Health Care Reform: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

[mijan]

The Good: 
- Private health insurance can't deny you for a pre-existing condition under this bill.
- You can't be dropped from a policy because you get sick.
- If you have insurance, they can't "cap" your coverage and say "you've been sick enough now, so we're not paying any more."

The Bad:
- It's not REAL universal health care.  YES, I am "one of those" who fully wants this backwards country to switch to a single-payer system like Canada's system.  I think anything less is a travesty - humiliating and ludicrous.  Time to join the modern world, people.
- Because it's not real UHC, this will do nothing to help the over-complicated network of insurers and the grossly high overhead costs of the health care system.
- Private insurance still rules our health care system.  I'm sorry, but for-profit health "insurance" is a crime against humanity, as far as I'm concerned.
- Nothing to attenuate costs of malpractice insurance, which is putting even GOOD doctors out of business, even if they've never been sued for malpractice.

The Ugly:
- Fining people for not having health insurance.  WTF?!?  I'm sorry, but for the self-employed to have to afford policies on their own when they're BARELY making ends meet... this is going to bankrupt many individuals.  That's STUPID.


Want to chime in with your thoughts?  Go for it, but no flaming.  Civil discourse, please.  Actual facts, please.  Insight from those who live in countries with UHC are welcomed and encouraged to share their experiences.

Comments

Re: and furthermore

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

I just want to point out that it is not actually true that ALL health insurance companies are for-profit. It depends on the state and the charter under which the company operates, but I know of at least one that has a not-for-profit tax/legal status - there's some defined level of 'profit' they're allowed to make per year on top of their business expenses which is calculated to be just enough to help grow and develop the business to improve services, but beyond that anything else has to go back into the community in the form of free programs or, I guess, taxes or fines of some type.

Obviously, this is not the same as a universal health care system like the NHS, but I mention it because it means that people who are concerned about this sort of thing can check into the companies they have available to them, and see what terms they're under with the government, and at least pick the one that's least awful. (I'm not sure exactly who it is that determines these things in the government, but I can probably find out.)

Re: and furthermore

[gmonkey42.livejournal.com]

That's awesome, if more people could be insured by not-for-profit companies, we'd be a lot better off.