Health Care Options

[cmac]

Can someone explain to me in retard terms what we have now, what is being proposed, and what the consequences and benefits of each side are? The news web sites no longer report actual news.
Thanks in advance.

[impala454]

Right now we have privatized healthcare. I.e. private companies offer health insurance, you pay them. Most people who work a full time job have some form of health insurance made available to them, and for a good price due to them getting a group rate and/or your employer paying for part or all of the premiums (monthly fee). We also have medicare which is government run for old and/or disabled people, paid for by tax money.

Right now, if you do not have a job and want health insurance, you simply go to a company and enroll, and pay the full premiums yourself (very good insurance can be had for $200-300/month. I've seen some claim as low as $100/month, but surely the coverage is different, etc etc. Just think of it like how car insurance works, except for yourself and much more complicated. I know mine is something like $300/month and my company pays something like $190 of it.

If you do not wish to have health insurance, that is your own prerogative.

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What was originally proposed by Obama was to completely remove privatized healthcare, and make it completely government run and paid for (hello huge tax hike). Everyone would recieve the same level of care automatically simply by living here. I heard rumblings of options to still be able to buy your own plan on top of that, but either way, it would be mandatory and would be paid for by taxes.

So many people were up in arms over this idea, that Obama removed it. He claimed that removing privatized healthcare was only a "small" portion of his bill, but I don't see what the rest of it is, so in that part I have no idea.

Also I believe with his current plan, health insurance still becomes mandatory for all.

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Hope that helps. I think our healthcare system is great as is. People come from all over the world to use it. Just look at current govt run healthcare industries like Canada. People up there wait months just to get an MRI, or routine surgery. Their taxes up there are unbelievable, but then they talk about how healthcare is "free" up there... Keeping it privatized helps keep competition, keeps prices down, and keeps incentives for doctors to be good at what they do. Hell, it also encourages people to actually get healthy and/or get whatever care they need. I know if it had taken several months to get an MRI on my knee, I probably wouldn't have even bothered with it.

What you need to think about when you're forming an opinion is this: The average person probably pays between $100-300/month right now, through their employer, for good health insurance. It comes out of their check pre-taxes, and covers their entire immediate family. Do you think the government can do better than that? IMHO, no friggin way.