Hillary and Health Care

I would be curious to know how many people that are griping about mandatory insurance have ever gone without it for a long period of time. I am a chef and I married into insurance. It is amazing, I no longer have to make the choice on whether or not i should go to the doctor. Before my wife and I got married she was a Bar manager; she had a kidney stone that cost us $4,000. She made too much recieve any gov funding, but not enough to pay such a large bill. We still joke that maybe we should have put that rock in her wedding band because it cost more than the diamond that I bought her. I am ready for the sytem to change; although under Clintons plan I would not change my current coverage (which is a nice option). I would like to see the millions of uninsured restaurant workers recieve coverage, now thats a tip they deserve!

I am very confused regarding public/market based insurance and how this relates to 'universal healthcare' versus what we have available now. Isn't the point of 'universal healthcare' to get back to core values and take care of those of our citizens who DON'T have the resources to participate in a free-market insurance programs. Giulanni, etc. should get away from throwing around their buzz words like socialized medicine in an attempt to color the concept of healthcare for all Americans.

Bottom line - we need reform because people CAN't afford healthcare - not because they don't want to have healthcare.

Rand, you are right. I've seen figures tossed around like $400 to $600 a month and more. Closer to a house note than anything esle.

I am griping about mandatory coverage and I have gone without insurance for approximately a year recently. In my case government regulation contributed to the problem. I no longer had employee coverage and I had a pre-existing old heurniated disk. In my state, California, the insurance companies are not allowed to write exclusions, so coverage is yes or no. When I talked to an out of state agent she told me know problem we can get you insurance we might just have to write an exclusion on that condition. When I said, "Can you do that in California?", after checking she said no you can't. Eventually I got coverage after proving that my disk is not currently a problem, but the government sure made it harder for me.

Additionally, the rhetoric about requiring insurance companies to offer guarantee coverage is misleading. Currently, insurance companies offer guaranteed coverage, it is called group insurance and they write lots of coverage under that plan. The government, however, restricts group coverage to employment based organizations (employers, trade unions, etc), so that's why if you lose your job you can't get guaranteed coverage. If congress would lift the ban on group coverage then lots of groups could offer group coverage (e.g. churches, AAA, non-profits, the Democratic party, etc.). So why not remove the restrictions on group coverage and then see what kind of a plan we have.

In addition, if we removed the restriction on group coverage, the Democrats could run some health care experiments. Create a guaranteed issue, single payer plan available to all Democrats with a fee structure set up by the party. If it works great then maybe, everyone would want such a plan. If not, there are still lots of other options.