Senate Finance Committee Passes Its Health Reform Bill

Under this bill we shall see tremendous increases with our health care insurance, in specific those who have insurance.

As opposed to the standard 79% increase in health care costs over 10 years that even the insurance industry says will occur if we do nothing at all.
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I never knew inflation was that bad.

It is funny when the right acts like it is concerned for Medicare. If it was up to the republicans we would never have even had medicare in the first place. In fact if it was up to the right there wouldn't be any Medicare, Social Security, and we would still have segregation.

What part of "lost the election" do you not get. As a small business owner in Chicago for three years, when I became ill I had to sell my business because I did not have healthcare. This directly impacts real people working in the real world. Small businesses and storefronts are dying because of healthcare costs. The GOP could care less about the thousands of families that do not have health care at all.

So if you voted for the Bush/Cheney government over the last 8 years you are directly responsible for putting our country in this situation. If I was you I would just walk away and let the grown folks fix your mess. Why should we listen to the side that lost?

Olympia Snowe and Maine's other senator, Susan Collins, come from a fairly blue state, and they keep getting re-elected because they are the last of the liberal Republicans. If they don't at least simulate Republican liberalism, they're likely to go the way of Lincoln Chaffee, as indeed they may even if they do keep acting as they have. So Collins votes for a diluted stimulus, and Snowe votes in committee for a health-care bill, and they maintain at least the simulation of Republican liberalism. That's the only way they'll get re-elected. Put another way, adamant resistance to health care is more likely to cost them their seats than a middle-of-the-road approach with at least one votiing in favor. Which is just what we're seeing from them.

The notion that Maine is going to turn on either of its Republican senators for being too liberal is absurd.

Octavian, sorry to hear about your plight. Let's see.. medicare-in the red social security-in the red. Two big government programs that have failed. Would have been better off without either of them. Kind of ironic that you had to close down your small business in ,where else, Chicago. We all know how much Union thug, mob controlled Chicago loves small business. Can you say SEIU?

Another fact to ponder octavian, the number of people turned down by medicare because of pre-existing conditions, dwarfs that of private insurers. Check it. Concerning small business, the National endowment of the arts got nearly 1 billion dollars of the stimulus. Small business got zero. This big government really cares for the working man!

One more thing octavian, I'm scratching my head concerning your "segregation" remark. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe it was the right who dragged the Dem. prez Johnson kicking and screaming to the table to sign the civil rights act of '64. Could you clear this up for me.....

Me too!

Any. Day. Of. The. Week.

…and KT, you're probably getting the standard flu cures from others: chicken soup, vitamin C, hot tea, etc. If and only if your flu medications allow, I'd also recommend brandy and a few vesper martinis. They won't cure anything but who cares; you'll feel much better.

"I'd also recommend brandy and a few vesper martinis."
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Drown a cold, drown a fever?

Are you on twitter?

Paul or me? (me - no twitter. I just check a few pages regularly for certain media starlets who post there, including KT and Jay.)

Get well soon KT. No one else at TIME loves us like you do.

. A bill with hundreds of unread amendments and a CBO analysis hinged on a lot of maybes. And Obama using similar reasoning that earned him the Nobel Prize believes we have a "bipartisan" bill because one RINO (Snowe) voted for the bill.

