Health Care Reform: The Morning After

~Submitted by special guest contributor, Barbara O'Brien of The Mahablog fame.

Many politicians and pundits warned us that the health care reform (HCR) legislation that just became law will destroy America. Government bureaucrats will take over health care decisions, we were told. The old and infirm would be hauled away by death panels. Everything about the way we receive our medical care will change, and change drastically, they said.

Medicare recipients have been frightened by stories that their benefits will be cut. Middle-age people are worried they will lose their jobs when the law’s dreaded regulations, or taxes, or maybe regulations with taxes, would destroy their employers’ businesses.

The truth is, very little will change for most people. If you were insured by employee benefits before HCR, you will be insured by exactly the same policy in exactly the same way after HCR. You will have access to the same doctors on the same terms. “Government bureaucrats” will no more be involved in your health care than they were before.

And the same is true of Medicare, which of course is a government program, although many of the people who opposed the HCR bill don’t seem to know that.

Here are the “cataclysmic” changes to health care that are now in effect, or which will go into effect within the next six months for people who are already in group insurance plans:

• The law says you can’t lose your insurance coverage because you get sick. Before, in many states, if you were stricken with a severe illness such as mesothelioma cancer that would be expensive to treat, your insurer could use just about any excuse to cancel your coverage. That is over.

• HCR has ended lifetime limits on coverage. As long as you are receiving medical care, your insurer pays the bills.

• Your children can be covered on your existing policy until they are 26 years old.

• In six months, insurers cannot refuse to insure people under the age of 19 because of “pre-existing conditions.” This provision will go into effect for everyone in 2014.

And if you are on Medicare, you will be asked to struggle with the following:

• You get a free annual checkup.

• The co-pays and deductibles on many preventive care services are eliminated.

• If you are in the Medicare D “doughnut hole,” doughnut hole,” doughnut hole,” doughnut hole,” you will get a $250 rebate check in a few weeks. The hole itself will be closed gradually and will be gone by 2020.

But what about all those terrible regulations and taxes that are about to drive businesses out of business? Um, there really isn’t much to report. Oh, wait, here’s one — a 10 percent tax on indoor tanning services that use ultraviolet lamps will go into effect July 1. That’s about it.

However, beginning this year a tax credit will be available for some small businesses to help provide insurance coverage for employees.

Soon the politicians and pundits will start trying to frighten you about the provisions that will go into effect after this year. I assure you they are about as scary as the provisions that go into effect this year, but I will discuss them in a follow-up post.

— Barbara O’Brien

Stupak Abortion Lie is Getting Coverage

Via JHW22:
...Jonathan Karl and Diane Sawyer took action at ABC World News. They covered Rep. Stupak’s lies in their truth squad segment Friday night.

Jonathan Karl: "We've taken out the 10 pages or so that deal directly with abortion. It begins on page 2069 and sets out very specific rules on abortion coverage...

[Nancy] Pelosi is right in that the bill makes it clear, there can be no federal money for abortion except in the cases of rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother... There's a provision that says if you choose a policy that covers abortion you have to pay $1.00 a month out of your own pocket to pay for the abortion coverage. The insurance company is supposed to keep that dollar separate, but Stupak says that line will always be blurred.

Stupak makes a further claim: 'When you read the legislation, one dollar per month for all enrollees must go into a fund for reproductive care, which includes abortion coverage.' That's actually wrong. In fact, you only pay the one dollar abortion fee if you choose a plan that covers abortion. To anti-abortion advocates like Stupak, the only acceptable solution is a complete ban on abortion coverage by any insurance company that accepts any federal money at all."

Kudos to Jennifer for being on top of this story. She pounded the pavement... er, keyboard, and made phone calls until someone listened and the story picked up steam. There is a large list of media contacts on her Kos diary if you'd like to rattle the cage as well, or thank ABC for getting the story right.

Quote of the Day

If you saw a woman struck by a car, would you call an ambulance right away? Or would you first ask for her papers to make sure she was not an illegal immigrant? - E.J. Dionne on the prospect of Rep. Joe Wilson and other GOP members spreading the health care coverage for illegal aliens lie.

Puts things in perspective, doesn't it?

Framing the Health Care Debate

We've been listening to what classifies as health care [air quotes] debates [end air quotes] nonstop from the talking heads on the television machine for months and there's one thing that's been driving me absolutely insane. Not one, single, solitary person has categorized the public option as a compromised position.

Whether it be a Democrat (save Anthony Weiner) or Republican politician being interviewed, a round table pundit, or a cable studio desk jockey, every time the public option is mentioned, it's framed as what the left wants. Actually, no. What the left would like is a single payer plan. HR676. Medicare for all.

This framing has shifted the overall center of the sad notion of "bipartishanship" from a public option to some half-assed scheme of co-ops, triggers or what's become apparent, a Max Baucus Bill that has taken a month to be crapped out of the wrinkly asses of the Gang of Six. When will the mainstream media correct the fantastically stupid notion that independents and moderates don't want a public option? When explained and polled, 77% are in favor of a public option. 80% of AARP members are in favor of it. Even 60% of Republicans are in favor of it. When did 77% become the "liberal left"? That looks like a majority to me.

In anticipation of tonight address to a joint session of Congress, I'm hoping President Obama will actually frame the debate correctly. I'm also hoping against hope that he'll call out by name, those that have been fear mongering with the egregious death panel lies, the "government-run" health care misinformation, and the protecters of the health insurance industry.

Enough is enough. There's no problem with disagreeing with certain positions on this debate, but when you have to resort to flat out making shit up like pulling the plug on grandma or inclusion of illegal aliens as the first step toward evil Obama Socialism, you just lose credibility with the 77% of the population that knows bullshit when they hear it.

Cartoon of the Day

Courtesy of reader Virtual Kevin.

President Obama's Weekly Address - August 22, 2009

Myths and Morality in Health Insurance Reform

Rubes

What a surprise. The states with the highest uninsured population are the ones who are falling for the health care myths, mostly in the south and west, because it's so much easier to believe that big, bad, black Obama is gonna kill your grammy, take your money, insure illegal aliens and take over health care when you want to believe it.

According to Gallup, of the 25 states with the greatest percentage of the uninsured, all but three are based in the South or the Midwest.

Texas - 27 percent of the population is uninsured
New Mexico --- 25.6 percent
Mississippi - 24 percent
Louisiana - 22.4 percent
Nevada - 22.2 percent
Oklahoma - 22.2 percent (considered a Midwest state)
California - 21 percent
Wyoming - 20.7 percent
Florida - 20.7 percent
Georgia - 20.7 percent
South Carolina - 20.4 percent
Montana - 20.3 percent
Alaska -- 20.2 percent
Arkansas - 20.1 percent
Colorado - 20 percent
Oregon - 19.4 percent
West Virginia - 19.3 percent (considered a Northeast state)
North Carolina - 19.3 percent
Idaho - 18.8 percent
Utah - 18.1 percent
Kentucky - 17.9 percent
Tennessee - 17.8 percent
Nebraska - 17.7 percent
Alabama - 17.2 percent
Missouri - 17.1 percent (considered a Midwest state)