Our health care system isn’t broken. It just needs tweeking. It’s a wonderful system where free people can choose their health care and physicians instead of having it mandated to them. Some of us believe we need to fix some of the broken things in the existing system….instead of replacing it with a gov. run system, where choices will be severely limited.

We already know that the gov. can’t run anything for long without it going broke. The post office is one example…..Medicare will be financially broken in 10 years. How long do you think a huge health care system will last with all of this bureaucracy and trillions of $$ indebtedness to the Chinese? Just think about that for a minute. Just how long do you think the Chinese are going to wait to be repaid? They are a force to be reckoned with.

The irony of this situation is that your generation will have to live with your demands long after I am gone — and that sucks for you. I give you 30 years and you will remember my words a little differently.

It’s too bad you don’t understand the immense value of your freedom. It was won at a huge cost. My father paid a huge price for your freedom – he suffered in Korea, WWII, Vietnam twice, Grenada and Cuba…..just to let you believe that America owes you more than you deserve.

You see, Jessica, freedom is not normal in this world. In fact, it is rare in this world. America is unique because we treasure the right of the individual. Why on earth do you want to throw this away? So you can feel entitled to free health insurance? Which by the way, is not free. Someone has to pay for it. Oh that’s right — you want me to pay for it!

And yes, I am tired of your generation thinking that it’s your right to have the gov. provide for all of your needs. Where do you draw the line, Jessica? Who chooses what the gov. should and should not pay for? The latest lobby group? The biggest environmental group? You? Our budget is already drained from the plethora of pork that is in every bill passed in Congress today. Less government, Jessica, is better for all of us. Politicians on both sides need to start understanding the concept of LIMITING government if you want your future to remain free.

Health care is not a right. It is something you work hard for and budget for — just like buying that TV you want. There is no difference. It is your choice to either buy that TV or buy health insurance….and be grateful that you had the choice to buy good health insurance for yourself and your loved ones.

We make the choice to live within our means so that we can afford good insurance. Sadly, your generation doesn’t like to pay for things like this. Your generation would rather go out and buy the latest IPhone, go to a 15.00 movie every week, buy a Caramel Mocha Latte Grande at Starbucks everyday instead of budgeting for important things like health care. The little things add up.

I have 2 girls your age. I know your generation well. There is value in understanding the concept of freedom and what it means to your future, Jessica. To use your vernacular, it’s your freekin’ future we are talking about. Do you want to remain a free young woman or do you want someone telling you what you can and can’t do in the future? That’s what we are talking about.

Finally, none of us want the truly indigent to suffer. I’m tired of others painting conservatives as uncompassionate when we give more per capita to social programs, charities and welfare organizations than others do…..check out the stats.

The fact is: There are already a plethora of gov. run health care programs for those in true need. In addition, almost every hospital has an indigent care program for the truly needy. It is a fallacy that those in true need cannot get health care. Instead, we need to better learn how to point them to existing programs.

We, as Americans, are a compassionate people. I think all would agree that we must care for the truly needy. We must not, however, enable selfish people to ruin the most amazing country on the planet. We must stop assuming that things like health care are rights instead of items we work hard to possess. We should fix the bugs in the system now without dismantling it so that it doesn’t exist ever again.

Sadly, part of the problem is the lack of education – the ignorance of the average American. Jessica, I know you won’t like what I have said….but just as your mother might say, I’m saying these things for your good, not for your misfortune. I want you to have a rich, full life — full of freedom and joy. I don’t want you to live in bondage. Your desire for a handout is creating a life of slavery for you, your children, and future generations. You can take those words to the bank.

I see your point (but not really). So you’d be okay with insurance companies starting to charge whatever amount they feel? You wouldn’t want the government to step in and take control, protecting us, the consumer?

I understand that less government is good in some ways, but when a basic thing like healthcare is almost impossible to afford (especially if you just lost your job, can’t find one, are disabled, have a pre-exsisting medical condition, etc) it takes away from what America really is…the land of the free (I don’t see being at the mercy of insurance companies as being free to pursue that happiness that you talk about). Hell…I have a full time job and I can barely afford the coverage I’ve got now (and i’m a healthy 27 year-old!)

Oh and I’ve had several people tell me that the reason they don’t agree with the reform is because they don’t want to pay for everyone elses bills (since according to them everyone that needs help is a low-life, lazy bum). We’re not talking about the government providing everyone hummers and flat screen tvs people, we’re talking about freakin’ health insurance… why are people so angry about this? I just don’t get it. I’d hate to see one of them lose their job and get sick… I guess they wouldn’t want any help from anyone

I think the Health Reform bill addresses some necessary issues but I don’t think it addresses the bulk of the issues. For example, let’s say that the public option is employed and the Bill launches as is: how will they stop the skyrocketing costs? Will Big Pharm have a cap on drugs? Will lawsuit awards against doctors be capped? Will doctors still have to pay a high amount for liability insurance? Are deductibles still a major problem with health costs?