The race to the bottom for America continues

1. Eliminate the practice of health care insurers to use "pre-existing conditions" as a way to deny coverage. As a matter of fact, I believe once you have insurance, that the government should pass legislation that you can never be cancelled for any reason except for non-payment of premiums..
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2. Pass meaningful TORT reform. Despite all the liberal nay-sayers it has been proven to bring down the cost of health care overall.
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3. Open up the State to State competition of health care insurances. Allow us to purchase healthcare insurance from any carrier across the Nation. Create reforms and regulations that will enhance competition. If this does not work, and the price of health care insurance does not come down, then provide a public option alternative.
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4. Mandate insurance for all individuals including illegals. Impose steep fines on those who will not or refuse to purchase insurance.
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5. Enact legislation that will provide for outcomes based healthcare instead of incentivizing treatments by Doctors. This would include studies and pro-active programs to enhance preventative medicine rather than simply paying for someone's health care who is not participating actively in wellness programs.
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6. Open up Medicaid to the poor at 200% of poverty and those who are struck by an illness that would be considered castastrophic.
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Pretty simple wouldn't you say aratteacher. I have been proposing this for months now on this site and others.
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There is absolutely no need for a bill with over 500 admendments that no one can read and understand.

I would agree to everything you just said for the most part. I have been looking for insurance for my oldest child who lives in another state and most of the insurance that I have found is the same companies that are here in my state. I'm not sure how effective buying insurance across state lines will be because most of the big companies are in just about every state anyway. I guess different states have different regs. on insurance that would help some but I don't think it will make that big of a difference. I think the main problem with HCR is the lobbyist spending millions of dollars in Washington to get what they call reform, and their spending it on both sides of the isle and no one seems to care. Please excuse my ignorance in the way Washington works but that just seems wrong!

Thank you for agreeing, "mostly", aratteacher. It is mainly common sense. Nothing earth-shattering.
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Regarding your statement on State to State as I call it, most insurance companies are regionalized. They currently are afforded mini-monopolies due to the protectionism that the Insurance Boards in each of the States impose.
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Rather than trying to compete, they simply run their monopolies in those regions that they have the greatest market share.
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There are over 1300 different insurance companies across this Nation. Where I live, I can choose from 6 of them. Once you open up State to State and people can shop around for the best coverage at the best price, competition WILL bring down the price. This added with TORT reform will decrease the overall costs to make it much more affordable for most Americans. I believe it will bring the costs down in line with the other foreign countries who also have private health insurance such as Japan.
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What is the harm in trying to see if this would work first? Or, would you rather gamble on creating a big huge Government-run program like Medicare, which I think we can all agree upon will be doomed for complete failure in the next 10 or so years?
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Many liberals on this site have said "well if you like Medicare, why not open it up for everyone. The problem is that Medicare is no longer sustainable. If that is the situation now, what will be the situation in 10 years? The same. Medicare will be insolvent unless costs are contained. There is also a need to bring down the over all cost of health care as well, which this bill or any of the others proposed do not address.
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stuart zechman has posted on many occassions the cost differences between OECD countries and the US. We pay 100 times as much for health care as the average OECD country. I agree with stuart, that health care cannot cost that much more else where. Someone is making out like a bandit. Passing this bill will not get to the bottom of the overall problem. It in my opinion simply creates bigger problems, and the risk is that anyone with insurance now may be out there with the rest of the un-insured. Broke!

rusty,

Ever think of running for the Senate? I can't say I would vote for you, but you make alot more sense than the current Republican leadership in Congress.

That will create a lot of choice and competition.
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More like a race to the bottom; the big insurance companies will gravitate to the least costly, least regulated states...allowing for even less local control than there is now...
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...Imagine having to appeal a denial of coverage to a different state's insurance commissioner or to the federal government when you have cancer.

What is torturing the medical profession is the malpractice insurance companies are jacking up rates, not based on claims or pay outs, but based on the money the insurance companies lost on the stock market. When a doctor has been practicing for over 30 years and never been sued once and has his malpractice rates triple, then there is something wrong with the insurance companies, which tort reform will not fix.

Second, allow doctors to admit a mistake instead of being told to shut up by the hospital and its lawyers. The University of Michigan instituted a program in 2002, where doctors admitted their mistakes, talked to patients and worked with the hospital to see what went wrong. The money the University of Michigan reserved for malpractice claims went from $70 million a year to $13 million a year. Sometimes all that was required was for someone to listen and for the doctor to say, "I made a mistake and I am sorry."