What the healthcare bill has in store (the waiting starts immediately)

[Ion01 2]

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AP
- November 05, 2009
Democrats' Plan to Help 'Uninsurables' Requires 6-Month Wait

In addition to a six-month wait to qualify for the health insurance program, there's a more fundamental issue -- whether $5 billion set aside for the three-year program is enough.


WASHINGTON - You're afraid your cancer is back, and a health insurance company just turned you down.

Under the health care bills in Congress, you could apply for coverage through a new high-risk pool that President Barack Obama promises would immediately start serving patients with pre-existing medical problems.

Wait a second. Read the fine print. You may have to be uninsured for six months to qualify.

"If you are a cancer patient and have cancer now, you can't wait six months to go into a plan because your condition can go from bad to death," said Stephen Finan, a policy expert with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. He called the waiting period in the Senate bill "unacceptable."

Advocates for people with serious health problems, as well as some insurance experts, are raising questions about one of the most important upfront benefits in the Democratic health care legislation: a high-risk pool for the medically uninsurable.

Obama proposed the pool in his September health care speech to Congress. Intended to serve the most vulnerable as a temporary fail-safe, it would stay in place until 2013. That's when insurance companies would be banned from denying coverage because of medical problems.

Government subsidies to make coverage more affordable for millions of uninsured would also start that year.

Now, concerns are being raised about the design of the high-risk pools. In addition to the six-month wait, there's a more fundamental issue -- whether $5 billion set aside for the three-year program is enough. The money would be used to help people in poor health pay premiums.

Obama credits his Republican presidential rival, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, for the risk-pools idea. But when the GOP candidate proposed it in 2008, the estimated cost was $7 billion to $10 billion a year.

The six-month wait is in the health care bill the Senate Finance Committee approved last month. To qualify for the pool, patients must be turned down for coverage because of a pre-existing condition and uninsured for at least six months.

"If you are somebody with cancer or a heart condition who needs immediate coverage and immediate treatment, that's not very helpful," said Karen Pollitz, a Georgetown University health policy professor.

Senate Finance staffers say the restriction is meant to prevent people switching from more expensive coverage to take advantage of government assistance.

But the House health care bill unveiled last week by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., doesn't include a waiting period. Instead, it would require insurance plans who "dump" seriously ill patients to repay the federal pool. "The House provision will provide immediate relief for people with high-risk conditions who have no alternative for coverage," said Finan.

It may be easier to fix the waiting period than the financing.

Both the House and the Senate Finance bills set aside $5 billion for the pools.

"It doesn't seem like it's near enough money," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who was a top domestic policy adviser for McCain. The McCain campaign ultimately concluded it could take as much as $20 billion a year to properly run risk pools, he said. The White House says McCain's proposal was more elaborate and not directly comparable to Obama's.

If the Democrats' risk pool starts running out of money, the government may have to start a waiting list, raise premiums or take other unpopular measures. Congress could be asked for a bailout.

Several independent experts say concerns about the financing are valid.

"It would seem that ($5 billion) is going to be small relative to the need," said Thomas Buchmueller, a University of Michigan business professor.

Some 30 states now have risk pools for those who can't get health insurance on the private market, covering about 200,000 people at a cost of around $1 billion a year.

"This is clearly not going to be enough money to cover everybody," said Pollitz.

Insurance expert John Bertko, a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution, said it may be possible to stretch the $5 billion, but there's a small margin for error.

Bertko said his "back of the envelope" math suggests there are about 1 million uninsured Americans in poor health, or five times the number currently covered by state high-risk pools. If all of them signed up for the new federal pool, it would burn through the $5 billion in a year.

However, people eligible for government benefits often fail to sign up. And if only one-third were to enroll, the budget could work.

That's cutting it close. "No doubt about that," said Bertko.

[Ion01 2]

Let me help everyone out real quick:

Ion01- You need to stop your fear mongering! You are just a racist that is against our black president. Quit using sites that are just an arm of the GOP! You just want everyone to die quickly!

I just wanted to save some people some time so they won't have to type all that....I just did it for you.

[airdvr 210]

They still think they can pick up that turd from the clean end.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[Lucky... 0]

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Let me help everyone out real quick:

Ion01- You need to stop your fear mongering! You are just a racist that is against our black president. Quit using sites that are just an arm of the GOP! You just want everyone to die quickly!

I just wanted to save some people some time so they won't have to type all that....I just did it for you.

You missd one: Go outside, the sky isn't actually falling.

[StreetScooby 5]

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You missd one: Go outside, the sky isn't actually falling.

So how do people describe a social disaster where you're from? Does Mugabe even allow people to talk about it?

