Health Care for America Now

Wendell Potter's thoughts: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendell-potter/why-im-not-joining-the-ca_b_403176.html

If it were a new football stadium, they would love it!

When this bill goes to conference - we must have the House version! The Senate Bill is not reform!

President Obama Neither You Nor The Nation deserve this:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=240879302999

Please Support Fire Services: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Northern-Posey-County-Firefighting-Explorers/147002811077

"Private health insurance faces a bleak future if the proposal they champion most vigorously -- a requirement that everyone buy medical coverage -- is not adopted.

The customer base for private insurance has slipped since 2000, when soaring premiums began driving people out. The recession has accelerated the problem. But even after the economy recovers, the downward spiral is expected to continue for years as baby boomers become eligible for Medicare -- and stop buying private insurance.

Insurers do not embrace all of the healthcare restructuring proposals. But they are fighting hard for a purchase requirement, sweetened with taxpayer-funded subsidies for customers who can't afford it, and enforced with fines.... See More... See More

Such a so-called individual mandate amounts to a huge booster shot for health insurers, which would serve up millions of new customers almost overnight.

'I think that's why we've seen the industry basically trying to play the administration's game,' said Jane DuBose, an analyst with industry tracking firm HealthLeaders-InterStudy. 'They really could be licking their chops over the potential here."
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/07/business/fi-healthcare7

This bill WILL NOT help the people, The only ones it will help will be the health insurance company's and the government!

I am with Tony... in jail I will at least get to eat.. I need to wash my pants after reading this ... I think we need to run candidates that will fight for their voters instead of worrying about their jobs.. complacency in this country is appalling..

I don't know how he or his friends could think he was worth that much money. He and his friends are stealing that money on the backs of the sick and dying. May God forgive them.

Another thing this article left out is the fact that the middle class will be taxed to help pay the bill. The House version would tax the wealthy - or called the millionaire tax. Please the middle class is taxed to the gills!

Eat the rich. The poor are tough and stringy.

only in America do folks go bankrupt due to medical bills.. then again our imperial Senate knows what is best for us. F the rethuglicans.

The Conference Committee MUST put a public Option into the merged bills. Otherwise, that bill will not be worth voting for. The insurance reforms can be passed piecemeal, without the Corporate Welfare provisions. Medicare can be expanded via reconciliation, requiring merely a simple majority of Senators, ie. 51, rather than a Super-majority, ie. 60.

@ David Heiman: If accurate, good info, thanks.

Below is just one example of the poor legislation. I thoroughly agree with the aid to Louisiana but not as a pert of the national health care reform.

Karl 2 ABC News' Jonathan Karl reports:

What does it take to get a wavering senator to vote for health care reform?... See More

Here’s a case study.

On page 432 of the Reid bill, there is a section increasing federal Medicaid subsidies for “certain states recovering from a major disaster.”

The section spends two pages defining which “states” would qualify, saying, among other things, that it would be states that “during the preceding 7 fiscal years” have been declared a “major disaster area.”

I am told the section applies to exactly one state: Louisiana, the home of moderate Democrat Mary Landrieu, who has been playing hard to get on the health care bill.

In other words, the bill spends two pages describing would could be written with a single world: Louisiana. (This may also help explain why the bill is long.)

Senator Harry Reid, who drafted the bill, cannot pass it without the support of Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu.

How much does it cost? According to the Congressional Budget Office: $100 million.

Here’s the incredibly complicated language:

SEC. 2006. SPECIAL ADJUSTMENT TO FMAP DETERMINATION FOR CERTAIN STATES RECOVERING FROM A MAJOR DISASTER.

Section 1905 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396d), as amended by sections 2001(a)(3) and
2001(b)(2), is amended— (1) in subsection (b), in the first sentence, by striking ‘‘subsection (y)’’ and inserting ‘‘subsections (y) and (aa)’’; and (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:

‘‘(aa)(1) Notwithstanding subsection (b), beginning January 1, 2011, the Federal medical assistance percentage for a fiscal year for a disaster-recovery FMAP adjustment State shall be equal to the following:
‘(A) In the case of the first fiscal year (or part of a fiscal year) for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), increased by 50 percent of the number of percentage points by which the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year after the application of only subsection (a) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5 (if applicable to the preceding fiscal year) and without regard to this subsection, subsection (y), and subsections (b) and (c) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5.

‘‘(B) In the case of the second or any succeeding fiscal year for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the preceding fiscal year under this subsection for the State, increased by 25 percent of the number of percentage points by which the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year under this subsection.

‘‘(2) In this subsection, the term ‘disaster-recovery FMAP adjustment State’ means a State that is one of
the 50 States or the District of Columbia, for which, at any time during the preceding 7 fiscal years, the President has declared a major disaster under section 401 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act and determined as a result of such disaster that every county or parish in the State warrant individual and public assistance or public assistance from the Federal Government under such Act and for which— ‘‘(A) in the case of the first fiscal year (or part of a fiscal year) for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year after the application of only subsection (a) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5 (if applicable to the preceding fiscal year) and without regard to this subsection, subsection (y), and subsections (b) and (c) of section 5001 of Public Law 111–5, by at least 3 percentage points; and ‘‘(B) in the case of the second or any succeeding fiscal year for which this subsection applies to the State, the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the fiscal year without regard to this subsection and subsection (y), is less than the Federal medical assistance percentage determined for the State for the preceding fiscal year under this subsection by at least 3 percentage points.

‘‘(3) The Federal medical assistance percentage determined for a disaster-recovery FMAP adjustment State under paragraph (1) shall apply for purposes of this title (other than with respect to disproportionate share hospital payments described in section 1923 and payments under this title that are based on the enhanced FMAP described in 2105(b)) and shall not apply with respect to payments under title IV (other than under part E of title IV) or payments under title XXI.’’.

What makes any of the above posters believe the remaining problems "will be fixed later?" What do you base this on? Is it based on actions of courageous legislators passing a bill that herds 30 million new customers to the people who've been screwing the public for decades?

AMEN, Norma!

You are right on!

Yep.