Health care is a nightmare in this country, and taxing these fricking benefits (If you can call them

[IsItJustMe]

that) just adds insult to injury. You Dems that support this have to be out of your fricking minds.

I have what some would consider good health insurance. It is through my wifes work and a huge chunk of here wages goes into paying for it.

Yet, I am afraid to use it. It seems that every time we do use it, the insurance company finds a way of not paying for the service.

I went to the doctor for high blood pressure and she erroneously put it down as a mental health visit. In the mean time, the doctor left this area, I argued with the clinic and the insurance company for over a year about it, until the clinic turned me over to a collection agency and threatened to ruin my credit, and I paid it.

I had to pay over 700 dollars for a blood test because the doctor did not use the routine visit diagnostic code.

We had to pay for my daughters pap smear because it was considered family planning as compared to female issues, or visa versa, forgot now.

We had to pay for my wifes breast xrays because the doctor did not put a direct order on it.

It truly is a nightmare, and you have no clue of what you are getting into until after the service is used. And almost every time we use medical services, we sit back and wonder what excuses the insurance company will come up with in not covering it.

And you want to tax us on this pathetic excuse for medical benefits?

[dkf]

1. Not only are they taxing us for it they are forcing us to subject ourselves to crappy treatment by

People who have no interest in fulfilling their obligations. Where is the remedy for run of the mill bad treatment? They only address the blatantly bad behavior like recission and denial of coverage. But there are other ways to deny coverage. Just insist that every form be perfectly filled out or there is no recourse to denial.

The insurance industry is broken. It does not need more victims and profits from them.

[NNN0LHI]

2. Well lets just leave things the way they are and see how that works out for you then

Do you think your health insurance situation is going to improve over time?

Kind of like fine wine?

Don

[laughingliberal]

3. I think the health insurance industry is dying

I think they are losing millions of customers a year due to pricing themselves out of the market. Private customers and employers are dropping insurance in droves. They are entering a period where they will be losing, on average, 11 million customers a year to Medicare over the next 21 years. I think we should say, "You can play nice or we can let you die your natural death." Why do Democrats fold when they're holding a straight flush against 2 pairs?

[NNN0LHI]

5. "they will be losing, on average, 11 million customers a year to Medicare over the next 21 years"

That is crazy talk. Guess who processes the claims for Medicare?

Insurance companies like Blue Cross are contracted to do that.

Don

[laughingliberal]

13. Yes. Medicare operates at a 4% overhead and that's not propping up those obscene profits very well

Insurance companies aren't going to survive on what they make processing Medicare claims. There's your crazy talk.

[IsItJustMe]

7. You know, sometimes doing nothing is better than doing the wrong thing to fix a problem. To me,

this is one of those situations.

We already pay thousands of dollars a year for so called health insurance benefits that often don't cover the medical services that we need, so you have thousands of more dollars going to out-of-pocket medical expenses.

Now on top of that, the government is going to come in and pile on with there taxes on medical benefits, which are very often non existant.

Some things are just not right, and for me this is one of them.

[rucky]

4. I clearly remember Obama going after McCain for suggesting the very same thing

[OHdem10]

6. It appears Obama only wanted a bill to sign. He permitted the

Conservadems to write a RW Bill and the picture in the
American peoples's mind--he is willing to sign anything.

[LibDemAlways]

9. In defending the bill the other day he slammed the insurance

companies. I laughed out loud. Does he really think people are so dumb they won't realize the insurance companies wrote the damn bill? If so, he's delusional.

[amborin]

17. he "slammed" the banksters, too; they're all ROFL behind closed doors

[Schema Thing]

8. It's a tax on insurance companies

that's all it is.


It's a good idea.

[IsItJustMe]

10. I don't have a clue on where you are coming from with your statement that it is a tax on insurance

companies.

With that being said however, this much I do know. When people realize that the government is taking out hundreds or thousands of extra dollars from their pay checks, to tax them for something they are already pissed off about (bad medical coverage), then they are going to be super-duper pissed off.

I would imagine that in a couple of years from now, once these taxes kick in, all any smart polititan would have to do is run on the platform of repealing this seven headed monster.

Now who do you think these politicans will be? They will be Republicans because this bill is the Democrats baby.

I am no sponge brain, but it is not difficult for me to see down the road a piece, and pretty well guess that the Republicans are going to have great success with this issue in the years to come.

I hope I am wrong. We will see.

[Schema Thing]

11. Surely you must, if you're commenting

know that the tax is paid by insurance companies?


So, they may pass it on to everyone, but they will not pass it on to the specific people with "cadillac" plans.


However, they are finally very limited in how much they can pass on.


They can roll back benefits, but the law says that all benefits have to meet certain standards.

Afterall, the best outcome would be that the broke-ass single mom has the exact same healthcare as the stepford husband.


Well, if you're a progressive that is the best outcome.

[laughingliberal]

14. Here's another good idea. I gotta bridge I'm trying to peddle...

I think it's a perfect fit for you.

[Schema Thing]

16. but this isn't a bridge, it's a good, workable, badly named

progressive idea.

deal with it.



If it wasn't a good idea, Obama would not have been able to sit down with with all the major labor guys and hash out the (relatively minor) details to make sure no one gets hurt by it.

[laughingliberal]

19. It's an excise tax the insurance companies will pass on to the customers

It's a hit to working and middle class Americans as is most of the bill. A good, workable, progressive idea was in the House bill to tax people at the top (who haven't paid their way since St. Ronnie cut their taxes and raised the payroll tax on the rest of us) and offering a more generous subsidy to lower income people. A good, workable progressive idea is the House expansion of Medicaid to 150% of FPL. Why am I to believe that the House bill is 100% more progressive in every regard except this one? That the Senate passed their corporate fellating bill with every RW wet dream in it but THIS ONE thing that made it into their bill is progressive. Sorry, not buying it.


Yes, I'm very grateful to Nancy Pelosi and the union leaders for pushing to get some of the damage to workers mitigated. Left to the Senate and Executive branch they'd probably take out any requirement for the industry to give us a policy. Just send 'em your money and STFU!

[TransitJohn]

20. Right, and sales taxes are taxes on merchants.

:dunce:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. Those "Cadillac" health plans are what is NORMAL FOR PEOPLE IN OTHER COUNTRIES

The thrust of the DLC talking points about the current bills is "You will pay big bucks for crappy coverage and you will like it! Or else you're a Republican troll!"

[laughingliberal]

15. Yes and they were pretty standard coverage if you had benefits at work until a few short years ago

People are blind.

[amborin]

18. that "big $$$ for crappy coverage" is a DLC meme, is anyone falling for it?

some articles seem to suggest some people are falling for the ruse, hook, line, and sinker