Health Care Reform vs Compulsory Health Insurance
The Health Care Reform Bill has always been about compelling 50 million American who are currently uninsured to purchase an insurance policy. It has never been about reforming health care. The US government already collects and spends more tax dollars per capita from Americans to support Medicare, Medicaid and other government paid health care than the United Kingdom, Canada or Sweden where every person is provided timely and quality healthcare at no cost to the person. Even though Americans …
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Well if Walmart can find a way to do it, I can’t find it in the current bill, or in any of the mark ups. But it does sound like Walmart wouldn’t endorse the bill unless there was some kind of profit in it for them. I agree with you there.
The FREE plan is called Medicaid and countless Walmart employees qualify for it.
The Gov plan will subsidize non-Medicaid insurance up to 12%.
The Gov plan also subsizes employers but I don’t know that Walmart will qualify for subsidy. But somehow, Walmart will pay less to insure its employees when this kicks in or they wouldn’t endorse it.
Well first of all there is no Gov Free Plan in the bill. There is the Exchange, which is a basket of private insurance policies which are subsidized by the gov. depending on the person’s income for the individual and the yearly payroll for a company. None of which is entirely free to the company or to the individual
Walmart’s payroll is too large to qualify, no matter how low the wages are they pay their employees.
Walmart currently offers its employees insurance with Walmart participating. What I expect Walmart to do is offer their employees the government plan which will be cheaper than their current plan. Walmart employees earn so little they will probably get the government plan FREE and Walmrt’s share will be less than their current share with private insurers.
I’m just guessing, but Walmart endorsed the Health Care Reform plan so they will save money somehow and taxpayors will cover the difference
Walmart certainly would fall under “large business” and therefore would suffer a larger penalty out lined in the preceding section, not the one you quote that applies to small business with payrolls not exceeding $400,00 a year.
Another myth that’s never mentioned is that there is no free-market in Euro health-systems. There is plenty of free-marketing. Sales reps for pharma and orthopaedic companies are paid well. They deal with hospital admin, doctors and medical clinics too – selling their wares just the same as US, but without ridiculous ad-costs, with the sped up disclaimers at the very end of the ads.
My cousin worked for De Puy: company Passat and a salary of about 60-70k Euro, about $90k. Socialism huh!?
You hit the nail on the head with your comments. It’s funny seeing republocrats foaming at the mouth – the irony is that more people will be paying.
You should post this video as reply-videos to other clips, like this one: watch?v=dqR1zV80IQk
I flirted with the idea of joining the Ron Paul Republicans, but most of them are old constitutionalists (aka right-wing, evangelical, nut-jobs).
I know a couple people with Move On and toyed with that, then I visited the Dem platform to see if the tent was big enough … it’s not.
I just can’t see them as anything more than a morphing of the same thing, Demopublicans and Republicrats.
And Libertarians are NEVER going to have a seat at the table.
There’s a BIGGER problem …
Yeah, whenever I mention the GOP in a dismissive way – please don’t interpret that to me that I am or approve of the Dems.
I see them like I would have, during WWII and analyzing despicable leaders, seen Mussolini or Hirohito.
(clever way of skirting Godwin’s Law, eh?)
Isn’t it amazing!
The people who would benefit the most, who have the boot of the Man on their neck, who work the hardest and get the least are like dogs barking at the moon.
Your average Walmart employee would starve to death, get kicked out of their apartment and die with an infected ingrown tonail if it wasn’t for government assistance.
The taxpayors have been subsidizing the immoral profits of Walmart for years.
Hillary was on the Walmart board of directors too! So much for dems!
Meanwhile, 10s of millions of average Americans who would personally benefit from all these things are doing the Big Boys’ dirty work for them and demanding no socialist-style health care and no raising of taxes. GOP politicians can shrug and say “I’m just doing want my constituents want”.
See, I don’t mind Walmart mopping up on that – as long as Walmart is paying the appropriate amount (%) of gross income on taxes. If businesses making over a million annually and individuals making over a quarter million were taxed at the same rate similar rate as Denmark, we would have health care, a great education system and a *real* space program. On top of that, cut military spending in half and we’d be living in virtual paradise.
I once helped set prices for lab/xray/ekg procedures. I know how Medicaid/Medicare pay rates affected our hospital. They pay less than cost.
Cost is what needs to be controlled.
I also read most of the Hillary-care plan. It was almost the same as what is now on the table. The standard goverment insurance will pay 5% more than Medicaid and it will cost 8% of wages or less based on income. Walmart is going to mop up when they convert their employees to government care!
This health care debate is a joke. What happened to “universal” health care? You don’t hear that much anymore. Forcing me to purchase insurance in not what I had in mind for universal coverage. What they need to do is simply provide Medi-care for all (unless you want to get your insurance another way). But they aren’t even discussing that.
I would just make it illegal to make a profit on health insurance. Insurance companies remind me of those people that poison their spouse for the money.
If the profit incentive is gone then why deny people healthcare and force doctors to go through a bunch of paperwork just to treat someone?
I wish I knew the answer. I was active in the Libertarian Party for many years but I don’t see social change moving in that direction.
I’m not as uncomfortable with true socialized medicine like they have in Europe as I am with regulated health care environment of the US where certain people and inovative practices are excluded to ensure profits for others and protect the status quo practices of the industry.
Socialism. Yes, we socialize some services like law enforcement, fire protection, education, postal service, and road maintenance without ever admitting it. But then we cry SOCIALISM like it was a curse word when it comes to Health Care Reform.
What Americans fail to recognize is that the propozed Health Care Reform doesn’t even vaguely resemble socialism; it is more like facism-lite. I would prefer a free-market but that doesn’t exist in the US, except in drug trafficing and prostitution..
It’s funny, but in America people seem to be unaware how hard insurance companies work to avoid insuring high-risk people and to avoid paying when you need medical care.
Michael Moore’s film Sicko should have been a wake-up call but conservatives shrug him and others off like nothing they publish is real.
Thank you so much for the Norwegian comment. Norway might be squeezing the lemon to hard. But, you still have oil and low population so maybe you can afford it.
Oh wait that’s right… my rights shrink with every presidency. I must have forgotten. Silly me.
Thank you so much for a Canadian view. I was really hoping to get comments from Canadians.
Sure, just like its your right to travel at your own risk without auto insurance. Or, to live in a house without electricity or running water. Or, to grow vegetables in your front yard instead of shrubs and grass. And, to consume or smoke any plant you want. Also, to educate, or not educate your kids.
One of the effects of Health Care Reform is that in the future insurance companies will have to accept ALL applications and will not be able to exclude preexisting condition. I haveno idea how preexisting conditions will affect rates but I’m guessing that they won’t even be able to ask.
Amen! Paying for insurance will be just like paying taxes only private companies will profit.
Amen! People without employer coverage will pay through the nose! Mandates on employers are being reduced.
I’m a Canadian, and while I admit there are some issues with our system, mainly in wait times for non-life threatening operations, I am still very happy to live in a country which does have a “socialized” health care system. Some services should not be “for profit”. Police, firefighters, and military come to mind in addition to health care.
Aha – the catch!
Don’t get why Americans can’t see that paying insurance companies for healthcare, is pretty much the same as paying for it through tax. It’s myth that one has choice in USA, but if you get through your employment, they choose the cheapest. And in small local towns, monopolies are rife.
If you do have a heart-attack, see how much freedom you have to choose companies come renewal time. No such problem here. I’m Irish, and was shocked at the amount of pharma ads; higher costs.
Isn’t it my right to not buy health care coverage if I do not want it?