The heated debate about health care reform is getting more and more interesting and repetitious. Though I have been away for a long time I just wanted to point out few things I think should be included and that are already discussed in this bill. I am pretty sure any bill will pass the House but Senate is always a difficult fight. Before I start I want to say that I want a Health Care Reform.

47 Million Un-insured American coverage is the selling point of the current Health care debate. As we have heard the way they want to pay for this is by cutting the wastes from the current health care system in America and limiting the itemized deduction for people earning more than $250,000 year. The debate gets more interesting when the question arises if this bill will cover all the undocumented illegal immigrants (11.9 million). 8 Million out of 12 million illegal immigrants are employed in US. The question is, is it fair to pay for all the undocumented immigrants at the cost of the tax payers money. The finance committee bill limits the coverage to legal immigrants, US residents and Citizens which sounds reasonable. When it comes to moral issue where if an illegal immigrant falls sick or met with an accident and he comes to the Emergency Room would we deny care to that person? This is where I think we should be a little flexible. In my opinion we should not deny care to the person who arrives at ER. If we can save a life then we should, be it any person. Some might argue that it is the risk the person took when he entered the country illegally and he should pay for the price and so we should be denied care. I think we should give care and hospital should inform INS about the incidence so that they can take appropriate action. Every one’s situation is different, this opens a broader and emotional debate of opportunity, family support etc. This can be dealt better if the Immigration reform is immediately followed by health reform where we provide a way for all the illegal immigrants living in US for more than 5 years a way to residency or legal status. Among the 8 million illegal immigrants with the jobs I am sure if they are provided with an opportunity in the current system they will pay their share of health insurance. One way I think to solve this problem is to recognize the illegal immigrants with a certain Semi-legal status and apply a different tax code or to mandate a penalty to their annual income till they attain a different status like the US residents or any legal status. This is definitely in consideration of people with families living in US and other circumstances. Let’s not forget this is a nation of Immigrants.

Public plan is another option that is being discussed. Looking at the way people are looking at it this option might be dropped. I personally think and strongly feel like we should have a Public option that is not for profit. The debate around this is if we are already limiting the insurance companies to follow a particular coverage standards like no denial of insurance to anyone with pre-existing condition, no discrimination, coverage of preventive exams, no life time cap on benefits etc then everyone will be happy with their coverage and we shouldn’t need a Public plan. Let me just point out with what happened with CARD act recently signed by the president with limits on credit card. I am pretty sure a lot of people received letters just as I did from credit card companies about the how they had no choice but to increase the annual APR to compensate the market situation. (I even called Chase to see if there was anything in my credit history that made them increase the APR but the representative clearly said its nothing to do with my credit history and I can close my account if I don’t like the change of terms) and these rates might not go down because the law isn’t applied on the CC companies till next year. It has a good 1 year for people to get used to higher APR than before and never bother to fight for lower APR’s. 8 % APR is the minimum for a person with credit score more than 750 so an average American always ends up with a 12-18% APR with a score between 650 and 750. So going back to my point of having a Public option is to keep the insurance companies not to raise the premium because the government passed new laws and we might get a letter soon saying due to recent legislative changes we have no option but to increase the premium. If there is a public plan then people will have an option to switch to a public option which is more reasonable or this will keep the insurance companies to keep the coverage and the price reasonable. As far as with the debate where the private sector cannot compete with a public plan then I think it is a debate people need to understand how this public plan is being paid for. The public plan is not being paid by any taxes instead it will be similar to how an insurance company runs or how USPS runs. The budget to the public plan is not allotted by certain percentage of tax money but from the monthly premiums that people pay. The other points raised are that the government run firm doesn’t have to pay local taxes and other taxes like the private sector. Well to be honest I don’t know the answer but anyways I do want to support a Public Plan because things will be under control and I DO NOT TRUST Private Sector.

Pulling the plug on grandma is one of the most laughable debates that are going on. The proposal was to pay for voluntary meeting with the doctor every 5 years to talk about how you would want to plan the end of life question. This proposal is being dropped just because people don’t understand or misunderstood.

A step towards single payer system, Well this is something that can is very debatable. The insurance industry can learn from UPS and FEDEX or they can give up and we might end up wanting a Single Payer system. Even in that case so many countries in the world have both single payer system and the very good insurance Industry. Lou Dobbs on CNN every evening is introducing 30 best countries with better heath care and with a good insurance industry. The other day at a town hall meeting in Montana Obama mentioned Netherlands as a good example.

Taurus
April 20 - May 20
You are the type of person who loves meeting a lot of people, dear Taurus. You feel that you must bring your friends together, so that they have a forum and can express themselves. You are good at bringing out the best in others and helping them to find a solid footing in the present, despite your love for the past. Go with the flow!

Did he say go with the flow?..... copy cat!!!