Health Care Debate - Athens, OH

the government can't seem to run anything effectively. Medicare is a govt program that is ranpunt with fraud and waste, they can start by cleaning that up and if successful move on to bigger things.

I don't want to be controlled and I don't want my children indebted forever for this cause. I want a Gov. owned by the people--not visa-versa.

I work as a future medical professional (student in clinical rotations right now) and trust me this bill is bad news for everyone.
This bill will effectively give the US government a pure monopoly on health care. The states in the current bill must provide a private insurance option of equal care and value as the public option in order to opt out of the public option.
If the public option is handled the same way as the other public health care programs (Medicaid, Medicare) then private companies will not be able to compete. Why not? Because the two government run health care options (Medicaid and Medicare) balance their budgets each year by cutting services and cutting reimbursement rates for physicians and hospitals. The average reimbursement for services provided to medicare/medicaid patients is 60% of the actual cost of the service provided. Meaning if you run 6 tests on a patient you are paid 60% of what you normally charge private insurance companies. So medicare/medicaid is having its budget balanced on the backs of the people providing the health care. How is this fair? Would any of you be OK with the government forcing you to take a 40% pay cut over night? I doubt it. The public option will be no different. More and more folks will be dropped from their insurance because insurance companies will not be able to compete so more and more folks will be added to the public option, meaning more and more doctors will be forced to take a lower rate of reimbursement. This means private insurance patients will see an increase in their health care costs (sorry it's a business folks and we have to balance our budgets too!) to offset the theft from the government in the public options. This means you will eventually lose your private insurance and be forced to the public option. This doesn't mention the fact that several providers will opt out of providing care to individuals with the public option just like they have with medicaid and medicare. You will lose your doctor and be forced to go see a different doctor. The hospitals will be flooded with the public option patients (hospitals have to take medicaid/medicare as non-profits) so you will wait much longer to see your doctor (health care is a commodity just like anything else and their is only a certain amount of care that can be given in a day).

Bottom line: This is a government take over of health care and gives the government a monopoly on health care. It's been crafted so well and the government has played on your fears and your good nature to help those who need help, but guess what it's a lie!

We can fix the problem without a public option!
1. Allow folks to buy insurance policies across state lines like you can with auto insurance. This has drastically cut auto insurance premiums.
2. Put in tort reform so a doctor isn't spending half their take home pay to pay for malpractice insurance for years even if they do not have an incident! Too many litigious people in this society who outright lie to their doctors about symptoms and problems or put off medical care and then when something goes wrong it's everyone else's fault, but their own.
3. Insurance needs to return to how it used to be. Insurance pays 80% of your costs and you pay the other 20%. No co pays, no deductibles for routine things. You pick up some of the tab for your health care costs when you see the doctor. You actually pay when you receive care, not all the time. This keeps costs down.
4. Give businesses (especially small businesses) tax breaks and incentives to give their employees health care. Right now the current administration is punishing businesses that provide health care to their workers! The government is the largest provider of health care to its employees in the U.S., but I don't see them taking a tax hit?!?
5. Sit down with insurance companies and physicians to work out fair reimbursement rates for every procedure. They publish a procedural code book every year with reimbursement rates and this is an ongoing process so it shouldn't be hard to do!

WE DON'T NEED A PUBLIC OPTION! WE HAVE MEDICAID FOR INDIVIDUALS WHO CAN'T WORK! DO SOMETHING FOR THE WORKING CLASS INSTEAD OF ALWAYS FOR THE SUPER POOR!

the American voting public is squarely opposed to this boondoggle, yet the Democrat-led Congress plods ever closer to disaster as they craft and plan the passage of this unaffordable health bill.

Why?

Money. Power. Period.

I oppose it because the govt. cant afford it i cant afford it america cant either. also what is their to fix they want to take the best health care system in the world and completly change it. also it did not become the best system in the world being ran by the govt.

why try and completly destroy the best health care system in the world with a hypothetical system that will like other health care services provided by the govt. fail. look at how are vets are treated