Majority leader: House will pass health bill

I'm at the point where I'd like to see our country divided into two nations: the conservatives, Republicans, Rush Limbaugh-Glenn Beck lovers, Sarah Palins and Joe Wilsons, religious zealots, etc. given the southern states where most of them reside anyway--and the rest of us given the northern states where most of us reside. Everyone would be happier.

Reading this stuff is kinda like when I was a kid watching the Soupy Sales show on Saturday morning - lots of laughs!

I love that David Boehner is touting the constitution as he rails against this bill. The man is from the same party as Bush who totlally ignored our constitution for 8 years. The GOP cares nothing about this country.

Considering the size of this bill, I honestly doubt anybody posting here on either side of the political aisle has ready any of it. At the same time many who have commented here have voiced some pretty strong opinions that would lead me to believe they have read it.

What I find really depressing is that I am sure both sides are lying to us and so they have us so confused we don't know who to trust anymore.

I do know that the insurance companies don't care about anything but their shareholders and annual profit margins. So they instinctively will hate and fight against anything that is designed to help us because it hurts their profits.

I actually read portions of the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962) which is the final, merged version of the health care reform legislation that the House has been working on for much of 2009.

The bill contains a moderate compromise on the public option by requiring the HHS Secretary to negotiate provider reimbursement rates rather than having them tied to Medicare. The bill also would require all individuals to have insurance, establish a new health insurance exchange, require most employers to provide insurance and ban insurance companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

I believe this bill allows you to keep the insurance you have if you wish and in most cases those of us who are employed will keep what we have. The only difference is that there would be protections in place to safeguard our access and hopefully the cost to healthcare. I'm for this in principal.

The bill also makes numerous references to "shared responsibility" which to me really gets to the root of the problem. As Americans we each have to take responsibility for our health and not pin our visits to the ER on everyone else because we can't or won't get ourselves insured. The insurance companies have a responsibility to long time customers who have paid into their coffers over a lifetime. And Government has to take responsibility since the current annual costs of healthcare are so out of control they are literally eating up our budget.

Allowing the healthcare industry to self regulate has created a scenario where we pay too much and receive too little.

AR,

Apparently this congressman isn't aware of Medicare!

Tax, Spend, Socialize, and blame Bush

This is not just about health care, it' about this government having more control over us americans. I don't care if your a rep. or a dem. if they vote for this bill, I will vote to put them out of office

We don't have to worry where the money is coming from to support this healthcare bill. We will be taxed accordingly. We can even work and all our money can be withheld by the government. The government can supply us food, gas, etc. based on our needs. There would be nothing to worry about as far as banking and taxes is concerned.

Some of you people are paranoid, and other just downright ignorant, spouting off about topics of which you know nothing. I am an American Citizen who has lived both in the United States and in Canada (home of dreaded socialized medicine). I have received excellent health care in both countries.

In the United States, over the course of my career, I was a senior executive with two major international companies, and believe me, my medical plan was gold-plated. As a retiree now living in my childhood town in Canada, my medical plan is also gold-plated.

In the United States, I had three bouts of melanoma with associated treatment. My total cost, a $10 co-pay each time I went to the doctor. I also had knee surgery again with my total out-of-pocket a $10 co-pay for doctors visits.

In Canada, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer about 18 months ago. She had surgery, 16 weeks of chemo, and 29 radiation treatments. I never saw any kind of bill, so I do not know what any of this cost. (I was told by the hospital pharmacist that one drug, administered 24 hours after each chemo treatment to stabilize WBC cost about $2,500 per shot and my wife had eight of them.) By contrast, a friend of ours from Ohio, who has moved to Houston, was prescribed a new medication by his doctor for cancer, and his insurance company refused to pay for it.

My wife has a wonderful oncologist, and any test the doctor has booked has been done with no questions asked, in a very timely fashion. Virtually every type of scan currently invented, including bone scans, CT scans, MRI, and even bone marrow testing and ultrasound testing has been done, and I am delighted to say all have come back clear. I have a friend who is a director on a hospital board in Michigan, and he says a breast cancer experience like my wife’s, can cost anywhere between $300K and $1million. Our out-of-pocket cost was $2.50 for parking in the hospital parking lot every visit.

