In light of the Health Care Summit that will take place this Thursday (2/25/2010) I would like to take a minute and attempt to breakdown President Obama’s Proposal for Health Care Reform (HCR). The summit will begin at 10am and last until 4pm, and if your interested in viewing this you can check it out on CSPAN3.

Before I start I would like anyone reading this Blog to ask themselves one question:

Do you believe that every United States Citizens should be able to afford Health Care Insurance?

In my opinion I believe every citizen of the United States should have health insurance. There I said it, call me a Socialist all you want. In our society the phrase “affordable Insurance” is an oxymoron; depending on where you live the cost of health care varies. For example in New York the annual premium health plan was $13,296, while a similar plan in Iowa was $5609 (cost of someone purchasing Health Care on their own since their job or lack of job does not offer insurance).

Even if you are lucky enough to have insurance there is no guarantee you will be covered if you were to ever get sick. Imagine you have a perfectly good job and your job offers great insurance plans. Every paycheck you see your money going towards paying for your health care coverage; you wish more of that money would come to you but hey it’s worth the security, right?? Well, you get sick and this is considered a catastrophic illness (severe illness requiring prolonged hospitalization or recovery). Your insurance will eventually run out and the hospital bills will continue to pile up. Sooner or later it gets to be too much and you can longer survive under the mountain of the bills.

Most people will look at that scenario above and say to themselves well that has not happened to me and I am all good, who does that really happen to? Folks this is very real, 60% of the personal bankruptcies in the United States are due to Medical bills. It doesn’t matter how rich you are; Health Care in this country is out of control!

– 1980 U.S. spent $253 Billion in Health Care cost
– 1990 U.S. spent $714 Billion in Health Care cost
– 2007 U.S. spent $2.2 Trillion in Health Care cost
– 2009 U.S. spent $2.7 Trillion in Health Care cost

Back in 2007 31% of the Health Care cost went to hospital care, and that number will continue to increase as the number of Americans without Health Care continues to rise. It is projected that nearly 7 million people will lose their insurance coverage, a large part of that number comes from people who will lose their job or be denied insurance because of a pre-existing condition. Only the Health Insurance industry can report record earning while losing that many customers. How could that be?

Its simple the less sickly people who insurers have to cover the more money than can save, they can also raise rates and without worrying about competition. Look at Anthem Insurance in California, they will raise their rates 39%. Who can afford that? We know poor people can’t but I know many middle class people cannot afford that type of raise hike. To put it in perspective, say you are paying $700 a month for insurance (which is a lot) with Anthem’s rate hike you’re looking at almost $1000 a month for health insurance. WOW, this is insanity!

If this spending continues and we continue to allow insurance companies to PROFIT off of our illness this country will go bankrupt!

With all that said what will President Obama’s plan do to help cover more people and bring cost down? Let see…..

The President’s Proposal:

• It makes insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history, reducing premium costs for tens of millions of families and small business owners who are priced out of coverage today. This helps over 31 million Americans afford health care who do not get it today – and makes coverage more affordable for many more. The government will put limits on how much anyone will have to pay to receive health care coverage. And depending upon your income, you may be among the tens of millions of Americans who will get a tax credit to help pay for your coverage.

• It sets up a new competitive health insurance market giving tens of millions of Americans the exact same insurance choices that members of Congress will have.

• It brings greater accountability to health care by laying out commonsense rules of the road to keep premiums down and prevent insurance industry abuses and denial of care.

• It will end discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions.

• Allow purchasing Health Care Insurance across state lines. Remember my earlier example of how someone paying for insurance in Iowa is a lot cheaper than purchasing insurance in New York (New York the annual premium health plan was $13,296, while a similar plan in Iowa was $5609).

• It puts our budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the deficit by $100 billion over the next ten years – and about $1 trillion over the second decade – by cutting government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse.

For more information about President Obama’s plan; http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting/proposal

Some will argue that it is not fair for hard-working Americans to help subsidise coverage for the less unfortunate (poor people). In other words some feel that if you can’t afford insurance oh well! If your poor aka lazy (not my words, their words), I should not have to pay for them to get coverage. People wake up, you are already paying for those who are uninsured! Those without insurance or forced to go to hospital emergency rooms for care, when you use emergency rooms as your primary physician (doctor you would use for annual checkup) it is a lot more costly; approximately $1000 per patient. Who do you think pays for that $1000 visit??? U.S. taxpayers, it’s called a hidden tax. So no matter what we are paying for poor aka lazy people; if you have insurance you will be less inclined to avoid going to the doctor. Something as simple as an annual checkup could prevent a small issue turning into something bigger.

Very simple pay a price now in providing 30 million more Americans health care or pay a larger price allowing that 30 million uninsured to use emergency rooms across the United States.

If anything else I implore people to do the research, and figure it out for yourself. This proposal includes Republican ideas, no more excuses John Boehner and Eric Cantor. No more false rumors about Death Panels, government choosing your doctor, or illegal immigrants being covered. If you don’t believe me check it out yourself!

26 Lies About Health Care Reform; http://www.factcheck.org/2009/08/twenty-six-lies-about-hr-3200/

By the way, for the people who say we should not focus on this as job creation is more important. The Center for American Progress estimates that 250,000 to 400,000 jobs will be created by Heath Care Reform; http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/01/pdf/health_care_jobs.pdf

Let’s stop the nonsense, pass Health Care Reform. The U.S. ranks #1 in Health Care cost but at best we are middle of the pack when compared to other nations. So let us not wait until it’s too late, it is time for reform. 1 Trillion is a lot of money, I can’t deny that. When you look at how much we spent last year it is cheaper to fix than to leave it alone. 1 Trillion < 2.7 Trillion!!!

As always….
If there is something to be said, “It’s On Broadway” to step up and say it!!!