My take on the healthcare- a really sloppy and quickly written blog post
Disclaimer- this is what I got from the bill. As I’m only 19, I’m not the smartest guy around. Corrections and comments are welcome; feel free to post them on here or tweet them at me.
Most other industrialized nations in the world have socialised healthcare. This means that, if you break your hip from falling down the stairs, you simply go to the doctor and you don’t have to pay anything out of pocket; the gov’t pays for you. These medical expenses are covered by somewhat higher taxes (the lowest tax bracket in canada is somewhere around 14%, as opposed to 12% in the US). The downside to this is that doctors no longer have a real cash incentive to operate on people- so most of them simply quit. The ones left behind (the ones who actually WANT to help people and not make money off of them) are so few in number that the wait times at most clinics are longer than in the US- unless you have a life-threatening condition, of course. Of course, EVERYBODY in this system has health insurance- you have no choice.
Some other countries, such as Germany, have a universal healthcare system that utilizes private insurers instead of the gov’t- there are only one or two private insurers in the country, and they are treated as a utility (much like water and electric companies). The upside to this is that wait times are drastically reduced, and the tax brackets remain largely the same. The downside is that you have to pay something out of pocket; this amount, however, is usally very low ($20 for a months worth of pills). In this system, you can decline health insurance if you don’t feel like footing a little bit of cash (just like you can decline having electricity if you don’t feel like paying for that).
So, HR3590 passed today in the Senate. President Obama is 99.999999999% likely to sign that bill in to law. What does this mean?
No socialism/communism/nazism/other -isms
There is no public option. The gov’t doesn’t provide ANYTHING in this bill, except for a few subsidies for really really poor people (these subsidies are, in fact, in place right now for medicare) or people who are really sick (as in, AIDS sick).
You must get insurance through a private company by 2014
This is EXACTLY the reason why it’s not Socialism- private companies are basically GUARENTEED profits. They have the right to increase premiums (within certain limits) and other charges if they “feel” they need to. While they’re not allowed to discriminate against people based on their condition anymore, they most certainly can do anything else they want. This bill gives them a near monopoly on the healthcare system in this country. The fines for not getting insurance are around 2.5% of your yearly salary.
While there are a few subsidies for poor people, most subsidies are for the insurance and pharmacutical companies
This pretty much explains itself. The gov’t is investing more in these companies than in the people that are required to purchase insurance from said companies.
So, basically, the new healthcare system in the United States is like the ones in Germany and Japan, where healthcare is provided from a private company. However, many of the consumer protections, as well as the right to opt-out from paying this company monthly payments, are not here. This bill gives big business a monopoly on for-profit healthcare. This bill makes them “too large to fail”. Personally, I don’t like this.
Also, there’s a tax on tanning salons. Lady Gaga must be pissed right about now.
