Pres. Obama's healthcare plan - Where do you stand??

the cousins i have in toronto, stockholm and london are shocked (and appalled) that it cost me anything to have my daughter.  we haven't even gotten to the part where it's possible, likely, even to be refused medical care for lack of coverage or where 1 out of 5 people can't afford to get sick  <--- that's sick.     it might be a naiive question but i wanna know why the u.s. can't mimick the nationalized healthcare systems of other countries and still be alright.  okay it might not run into the gazillions but wouldn't there still be a pretty obscene profit margin.   michael moore made a documentary about this (think it was called sicko) in one scene he rounds up 9-11 first responders who are having various health problems and they sail to  guantanamo.  they're refused entry on the u.s. side, so they step onto the cuban shore, find one of many local pharmacies while the lady who has respiratory problems gets an inhaler.   mike asks the pharmacist how much it is and the answer (in dollars) is close to 25 cents.  she's gotta fight her insurance tooth and nail to get a lousy inhaler once a month at a cost of 40 bux, but a boat ride away in a "third world" country and it's a quarter - this moves her to tears, which moves me to tears.  if the greatness of a society is determined by how it treats its elderly and ill, this country needs to stop calling itself great.    look i just hope he gets it done for real, i still remember when hillary got her ass stomped for even brining it up. 

 @ michael moore made a documentary about this (think it was called sicko) in one scene he rounds up 9-11 first responders who are having various health problems and they sail to  guantanamo.  

Personally, I think that this film should be a "must see" before either side begins to first form an opinion regarding healthcare in America, let alone taking either side in the matter.

Hi Double Ayy,

I'm all for healthcare reform but I think we really need to ask ourselves how much are we willing to pay for it. I'm a payroll manager for an International company and for our employees in Canada their taxes are a lot higher than here in the US. Typically they pay CPP tax 4.95% (equilvalent to our Soc Sec) EI tax 1.73% (equilvalent to our unemployment ins), Federal and Provincial tax. In Canada that taxes typically equal 35-45% of their pay. In the US typically (single 0 ex) your taxes will run 32.65% (Texas no State tax), if you live in a state with state and local tax it's slightly higher.

From my experience most of the "middle class" employees are the hardest hit by these taxes because highly compensated employees typically defer most of their compensation into several "golden parachute" retirement (pension plans). Your everyday employee can't afford to defer their compensation and don't have access to move their funds to offshore accounts. We don't have the same resources that a highly compensated person has. When you defer your compensation many times it is "pre taxed", your taxed when you take it out (at retirement when your in a lower tax bracket).

Look at your paycheck and deduct an additional 10-15% (we will eventually be taxed for this healthcare reform). I'm willing to do it but I'll have to adjust my budget first
Tia

Here are two very well known facts:

1.  Social Security is an elaborate Pyramid scheme at best!  It wasn't designed to be a long term fix but Americans needed something near the end of the Great Depression to believe in and to inspire consumer confidence until they ran with it and refuse to believe otherwise now.

2.  Both the GOP and the Democratic Party know this and will NOT try to change it's flawed system even if Jesus Christ himself was elected as President of the United States.

With those two things in mind we cannot be so concerned as to how much it will cost us in the short term but rather we should look to adjust to the benefits and savings long term.

A lot of people are deferring getting checkups and taking care of "minor" illnesses because they don't have insurance or the cash to go to the doctor's office.  Guess what?  If they don't pass some sort of healthcare reform, we're still going to pay for it - some now, some later.  How?

Emergency rooms clogged with non-emergency cases.  Picture this - ER triage nurse trying to sift through flu cases while you're in line behind them  with chest pain and you need an EKG. 

People delay elective surgery until their health becomes so bad they are forced to come in as an emergency case.  Because their condition is more compromised, they are at a higher risk for a poor outcome.   Post op complications = longer length of stay = $$$$$$$

How can you screen people for cancer if they can't afford to go to the doctor for a checkup?  If there is no early detection, they're pretty much screwed -  debilitating illness and possibly death.  As far as the financial cost, we'd wind up picking up the tab for that too because they'd have to go on disability when they could no longer work.

Any time you see people with chronic illnesses trying to "get by" without their meds it's a recipe for disaster.

Ok I maybe over simplifying things here but why can't we deal with what its costing us to receive healthcare in the first place. This has nothing to do with insurance companies. An insurance company is just paying out what doctor's and hospitals are billing us as "consumers". Why can't the goverment regulate and stop them from charging us so much in the first place. Once that is done look at the insurance companies and make them drop their costs for providing us health insurance in the first place. I don't see this healthcare reform as a reform at all. Its more like extending Medicare or Medicaid. What's the difference. A group of people who could not otherwise get healthcare will now have the government pay their healthcare. Which really boils down to the taxpayers paying for all of the uninsured Americans in the country.

That issue is tough and a slippery slope; I agree that Healthcare should NOT be a booming business because it deals with folks lives, but at the same time, people ARE IN it for the MONEY and that is something that scares me...if my life is at risk.