1. Marci Sudlow Marci Sudlow United States says:

    I am very tired of hearing of this fictitious "government takeover of health care."  The public option now being considered would set up a program similar to medicare but for persons of all ages.  This option would coexist with private insurance companies.  Everyone would have the choice to select a government vs private insurer, just as one can choose whether to send a parcel via a privately owned package carrier such as Fed-Ex or UPS or via the government-run US Postal Service.  

    Like your private insurance company?  Then keep it, and let the rest of us make our own choices.

    • Phyllis Phyllis United States says:

      Maybe you are not aware of some of the actual restrictions that are in HR3200. If there truly was freedom of choice that would be one thing, but upon reading the bill one can see that freedom of choice is not allowed. Some examples: pg 84 All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange. Pg 145-An employer must auto-enroll employees into the govenment run public plan. Pg 167 Any individual that does not have acceptable healthcare will be taxed 2.5% of income. Pg 341-The government has the authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMO's, etc. Pg 272 has quite a bit to say about cancer patients and how decisions will be made for their treatment. Pg 29-42 talks about the Health Choices Commissioner and Commission. This group will be the decision maker for treatment and our treatment will be based on a formula that uses our age and the statistical averages for survivability to determine if we are a candidate for treatment. This is very similar to GB's plan. Over 90% of Americans are happy with their healthcare plans. The stat is that 1 in 7 are underinsured. If we take out the illegal alien piece, that number goes down significantly. Just fix the 1 in 7. The marketplace does have the answer, but there is more here than just getting people insured. It was in the WSJ this week that about 7 years ago a "special" end of life panel was set up in the Veteran's Admin to "help" veterans make better, "less selfish" choices as they aged. The previous administration rejected it. The current administration has revived it for veterans and it is the model for the rest of the healthcare plan. These are just some of the issues that have brought so many Americans out to the town hall meetings. Maybe these are not a concern to you, but they are for many of us. By the way Medicare is almost bankrupt. I know the president keeps using the UPS/Fedex/Post Office example about choice, but when he says that I hear "UPS/Fedex are privately owned and profitable while the USPS is government run and bankrupt. That is a no-brainer for me. Nearly anything the government runs, fails. Our most recent example is the cash for clunkers program. Less than 2% of dealers have been reimbursed and they were mandated to destroy the engine in the cars they accepted, so now they can't re-sell them. It looks like the government created a program, got everyone on board and then left the bill for someone else to pay. Nothing from the government is free. It is up to regular citizens to decide how much we want to be indebted to this overbloated system.

    • Pete Fillmore Pete Fillmore United States says:

      What a dreamer, if you think the government can run  a health care system,effiently. And will be content to compete with private health care. Once the government gets it foot in the door then it will want the whole pie. Ask you congressmen and women if they will subscibe to this new plan. and also ask them if they will scrape there retirement plam amd join with us in the regular social secuity plan we ae all in. Good luck if any will even give you the time of day let alone answer.

The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of News Medical.
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