Participate in our Midwest Debate on health care
Health care looms large as an election issue in the political fracas this fall.
Republican Mitt Romney has pledged to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature piece of legislation, or at least radically redo it. However, Romney has given little indication of exactly how he would reshape America’s health care system.
If Obama and congressional Democrats prevail, it’s full speed ahead with the Affordable Care Act. That means, among other things, a phase-in of statewide insurance exchanges, more protections for patients and consumers, and eventually tax penalties for some Americans who opt not to purchase health insurance policies.
What do you think is the best course?
Here is the link to participate.
Mark Hastert
8 months, 4 weeks agoA cost benefit analysis of the American system makes it clear that we get far less bank for our considerable bucks. Personally I wished that President Obama had made good on his promise of allowing citizens the choice of keeping private insurance or signing up fo a Medicare like government plan. It would settle the debate once and for all as to which way was best. If, as critics argue, the government can’t do anything right then private insurance would be the clear choice. On the other hand if private insurers are inefficient, greedy, and concentrate on denying rather than supplying good care that would be clear too.
Obamacare would not have been my first choice but it was what could get done and is a step in the right direction..
Mark Robertson
8 months, 3 weeks agoObama of course never had any intention of allowing us to keep our current private health insurance, though, as you point out, he said we could. Total lie. If there are any changes to our current health care insurance after 2014, we would be automatically be shifted into one of those Stalinistic state health exchanges.(It can be hoped that governors keep the exchanges out of their states, as they have a right to do.) And it is another total lie that Obamacare would lower health care costs. What a joke. Their first lie was that it would cost 900 billion over 10 years. That was measuring it form 2010 to 2020. However, Obamacare is not scheduled to kick in in a strong way until 2014. Taxes started to be collected in 2010 though. The actual 10 year cost should be measured form 2014 to 2024, which will be at least 2.5 trillion. And government health care always costs more than projected. Such a lie. Forcing individuals and businesses to purchase a product, in this case health insurance, is not only unconstitutional, it is tyranny. This is not the country our great Founders envisioned. This is madness. Obamacare includes 569 billion in tax hikes. Medicare actuary, Rick Foster finds that the hundreds of billions of dollars in new fees and excise taxes will be passed on to consumers through higher drug and device prices. Regulation and higher taxes in Obamacare would also stall innovation in drugs and medical devices. Profit has to be a motive to create new products. Obamacare establishes an estimated 159 new boards, advisory commissions, and program, all which would explode bureaucracy and red tape. And there would be 17,000 new IRS agents to collect the fines and new taxes. It is hard to put into words just how big of a nightmare Obamacare would be. It is designed to destroy private insurance to pave the way for socialized health care. Obama’s plan all along. Obamacare would essentially end this country. We will all be doomed, but the lives of young people is especially in peril if this atrocity passes, because it would get much worse as the decades pass. If Romney is not elected, we are cooked. Anyone who votes for Obama is a danger to our once great country. And I’ll debate anyone on that. Thank you. Mark Robertson Independence
Mark Robertson
8 months, 3 weeks agoAs Sarah Palin so correctly pointed out, Obamacare has death panels. It is called the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) It gives power to HHS and Kathleen Sebelius to control costs in Medicare. How do you think they would do that? Rationing. Many say that private sector health care would also ration. That’s if one accepts the claim that there is just a certain amount of health care out there. That is zero sum or static thinking. The free market creates a dynamic health care system where prices decrease, service improves, new drugs and medical devices are created, and health care services actually increase. It works in the grocery business, it would work in the health care industry. Thank you. Mark Robertson Independence.
Mark Hastert
8 months, 3 weeks ago” If there are any changes to our current health care insurance after 2014, we would be automatically be shifted into one of those Stalinistic state health exchanges.(It can be hoped that governors keep the exchanges out of their states, as they have a right to do.)”
Huh??!!! These sound don’t sound so Stalinistic to me. In fact they sound like a marketplace….
“…a market where Americans can one-stop shop for a health care plan, compare benefits and prices, and choose the plan that’s best for them, in the same way that Members of Congress and their families can. None of these plans should deny coverage on the basis of a preexisting condition, and all of these plans should include an affordable basic benefit package that includes prevention, and protection against catastrophic costs.