Coverage holes in bill will leave sickest millions in healthcare limbo for years, and plans to dump many for one single missed bill. Also many will pay for, but still can't use coverage. Promises that the issues will be fixed "later" grossly underestimate the growing probability of huge Dem losses in 2010 and 1012, as people reassess their true intentions and credibility as "leaders".
We need much more of a disclosure by Washington acknowledging that people who have or get chronic illnesses or injuries in the future, should be aware that huge problems exist in these bills that have the potential to seriously injure them or worse if these issues are allowed to remain- Promised coverage often remains elusive, involves multi-year waiting periods or, because of catch22's hidden in legalese, and underfunding that is criminally small, never arrives, or they are arbitrarily dumped.
The first year after a disease like cancer is discovered tends to be by far the most expensive. However, many of the sickest Americans will not be eligible for help at all during that time. They fall through cracks, that are admittedly there, and have not been fixed, "to save money".
Nothing if not a very capable manager, Obama preserves impossibly high prices and profits for his patrons, who must be overjoyed at his success.
Obama's sweet promises framed by words like "hope" lull working America into believing for a few months, or perhaps even years longer (unless they get sick) that "yes they can" still afford the politicians choice in insulation from responsibility, the most expensive option possible, no-cost-controls private insurance, (and its denials of care for themselves and everybody else who languishes in HMO-limbo), impossibly but deftly hiding that by allowing him to do so, they are in actuality, sacrificing the thing they really need, adequate healthcare. He is trading an illusion of security for the real thing. But, one doesn't have to look far to see that the picture painted on his perfect postcard isn't real.
For example, millions with serious illnesses who cannot work were hoping that the government would eliminate the two year waiting period for Medicare after people have qualified for Social Security disability.. But it appears that the drug industry has beaten them to the punch, apparently the "donut hole" will be closed instead.
Trudy Lieberman's "The Devil in the Details, Part IV" at the Columbia Journalism Review, expanded on several other points where the hype is being ramped up to cover huge problems that will leave millions of sick people in serious danger.. (Trudy Lieberman is
Additionally, a "high risk pool" promised in Obama's nationally televised address to help the sickest get coverage is surrounded by a moat of gotchas.. one of which is a six month waiting period after an illness is diagnosed while the person remains uninsured.
During that time, many sick people will invariably, die. It was fixed in the House bill, but, tellingly, the Obama PR machine is hammering the House members to approve the barbaric version of the bill.
Interestingly, a perhaps unguarded remark by Obama chief economist Austan Goolsbee during the campaign lays bare a strategy that hoped to pay for "healthcare" only a politician could love, - by finding ways of excluding the sickest Americans. "too expensive".
Follow this exchange carefully:
"On the campaign trail, Mrs. Clinton has attacked Mr. Obama for his plan, saying it betrays the Democratic principle of universal coverage. Her campaign has demanded that he take down an advertisement that claims his plan "covers everyone."
Mr. Obama has replied that her attacks are more about politics than substance; they didn't come, he noted, until she lost ground in the polls. But his advisers don't dispute her central charge. Rather, they claim Mrs. Clinton's plan would also leave millions without coverage.
Obama adviser Austan Goolsbee argues that if Mrs. Clinton's health plan is enacted, she will have to waive the mandate for millions of people. That is because, he says, there isn't enough money for subsidies to make health insurance affordable enough for people to buy it.
"You can't put in a mandate until health care is affordable," he says. He predicted that a Hillary Clinton administration would wind up exempting 20% of the uninsured, or about 10 million people. That is the percentage of uninsured adults who were exempted in Massachusetts, the only state to try an individual mandate.
and so on...
Also, the bill does nothing to eliminate the huge price hikes that hit small businesses when employees get sick or get older, depriving older workers of their jobs, by driving terrified companies to either drop coverage for all workers or lay off workers, sometimes quite abruptly, when they or a family member gets ill. This means that millions of Americans are forced to pay for healthcare they cannot use without fear. Some insured with serious illnesses, seeing this happen to co-workers, go to doctors in other towns, posing as uninsured, using different names and paying much higher "self-insured" rates, in cash.
From "Health bill has coverage problems: Disabled workers face Medicare wait"
"At any given time, an estimated 1.8 million disabled workers languish in the Medicare coverage gap, a cost-saver instituted nearly 40 years ago. Many, such as Walker, are uninsured. Lawmakers had hoped to eliminate the gap as part of the health care legislation but concluded it would be too expensive.
