Up or Down Vote - Health Care Bill as we know it

I'm not happy with it, but IMO even just the senate version, it is still a step in the right direction.
If it is going to pass, it needs to pass now, soon it will be too late. My patience is running out and I am getting sick and tired of watching Obama cave in to the right wing extremists' demands.

If this health care passes, we all are in very serious trouble. There is so many things hidden and wrong its not even funny. And people find out the truth too late.

The Democrats want to ram a health care bill down our throats come H or high water - they don't really care about you and me - they care about passing Heath Care and government control and that is all.

How many people know this fact - that YOU will be paying in taxes for 4-5 yrs BEFORE anything is implimented. That means you won't get anything for the next 5 yrs but yet you are paying for it now.

And how many know that everyone will be forced into some kind of insurance whether you want to or not......because in this bill the IRS will be able to fine you for NOT having health care!

All I'll get, at least for the first four years, is fined for not being able to afford health insurance, and a lot of other people are in the same position as me. I don't believe this bill will really increase access to health care.

Why can't they just set up a simple tax credit so that doctors and hospitals can cancel out their taxes by providing care to ininsured low-income people? I could write that legislation.

Clearly the American people don't want this bill. So why then is Pelosi, Reed and Obama so set on passing legislation that the people don't want, and will surely result in losing congressional seats this fall?

Something needs to be done and pronto because many hardworking Americans need relief. All over the country, insurance companies are raising rates for individuals and small businesses at an alarming rate at the same time as they are making profits. Some are raising their premiums for this very vulnerable group at rates of over 50 % and yes I mean 50 %. We know someone in Mass whose small business premium went from $12000/ yr to $18000/yr. There is nothing to stop them. If you don't like it you can drop your coverage because there is no alternative.

Without the public option it makes little sense - requiring everyone to have insurance but not offering a public option will leave the rapacious insurance companies to shoot fish (us) in a barrel. I think things will get worse and not better without the public option.

I'm also fed up with the arch conservatives trying once again to ram their religious beliefs down everyone else's throats and get all worked up over what funds may or may not be used to fund abortions. It's none of their business and if you ask me they should clean up their own acts before preaching to others what they should or shouldn't do.

At the very least they should take down whatever barriers are preventing insurance companies from offering coverage across state lines. Simply allowing competition would help a lot I think in states where your only options are Anthem / BCBS / Wellpoint, Cigna or Aetna.

Long term they should do away with employer based coverage. Just get rid of it. It's making the system lopsided and stacking the deck in favor of big business, and they are in cahoots with the insurance industry. No wonder Congress doesn't want to make a move - the lobbyists are hard at work and everyone is in someone's pocket.

Not only that, the basic system is IMO flawed. If health insurance is to be a for-profit industry, there is a basic conflict of interest that is programmed in: the insured vs the shareholders.

So I say YES it is not everything I would like to see but for cryin' out loud get something DONE. I'd love to see the entire system overhauled but I don;t see that happening. That puts me in the category of people who indeed don't care how it gets passed at this point. A lot could have and should have been done better and no I am not overly happy about it but I really think it's too late to start over. Things are bad and they are going to get much worse quickly if nothing is passed within a few months.

In my opinion, under no circumstances should it be passed. I agree with the above posts written by Laureen and Golden Kitty. It is really not about health care, but more government takeover and control, just like with the car companies and banks. Americans are beginning to realize that too. I believe their voices will be heard in the election this fall.

I agree that the bill is far from perfect. My fear is that if it doesn't pass, decades will pass before health care reform is seriously considered again. If only people had taken Hillary serious decades ago... Perhaps the bugs would be worked out by now.
I don't think it's all about power. I think the Dems do care. I think we all do, we just have different ideas about what will and will not work.

To continue the way we are guarantees that those who have health insurance or can afford health care will continue to pay for those who don't in the form of higher premiums and medical bills. The point of including everyone is to make the risk pool as large as possible.

I wish they'd just pass the bill and start concentrating on creating jobs.

I am totally against the version that they have right now. Working in healthcare, I see people come in with Medicare/Medicaid, and if that's as screwed up as it is, what's this going to be like??!! I completely agree with Laureen when she said that this should be at the state level. Maybe if the states run it, it won't be such a giant mistake (the phrase I wanted to use is not quite so PG).

The will of the people is for them NOT to pass the bill. Doesn't the will of the people matter any more?

Yes, I agree, they should be concentrating on creating jobs, I don't think the government gives a hoot about jobs.