So I don’t think that the House Bill (I’m currently reading the Senate Bill) incorporates all of what we’ve learned about the system as it stands. I’m not even sure that the Bill address our corporate moral responsibility since the deductibles are still high. It extends coverage (morally good); it broadens how long something is covered (which is good); and it tries to remove preventative procedures from the deductible requirement (which is very good)–but people’s problems isn’t so much the preventative: it’s the problems they have now.

I would like to see an incentive program for gym membership. A tax on unhealthy foods also applied to the corporate level. An incentive program for whole grains, insecticide free food, organic milk, etc.

When our government starts dictating how health care should be delivered, it interferes with the process of freedom of enterprise….and that of the freedom of the individual. Our founding Constitution did not guarantee the right to health care, nor should it. The Dec. of Independence does however stress the belief that the individual should function within our governmental structure as free individuals, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It states next that government was established to protect these things. Our country was founded on the principle that less governmental involvement is better than too much. Thus, we should not be put in the position to become captive to a governmental-regulated system in most things. Free enterprise allows freedom of choice to flourish.

I love this line in the Dec. of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. :)

That portion explicates that the process will be transparent but it doesn’t explicate that since elsewhere it speaks about companies submitting costs to the Secretary which would include the actual cost of the procedure plus any prices or discounts negotiated by the companies. So the bill seems to know of an “actual cost” of a procedure and yet the language was obscured with the additions you mentioned. This is somewhat mentioned on pages 67 and 68 but it is specific to retirees in that section.

The Bill may very well mention those costs elsewhere but it didn’t jump out at me in that reading and thus can’t find it.

To the former, health care at the moment runs basically through employer subsidy; if you’re not employed, it suddenly becomes a lot more expensive. I would think, too, that portable health insurance would drive down costs (or drive up the uninsured) since insurance companies would no longer be able to rely on care costs being built into the price. (Employer subsidies aren’t seen by most who are covered; so my total cost is only a fraction of the real cost. This kind of price hiding makes it easier to charge more while simultaneously making it harder to get my own coverage.)

To the latter, it’s nearly impossible to get any kind of information about what procedures cost, even on average. I understand, of course, that it’s difficult to predict the cost of a procedure, but I would favor a more parts+labor breakdown with prior estimates for non-emergency. While the human body isn’t a car, many procedures are fairly routine these days. It shouldn’t be difficult for us to produce the numbers that say, “If you need a knee replacement at 64, this is on average what it costs for someone in your demographic.”

The other issue with opaque pricing is that if no one knows how much it really costs, then cost control methods are a lot harder to implement (in fact, our possibilities really start to collapse toward gov’t mandates instead of better efficiencies, et c.).

Dunno, just a few thoughts. I don’t think we’re going to see real reform until the insurance and health industries are required to be more transparent in their practices. Making some kind of coverage mandate or funding a public coverage program won’t fix these problems.

Rey, a final point. Somehow and sometime, we, as individuals must get over the idea that anyone owes us anything in this sinful, fallen world. In my earlier days, it was a privilege to have health care offered by an employer to an employee. It was used as an incentive to get the very best employees to work for you. It was not a right – it was a gift.

Now, everyone demands it like it is their right to have it. Simply, none of us have the right to demand that the gov. selfishly take care of us, esp. when it causes an unfair balance of taxation….where a few pay for everything and most pay for nothing.

Health care is something we must plan for – just like a house payment or a car payment. We are responsible for our personal lives – not the gov. and not our employer. In that way, it is the false ideology of the American people that really needs to be addressed. This is the root cause of the whole issue – entitlement. Somebody owes us something (especially the things we think they owe us….)

Further, God intended for those in need to be taken care of by the church. The question is: do we do this? Each individual Christian has to answer this for themselves honestly. I somehow doubt that the early Christians relied on the gov. for anything. Instead, they worked hard – as we should work hard to provide for our needs. All of our true needs are covered by our Heavenly Father, aren’t they? Somehow, needs and wants are all mixed up in this generation. This is the eternal perspective that needs to develop within the Christian community. We can’t expect the secular world to understand this, but Christians should.

Kathy: as to point 1, I see that potentially happening more because of how employers function than what the bill or the reform looks like. There’s provisions in there that are supposed to stop employers from that sort of thing but even so, I don’t trust bosses. As to point 2, that’s a good point regarding military care and it sucks you had to go through that. I have a friend who fought in ‘Nam who, though he gets effectively free care, gets very poor care for his condition (he’s a victim of Agent Orange). Also, the Bill specifically states that undocumented aliens will not be covered.

I just want everyone to know that there are parts of the bill I like and parts I don’t like. I would like the government to refine it if they’re going to go ahead and do it (I mean, they will).