Health Care Bill

Last night the Health Care Bill (officially called: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act)was passed by both houses of Congress. Now Obama has to sign it for it to become law. It is a very sad day for the US. This bill will do more harm than good (of course the only good part of the bill's passing is that come November ordinary Americans will be able to voice our disgust by voting out the Democrats (as no Republicans in either the Senate or House of Representatives voted "yes.")

Some of the main provisions of the bill include:

Effective six months after passage

- Prevent insurers from denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions.

- Insurance policies must cover preventative care without requiring co-pays

- $250 drug cost rebate for seniors

- Lifetime monetary caps on insurance policies banned

-All insurers are fully prohibited from discriminating against or charging higher rates for children based on preexisting conditions.

- Children and young adults will be permitted to remain on their parents insurance plan until their 27th birthday.

Effective in 2014

- All insurers are fully prohibited from discriminating against or charging higher rates for adult individuals based on preexisting medical conditions.

- All insurers are fully prohibited from establishing annual spending caps.

- Expand Medicaid eligibility; individuals with income up to 133% of the poverty line qualify for coverage

- Establish health insurance exchanges, and subsidization of insurance premiums for individuals with income up to 400 percent of the poverty line.

- Offer tax credits to small businesses who have less than 25 employees and provide health care benefits for them.

- Impose a tax penalty on employers with over fifty employees who do not offer health insurance to their workers.

- Impose an annual fine on individuals who do not obtain health insurance; exemptions to fine in cases of financial hardship, religious beliefs.

- Creation of a new voluntary long-term care insurance program.

- Creation of tax credits for individuals who purchase private insurance policies

- Employed individuals who pay more than 9.5% of their income on health insurance premiums will be permitted to purchase insurance policies from a state-controlled health insurance option

- Pay for new spending, in part, through spending and coverage cuts in Medicare Advantage, slowing the growth of Medicare provider payments, reducing Medicare and Medicaid drug reimbursement rate, cutting other Medicare and Medicaid spending.

- Revenue increases from a new $2,500 limit on tax-free contributions to flexible spending accounts (FSAs), which allow for payment of health costs. Raising various taxes, and creating a new excise tax for high cost "Cadillac" insurance plans.

Effective by 2018

- All existing health insurance plans must cover preventative care and checkups without co-payment.

^ While at first glance many of these provisions seem ok, but if you stop and think about them (as every American should since it will effect all of us) then you see just how bad this new bill really is. Why would the Federal Government even think of forcing the majority of Americans to buy their own health care insurance or else face heavy fines. Don't you think those that could afford health care would already be covered? How can you buy health care (or pay the government fine) if you don't have a job? Shouldn't the Democrats stop working backwards and first create new jobs and get the economy back to normal before forcing health care down our throats?

I agree that the US health care system is desperately in need of reform. The over-crowded hospitals and ERs, the lack of doctors, being seen by unqualified people, the high cost of medicines and tests and all the waiting. As stated above, this new bill will do more harm than good. The Democrats want to take an already exhausted and overworked health care system and add millions upon millions of more people to it. This will cause the health care system to collapse. Any intelligent person knows you need to fix something that is broken FIRST before you expand it. Just look at the Eurozone - countries that use the Euro. The EU allowed too many countries to adopt the new currency without much thought or back-up plans and now numerous countries (Greece, Portugal, etc) are having problems that affect all the other Eurozone countries.

Those that try and compare the US to other Western countries do not fully understand the health care systems or politics of all the countries involved. While I am not an expert in every Western country I do know that the US has the largest population than any other Western country with a universal health care system. I also know that the majority of Western countries are openly and offically socialist while the United States is not (at least not yet.) What works in other, smaller countries does not mean it will work in the US and this new health care bill is one of those things that will not work here - no matter how socialist Obama and other Democrats try to make us.

I heard one Democrat say in any interview that there is no way the Democrats can win. If their new bill did not pass than ordinary Americans would see them as not being able to get anything done and if they pass their new bill than ordinary Americans would vote them all out this November because polls show the majority of Americans do not support the new bill. The Democrats and Obama have sealed their fate and I plan on sitting back and watching their careers vanish overnight. I know that the signing of this bill into law is not the end since around 30 US States are planning to officially oppose the new bill (including numerous State Attorney Generals.)

* The provisions were taken from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act