Will 2009 be a Year for Health Care Reform?
As many Americans had hoped, President Obama is in office and the wheels appear to be in motion. The health care situation in the United States is just as grim as the rest of our economy, so it’s encouraging to see that the new administration is wasting no time rolling up their sleeves to let the health care reform work begin. However, before we get our hopes up that we are going to see some radical changes in the way health care is handled this year, some realistic expectations should be put in place. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and we shouldn’t expect new policymakers to miraculously turn around the somewhat dismal space our health care system has become. But what can we expect in 2009 from our government, and what might health care start to look like?
Little Bites of Health Reform – Not a 7-Course Meal
Who doesn’t love a good food analogy when looking a very serious and weighty subject? But it’s an accurate and good analogy, and is practically coming right of the mouths of those in Congress. House Majority Whip James Clyburn wrote in an e-mail to The Hill “There are some incremental steps that we are taking — first we did SCHIP, then in our economic recovery package, we have money to help stem the tide of people losing health insurance — coverage for Medicaid and COBRA. There is also money for quality, health IT, comparative effectiveness and wellness, and money for prevention,” and then adding “And we will take a major step forward this year to increase the number of people who have health care coverage.”
While this might seem a little vague and discouraging at first, take heart. Back in the 1990’s, President Clinton attempted a huge overhaul of the then-health care system, and it just simply didn’t work. He was dealing with an uncooperative Congress and a lot of general opposition, not much of which current President Obama is facing. Despite being in the throes of an economic crisis (is it just me or are people really reluctant to call this a depression?), there is support for making the changes necessary to better the lives of the American people. A spokesperson for the House Whip is urging people to know that any small steps being made toward reform “shouldn’t be overlooked as important strides.”
Health Reform Steps Made Thus Far
It’s nice to be reassured that changes are being made, but most people want to see it in writing, preferably on the piece of paper that comes in the mail saying they now have affordable health insurance coverage. So what has been overhauled health care-wise in this new year of 2009? The House of representatives has already passed an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and is working on an economic stimulus bill that includes provisions to shore up the Medicaid program, facilitate displaced workers maintaining their private insurance benefits and allocate funding to other health care priorities.
Next week we’ll look a little more in-depth at some of the reform proposals that made an appearance in early 2009.
photo credit: ThreadedThoughts and photo credit: ProgressOhio (from top to bottom)
Tags: barack obama, COBRA, congress, health care, health reform, healthcare, politics, schip, senate, washington
June 4th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Great. Medicare is going bankrupt and we want to use it as the model for Obama-care. And, by undercutting private insurance by 30% we can destroy an industry at the same time. Yeah!
June 4th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I’d like to write an article for your blog. Please let me know if this would be possible. Thanks!
July 16th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Has anybody done a list of the porfits of say, the 10 largest Health Inusurance companies?? I strongly suspect that the fraud in the Medicare industry and the Earned Income Credit for income taxes far exceeds these profits. Point: The so-called bad guys- the Insurance industry- pays taxes on their profits but the real bad guys – the millions commiting tax and medicare fraud don’t ( the EIC is not taxable income and the medicare fraud bad guys don’t report their ill gotten gains. If I’m correct, how in the hell can the goverment hope to run a Health Insurance Company??? Please, THEY CAN’T DO IT!!
August 11th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Mike S Says: June 4th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Great. Medicare is going bankrupt and we want to use it as the model for Obama-care. And, by undercutting private insurance by 30% we can destroy an industry at the same time. Yeah!
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You are sadly misinformed like I have found with most people who think the insurance industry is a legitimate business or that they only want to survive through competition. Or they are just there to help us and the rising costd are because of law suits, and so on. Now the truth. The insurance industry is the boys club and has very little to do with competition and even less to do with helping its policy holders. They are about huge profits. The point of single payer is to drive costs down and when there is real competition that is not motovated by profits these big companies have no choice but to become more efficient or go out of business. I am angry, not so much at you, but for the greedy people out there feeding people like you false and misleading information. I have only told you a tiny amount of what you need to know to be informed.
August 19th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
I am a healthy middle-aged man. I don’t need much from you, and I feel sorry for those that do. I do not think that as an insurance company you are working in my best interests, or that you will. You are a business and built to make money, andu that there is little effective competition. If you want to keep my business, you’ll have to do much better, because I’ll move the minute my doctors do, or as soon as another company provides me a better option.
August 21st, 2009 at 11:27 pm
I think that they should not touch the health plain becasue it might hurt people in the long run. and they really need to think about it before it go to far.
September 19th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Source:
Will 2009 be a Year for Health Care Reform?
All we need to know about Health Care Reform and the for profit insurance and pharmacutical companies is exposed in this excerpt from the Bill Moyer’s Journal.
See the lengths these companies will go to keep the status quo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-M10jDkmm0&NR=1
Part two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv1FwOCNoZ8
September 19th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Source:
Will 2009 be a Year for Health Care Reform?
Just so you know where I come from, my brother is one of the 47 million in this country without health insurace because he has a “pre-existing condition”. Rejected because his cancer treatment might cut into the insurance company’s executive bonuses.
Please watch the Bill Moyers You Tube excerpt on Health Care Reform:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8IeZHZRwC4
And when your company holds it’s annual “health care fair”, ask your insurance representative what would happen if you lost your job. Then ask what happens after your “Cobra” period runs out. Assuming you can afford those premiums on your unemployment benefits.
October 27th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Since a “public option” is so terrible, let’s cancel all “public option” coverage for our omnipotent legislators. Love that Free Market