Wednesday, September 30, 2009

A Public Option To Die For?


Do they think we don't understand, or, are they so brazen that they think they can get away with anything? The debate about a public option for health care is a joke. Nothing like being owned by the health insurance industry if you are a U.S. Senator, aye Baccus? I just hope that we get an up or down vote in the whole Senate on the issue of a public option. Private insurance companies love the playing field tilted their way, and all the excuses about being able to compete with a public option run by the government just breaks my heart. How about a public option to die for?

Stay tuned.

5 comments:

Summer Smith said...

CBS News (online) seems to indicate that the public option still has a chance. The report says that the House Bill will have a public option, and the public option could be added to a full Senate Bill, as well. Oddly enough, Schumer (whom I so liberally bad-mouthed yesterday), says he's for it. And Harkin said yesterday, that at the crucial point in the vote, they'll only need 51 votes to secure the public option and he believes he has them.

Whether all this strategizing is PR for the constituents remains to be seen. Maybe the public option will have enough "life support" to make it into law.

Like you say, Moneythoughts, stay tuned!

Summer

winslow said...

There seems to be quite a few people that are against a public option. I'm sure these people have insurance provided by their employers.....and I'll bet their employers pay a major share of the premiums. You'll hear these people cry for mercy when they get laid off and come down with cancer.

moneythoughts said...

You know Winslow, I am not sure they would. I would like to think that faced with the reality of a serious illness for them or their family, that people would come to realize that this can happen to them. People have been in print, radio and TV talking about how one major illness in a family can put a middle class family in such huge debt that they would be forced to declare bankruptcy, and yet there are still a lot of people fighting the public option, and it is just an option!!! No one has to take it.

I am hopeful that the Dem strength in the House will make the public option law. Once the insurance companies have lost, I will not be surprised at how fast they will start acting like people that care and put forward better health insurance products.

Butch said...

I have noticed the insurance companies lobbying the public lately. The prime example I can use is the Liberty Mutual adds. Their letting you know that you and your doctor make your decisions on your care. Uh, can you get insurance if you are pre-existing from them? They don't advertise this, why, because they would be flooded with applications. Hypertension, high cholestrol, thyroid issues, pre-diabetic all qualify as pre-existing conditions. The last doesn't require meds and in some rare cases neither does cholestrol if you can get your diet in check.

With that said, if you have no conditions that are being treated then you should be able to get the insurance but, once upon a time you went to the doc for a sore shoulder and it was determined that you had some early bone ailment of some sort, were told to take an anti inflamatory over the counter drug and voila, you have a pre-existing condition.

THIS is what should be in the healthcare package more than anything. Realizing that the insurance companies are businesses that need to make profits as any other business does doesn't mean you start a business that is discriminetly designed to make that profit. Being allowed to turn a customer away or cancel that customer after finding that he/she had a sore shoulder years ago that they forgot about and didn't report is the same as saying you can't join the club because of race or gender.

I believe Obama is on the right track, my problem is knowing what is on the agenda of some of our congress' men and women. You always hear of the little underlying things added, just to get the bill passed. It seems to always end up about them, not us.

Summer Smith said...

Butch! You're right as rain! It does always wind up being about THEM and not about the people!!!

Thank you for saying that!

Summer