So, pass the government health take over, start charging for it, although unemployment is so high, who is going to pay for it is beyond me and make us pay for this monstrosity for 4 to five years before it even goes into effect.
Doesn't that sound wonderful?

What DO the supporters of this Bill think about that? What do you think about paying for the Bill for 4 years before it goes into effect? So, you will be paying DOUBLE for health care for four years. I guess you don't mind that.

Also, if it takes FOUR years to get enough money in the coffers for one year of health care, what do we after the first year????? Oh yeah, I know, quadruple taxes. Got it now.

Do people even think?

The State of Massachusetts has state run socialized medicine, the state is almost bankrupt and STILL NOT ALL people are covered. Such is why the good people of MASS. elected Scott Brown to be their Senator. Look at California with all their give-away programs, look how well they are doing. Does anyone not even think about that? Is that just ignored, that many states have done it the liberal way and lived to regret it?
Or are people just so darn selfish they just don't care what happens as long as they get all the freebies they can get?

People don't think. In a nation of 307 million people and how many of that 307 million wouldn't work if you handed them a job, a nation that cannot run a VA or a Medicare or Medicaid programs without losing billions upon billions every, single year to fraud, waste, etc, all of a sudden people think the government can run health care for all of us.

It is the ultimate in naive thinking to even consider such a thing. But I have noticed that many in favor of this don't actually work and pay taxes. It is pretty easy when you are using someone else's money.

I voted no. If I could vote on this bill in congress right now I would vote no.

I'm 24, I have two preexisting conditions that will be with me until I die. I can only get health care in a group plan or cobra of a group plan. I've been uninsured simply because I cannot get coverage. My parents in the past would have been more then willing to pay for health care up to $500/month for me. The companies will not sell it to me. I get turned down every time. I have coverage at the moment because my employer offers it. I currently pay $200 month for just me. I still have a co pay at the doctors and such.

The reason I will not vote for the current bill because there is clause that says that I have to have insurance coverage but no public option available. If you have that wording in there you need to provide me something I can buy. Like I said with what we have will currently not sell to me. It doesn't sit right with me that the government can fine me for something that nobody will sell to me currently. If the government wants to make me buy something they also have to provide me with something I can buy. I do not trust these companies one bit, if that passes where I have to get coverage from them they will find some way to either not sell it to me, make me pay ridiculous amounts, or not cover what I need covered and charge me ridiculous amounts. You may or may not agree with this now I'm not saying the private companies shouldn't be around. I simply cannot trust them because they have proven in the past that I am not a good business decision for them and so they will not cover me. If the government provides me with an option to buy it creates automatically something we really need which is competition. I'm not saying I would buy the government's option but it should be there, as a back up plan if nothing else.

That is my cynical point of view on this issue. We need health care reform, and we need it now. One the sole reason I listed in this post I would say no. They can cut out the public option in my eyes, if they cut out that whole part about making me buy it as well. Those two need to be in there together, or out altogether.

We need to pull the costs down of health care for Americans, and we need it to be easily obtainable. Health insurance should be like car insurance where anybody can get it. Health insurance is not easily obtainable right now at all. I do not know how to fix the problem. I'm glad they are trying to fix the problem and I know it will have to pass this way or we will never get it. I just wish they would create more jobs rather than bicker about health care as well. Can't the add some revisions to this health care bill to make us some jobs? We really need those as well.

I'll be 52 on Friday. I don't think that I qualify as the "youth of America" by anyone's definition except perhaps my soon-to-be 96 year old father.

Here is the breakdown of what my husband and I have been paying for high deductible ($5000 / yr) premiums - both self employed:

2004: $5236
2005: $6400
2006: $6532
2007: $7928
2008: $9428
2009: $11796
2010: $13968

So double premiums in four years? We're there already and it's getting worse. I don't think our health insurance company has paid out more than $500 total in the years we've been with them so they've made a nice profit on us. I guess we are now high risk because we are middle aged. Indeed. And Mitt Romney couldn't get elected as dogcatcher because the good people of the Bay State remember that he was the one who oversaw the MA health care bill. And there are those who would disagree as to why Scott Brown got elected (like because Martha Coakley shot herself in the foot.)

And I am fed up with the far left wanting to use MY tax dollars, MY money that I work for, to kill babies. If you want to kill babies, do it on your own dime.

It certainly IS my business, when it will be MY money that will be used to murder innocent babies.

Then, if you have no preexisting conditions and aren't using your coverage, drop it, cancel it. Save that money you are paying.

As for the reason why you think Scott Brown got elected, I sincerely hope ALL Democrats continue to think that.