The alternatives now in the legislation aren’t seamless. For example, a new insurance pool for high-risk cases that Obama sought could run out of money within a year or two of its inception. "I’m very disappointed," said Walker, 61, who has difficulty walking to her front door. Although her own wait will be over in April, "I feel these last two years have dealt me a blow I will not recover from," she said. She has been unable to pursue surgery that could help her and had to rely on a sympathetic doctor for free medication samples.
The failure to repeal the Medicare waiting period illustrates the difficult trade-offs Democratic lawmakers faced to keep the costs of the legislation from ballooning. For example, if the bill passes Congress and is signed by Obama, about 18 million eligible Americans would remain uninsured, many still unable to afford coverage, even when the legislation is fully in place in 2019."
Also, the high risk pool that is supposed to kick in to help those with serious medical conditions like cancer afford to remain in treatment, potentially saving their lives. Well..its underfunded to a level that makes its credibility as a solution doubtful. The Democrats pursued similar tricks so they could claim that their new bill has an income cap. An income cap has the potential to significantly increase the cost of a bill, so it has the potential to illustrate the futility of trying to have affordable health care and prop up unaffordable prices as the same time.
The Dems don't want to admit that single payer is the only solution that could end the wasted 50% of each dollar and work to solve these problems, so... we end up with them taking a huge risk that the stealthy income cap inclusions will kill the bill a few years down the line, wasting years of the nations time and allowing hundreds of thousands more Americans to DIE needlessly. Just because they selfishly couldn't admit something that even a child could see was obvious..
PRIVATE INSURANCE-CENTRIC HEALTHCARE WITH NO COST CONTROL COSTS WAY TOO MUCH.
For the same reason they are covering up the 20-45% small business premium hikes in Massachusetts.
They are taking a similar "promise the moon" approach on the high risk pool.. but funding it at a pittance that indicates that either they will make it so very few of those who need it qualify, or perhaps they are in denial that they are going to lose seats in 2010. Instead, they claim that they will come back in a few years to change the many mistakes. However, the chances of them having that chance after betraying the American people so irresponsibly is extremely low..
President Obama, TEAR DOWN YOUR WALLS..TWO out of THREE AMERICANS SUPPORT MEDICARE FOR ALL.
From "Democrats' Plan to Help 'Uninsurables' Questioned Advocates for cancer patients decry waiting period; budget for high-risk pool seen as low
"Under the health care bills in Congress, you could apply for coverage through a new high-risk pool that President Barack Obama promises would immediately start serving patients with pre-existing medical problems.
Wait a second. Read the fine print. You may have to be uninsured for six months to qualify."
With friends like these, who needs enemies?
The funding for the (now) four year risk pool for those with medical problems that make them uninsurable is so woefully low - around $4/year, it can't possibly even begin to work.
Read more about high risk pools here.. The information at the link also applies to other plans that serve the public interest by allowing in unprofitable sick people (1/5 of Americans) All allegedly "public" plans (often administered, surprise, at public expense, by the insurance cos.) are structured similarly.
Important: Disqualifying more healthy people and including more SICK people does not make them cheaper, it makes them more expensive. The promotion of a "public option" as finaially viable without taking adverse selection into account was Obama's worst and biggest lie. The lie continues in the supposition that the "offered" plans after 2014 will not be wildly expensive, AS SUCH PLANS TEND TO BE.
Thats 5 billion, BTW, is far less than what GOP Presidential candidate Sen McCain thought was adequate.
It averages out to $3.90 per American, per year...
"Obama proposed the pool in his September health care speech to Congress. Intended to serve the most vulnerable as a temporary fail-safe, it would stay in place until 2013. That's when insurance companies would be banned from denying (expensive individual) coverage because of medical problems. Government subsidies would also start that year to make coverage more affordable for (only the very poorest) millions of uninsured.
Now there are concerns about the design of the high-risk pools. Besides the six-month wait, there's a more fundamental issue — whether $5 billion set aside for the three-year program is enough. The money would be used to help people in poor health pay premiums.
Obama credits his Republican presidential rival, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, for the risk-pools idea. But when the GOP candidate proposed it in 2008, the estimated annual cost was $7 billion to $10 billion.
The Senate Finance Committee approved the six-month wait in its health care bill last month. To qualify, patients must be turned down for coverage because of a pre-existing condition and uninsured for at least six months."