Who Needs Health Care

I reviewed the blog by Steel Talking. My fellow student points out how many people need to choose if they have money for basic necessities or for needed health care. This is a very real situation that some American’s have to face on a daily basis. Another good point they make is that preexisting conditions should not be able to be ridered out of a health care plan for a person or that the allowed health care should not be so ridiculous to exclude glaucoma treatment or needed surgery after an automobile accident.

Again a good point is made to eliminate triggers and op-out options for the bill which the House Bill summary says that those who opt-out at this point pay a penalty of 2.5% of their gross annual salary. An easy solution to this would be to offer some sort of coverage at 2.5% so opting out would be a wash for the American public.

The last point of supporting Jacob Hacker’s statements of a health care plan modeled after Medicare is valid in many areas on the surface. Yes the public is familiar with Medicare. Yes health care for those who don’t have any coverage or lack good coverage should be covered. Yes, the option of private or a new public plan sounds reasonable and should give individuals a broader choice of doctors and bring down costs over time.

I do completely agree with my colleague that it is ridiculous to live in the United States of America and be an American citizen and not have access to reasonable health care. I know there is not an easy answer in which our fairy godmothers and godfathers in DC can wave their magic wands and create equalized health care for all.
However, if a solution was that simple, the insurance companies and medical professionals did not have enough lobbyists to fill Washington D.C., and the bill SAVED US MONEY it would have been done long ago.

After having worked for insurance companies, a state medical regulatory agency and accepted jobs only after having known their benefits package I know this is a very complicated web to negotiate through.

I had an experience in which a document accepted into rule by a regulatory commission that unjustly limited reimbursement to a medical community. A lawsuit was filed by a medical association, which caused the OAG (Office of the Attorney General) to become involved resulting in “clerical changes” to the document. This was a small document with a team of researchers and developers that had limited political fingers messing with the final document and still the urge to improperly regulate those that might abuse the system crept its way into the final document. This is just one small example of what WILL happen to this bill as it is now pushed through the Senate.

With so many agencies and people wanting a piece of this insurance, medical care, and regulatory agency pie many compromises will be made. In the end hopefully a document will be passed that will be life changing for those that are underinsured or uninsured at this time will be the end result.

So in the end I completely agree that something needs to be done, however many fingers are in this pie and many compromises will be made in which those in most need will probably not be take care of as well as they should if at all.