Having been treated in both countries, I have done a bit of research into the two systems. Medical costs in the US are at least 15% higher than in Canada, just for the paperwork, with a multiplicity of forms needed for various insurance companies in the US, versus a single payer in Canada.

The public system in Canada, does not have an overseeing board, or cost reduction specialists who decide whether or not to allow someone to have a particular treatment or specific medication. Our doctor or specialist decides what we need and the single payer system covers the cost. Canada also does not have a private web of insurance companies bent on making a profit. If a Met Life or Blue Cross/Blue Shield makes a profit, which they do quite handsomely, that is just additional cost over what the real medical care costs. I think these types of companies should be forced out of business through competition from a public plan, thus stopping the leaches from sucking money from employers or individuals who pay their premiums.

I simply cannot understand the fuss in the United States over this issue. Why any sane individual would lobby for an unnecessary layer of cost, staffed by people who may refuse you the treatment your doctor says you need, in order to put profits into the hands of shareholders and into the pockets of overpaid executives, while still leaving 45 million or so Americans with absolutely no coverage, is beyond me.

For this WH to come out and say there are NO alternatives being offered is a blatent LIE! People are NOT losing their health care right and left. Yes it is a problem, but we can NOT allow passage of ANY bill being put forth by people who find it so easy to LIE to the American Public. We aren't stupid, just conservative. I realize that in your world they're the same thing, but you might want to look at what's happening.

There ARE alternatives - YOU are the ONES REFUSING TO LOOK AT THEM. IT's YOUR way or NO way and we're the bad guys?! Really?!! That's what you want America to believe. READ THE BILLS YOU PASS... Since the Patriot Act, you people have acted with reckless abandon and disregard for this Country and it's citizens. It's time to END that. DON'T YOU DARE SHOVE THIS DOWN MY THROAT!

This crowd says we have no money for this however they are amazed that anyone would "dither" when thinking about sending our men and women to die in the Middle East.

Where would that money come from? Do they not worry about the source of funds if it's about war? Is is only domestic programs that they worry about funding?

Transparent crowd.

Pelosi, Reid, and all the liberal left wacko's need to go now! They are doing whatever the heck they want.

Let me get this straight.

We're going to pass a health care plan
written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it,
passed by a Congress that hasn't read it but exempts themselves from it, signed by a president that also hasn't read it, and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and
financed by a country that's broke.

What possibly could go wrong?

The constitution is being trampled, we need to do spmehting before it is too late.

Stop complaining about the health care bill that the majority of americans are in favor of. How about turning of fox news and try thinking for your selves for a change.

1990 unvetted pages. Congress can barely write a bill of 2 pages that is clear and unambiguous. Wait till we lawyers get a hold of the words in the statute.

A bill of this magnitude (not passing judgment on the intent) necessarily requires months of legislative hearings and scrutiny so all affected parties can clarify the language.

Even after all of that time, I, for one, expect to be impressed, as usual, with the ambiguity, imprecision, conflicting, and just plan unconstitutionality of that which Congress passes.

It is almost a certainty that in 1990 pages there will be plenty of room for litigation. I already can see the billable hours mounting up :-)

It's a free country...they have every right to protest...whether they know anything or not. Just remember, it is also a big country and with the right backing and money, you could probably turn out 100,000 people in Washington in support of the Flat Earth Society.

This just shows me that our elected representatives are not listening or working for us. This drive to push bad bills down our throats is sickening. I wrote my representative, but it doesn't matter he will vote for it anyway. It's time to vote all of those that vote for this will out once and for all. AARP supporting this bill just goes to show how corrupt they are. They will sell out their members for whatever it is they are going to get out of this. The issue should be jobs not Health Care with our ecomony the way it is. It's a sad day.