We are all engines of karma

[airdvr 210]

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You missd one: Go outside, the sky isn't actually falling.

So how do people describe a social disaster where you're from? Does Mugabe even allow people to talk about it?

Hehe...good one. He's afraid to say where he's really from.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[StreetScooby 5]

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He's afraid to say where he's really from.

His profile says Zimbabwe. I can only take him at his word.

We are all engines of karma

[airdvr 210]

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He's afraid to say where he's really from.

His profile says Zimbabwe. I can only take him at his word.

Not a very good return on your investment then.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[Lucky... 0]

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You missd one: Go outside, the sky isn't actually falling.

So how do people describe a social disaster where you're from? Does Mugabe even allow people to talk about it?

Everything doesn't come back to Mugabee. Sad that that is your only out.

As for a social disaster, we elect a Dem to solve those.

[Lucky... 0]

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He's afraid to say where he's really from.

His profile says Zimbabwe. I can only take him at his word.

Not a very good return on your investment then.

What took so long to slither off to ad hominem? Hell, rush was there an hour ago.

[airdvr 210]

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What took so long to slither off to ad hominem? Hell, rush was there an hour ago.

It is most often introduced into a discussion by certain delicate types, delicate of personality and mind, whenever their opponents resort to a bit of sarcasm. As soon as the suspicion of an insult appears, they summon the angels of ad hominem to smite down their foes, before ascending to argument heaven in a blaze of sanctimonious glory. They may not have much up top, but by God, they don't need it when they've got ad hominem on their side. It's the secret weapon that delivers them from any argument unscathed.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[Lucky... 0]

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What took so long to slither off to ad hominem? Hell, rush was there an hour ago.

It is most often introduced into a discussion by certain delicate types, delicate of personality and mind, whenever their opponents resort to a bit of sarcasm. As soon as the suspicion of an insult appears, they summon the angels of ad hominem to smite down their foes, before ascending to argument heaven in a blaze of sanctimonious glory. They may not have much up top, but by God, they don't need it when they've got ad hominem on their side. It's the secret weapon that delivers them from any argument unscathed.

....says the guy who just claimed my word is no good.

Now, back to the regularly scheduled argument.

[georgerussia 0]

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Let me help everyone out real quick:
Ion01- You need to stop your fear mongering! You are just a racist that is against our black president. Quit using sites that are just an arm of the GOP! You just want everyone to die quickly!

More likely "Ion01, are you attempting to join the dreamdancer-led CopyPasta Gang by copy-pasting the whole article from another site and not saying a single word on your own?"

* Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

[rushmc 23]

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Let me help everyone out real quick:
Ion01- You need to stop your fear mongering! You are just a racist that is against our black president. Quit using sites that are just an arm of the GOP! You just want everyone to die quickly!

More likely "Ion01, are you attempting to join the dreamdancer-led CopyPasta Gang by copy-pasting the whole article from another site and not saying a single word on your own?"

No good retort yet again?

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[georgerussia 0]

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No good retort yet again?

Why? If a poster makes no effort to write his own opinion, and just copypastes everything, why would I spend time arguing with someone who is even not here, is a paid professional, and whose job is to support specific agendas?

* Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

[rushmc 23]

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No good retort yet again?

Why? If a poster makes no effort to write his own opinion, and just copypastes everything, why would I spend time arguing with someone who is even not here, is a paid professional, and whose job is to support specific agendas?

As I am sure you know, most of the time the person who is posting has opinions that are known. Most here, all but one anyway who has not been here in a day or two, uses those posts to back up the positions they take. Some to more and some to lesser degrees. Read em and make comments or, keep doing what you are doing. I don't care, but you will get called on it the SAME at you do to others. You might want to get used to it or leave. Those are the only choices you have

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[georgerussia 0]

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As I am sure you know, most of the time the person who is posting has opinions that are known. Most here, all but one anyway who has not been here in a day or two, uses those posts to back up the positions they take. Some to more and some to lesser degrees. Read em and make comments or, keep doing what you are doing.

At least you're not asking for "good retort" anymore, which is progress. Regarding everything else, my words stay the same - I'm interested to discuss issues with real people who are present here, not with quoted paid professionals who are not here and cannot clarify details.

* Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

[pirana 0]

Fucking idiot politicians are making a bigger mess than they are trying to fix.

Guarantee issue should be a cornerstone. How the hell do you have unisnsureable people and pre-existing conditions if there is guarantee issue? Did I miss something? Have they scrapped that basic tenet? Fucking morons.

We are going to get the worst of most worlds. Maybe it is good that I am out of the biz. Instead of pulling my hair out at work while this thing unfolds - I can just put on some popcorn and watch things implode.

" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley