12.13.09
Nightmare scenarios on healthcare reform
The Huffington Post has published an article Senate Democrats Consider Nightmare Scenario on Health Care Reform, which proposes that the ultimate “nightmare scenario” might be just around the corner, were the CBO to come back with figures that put the project in the red, based on the latest changes (concessions) made to Republicans and right wing Democrats who insist that they don’t want to spend too much money, but want changes made to make the project more costly.
I commented that I can think of several nightmare scenarios. It is rather short-sighted to think that this is the only one which would hurt the Democratic party or people who need access to health care but are not getting it.
Of course, nor do I believe in the sort of blind faith that I have been told to place in the President, who has given us no reason to believe that he is planning on fixing this in the foreseeable future.
But anyway, the “nightmare scenarios” I see involve access to healthcare in this country getting worse, with premiums and prices going through the roof, while apparently the worst abuses by insurance companies have been loopholed out of sight. They can still do just about everything to you they want, but now they can send you a bill for however much they want and you are forced to pay. They don’t have to approve your services and treatment. They can say it’s not reasonable and you will have no recourse.
They can and will set low annual limits on payments they are required to make.
So far we have not heard anything about how subsidies for the working poor would be managed. I suspect they will just go away, and people who don’t have 5K to pay for insurance (like, because it’s half their income) will get arrested and convicted for being poor.
There will be more rationing of health care than ever, now that insurance companies have permission to cut off granny’s benefits.
This is a disaster, both in the short term and long term. Good luck convincing people whose taxes skyrocketed long before it was decided whether they would even get benefits that they are better off.
This is no kind of reform at all. It’s only good for big health insurance and drugs. But I’m sure they’ll fix it coming up real soon. The proof is that absolutely nobody in the administration is saying they will fix it. Go blind faith!
