"The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain
For promis'd joy!"
Robert Burns,
"To a Mouse"
The best laid plans of mice and men, often go astray, as Robert Burns once said..
Current proposals for health insurance reform represent an impossible financial burden for American families.
The politicians in Washington seem determined to ignore Federal Reserve data showing that even current healthcare costs are unaffordable and unsustainable and instead, press they press ahead with a "health insurance reform" that leaves American families in an impossible financial situation that they cannot afford. The result will be "crowd out" of all other spending that destroys large segments of the economy and leaves most Americans unable to purchase many items they still do now or save money for retirement or unexpected expenses.
America needs affordable healthcare desperately, but American families are not prepared for the costs if America is expected to continue down the "health insurance reform" path we are following now and purchase the Democrats inadequate "incremental" health reform based on private insurance, (with or without a public option).
Why? Because it fails to reign in rapidly rising costs and relies too strongly on a private insurance system that was already unaffordable for 3/5 of us in 2005 and is even more so now.
Both Democratic and Republican plans for health reform are futile if the costs proposed are not possible for most American families to bear without crowding out most other spending or preventing their purchase of essentials like food or housing.
Simply proposing that people buy insurance and then making it mandatory, without cutting healthcare costs drastically, and eliminating the additional ONE THIRD burden of the insurance profit margin, cannot work.
However you put it, Americans are living beyond their means, or their wages are too low, relative to their cost of living. (The rising cost of health care has a LOT to do with that.)
"Whatever..." as they say..
It doesn't matter. By any measure of affordability, they CAN'T afford it.
It doesn't help things at all to argue, they simply can't afford the end user costs of the current proposals.
In 2005, the Federal Reserve Bank published an analysis "The Sustainability of Health Spending Growth"
...that clearly showed, in 2005- (and prices have gone up since then) that roughly 60% of American families cannot afford to bear the costs of the insurance they had then, if we define affordably as meaning that the costs would be under a fifth of their total income. And this was in 2005.
This situation applies to both old and younger families. Even families who are elderly, in Medicare.
This being the unvarnished fact, given that prices have risen substantially since then, even if Obama could save substantially with a public option, (many experts insist that he cannot) its a safe assumption that none of the proposals currently in Washington will work, as they all will have the effect of locking in the unsustainable increases in costs that are already taking all of our extra income.
Health care will cost American families so much that for the least earning 3/5 of them, the expense - both covered and uncovered costs will effectively "crowd out" most other discretionary spending, preventing investment and savings elsewhere and eventually, destroying large segments of the economy. (It goes without saying that unless they completely stop spending on nonessentials, most - at least 3/5 Americans will be unable to save for retirement.)
Without either huge changes in the bills currently proposed (far more taxes on the wealthy, and far larger subsidies for almost all Americans, except for the upper quintile- as well as a cap on uncovered costs, for everybody,) it wont work.
This will become obvious soon, as private insurance will jump in prices shortly after the changes in insurance become law. If a public option passes, the rest of the picture will be revealed when prices for it are announced. People are expecting savings, but instead, they will see prices as high as those charged now, or higher. (because it will be better insurance.)
the Federal Reserve data proves that the bill will end up failing us because healthcare remains far too expensive to cure by means of insurance without income redistribution far in excess of what has been proposed..
Let me phrase it differently, We don't make enough to afford what they are proposing. Its going to take every penny many people have.
Single payer or a national healthcare plan are the only paths to affordable healthcare that the bottom 4/5 of all Americans could afford without radical changes in lifestyle. (changes that would "crowd out" spending in huge sections of the economy that depend on discretionary spending.)
The great many Americans who do not currently have insurance, and who have inadequate insurance, do so for a reason. Health care is too expensive now for them to afford even low quality health care. They buy insurance, and it gets them a discount on routine care, but when they get sick, they end up bankrupt.
The biggest burden under the "reforms" is going to fall on the vast and financially endangered middle class. Too well off for subsidies, but unable to afford the quality health insurance that protects them from risk, they will not only be unable to save any money, whatever assets they have will be endangered.
Where is the wiggle room in that?
There isn't any-
Lawmakers are holding up Massachusetts' "health insurance reform" as a model for national health insurance reform.
However, it has not been a positive change for many, as affordability of insurance and co-pays has been a serious problem for many since buying insurance was made mandatory.
For example many patients with chronic illnesses cannot afford both premiums and uncovered costs.
Many patients who used to visit community clinics, complain that the situation has worsened their access to care.
Costs have risen substantially from what they were before, for poor and working class patients.
Both drug prices and insurance premiums have also risen substantially.
Recently, media articles have focused on some large provider networks who increased prices. Costs were millions more than the state had planned.
Report - Massachusetts Is No Model for National Health Care Reform
Costs are keeping patients from care - The Boston Globe
Patients’ Experiences Under Massachusetts Health Care Reform
Massachusetts Faces Costs of Big Health Care Plan - NYTimes.com
Massachusetts Consumers Pay More for Prescription Drugs While Pharmaceutical Profits Soar