If you REALLY think that the good people of Mass. took that Senate seat that Senator Edward Kennedy had for DECADES and just gave it to Scott Brown because Coakley "shot herself in the foot." then that is, pretty much, an insult to the good people of MASS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoE1R-xH5To

Does this woman have some mental issues?

Chain of Command in the United States

1. Barack Obama
2. Joe Biden
3. Nancy Pelosi

This is what is running this country.

Yes, let's pass this health care bill so we can find out what is in it. Now I have heard everything. I would be embarrassed to have voted for these people.

I don't believe it is possible for the government to create jobs. What the government needs to do is stay out of the free market. It is free enterprise that creates jobs. It goes without saying the condition they said Medicare/Medicaid/ Social Security are in. What has corrupted those programs, if it isn't the government. Now folks think the government can provide them health care and jobs. Unbelievable.

I'll be 50 next month and I also support it. Our insurance premiums are comparable to what you stated and the coverage has decreased. It would be cheaper for us to pay for insurance through taxes than what we have through company sponsored insurance programs. We'd like to start our own business, but can't afford to do that because we'd lose our insurance. So the current insurance structure is very constraining. Something is better than nothing. Change never comes overnight.

As far as the public not supporting this? The public was for slavery and against the right for women to vote for hundreds of years. Guess what? The public was wrong about both of these issues. It's a good thing that good old Abe decided not to listen to the "public" when he abolished slavery.

People don't want the government to run their lives. Do they like to see people die because they aren't within the fortunate group of people that have insurance? Yes, I'm being sarcastic, but where do you draw the line?

My concern is that the government won't stop with running health care. They are already controlling the automobile industry and want to have an influence on what kind of cars we can drive. The thing is, when they get their foot in the door, it will be more and more things they want to control and nobody will be able to draw a line anymore. I think it is the governments job to run the government and stay out of the free market. Where I live they are now going to put different meters on the houses so they can control the amount of electricity a house can use. Where does it all end. America does not want to be under Socialist rule. Are we headed in that direction. I guess everybody has to draw their own conclusion. But for my opinion, I don't like what I see happening in Washington.

Are you talking about smart electric meters?
Millions of homes to get smart meters

The purpose of the meters is to allow consumers to better manage their energy consumption, not "so they can control the amount of electricity a house can use". They are also being introduced in other countries.
New smart meter plan is unveiled

We've had a "smart meter" since February of 2009, and it has allowed us to cut our electricity bills by about 4%, because after a week or two we knew which appliances or activities were using the most power, and adapted doing laundry, cleaning, etc., to take advantage of off-peak hours.

It's hardly some sort of conspiracy on the part of the U.S. government.

I'm quite fascinated by the amount of posts claiming "the American people want.."

I've looked at 5 polls, and all of them, once you figure in the "margin of error", indicate that there is pretty much as many of "the American people" supporting the bill as there are "the American people" opposing it.

So, it appears that the argument of "the American people want..." can be used either way.

I like the idea of those as long as the customer is allowed to customize them (or have them customized) to meet their individual needs. The way I see it, anything that's intended for large populations to use HAS TO include some flexibility, in order to minimize unintended consequences. Have it be the logical extension of a programmable thermostat--it gets installed with certain default settings, but you can turn it up until the next phase of the program any time you need to, and you can adjust the program. Then, it's just a tool for people to reduce their light bill, not a conspiracy.

So, now we are comparing the takeover of health care by the government to slavery? So, if I am not in favor of this HC Bill, I am just as bad as the people that wanted slavery to continue?

Nice spin, to bad it doesn't work. It didn't work for Harry Reid either.

People die, it is a fact of life. The poorest of us that cannot afford health care ARE already covered through Medicaid.

I am for health care reform, I am not for the government take over of MY decisions regarding my body.

Do you really think that the Government is going to cover more tests, imaging, surgeries, treatments than health insurers? Because it won't, Barack has already said that "for many people, instead of surgery they should take a pill."

Good Grief, the prime minister of Canada thought so highly of the health care in Canada guess where he went for treatment? Yep, the United States.
Take a look at other countries before you desire what they have.

That was the Premier of a Province not the Prime Minister, and the type of procedure is not available in the Province he lives in. He could have had heart surgery there but not the actual procedure he had done in the US

And comparing apples to apples, Sarah Palin went from Alaska to Canada for medical treatment apparently so I'd say it was a draw. Saying the Prime Minister went to the US for treatment is like saying Obama came to Canada.