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Even if the 2,700-plus-page bill passes, it's only the end of the beginning. The Obama blueprint will be carried out under less-than-ideal circumstances. Rising medical costs and an aging population will keep squeezing the federal budget. Lawmakers will have to revisit hard choices they sidestepped.

Patients wait almost three weeks for an appointment at MCC Medical Clinic in Silver Spring, Maryland. The patient list at the free clinic has grown 50 percent in the last year. (photo: Robert Giroux/MCT)
Patients wait almost three weeks for an appointment at MCC Medical Clinic in Silver Spring, Maryland. The patient list at the free clinic has grown 50 percent in the last year. (photo: Robert Giroux/MCT)

 

Comments  

 
+1 # Guest 2010-03-15 11:17
Is there any limit on the premium insures can charge? (Insurance can cover anything, as long as the premium is high enough.) Seniors would get a 50% discount on brnad name drugs? Discount from what price? Who sets the price? Even if the drugs are not on the company formulary? Who determines when a patient is healthy? Does the doctor get some kind of benefit for saying the patient is healthy? (At the Mayo clinic they do millions of tests on difficult patients. Is insurance to pay for these?) While insurance must pay out a set percent of premium as health care, who decides the how high the premium is? Who pays the co-pays and deductables? Seems like this is a great gift for insurance companies. Note this is a bill for health insurance NOT health care.
 
 
0 # Guest 2010-03-15 11:41
John, besides the misspelling and questionable grammar. The statement that medicare will be slashed by $5oo billion is less than totally honest as the $500 billion is money to cut from Medicare Advantage that costs approximately 12% to 14% more than traditional or fee for service medicare. Those additional monies go directly to the profits of the insurance companies that sell these plans and are paid for by the taxpayers.
 
 
-2 # Guest 2010-03-15 11:54
Just say "No!" I have too much invested in insurance stock to allow this rip-off of my security. Dickens had it right in A Cristmas Carol; too bad if you get sick, you should have taken better care of yourself. Let the free market decide who gets treated for what; and let insurance companies drop those who cost me my dividends.
 
 
+1 # Guest 2010-03-15 22:39
The free market has decided and if you lose your dividends you made a poor choice investing in insurance companies that rip off consumers. You can't have it both ways my friend.
 
 
0 # Guest 2010-03-15 13:58
The problem with this bill is that by the time it goes into effect the roof will be blown off premiums for the self employed and will put even more people in the uninsured category. There doesn't seem to be any safeguard put in place to make sure the insurance companies don't do what the banks did just before the credit card protections were put in place. The banks raised everyone's interest rates!
When the bill is put in place let it begin in several 3-6 month stages. The insurance companies are able to keep up with their new rates and exclusions every 6 month to a year. They can certainly keep up with the new rules! This bill does not protect the American people enough from the insurance companies bad practices and will give them ample time to push even more people off the roles, just due to premium hikes, before the bill even goes in to effect.
 

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