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asshole reporter
asshole reporter
is there a transcript?
Did you watch the whole thing?
He kind of started that way...but then talked it out.
The kid knows of what he speaks, and understands private controls MUST be kept on board to help control costs/provide the good that the market CAN provide; makes a PERFECT analogy to his own dental coverage - of which he self-insures.
I bet NONE of the candidates can speak as eloquently as he does on the subject - props to him for not just being a lazy child of an LA doctor. Also, props to him for gravitating toward the candidate espousing universal coverage, but not straight socialization of healthcare. Shows a real bent to not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Ruplicans/Conservatives should get behind an idea like this to forestall the more extreme options which are out there.
Tax Breaks/Credits for Individual healthcare, with as few government mandates of what that coverage MUST include (meaning people pay for only what they need/want vs. having mandated benefits - something which has really driven up group rates) - would go a long way to slowing or reversing the trends in healthcare.
Another simple concept which would help - is (not mandate what a hospital charges), but mandate that a hospital/healtcare provider list is make its charges public for all to see, for every procedure/drug/durable or disposable good they sell - and charge that same price to all customers, be they an insurance company, the government, or an individual. A literal FORTUNE is spent by insurance carriers/provider network administrators (not the same thing) on one side, and the hospitals on the other, negotiating, and administering what something is going to cost; specialist and lawyers ON BOTH SIDES every couple of years hammering out the deals, and then auditers/programmers after the contract is signed making sure the bills are adjudicated as per the contract - and then the other side readjudicating ad nauseaum. It is a major source of waste (of course the process DOES provide many white-collar and clerical jobs).
Barack Obama's Plan
Quality, Affordable and Portable Coverage for All
* Obama's Plan to Cover Uninsured Americans: Obama will make available a new national health plan to all Americans, including the self-employed and small businesses, to buy affordable health coverage that is similar to the plan available to members of Congress. The Obama plan will have the following features:
A necessity if you want 100% coverage.1. Guaranteed eligibility. No American will be turned away from any insurance plan because of illness or pre-existing conditions.
This is short-sighted and will drive up costs. As the boy in the video explained it is cheaper for him to pay for his dental work than to pay an insurance company to pay for his dental work. Why should a woman who has no intention of having children pay for maternity coverage? Why should a guy who hates doctors pay for well-care (physicals) he's never going to use? Mental health/drug dependency premiums should be optional, as well.2. Comprehensive benefits. The benefit package will be similar to that offered through Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), the plan members of Congress have. The plan will cover all essential medical services, including preventive, maternity and mental health care.
Also, the more mandated benefits, the more special interests of businesses/providers will make damn sure THEIR industry gets some of that mandated "gravy". Chiropractic comes to mind.
Finally, it is just logical that if I pay for a service ON THE SPOT, rather than that service being billed to separate en y, who examines it for legitimacy, then cuts a check on my behalf (and has to report to the IRS that that provider got paid so HE doesn't cheat on his taxes), will cost less overall.
The more mandates, the more administration required, the more that the only way to keep it "affordable" is for the government to make up the difference. Which doesn't really mean, "affordable", it means "it still cost a whole lot, but we have layered an ADDITIONAL bureacracy between that to hide exactly what the entire cost to me really is. The average American, by DEFINITION will have to pay more in taxes than the ultimate benefit they receive will provide to cover the bureacracy.3. Affordable premiums, co-pays and deductibles.
Wealth redistribution. It is what it is, and necessary if you want 100% coverage.4. Subsidies. Individuals and families who do not qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP but still need financial assistance will receive an income-related federal subsidy to buy into the new public plan or purchase a private health care plan.
The government has shown a great ability to simplify administrative tasks and control costs, this shouldn't be a problem.5. Simplified paperwork and reined in health costs.
Social Security/Medicaire and Medicaid and your local DMV are all examples of how easy the government can make enrolling in various programs. Again, I'm sure it will work.6. Easy enrollment. The new public plan will be simple to enroll in and provide ready access to coverage.
Again, with the government administering the whole thing, a siimple promise to keep.7. Portability and choice. Participants in the new public plan and the National Health Insurance Exchange (see below) will be able to move from job to job without changing or jeopardizing their health care coverage.
Great. The government will keep those insurance companies in line! It's not like the companies won't have a gaggle of lobbyists in Washington or anything simply putting window-dressing on bad results! The new regulatory authority will, I'm sure, also be a model of efficiency.8. Quality and efficiency. Participating insurance companies in the new public program will be required to report data to ensure that standards for quality, health information technology and administration are being met.
THIS IS THE BEST NEWS YET!!! I won't actually buy insurance! I'll just wait till I get sick AND THEN buy it!!! Think of all the premium dollars I'll save, because the insurance companies won't be able to charge me ANY EXTRA!* National Health Insurance Exchange: The Obama plan will create a National Health Insurance Exchange to help individuals who wish to purchase a private insurance plan. The Exchange will act as a watchdog group and help reform the private insurance market by creating rules and standards for participating insurance plans to ensure fairness and to make individual coverage more affordable and accessible. Insurers would have to issue every applicant a policy, and charge fair and stable premiums that will not depend upon health status.
