Obama fans, please address this one narrow issue

[Archaea]

Why are you not concerned about the problems to be created by this National Health Insurance Exchange?

I'm not making it up.

Here's the link: http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issue...reFullPlan.pdf

The Obama-Biden plan will create a
National Health Insurance Exchange to help individuals purchase new affordable health care options if they are
uninsured or want new health insurance. Through the Exchange, any American will have the opportunity to
enroll in the new public plan or an approved private plan, and income-based sliding scale tax credits will be
AFFORDABLE, ACCESSIBLE COVERAGE OPTIONS FOR ALL
provided for people and families who need it. Insurers would have to issue every applicant a policy and charge
fair and stable premiums that will not depend upon health status. The Exchange will require that all the plans
offered are at least as generous as the new public plan and meet the same standards for quality and efficiency.
Insurers would be required to justify an above-average premium increase to the Exchange. The Exchange
would evaluate plans and make the differences among the plans, including cost of services, transparent.
The Exchange will have the following features:
�� Comprehensive benefits. The benefit package will be similar to that offered through the Federal
Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), the program through which Members of Congress get
their own health care. Plans will include coverage of all essential medical services, including preventive,
maternity and mental health care.
�� Affordable premiums, co-pays and deductibles. Participants will be charged fair premiums and
minimal co-pays for deductibles for preventive services.
�� Simplified paperwork. The plan will simplify paperwork for providers and will increase savings to the
system overall.
�� Easy enrollment. All Exchange health insurance plans will be simple to enroll in and provide ready
access to coverage.
�� Portability and choice. Participants will be able to move from job to job without changing or
jeopardizing their health care coverage.
�� Quality and efficiency. Participating hospitals and providers that participate in the new public plan will
be required to collect and report data to ensure that standards for health care quality, health information
technology and administration are being met.

The Plan sounds like Santa Claus, all this with no hassles and no costs to anybody. Wow how generous.

Does anybody remember when Medicare was created?

Has anybody researched the representations made during that debate?

Has anybody here dealt with the Department of HHS?

Who here is naive enough to believe this organization will be wonderful?

Who here that routinely deals with government agencies finds them to be well-run, efficient and friendly?

Has anybody ever had to work with the SSA on disability issues? Is that a fun and efficient experience?

Yes I'm sounding like a broken record, but is there not one soul who is concerned about the mess to be created with yet another bureaucracy?

And for you organizational behavioral types, what are the general rules of operations for bureaucracy regarding funding and staffing? If you know the answers, you'll see why it ties into my question immediately above.

[Archaea]

In the spirit of Mike, channeling his energy I respond to my own post.

http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj16n3-3.html

Yes it's from the Cato Institute, so Cali, you can call your cardiologist for your medicine, but it does review some of the historical underpinnings of Medicare.

[TripletDaddy]

For the same reason I don't think Miss Universe will really help to bring about world peace.

Our healthcare system will remain largely they way that it is...and the way that is has almost always been.

Stop worrying, you won't have to sit in the same waiting room with poor people and minorities anytime soon.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by TripletDaddy

For the same reason I don't think Miss Universe will really help to bring about world peace.

Our healthcare system will remain largely they way that it is...and the way that is has almost always been.

Stop worrying, you won't have to sit in the same waiting room with poor people and minorities anytime soon.

This is so reassuring, "don't worry, it won't happen."

I'll be giving you a big FU, when it happens.

Note an analogy here,

Politically, what changed in 1964 was the resounding victory by Democrats in the general elections in November. Many perceived the election of Lyndon B. Johnson as an endorsement of compulsory national health insurance and other social programs regarded as pillars of his personal vision of the "Great Society." Congress was heavily in the hands of the Democrats. Moreover, a Gallup poll released on January 3, 1965, showed that efforts to sway public opinion on the national health insurance issue had been at least superficially successful: 63 percent of respondents now approved of the idea of a "compulsory medical insurance program covering hospital and nursing home care for the elderly ... financed out of increased social security taxes"--even though 48 percent of those interviewed still did not know why the AMA opposed the program [12] (Gallup 1972, Vol. 3: 1915). Political and ideological winds had shifted, nursed by the incremental politics of preceding years. But they had not shifted enough to procure compulsory health insurance for Social Security beneficiaries without deploying a full arsenal of transaction-cost augmenting stratagems to deflect and silence the opposition.

[TripletDaddy]

Originally Posted by Archaea

This is so reassuring, "don't worry, it won't happen."

I'll be giving you a big FU, when it happens.

So, in other words, you wont be doing anything.

I'll be waiting for your call.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by TripletDaddy

So, in other words, you wont be doing anything.

I'll be waiting for your call.

Assume, for one moment, your hero Obama, actually enacts this monstrosity, do you have no concerns?

[myboynoah]

Originally Posted by Archaea

Assume, for one moment, your hero Obama, actually enacts this monstrosity, do you have no concerns?

I wonder if 3D is an accurate reflection of many Obama voters: "Oh stop worrying, he really won't do what he says he's going to do."

But maybe that is a Dem strategy. Given Cali's assessment of the Dem Congress, I wonder if winning is the only thing that Dems care about.

[BarbaraGordon]

Originally Posted by Archaea

Assume, for one moment, your hero Obama, actually enacts this monstrosity, do you have no concerns?

not, a single, one.

Archaea, obviously it would take a while to do this issue justice. But here's the thing: you are not a consumer of health care. You pay for access to care that you rarely, if ever, seek. So I think you may fail to recognize the extent to which we already have a health care bureaucracy, and a rather expensive and ineffective one at that.

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by myboynoah

I wonder if 3D is an accurate reflection of many Obama voters: "Oh stop worrying, he really won't do what he says he's going to do."

But maybe that is a Dem strategy. Given Cali's assessment of the Dem Congress, I wonder if winning is the only thing that Dems care about.

Winning is all the Dems care about. Same with Repubs.

The problem is that if the Dems win this time, they can cause some serious damage with three radicals in the key positions.

[TripletDaddy]

Originally Posted by Archaea

Assume, for one moment, your hero Obama, actually enacts this monstrosity, do you have no concerns?

Of course. In fact, I would likely echo most of yours. My observation is not that your comments lack saliency. It is that your fear is irrational. I think your comments are usually very well-thought and researched, as long as you don't try to crack jokes or make reference to popular events.

The reality of the matter is that our healthcare system will not undergo such a crazy overhaul. I am even more emboldened by the recent failure of a very similar proposal.

Obama is not my hero, nor do I think he is the right answer on all issues. I just think he is the best choice overall given the choices in front of us. No more, no less.

Sometimes my wife will express concern over whether our kids will be good kids in high school...grades, obedience, etc...currently they are 3 years old. I have too much to worry about today than to fret about all the negatives that may happen way down the road. And truthfully....the things I value most in life....my family, the Church, Tex's celibacy......none of those things are impacted by universal healthcare, taxes, the price of gas, etc. Almost all your concerns seem to boil down to money....the cost of entitlements that will come out of your pocket via taxes. I dont share your concern, I guess.