I for one have been asking GOP'ers to articulate McCain's plan to fix the pressing health care issue, my most important issue.
As your are aware, we had a little baby girl three weeks ago. We have been insuring the kids through a state program called Healthy Families, which provides low cost premiums ($13 a month for both Lucia and Marco). We had assumed that Nikki's insurance (through my work) would cover Sylvie for at least 30 days, as previous insurance we had. But Kaiser informed us that they only cover 30 days in the month of birth! That is if a child is born on the 1st, she is covered for 30 days, but if she is born on the last day of the month, that child gets only 1 day of coverage. Since Sylvia was born the 29th, she only had 3 days of coverage. Sylvia's return to the hospital on the 1st was not covered at all. That is so unfair. Consequently I had to sign Sylvie up through work, which will cost almost $200 a month!
Here, the NY Times reports on McCain's health care initiative:
OK, a correspondent directs me to John McCain’s article, Better Health Care at Lower Cost for Every American, in the Sept./Oct. issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries. You might want to be seated before reading this.
Here’s what McCain has to say about the wonders of market-based health reform:
Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.
So McCain, who now poses as the scourge of Wall Street, was praising financial deregulation like 10 seconds ago — and promising that if we marketize health care, it will perform as well as the financial industry!
Here’s what McCain has to say about the wonders of market-based health reform:
Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.
So McCain, who now poses as the scourge of Wall Street, was praising financial deregulation like 10 seconds ago — and promising that if we marketize health care, it will perform as well as the financial industry!
4 comments:
what is Obama's stand?
I cringe every time I hear people advocate for "market based" solutions to the healthcare problems we face. We already know the outcome of such systems, they have been in place for years and don't work if one's goals include affordability, comprehensive coverage, and equitable distribution of care.
Market based systems for health care are inherently unethical.
How about give people a choice, like education? Public or private? But at least free access is available to all-as a fundamental right, not a priveledge?
Nikki,
That is how it is in England. Everyone is covered by the National Health plan, but if they want to purchase private insurance, say to get an elective surgery sooner, they can do that. These private plans are still very affordable, because most people still go to the NHS for doctor's visits etc, just select the private coverage that they want, maternity in a private hospital etc. Waiting lists are not long for surgeries that are in any way life threatening, or if the person is in great pain etc. When Nick and Annette's son Tom was on his mission and had the food poisoning, he was in the hospital on full life support, having many many blood transfusions for months and it did not cost them any more than their usual taxes. Something like that would break a person here.
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