Do you think health care reform should include a government program?

SO your idea is what? To let private insurance fester and continue on the current path?

1. The ONLY justification for keeping insurance is for when you get GENUINELY SICK.
2. Today with annual deductibles, and copays it takes me almost six months before mine even kicks in.
3. I am already rationed and already cannot see all the doctors I want to.
4. I WORK IN THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY!!!!
5. If you actually do get GENUINELY SICK, you'll be dropped and they will fight you until you DIE!!! (hint: its cheaper for them than to keep you alive)

YAY FOR THE CURRENT SYSTEM. (*sarchasm*) Lets all just get a system where if our kids get cancer thats preventable that they A: don't have access to preventative medicine and B: get dropped by insurers instantly so they they can just crawl off and die. We would all be better off not having insurance if it stays the same. The only reason we keep it is out of fear. Its just a security blanket.

Yeah its an entitlement that I get a service I pay for every paycheck. Nice one. I PAY in the event of illness that they will take care of me. THEY DON'T!! I PAY THEY PLAY!!!!!!!!!!

I sure didn't choose to lose my job this year or lose my insurance because I couldn't afford cobra, and now will be lucky to ever get insurance again because of "pre-existing conditions" The private medical industry is a joke. Many other countries have socialized medicine and it works great!!!!

lets get on the ball people

How can you say that the "free market" will be more efficient and we can see that it is not doing that right now.

wow! what a lot of assumptions you have with little or nothing to back them up. lets start with the first two that are at odds with each other. you say the gov plan will be so good that some insurers will go out of business thus limiting our choices BUT your next point is that gov plan can not produce a plan as good as private. so which is it? if the gov plan is better then capitalism dictates private sector improve their service. if the gov plan is bad then private plans will flourish. why dont you stop listen to rush and think about the things people say

One of the largest impacts of insurance today is the high cost of malpractice insurance and the extra services provided by physicians in order to avoid lawsuits. Also, insurance companies have been hammered with multi-million dollar frivolous lawsuits from radical judges. Get congress (who are mostly lawyers) to do something serious about tort reform and see how much better the cost of insurance will be.

What many folk don't understand is that there are only a few private insurors who sell health insurance - a very small percentage in relation to the total number of insurance companies selling many varied insurance products. People tend to demonize insurance companies as huge profit centers. Some of them are, but they take a risk and it is ok for them to make profits. That is called capitalism and it creates jobs. However, the margins of profits for the very few insurance companies that offer health insurance, are very slim, and health insurance is not generally considered by most insurance companies as a market that they want to be involved in. If medical insurance was so profitable, then there would be many insurance companies standing in line to sell health insurance. The reason private insurors do not want government competition is due to the fact that they already have very small profit margins therefore, can be easily forced out of business, leaving no private insurance options. Believe me, you do not want to lose private insurance in lieu of a government plan. Quality of care, service, inefficiencies, extremely high costs, etc., would prove a complete disaster to the economy and to the quality and access to healthcare. If you think you want a government plan, then you need to strongly reconsider. If you like the V.A. or Canada, or Great Britain's healthcare, then you probably don't care.

Right shortly NO ONE is going to be able to afford private health insurance, my employer just cut the percentage that they paid towards my medical insurance (which also covers the my spouse and daughter), if it goes much higher I won't be able to afford it - my health insurance premiums have tripled in the last three years - totally ridiculous - something has to be done.

msdx1949 is exactly right. My wife is in the healthcare industry too, and we know that msdx knows what s/he is talking about.

I'm 100% disabled from a blood clot in the center of my brain that happened in 1999. I had symptoms of something going wrong for more than two weeks, and was undergoing hospital tests to try to find out what was happening to me. Back then, unfortunately, the insurers were allowed to tell the doctors how to do their job, which was, of course, all about them making money, not how best to help me. Using the power of the purse strings, they told the doctors generally (not in my particular case) to not, under any circumstances, order an MRI (the most expensive test there is) until cheaper (and less effective) tests are done first without success. So two weeks were wasted on outpatient ultrasounds, x-rays and cat scans, which showed nothing. So then, finally, my doctor ordered the MRI of my brain. I had the scan at 6:45 AM on Sunday morning, and went home to await the results. At 9:00 AM, I was rushed back to the hospital while having a stroke. I was taken into the emergency room, then to ICU for two days, and another 11 days in hospital. They luckily knew immediately the cause, for the reading of the MRI came in about the same time I did. It showed the microscopic piece of plaque that had lodged in the center of my brain and gradually cut off blood flow. By the time I was wheeled into the emergency room, I could not sit up and had lost feeling and control of my right leg and left arm. By the time I was rushed to ICU for heparin blood thinning treatment, I was blind and could not swallow. I eventually got everything back that I lost except my equilibrium and my left eye, which remains damaged. The recovery totally depended upon how soon my condition was treated (the blockage dissolved) Perhaps one day sooner, I may never have ended up like this. Certainly, if the MRI test had been done first, two weeks earlier, nothing would have happened to me at all. I was 49 then, and I lost out on the rest of my normal life. This is what happens when greedy private insurance companies are allowed to dictate to doctors and hospitals what they can and cannot do on behalf of their patients just so that they might save a few more pennies. At least, if the government stepped into the insurance arena, it may inadvertently cause some regulation of the industry, and I don't mean the kind that ensures that insurance company investors get all their profits.

