Well, the shouting ain't over but the stress on my psyche probably is.
So what exactly are we gonna get out of this Health Care bill just passed?
Here's a link to Politifact about what's NOT in the HCR package: Top 5 Lies About Health Care.
Another link to Politifact about what will happen through this HCR package: Top 10 Facts To Know...
That Top 10 list goes like this (cut and pasted from the Politifact article by Angie Holan, with following comments by me, so the list is accurate but the comments aren't, please do note this. heh):
1. The plan is not a government takeover of health care like in Canada or Britain. This isn't Single Payer. For all the yelling and screaming about bureaucrats making medical decisions, the truth is the insurance companies and the hospitals/doctors will still be the go-to people for paying and managing health care.
2. Insurance companies will be regulated more heavily. Although not every aspect of the insurance industry will be regulated, some caps and restraints on what companies can do will be put in place... by 2014. While it seems painful that it can take 4 years for this to take effect, there may yet be ongoing efforts between now and then to gradually phase the companies into the new restrictions and guidelines.
3. Everyone will have to have health insurance or pay a fine, a requirement known as the individual mandate. This is the mandate that seems to be causing most of the dissatisfaction with people: it will force people either to pay into an HMO of some kind or else pay fines to the government, without regard if the person can actually afford to do either. The Public Option proposal - where the government provides a low-cost alternative people could afford - was meant to counter this, but said Public Option ("ZOMG Government Takeover" by the Far Right, "ZOMG Health Insurers Will Dump the Sick and Poor Into It" by the Far Moderate) was too much a sticking point to pass (this time).
4. Employers will not be required to buy insurance for their employees, but large employers may be subject to fines if they don't provide insurance. Part of the problem with rising health care costs was how companies - especially the larger firms - couldn't keep up with said costs and were dropping out of HMO plans. Given the size of the company - over 50 employees - said company is going to have to get health care coverage. How will the companies afford them? Tax credits, I believe. Another option not in this current program but one that could help would be more competition: most states are dominated by one health care company, which means monopolistic (profit at all cost) practices. Give companies more cost-effective choices and you'll see more businesses able to afford the HMOs.
5. The vast majority of people will not see significant declines in premiums. Premiums (what you pay out of pocket) won't change for most currently insured. People in self-paid PPOs might even see their rates go up in the short-term. What will happen is that the rate of increase for said premiums will ease off: instead of 5 percent to 30 percent rate increases, people will see 1 to 3 percent.
6. The plan might or might not bend the curve on health spending. Via Holan: "The most recent estimate of the plan, released Thursday by the CBO, said that it would spend $940 billion over 10 years. But new taxes, penalties and cost savings would offset that spending, according to the CBO, so that overall the plan pay for itself, dropping the deficit by slightly $138 billion over 10 years. Obama has said the plan will save more than $1 trillion in the second 10 years, but that estimate, according to the CBO, is highly speculative." Via me: there are still other aspects of health care spending - promoting more competition with more HMO choices for one - that could go a long way to reduce the costs that were threatening to overwhelm everything.
7. The government-run Medicare program will keep paying medical bills for seniors, but it will begin implementing cost controls on health care providers, mostly through penalties and incentives. There's been evidence for years that Medicare was rife with abuse and waste, adding to the costs. Hopefully the right things - waste, double billing, other sinful deeds - will get cut as the reforms get implemented.
8. Medicaid, a joint federal-state program for the poor, will cover all of the poor, instead of just a few groups the way it currently does. This might be as close to government-run health care as we'll get.
9. The government won't pay for elective abortions. But the conservatives are still screaming about "baby killers" because of this new health care bill. For the Love of Ceiling Cat, you wingnuts, not everything should be viewed through that pro-life prism of yours! Can you consider the slight possibility that now because health care is accessible to all - especially the poor - that expectant mothers can afford to keep their fetuses and raise healthy children?
10. No one is proposing new benefits for illegal immigrants. That's true: your fruits and vegetables are still going to get picked and packaged by illegals working sick and sneezing on everything. ENJOY!
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