I do not particularly like the reform because as a taxpayer I am forced to provide for the profits of insurance companies and shareholders when we justifiably subsidies Americans unable to pay the full cost of insurance. Paying for a service is as simple a task that our government can do and do well. Medical care, a real service and product should be private to foment innovation in new treatments. Paying for the service does not require a middleman to skim profits. We could insure more at a lesser cost if the middleman were removed.
I will support this bill because I do not think the politicians have the wherewithal to do more. It does lay the ground work for a single payer system when insurance falls under its own weight and the structure will be there ready to perform.
Major Features:
Reforms that will be effected this year
- Children up to 26 years to remain on parents insurance.
- $250 Rebate to help fill the donut hole phasing in the standard 25% coinsurance by 2020
- All insurance prohibits rescissions.
- Increase funding for community Health Centers that provide preventative care.
Reforms beginning in 2014
- Make healthcare more affordable for families making less than $88,000.
- Eliminate preferential treatment written into the Senate bill for Nebraska
- Federal oversight committee to assist states in their rate review allowing for denial of unwarranted rate increases.
- Everyone must purchase or contribute toward insurance either via private insurance or indirectly through penalties.
- Crackdown on fraud and abuse
- Eliminates pay-for-delay that delays the release of drugs.
- Eliminates lifetime limits, annual limits, and pre-existing conditions exclusions
- A national floor of 29,000 for family of four to qualify for Medicaid