to sign it tomorrow??
oh i hadn't heard about the IRS being the ones who were going to be monitoring that. i was wondering how they'd enforce that...
the reason premiums are supposed to go down is there will be a larger pool of people who will have insurance - the more people who participate, the better. ETA: especially if it's required to get insurance since most healthy people are uninsured. healthier people who are in the pool will bring costs down.
and I don't agree with some of what pp said - as it is now, if you don't have insurance, you (i.e. general public) wait until the simple cough turns into bronchitis, the UTI turns into a kidney infection, etc - most of these cases end up at the ER where it costs a ridiculous amount of money to treat. and who's paying for that now? we are. the taxpayers and the insured in outrageous premiums. without reform, I'm almost positive things would have gotten way, way worse. a health insurance co. in CA (I don't remember the name) just sent letters saying they were increasing premiums by 44% - WTF? how is that legal?
the gov't makes people get car insurance, what's the difference if they make people get reasonably-priced health insurance?
I was referring specifically to this portion from the OP:
I didn't say all people who were against the bill were misinformed. The people crying out against a socialist system of care who are getting their care from a government provided & run program are misinformed, i.e. those specifically mentioned by the original post.
ETA: Nevermind. I just reread what I wrote. You're right. I was making generalizations. Too tired to correct. Accept my apology?
I believe, but I'm not positive, that this is only true for children at first. Effective immidiately after it passes, no children can be denied based on pre existing conditions. I think it's a few years before this becomes true for adults.
However ... I read this on the internet, so don't read it like its law
FWIW, we're also in the military health care system (it's called Tricare), and we've never received such excellent and timely care. Maybe the care differs radically from one facility to another? I don't know. But I do know that if everybody in the country received the kind of health care our family currently does, then our country would be a healthier and better place.
This isn't an argument for or against the bill -- I don't really know how I feel about the bill, as it's been so altered from its original form that I don't even know what's in it anymore. I just wanted to share our socialized health care experience. For us, it's awesome.
I've heard this from quite a few texans who have tricare as well.
I'm watching obama speak and is saying no one, adults included, can be denied based on pre-existing conditions - this goes into effect this year. good to know it's not just for kids.
We have really needed health care reform for a while. While this may not be the best bill, at least it is something.
As someone who has been denied for a pre-existing condition, asthma, and has had to buy individual insurance, I am happy about the bill. Insurance companies will deny you for almost anything if they do not feel that you will be largely healthy and low risk. For example, I was also denied because I lost 50 pounds to get healthier. I have been terrified that if I am ever off insurance due to losing my job, I would not be able to get back on. It is also great that they have extended coverage on parents plans for people getting out of college.
I have a few friends that are ER doctors and they often are forced to see people have both minor medical issues, and major medical issues brought on by waiting to see the doctor. This is a huge waste of resources and money. Many of these folks would probably go have a regular doctor's appointment, if they could pay out of pocket. Those unpaid hospital bills are paid by the state, with your tax dollars. I would rather trade someone's 3,000 dollar hospital bill for a 100 dollar doctor's appointment.
Insurance will also be cheaper, since you will get more people buying into the pool, which offsets risk. This is the same principal that makes a group plan less expensive than an individual health care plan.
I am sure that there will be more debate over this in the next few months.
~Julie
52 Choices For Better Health