March 22nd, 2010:

Re: Ten immediate benefits of HCR | Crooks and Liars, By karoli Sunday Mar 21, 2010 5:45pm

Here are ten benefits which come online within six months of the President’s signature on the health care bill:

1. Adult children may remain as dependents on their parents’ policy until their 27th birthday
2. Children under age 19 may not be excluded for pre-existing conditions
3. No more lifetime or annual caps on coverage
4. Free preventative care for all
5. Adults with pre-existing conditions may buy into a national high-risk pool until the exchanges come online. While these will not be cheap, they’re still better than total exclusion and get some benefit from a wider pool of insureds (sic).
6. Small businesses will be entitled to a tax credit for 2009 and 2010, which could be as much as 50% of what they pay for employees’ health insurance.
7. The “donut hole” closes for Medicare patients, making prescription medications more affordable for seniors.
8. Requirement that all insurers must post their balance sheets on the Internet and fully disclose administrative costs, executive compensation packages, and benefit payments.
9. Authorizes early funding of community health centers in all 50 states (Bernie Sanders’ amendment). Community health centers provide primary, dental and vision services to people in the community, based on a sliding scale for payment according to ability to pay.
10. AND no more rescissions. Effective immediately, you can’t lose your insurance because you get sick.

Is there anyone out there like me who has kids that are under 27 and has no insurance? Hell, most kids these days live with their parents until they are 27 and then some. It breaks my heart to have to help them find ways to pay for services. I give them what I can, but medical care is impossible to pay out of your pocket, and the kids understand that. It is a wonderful benefit to be able to keep the kids on and know that they have access to “the world’s best” medical care.

I have often wondered why the right-wing whack jobs, tea-baggers and such, who I know make less money than me, would ever consider a health care subsidy to buy insurance as something to be reviled like “socialism” or a “government takeover”, or worse. (There comes a time when, out of desperation, folks call for help who are unable to help themselves, and a little socialism would save them. This counts for the economy as well. Public ownership of some of these investment firms on Wall Street may be what the doctor ordered.) These people who hate the government feel like they are getting the shaft somehow. I think Harry Truman said something to the effect that those conservatives out there who vote against their own interests are getting beaten about the head and shoulders, but they don’t know who is doing the beating. They are confused, or just ignoring the parts of the health care bill that benefit them. The Republican leadership is telling them that health care reform is a bad idea, a move that we know is to protect big insurance. But, the everyday Joe somehow thinks that he needs to protect big insurance, too! WHY? I don’t know. The pundits on FOX, the Republican leadership, and the rest of the echo machine is pissing down their backs and telling them it is raining.

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