Canceled Policies and Name Calling

The political rhetoric around the Affordable Care Act remains unabated and disingenuous. Republicans and the Tea Party are feigning surprise that Obama exaggerated when he said that nobody would have their current policy cancelled. Actually, they are calling him a liar. Name calling seems to be the standard in Washington. Especially among the opponents of the Obama Administration.

Those who actually followed the debate knew well before this current storm that certain policies would not qualify. Here's the issue according to FactCheck.Org

The issue now getting attention is that the new law sets minimum standards for health insurance coverage, requiring, for example, that all health plans carry mental health benefits, prescription drug coverage, vaccinations, dental and vision care for children, maternity care for women, and more. Coverage also must be available to all regardless of preexisting medical conditions. In effect, this outlaws many existing “bare bones” plans that were cheap, but didn't cover all (or any) of the required benefits and were available to mainly healthy persons. Those plans are now outlawed, and not all who had them welcome better insurance at greater cost.

Over 30 million people need affordable health care. Many millions more need coverage that will actually take care of their needs. This isn't about freeloaders (more name calling). This about the working poor, children and people with disabilities.

The Affordable Care Act requires that insurance companies actually cover your health care needs. The cheap product insurance companies offered for individuals cost a lot and didn't cover much of anything.  Our politicians are supposed to know this stuff. Why didn't they bring this discrepancy up in 2010? Why wasn't this more widely reported by the media in 2010? I guess bringing it up now is an opportunity to grandstand and to call people names. It would have been much more beneficial to actually do something to make people aware of the issue three years ago and, to look for a way to fix the issue.

Medical Costs and Politics

When the the supreme court heard the case about Obamacare, members of the Tea Party and people who support the bill faced off outside the Supreme Court in dueling protests. There was actually a point of agreement. I'm almost certain it was missed. Both sides think the cost of health care is too high. 


Today there were two stories that caught my attention. The first from NPR about the increasing cost of health insurance. Costs are going up while coverage is going down. The story focused on one family but, what they are experiencing is the same for many families. High deductibles and decreasing coverage. 

Health Insurance Cutbacks Squeeze The Insured


I recently got some quotes for health insurance. We need to get individual insurance . Being underemployed means we have no other option. Deductibles start at $5000 and run as high as $10,000. After that, the plans might cover 80% of the cost. There's a lot that is not covered like office visits.


In the case of the Cooper family in the NPR story, Amber Cooper needs medication for her liver transplant that cost $1000 a month. It is no longer covered. The Cooper's now pay the entire cost of the medication out of pocket.

The second story that caught my attention was in the Huffington Post by Khadeeja Safdar. Medical costs are pushing Americans into credit card debt. According to a survey by a policy center called Demos, 50% of those surveyed paid for out of pocket medical costs with credit cards.  There's more in the article:

• Health care costs rose 6% last year.
• Over 25 percent of Americans ages 16 to 64 went without health coverage for at least some part of last year.
• An ordinary family with a job based plan will pay $20,000 toward health care. That's about 40% of their income.

Right Infighting Over Health Care

Meanwhile, the gridlock in Washington will make the situation worse. According to an article in Politico Republican plans to retool the Obamacare plan as an alternative were shot down by conservatives. They want full repeal. Nothing less. Their stance? Any national health care plan is creeping socialism at its worst. According to Politico's Jake Sherman, the drive to completely repeal is led by groups like Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform to Heritage Action to Club for Growth. Any attempt at compromise is being blocked by people with very deep pockets.  

Can anything be done? Be informed. Speak up. Tell your representatives you want something positive to be done.

There are groups that can help. One is called Center Politics. It's a nonpartisan political action committee.

http://www.centerpolitics.org/

You can find out more about the deceptions and confusion in US politics by going to FactCheck.org. FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. It is nonpartisan.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0512/76471.html#ixzz1vjVExyZE