Differences In Health Care Plans

[orleans]

i'm wondering--with mandatory health care, how will the insurance industry be regulated so that they can't raise premiums and can't refuse treatment or tests. who is going to stop them from fucking people over since buying their product will be mandatory?

sure, now they'll have to sell you insurance--but no one is promising once you get it you'll get the operation or transplant you need


it seems this universal health care plan would more accurately be called the universal insurance plan (a boon for insurance companies if they can continue to refuse treatment or up the premiums if you require too much treatment)


anyone got links to the candidates websites for this info?

also--did i understand obama tonight that his health plan is for kids under 25? no one else? and no non-citizens (including those non-citizens under 25)

[Lasher]

1. Ask yourself this:

How are the insurance companies regulated now to prevent them from doing such things?

This can help you sort out candidates positions on this issue:

http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/issues/index.html#/context=index/issue=health

[FrenchieCat]

2. You understood wrongly.....

Obama is saying that childrens coverage would covers one till he/she was 25 years old. He doesn't want to mandate insurance, because that will not reduce the price of insurance, which is usually the problem.

Young people are the ones often that won't pay for insurance coverage because they believe themselves to be in good health. However, by Obama increasing children's coverage to those up to 25 years old, he covers many that might not normally insurance themselves.

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Mandates Don't Lower Costs
January 21, 2008

MANDATES DON'T LOWER COSTS
Massachusetts Officials Concede Mandates Don't Lead To Universal Coverage. "Jon M. Kingsdale, executive director of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority, the agency that markets the subsidized insurance policies...acknowledged that their universal coverage plan is not likely to be universal anytime soon. 'There's good evidence,' Mr. Kingsdale said, 'whether it's buying auto insurance or wearing seat belts or motorcycle helmets, that mandates don't work 100 percent.'"

One In Five Uninsured In Massachusetts Will Be Exempt From The Mandate, Individual Mandate Would Only Apply To "Those Who Can Afford The Premiums." The Boston Globe reported, "Interestingly, the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority, the bureaucrats in charge of implementing the plan, decided that the universal individual mandate does not apply to everyone, but rather only those who can afford the premiums. Therefore, nearly one in five of the currently uninsured will be exempt from the law."


OBAMA COVERS EVERYONE UNDER HIS PLAN

Washington Post: "It Could Be A Struggle For Clinton To Find Someone Who Wants Health Insurance But Doesn't Qualify Under The Obama Plan, Because It's Not Clear Such A Person Exists." The Washington Post reported, "For people who want to get health insurance and make an effort to do so, Clinton and Obama have almost exactly the same plan …It could be a struggle for Clinton to find someone who wants health insurance but doesn't qualify under the Obama plan, because it's not clear such a person exists."


MORE PEOPLE WOULD COMPLY WITH OBAMA'S PLAN

Antos: Obama's "Health Care Plan Could Actually Have A Better Compliance Rate" Than Hillary's. The New York Times reported, "Mr. Obama's health plan could actually have a better compliance rate. The 15 million who would supposedly be left out equal about 5 percent of the population — a smaller portion than are going without auto insurance, said Joseph Antos, a health policy expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a nonpartisan group."

Reich: Obama's Health Care Plan Would Cover "More People" Than Hillary's. "I've compared the two plans in detail. Both of them are big advances over what we have now. But in my view Obama's would insure more people, not fewer, than HRC's. That's because Obama's puts more money up front and contains sufficient subsidies to insure everyone who's likely to need help – including all children and young adults up to 25 years old…In short: They're both advances, but O's is the better of the two. HRC has no grounds for alleging that O's would leave out 15 million people."

CLINTON PLAN WILL NOT INCLUDE EVERYONE
Clinton Campaign Health Care Adviser: Clinton's Health Care Plan Will Not Include Everybody. "MIT economics professor Jonathan Gruber, one of Clinton's health care advisers…acknowledges that the Clinton plan will not include everybody. 'Any system that does not have a single payer will not have 100 per cent coverage,' he told me, when I reached him after the Las Vegas debate. 'But you can come very close.'"

Clinton's Plan Could Leave Out As Many As 4.5 Million People. The Washington Post wrote, "The system proposed by Clinton is more analagous to the government-subsidized private insurance system in the Netherlands, where roughly one and a half per cent of the population is estimated to fall through the cracks." One and a half percent of the US population is 4.5 million people.

Harvard Program On Public Opinion And Health And Social Policy's Robert Blendon: Clinton's Health Care Plan Isn't Going To Cover Everybody. "Robert Blendon, director of the Harvard Program on Public Opinion and Health and Social Policy 'At the end of the day…it's not going to be everybody.'"

Urban Institute's John Holohan: Clinton's Plan Won't Eliminate The Problem Of Uninsured Altogether. John Holohan, the author of a study conducted at the Urban Institute, a Washington-based think tank, does not believe that either the Clinton or the Obama plan will eliminate the problem of the uninsured altogether. "We would all be very happy if we got down to one and a half per cent," he said.

[orleans]

3. link? (and not everyone is under 25 yrs of age, you know) n/t