X, I agree with you. I think there is definitely reform that needs to go on in the drug companies and also the way they deal with doctors.
On a different note:
From CNN and reported by Rush
"In promoting his health-care agenda, President Obama has repeatedly reassured Americans that they can keep their existing health plans -- and that the benefits and access they prize will be enhanced through reform. A close reading of the two main bills, one backed by Democrats in the House and the other issued by Sen. Edward Kennedy's Health committee, contradict the President's assurances. To be sure, it isn't easy to comb through their 2,000 pages of tortured legal language.
But page by page, the bills reveal a web of restrictions, fines, and mandates that would radically change your health-care coverage."
Here's number one, the
five freedoms that you would lose, according to CNNMoney.com. Number one: "Freedom to choose what's in your plan. The bills in both houses require that Americans purchase insurance through 'qualified' plans offered by health-care 'exchanges' that would be set up in each state. The rub is that the plans can't really compete based on what they offer. The reason:
The federal government will impose a minimum list of benefits that each plan is required to offer. … Connecticut, for example, requires reimbursement for hair transplants, hearing aids, and in vitro fertilization." Many states require these "standard benefits packages" and they're a major cause for the rise in health care costs along with tort reform.
The number two freedom you would lose, they say, "Freedom to be rewarded for healthy living, or pay your real costs. As with the previous example,
the Obama plan enshrines into federal law one of the worst features of state legislation: community rating. Eleven states, ranging from New York to Oregon, have some form of community rating. In its purest form, community rating requires that all patients pay the same rates for their level of coverage regardless of their age or medical condition. Americans with pre-existing conditions need subsidies under any plan, but community rating is a dubious way to bring fairness to health care. The reason is twofold: First,
it forces young people, who typically have lower incomes than older workers, to pay far more than their actual cost, and gives older workers, who can afford to pay more, a big discount. … Second, the bills would ban insurers from charging differing premiums based on the health of their customers."
That's like having a good driving record getting you no break on your auto insurance premium. So all this talk about we're going to live healthier and we're going to mandate this and mandate that to lower costs, which, by the way, we've cut smoking in half and where are the savings? They don't exist.
The third freedom: "Freedom to choose high-deductible coverage."
You're going to lose that. "The bills threaten to eliminate the one part of the market truly driven by consumers spending their own money. That's what makes a market, and health care needs more of it, not less."
So if you want a high deductible coverage, you're not going to be able to do that. That would lower your premium, by the way.
Number four: "Freedom to keep your existing plan. This is the freedom that the President keeps emphasizing. Yet t
he bills appear to say otherwise. It's worth diving into the weeds -- the territory where most pundits and politicians don't seem to have ventured." You will lose your health care plan under his plan.
And five: "Freedom to choose your doctors. The Senate bill requires that Americans buying through the exchanges -- and as we've seen, that will soon be most Americans -- must get their care through something called 'medical home.' Medical home is similar to an HMO.
You're assigned a primary care doctor, and the doctor controls your access to specialists." And the last couple sentences of this piece: "For now, we suffer with a flawed health-care system, but we still have our Five Freedoms. Call them the Five Endangered Freedoms." There's a lot more than just these five that we're going to lose, and now the Democrats, this is the AP: "'Democrats Alone Can't Deliver Obama Health Care' -- Democratic and GOP officials acknowledged Sunday that Obama's ambitious plan would not pass without the aid of a doubtful GOP, whose members are almost united against the White House effort."
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_072709/content/01125107.guest.html