Seniors or over 65 are not the only ones on Medicare/Medicaid, There are many young adults and middle aged adults with serious medical issues, genetic and rare diseases! I'm one of them, Cystic Fibrosis DNA diagnosed age 50, disability age 52. I was a surgical trauma nurse, my symptoms emerged in the past few years and then was confirmed. You all have pre existing diagnosis! All of you, including the Rep party. I think the American people should stop paying for both parties healthcare!

There are not users of the system, while some illnesses may not be evident to you, it is a long and difficult process to gain SSDI and still wait 2 more years to become Medicare eligible. It's not that easy. I could DIE waiting for Medicare, but in the meantime, I pay for COBRA and I am still waiting for the subsidy to be extended and this applies to people with future job losses. You will need insurance for your families if not yourself. COBRA is expensive and worse is the State High Risk Pool.

Now, my younger brother has been diagnosed with bladder cancer, he has a family and could very well need COBRA< STD, LTD and the wait for Social Security DI and the longer wait for Medicare! I need him for my CF, which is RARE in adults, except for all of you with recurrent sinus/chest infections that are mistreated and undiagnosed so the docs keep you coming back and you stay sick, then you die of "Pneumonia", so sad, I don't know what happened to them. YOU have crappy docs, that's what!

IF only John Boehner (R-Ohio) Minority speaker, had to see my docs for care, then maybe the Republicans would understand healthcare!

The Rep Healthcare Overhaul bill DOES NOT cover PRE Existing conditions. they say lower costs, but it will be more frequent visits/costs and those stupid health savings accounts unused go to the insurance companies if certain conditions aren't meant. The Rep overhaul bill is the wrong medicine, the wrong dose!They know it , too.

Shame on them. The Rep party will not be known as the Good Samaritans of health insurance!

Ex Trauma Nurse 2/2 unpredicatable , incurable illness.

I hope this bill passses. It's the only way a revolution will start. Otherwise, we will just keep sitting on our asses and posting on the internet.

I just realize there are a lot of stupid f$^kin people out there and voted for a guy that wrote a speech or read one. How f*#kin gullable are you people. I wonder if the Repubs introduced this, then all you zeros out there would be changing your damn tune.

Maybe the problem is that the PEOPLE do not know what they want.

They like their Medicare, but they don't want government run healthcare. Americans love choices, but they don't want a public option. There are 100 different polls that will tell anyone that their arguement is shared by the majority of people. What people??

Bottom line is this country is to diverse to come to a real majority on an issue such as healthcare. Elderly people have nothing in common with recent college grads. Parents have nothing in common with single people. Rich and poor, fat and skinny, we are all just too different.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't try - but politians need to realize that will not win a real majority of the country no matter what they do. And the people need to realize they won't get everything they want either.

when you go to the hospital and you have blue cross they personally see to it that you get good care but keep cost at a minimum by not overstaying in the hospital and by no unnecessary procedures. these people are experts at this with years of experience. when its the government paying nobody is going to give a rip until the whole system collapses.

I'm old enough to join the AARP. I would'nt join it before because they're just a marketing co. but I sure as hell will never even give them a thought ever again. WHORES

I seriously doubt that 99% of these people know what or why they're protesting against.

I attended three town hall meetings this summer and asked protesters were they willing to give up their Medicare. The answer was uniformly and emphatically "No' and guess what? Most of them didn't know Medicare was a "socialistic government program".

Locally my health plan doesn't give permission for procedures for cancer if they can classify them as "experimental". Whether I live or die is based on their bottom line. they delay surgery for cateracts, I don't know how many of my coworkers have died before their time, because of inadequate testing, brain tumors, cancer,. We can't go to court against a HMO health plan. Canadians live 3 years longer than us. Ever look at Federal workers and their teeth, we talk about dental care in England, but start looking at middle class workers and see that already we can't all afford dental. So many people lose their homes in the last years of their life to pay medical bills, it doesn't happen to that extent in other industrialized nations. When was our medical care sold out to a companies profit margin and bottom lines. We've all known for years prescription prices are higher here than any other country, then they blocked us from going to Canada to fill prescriptions. I would like a choice of a new plan.