I wonder if Obama can do this with car and homeowners insurance too?? Then I could only buy those AFTER an accident or fire!! What a deal!!!
So, will it be illegal for ANY insurance company to offer ANY plan that doesn't include all of the mandated benefits? I HAVE to buy coverage for maternity and mental health and whatever else is mandated? O.K.The Exchange will require that all the plans offered are at least as generous as the new public plan and have the same standards for quality and efficiency. The Exchange would evaluate plans and make the differences among the plans, including cost of services, public.
Feed the beast.* Employer Contribution: Employers that do not offer or make a meaningful contribution to the cost of quality health coverage for their employees will be required to contribute a percentage of payroll toward the costs of the national plan. Small employers that meet certain revenue thresholds will be exempt.
I would rather vote for the guy in the video.
Details in the meda! How evil!
A reporter actually tries to get specifics and he is an asshole. Pathetic liberals.
Props to this guy though. He did 100000x better than the republican/democrat supporters on Jay Leno who couldn't even identify their left shoe from a pineapple.
He's an asshole, as big as yours, for stepping all over the interviewee's words.
Of the two, which guy was the most sincere and serioius, merits respect?
The "free market" has created a horribly massive, hyper-complex, and wildly over-expensive nightmare of a racket of US healthcare system. Who expects the random man on the street to have a fully elaborated specific solution 300M people ready for an stinking asshole with mic and camera? other assholes.
You didn't watch the whole thing.
Also, our healthcare is, by no means, a result of a "free market". Nearly 50% of it is already socialized, and the rest is regulatedand manipulated by government dictate. The Govt. got us into the mess.
Well, the kid is....articulate. Lol
Good job by the reporter for asking the tough questions, and good job by the kid answering them.
Well done. YES WE CAN!!
Better then being just a plain old asshole like yourself.
His plan won't work.
NO HE CAN'T!!
yes, yes, yes PRIVATE HMO, private doctors, private insurance companies, etc, etc are all so tightly regulated that we now have a mess.
and of course Medicare/Medicaid is the root of ALL evil.
Expanding Medicare/Medicaid is probably the best place to implement universal coverage, paid for with mandated universal consumer payments, take as payroll deductions, just like Social Security. Rather than starting up a totally new system from scratch.
I figure Obama will be forced to go with mandatory later, as the evidence for mandatory is pretty strong, from many quarters.
Profit-free expanded, universal Medicate/Medicaid should be allowed to compete head-on with for-profit private health insurers, who need to be ed over royally and out of the business altogether.
Great Idea! As it stands currently the government has more mandates on Private Insurers in terms of what they have to cover, how quickly they have to pay, etc...than it puts on itself; go figure.
YOU want to set up compe ion between one en y, and ANOTHER en y that the prior has COMPLETE and utter dominion over??!!!
ing Brilliant!
Batman Vs. Robin
Rd. 1 "Robin, give me your belt." "O.K. Batman"
KAPOW!!!!!
Boutons, I thought you were smarter than that.
"Private Insurers in terms of what they have to cover,"
but the insurers can and do cancel 1000s of people all the time.
Some people are exceeding their LIFETIME caps in coverage
dubya's medicare privatization plan actually gave $50B in sudsidy to private insurers to make them compe ive and get them to join the privatization. why? because the insurance companies waste so much in overheads, NOT because they payout insurance claims.
Got any links for that hogwash?
The vast majority of people in this country covered by insurance carriers are covered under group plans. They don't get cancelled by the Insurers.
Lifetime caps are almost all $2 - 5 million now; although recently they were as low as $1 million. As the costs have risen, so have the caps. Are you at all upset at the docs and hospitals that actually RECEIVED the money practicing expensive, seldom succesfull end of life heroics on near corpses? or only the insurance companies that paid it?
Again, show me the statistics. Show me ALL the people who have been cancelled.
I'm sure it'll work MUCH better when the government is in control, huh? They fix everything they touch.
I think, if given the chance, I'd vote for that interviewee.
No ones answered this yet.
Whos gonna pay for it....
Man that was a great YouTube.
Like everything else these days; we'll get a loan from the Chinese. Don't worry about the details, man...YES WE CAN.
I didn't see anybody who got cancelled, although several, with hemophilia and organ transplants went through their caps.
That is certainly a sad situation.
The article begins with "a small but growing number of Americans...."
Should the plight of those few mean we should go ahead and turn another 18% of our economy to a government that has shown time and again that it can't successfully manage anything? Do you actually think that will help control the cost? I don't. In fact, when the government takes over, I'm afraid some utilitarian bureaucrat, without fear of lawsuit that insurance carriers have, will decide the benefit of those treatmetents is outweighed by the costs.
Social Security already covers dialysis treatments for people who have had kidney failure (runs about $5k per week until the person dies). Hemophilia seems like a candidate for the same kind of solution.
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