Confused about Health Care Reform? You’re not alone
I have received questions from many clients over the last several months asking about what health care reform means and what it will or will not do. Unfortunately, I myself have more questions than answers. Here are the questions I think we need to ask ourselves, and be able to answer, before deciding to either support, not support, or partially support “Reformâ€.
1. Which bill(s) are we referring to? There are over 6 bills circulating right now and the two front runners are likely to be merged soon.
2. What is the effect of the over 1,200 amendments to these bills? Will the amendments done at the request of the special interests neutralize any positive aspects intended? (Health Insurance Agents like myself just had a successful amendment added, can you guess what is was?)
3. What is the main problem we are trying to solve? Health Care spending or covering as many uninsured as possible? They are inversely related and none of the current bills adequately address both.
4. Do we want competition, regulation, de-regulation across state lines, etc.?
5. Will reform make us healthier, or just provide more customers to the health care and prescription drug industry?
6. Will the reform efforts help/make us change our lifestyles, the only way we will ever get healthier as a nation?
7. Should we bring back Richard Simmons and “Sweating to the Oldies�
8. Would mandated insurance coverage for all be of enough benefit to outweigh the loss of personal choice?
I appreciate hearing so much feedback from all of you, so let me know what questions you think we should be asking!
Watch the video related to health care reform bill
December 6, 2009 3:13 am 
By TomStar81, December 6, 2009 @ 3:15 am
Yes you are talking about TORT reform. the Democrats do not want to touch the Lawyers. it seems the Lawyers are in the democrats pocket.*
By Tracy Turnblad, December 6, 2009 @ 3:58 am
First of all, Obama wants to make insurance more available to all and change the system so that it is cheaper. He also wants change so that the insurance companies find it harder to get out of paying for treatment. The system he is proposing looks similar to that which works in Holland and Switzerland where private companies are involved in providing insurance.
Second, of course universal health-cover sucks. That is why we in Western Europe have it. We think, hmm, our healthcare system sucks. I know, lets keep it. I guess that is the same with Japan and Canada as well.
Third, Obama campaigned on reforming the healthcare system. He said he wanted to make insurance more available and he was elected by the American people to do this.
FACT – the US has higher death rates for kids both for kids aged under one and those under five than western European countries with universal health coverage.
FACT – American insurance companies push up prices and work to stop paying out claims on those they cover.
FACT – the USA spends more on healthcare PER PERSON than any other nation on the planet.
That means that a dead American four year old would have had a better chance of life if they were born in Canada, France, Cuba, Germany, Japan etc, all of which have universal health coverage.
Last of all if you do not like the policies that Obama was elected to bring in, he can always be voted out of office in 2012.
By The Conservative Resistance, December 6, 2009 @ 8:22 pm
Under any Democrat President in history, the same M.O. emerges.
The Democrats "identify" a "crisis" and whip the people up into a frenzy about it. They proclaim themselves the carriers of the elixir that will heroically save all mankind from this "crisis.'' When Republicans seek to oppose the spending it will take for this elixir, they are automatically called hate mongers and obstructionists.
Clinton tried it with school lunch menus. He whipped that whole thing into some kind of "crisis." The Democrats wanted to raise the program by 10% and the Republicans wanted to raise it by 7%. That got reported in the media as a 3% CUT by Republicans. Only when a Democrat is President could an INCREASE be reported as a CUT. Just to make Republicans look bad, but too many people buy into the bullshit.
Al Gore, who wasn't even President, tried it with global warming and it didn't work. Today, it's health care. What'll it be tomorrow? The whole "world is ending in 2012" thing, or what?
By Short, Fast, and Loud, December 7, 2009 @ 8:26 am
Obama does not have a bill. He has only given guidelines to what he wants. His last address made it more specific.
The bills in congress are not healthcare bills. They are health coverage bills. The government is trying to take control of a large portion of our economy. They are trying to make it so the government is a single payer source (I know i will get thumbs down for this, but follow hr3200 to its logical conclusion).
The current bills want to cover everybody in the US (Illegals too, there is nothing in these bills to prevent illegals from being covered. Amendments to ensure citizenship were tabled)
The federal government wants to punish you for not having insurance (they will get your money one way or another)
The government wants to regulate what care you will get. (When the system becomes overblaoted as any government system does, they will have 2 options increase taxes or ration care)
I know that there are a lot of people that will disagree with this. If they actually read the bills, and follow to there logical conclusions, in 10 years we will be a whole lot worse of than we are now. So doing nothing would actually be cheaper.
Reform must actually deal with the underlaying problems. HR 320o does not. Obama gave lip service to 1 of them.
By skinnyblink7, December 8, 2009 @ 8:08 am
the new york times has an interactive feature which is actually very clear to understand. check it out.