Realist: How will adding a government option reduce options unless the current options can't compete? If they can't, they don't deserve to survive (isn't that the premise of capitalism?)

Also, Medicare is far more efficient than most private health plans. Their administrative costs are only 3%. Look up statistics for private companies and see where your money is going.

I agree.

There are also a lot of things that the govt could do to decrease health care costs, like outlawing advertisements for drugs again (so that people won't demand a drug every time they have a hiccup or need to pee more frequently than they like.) Then they could stop subsidizing corn (which makes meat and the corn syrups that spikes all our food unrealistically cheap) and instead subsidize vegetable growers. Making chains list the nutritional information about their products would help as well -- then we would all know that the muffin we buy for breakfast has 500 calories instead of the 120 we expected. These changes are far simpler than reforming the insurance system (except decreasing corn subsidies, which is a political no-no since the Iowa caucuses are so early in the campaign process.)

Anyone have other ideas?? We should send them to our representatives. You can also contact the Obama administration. Their web page for health care is

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/A-National-Discussion-on-Health-Care-Reform/

Its more than that we are paying insurance companies to hire lawyers TO FIGHT OUR OWN CLAIMS!!!!! Why am I paying for that? Why is some investor getting dividends off of my kids hospital visits? Why is my paycheck going to providing some guy with a private jet for his insurance company? WHY am I paying some drug company 50 cents on the dollar to advertise medication on TV rather than to fund studies to compare medicines for effectiveness?

Right on the button. Nice comment.

You've said it best. I don't give a damn about the insurance industry. Far and away, their greed and political clout have greatly contributed to this mess. The current system is broken. Why does so much of our healthcare dollars go to the middlemen? We need a low cost public option that costs no more than 10% of our premiums. Most of our wasted insurance dollars go to investor profits, insurance industry lobbyists, CEOs, boards of directors, etc. If we had no such middlemen, the cost of healthcare would go WAY down. We need a public option where our DOCTORS make the health care decisions, not corporations.

the system in MA is NOT government insurance, even though it is government run...it's a choice of private insurers offering low cost premiums (and benefits but not necessarily co-pays) with whom Romney made a deal with. I agree, it's sort of a joke, but that's because it caters too much to private industry.

The choices they offer seldom cover the most reasonable options, but at least we get this discussion group!

I'd take a good look. Any deal that sounds too good probably is not what it appears.

OK, I looked at this web page (iabmemberships.com). For $70 for the whole family, you will get a low level death and dismemberment insurance policy, discounts on health care when you use a certain network, $50 towards each doctor's visit (not including preventive care), and $2000 for medical costs in case of an accident (despite the fact that one day in the hospital often costs over $1000). Dental coverage does not include orthodontics (braces) and you have to pay extra for access to a mail-order pharmacy plan (which cuts prescription prices by about 20%). To me, this is not a particularly good plan, but would certainly be a whole lot better than nothing. They have more expensive options with better benefits, though.

Thank you for looking at my web page Laura and for your comments. I'd like to reply to each of your comments so the readers can fully understand IAB. IAB is a 27 year old, debt free, recession proof non profit associaation.  

First the low level death and dismemberment is a freebie. Yes it's low level, $10,000 but isn't it about time you get something for nothing. Yes, you also get discounts when you use a certain network. It just happens to be the largest independently owned network in America, Beech Street. And on top of the deep discounts you're going to get, add the insured portion of our program which is accepted at ANY doctor, hospital or clinic nationwide. Our $2000 insured benefit is for accidents. We also have daily hospital benefits but let's focus on the $2000 you spoke of. Here's an example of a broken arm and leg. Let's say the total of the bill is $5000. The PPO Discount can reduce the bill to $2000 and than the insured benefit applies $2000. You're out of pocket for that $5000 could be $100. Most families in America have deductibles of $2500 to $5000 plus co-insurance. If you had a major medical for this same example you could be out of pocket the entire $5000 while paying $500 per month. 

Our Membership does include a dental program (Aetna) that reduces the bill on ANY dental procedure, even orthodontics (braces). In addition to that, IAB includes a $1000 insured benefit per family member per year. Keep in mind the insured benefits are good at any dentist. As far as prescription, IAB offers 3 separate programs that are included in the monthly cost of $85. One of those plans is a tiered plan of $10, $20 and $40.

You mentioned that this is not a particularly good plan but for the 1.4 million members who have joined this Association would beg to differ. You've visited my web site and have mentioned a couple concerns which if you fully understood the program were not concerns at all. I wish your comments would have focused on helping those who can't get insurance, those with high deductibles, those with pre-existing conditions, those who are under-insured, those without dental, and those who are tired of paying the high prices.

Again, thank you for your comments and please feel free to call me at any time.