Soaps.com - MESSAGE BOARDS

From what I understand afer I watched the hearings on C-Span this morning, Sen. Enzie (R-Wyo) had one of his staff who assisted in figuring some of the "where does it come from" funds, re: the medicare connection, she explained it comes from the 'trust' fund and not the general fund. And, let's not forget, the poor and/or uninsured are charged FULL price for services obtained. They are required to pay out of pocket. Those who don't have medicare or qualify for medicaid are flat out of luck. Why do you suppose all the bankruptcies are generally filed because of medical bills.

As a resident of the "Great Southern Land" Australia where we do have a universal health system I have to say it has been very interesting reading real americans opinions and experiences of your health system rather than information from doco's ie Sicko or Fox News / CNN we get here on cable.
I was actually not aware that America did not have an universal health system until the Clinton Admin when it became a hotly debated topic.

Our system is not perfect but everyone in Au recieves free basic health services including pathology and Xrays, scans etc with no restrictions on the GP you want to consult,our scripts are subsidised by the govt for all the hundreds of the most common meds Av cost to you $15au $4.50au if you are on govt benefits (we don't call it welfare)and as a public patient in a public hospital there is no cost at all for any service or follow up treatment,all of our major hospitals are public hospital. You have the optiion as entering as a public or private patient the diff being as a public patient you get the hospital's surgeon/ob gyn etc as a private patient you can nominate your own doctor

This is all paid for by a 1.5% levy in your fed taxes 2.5% if you are a high income earner without opt in private health insurance, nil if you are a low income earner.By the way if you do have private health ins a few years ago the govt intoduced a 30% premium rebate

It did and still does surprise me that a country that has been held up as an example for the rest of the world to follow for many years does not seem to have an equal and fair health system for all its people.

I got this link from alwaysEJ - thanks! We have probably all heard the bill is now over 1000 pages long, and will be another one that gets "read" and voted on in the middle of the night. So here are some very important parts we should know:
On page 16 is a provision that makes private healthcare illegal once the public option is made law - Those who currently have private individual coverage won't be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.


www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=332548165656854

Are there no small business owners/empoyees on this board?

This is whats going to happen: the bill becomes around 2000 pages long and the politicians have overnight to read and approve in late August. We all know this is impossible, so how do they do it?
Let me explain - The politicians (who represent the special interest groups, not the people anymore) skim the pages until they find the section that pertains to them. They read that part, ensuring they are getting what was promised to them if they approve the bill (for example, Heard Lieberman in the previous post). Once they can rest assured they (the groups they represent) are getting their "due," they still have hours to sleep before voting.

I'm suprised no one has commented on this new addendum. It does happen to change our system for the worse IMO, and we don't have much time to call/email our reps about it.
And no, our gov is nothing like AUs. I have family and friends who have lived in AU, and if you work for the gov you work in awesome conditions. Tnere are so many paid days off, attitudes are great, etc. There is no way our system will be like theirs, b/c our taxing system is completely different.

I don't get it. I'm not being argumentative, but if you understand it better can you try to dumb it down for me? All I see is the same thing I thought I understood it to be earlier - that in some circumstances you will not be allowed private healthcare?

adding on.

i will say what concerns me more than a public option would be the lack of a public option. knowing congress and obama and the republicans he'll end up caving in and we'll get an all-private system where everyone is forced to buy coverage and if you can't afford it the government will buy it for you through the private insurance companies. basically it'll be yet another massive river of public funds going to private corporations and enriching a few at the expense of many. if you want to make a profit selling a car fine do it. if you want to make a quick buck mowing your neighbor's yard great. if you want to earn some money selling clothing that's wonderful. if you want to get rich by denying as many people as possible the healthcare they need then sorry you're going to hell and the last thing I want is to give you my tax dollars.

8) I'm more confused. I read it all (of that section) when I made the post, and then your post, and I still see where some instances make it illegal (for lack of better word) to have private insurance. Or is it saying that in some/all instances, you can still have the private, but the private must be ran parallel to the gov plan? Sorry. I thought I had it figured out, but you said there are other parts that negate this part? i like to consider myself well-read, but I got no idea now on this. So glad I'm not in charge of passing things like this...