If the health care reform is passed, how do you see it affecting you?

I don’t think anyone can really answer this right now.

It will improve my mental well-being because of its beneficial social and economic effects. I’ll be less frustrated with our society.

I’m confused. I’m not sure what it will do. I’ve heard hyperbole from the extremists that doesn’t sound credible at all. (Death panels? Come on.) Then I heard they changed one thing and changed other things, and I lost track and I don’t know what is going on anymore. I am completely confused. If anyone could point me to credible information I’d love a link.

Yes. At least I can tell you from a personal perspective. My Cobra benefits ran out and I could apply for a conversion policy, it converts a group plan into an individual plan, and if you do that within 63 days you can’t be turned down, But they wanted $1000 a month for the conversion policy. Yeah, well, that wasn’t going to happen. So now I have no health insurance, and can’t get it. Preexisting conditions and all that. Pesky business those preexisting conditions are. Surviving to middle age, you can’t seem to manage it without some thing or another going wrong with you, no matter how minor and then the insurance companies won’t have you. If health insurance reform makes it so I can’t be turned down for insurance, even if they put a rider on it, I don’t care.

I am confused. if the majority of Americans do not want this healthcare reform package, then why are the legislators not listening to us? i thought this is why we elected these people to Congress, in order to respresent the people and not their own personal welfare. am i wrong here or did i miss something?

@john65pennington – Sometimes, I think the job of government is to do what would best benefit the nation, rather than govern by opinion polls. Yes, opinion matters, but sometimes what people want isn’t what’s best in the long run – or parents would feed their kids nothing but ice cream. ;)

To answer the question at hand, though, I don’t see it immediately affecting me very much at all. I have a job, and it provides me with decent insurance. I might even pay a little more because I have such a good policy. Where I see it making a positive difference in my life is if my husband or I are ever laid off. He has a “pre existing condition,” which means “no insurance for you” as things stand, and that could be a death sentence. There’s no good reason that losing your job should mean losing your life, especially since the labor market is so disposable nowadays.

There are good arguments on both sides of the issue, and both sides are morally justified. To me, it boils down to, “What kind of society do you want to live in? One where people band together and take care of each other, like in every other industrialized country, or a third-world kind of place where everyone fends for himself?” I would rather live in a society with a safety net. So while I’d prefer a single-payer plan, I’ll take any improvement over the current unsustainable situation. That is how it will benefit me.

@john65pennington It’s a little difficult to tell how Americans feel about health care reform and support or opposition rises and falls. And people feel differently about different parts of what is included or left out of various bills. It’s not like there is monolithic or consistent opposition or support for “health care reform.” And our representatives are supposes to listen to and represent all of us. And @laureth is right. Our leaders and representatives aren’t just puppets.

I won’t directly affect me, but the fact that so many more people won’t have to worry about their health problems will make many of my friends much, much better off. And when they are better off, I am, too. And it will also reduce my local tax rates. We will no longer be experiencing the side effects of people being sick and unable to get care. The hospitals will be better off because they no longer have such a large uncompensated care burden. Oh God. The multiplier effect will be amazing. It’ll probably send the economy on a huge expansion.

If you believe cable news, you expect the following to happen:
1. Illegal immigrants will kick you out of your homes and rape your children.
2. The US will suddenly become the USSR circa 1980
3. Obama will tell you your grandmother needs to die to balance the budget.
4. Everything you love will be crushed under the facist bootheel of socialist totalitarianism.

As to what will really happen? Higher taxes.

Right now I am a senior in high school battling a chronic disease. As I go off to college, I am lucky enough to be under my parents’ health insurance. For now. However, in order to remain qualified to be in their plan, I must be enrolled as a full time student. I have every intention of being a full time student; however, circumstances happen. Now, let’s see, what are some circumstances that could arise that might force me to become a part-time student or even take a semester off? Hmm… a hospitalization? What a wonderful time to be disqualified from my health insurance.

Then I have a lapse in my insurance and no company in their right mind would ever insure me again. I cost health insurance companies hundreds of thousands of dollars during 2009 alone. I would never be able to get insurance again, due to my “pre-existing condition.” What bullshit. People with preexisting conditions are usually the people who need health care the most.

If this bill passes, I will hopefully never have to worry about these things again.

It’ll improve my job security.

I might not die quite as quickly, assuming it does not take too long to be passed. Odds are I shall be pushing up daisies by then.

Yes, I work… I am short houred so I can be denied health insurance. I also have a congenital heart condition that could be treated if I had insurance.

My son, born with CP, will be able to get health coverage without my having to have to have a job with insurance. I would be able to stay home with my kids more.

Health insurance has forced me to make major life decisions based on whether or not I was going to be able to get and keep insurance: going back to work after only 4 months after having twins; where I was going to be able to live a state that had CHP, rather than a state that would be more affordable. The amount of stress this causes me is chipping away at my quality of life.

I’m not exaggerating. I think about insurance all.the.time.

I’m on Medicare, and it’s a miracle. Having health insurance that delivers – it changed my life. I’d like to see that model made available for more people. Under this new plan, it would be.
But more importantly, people who cannot get any coverage under any circumstances would be covered. To me, a country with (what’s the number? 300,000?) people with no access to health care is a sick, sick country. Agree with wundayatta – reduced costs to the whole community since un-covered people will not have to rely on the terminally expensive ER visits they must use at present.

laureth….........great answer. john

I don’t understand why people think this will improve health care. Isn’t this the same organization that runs our educational system? Look how well that’s turned out.

@Poser For me, it could not get worse. I already have no coverage despite working. I know, thinking about my living vs. dying young, which is what I am going to do in this great nation due to denial of healthcare, just might be selfish but, what the hey, I admit it. I know fully well that, while a cardiac ailment shall be my official cause of death, my real cause of death shall be “denial of healthcare” because it is readily treatable. I shall emphasize: I am not a lazy, refusing to work so and so. I have worked all of my life and now, in this economy, they short hour to deny “full time” and, thus, deny health insurance. If I had the option, I would take it. I just thought I would get that one out of the way before someone pulled the lazy, get a job, etc. crap on me.

On a larger scale, I see the uninsured like myself, the underinsured, people who are terrified of losing their coverage… all with a chance.

National heathcare works in many nations. Is America so backwards that it cannot work here? I mean, are we a nation of morons who cannot implement something that already works elsewhere?

Lets use sense instead of emotion. I’m hearing a lot of things like medicare works great for me everybody should have it. Which happens to be similar to saying a corvette works great everybody should have one. The simple FACT of the matter is the government can not balance a budget, the proof is in the pudding people. We already have a debt approaching 14 TRILLION DOLLARS on top of that Medicare, Medicaid and S.S. have well over 50 TRILLION in UNFUNDED liabilities. Where’s all this money coming from??

So hows it gonna affect you..higher taxes and more control for the government and their agencies(did I mention if this bill is enacted, the primary federal bureaucracy responsible for implementing and enforcing national health care will be an old and familiar one: the Internal Revenue Service) YAY FOR US!!

TIME WILL PUNISH THIS ONCE GREAT NATION FOR ALL ITS MANY MISDEEDS AND LIES.

I don’t even understand on how health care is a right when 70% of ALL medical issues in this country are LIFE STYLE RELATED, why should a healthy person be forced to pay for something he/she may not need because another whole group of people aren’t mentally strong enough not to smoke a pack a cigarettes a day or eat fast food 10 times a week. This is a travesty in so many ways…the government is broken and society needs to educate themselves on self responsibility. Imagine that…there is no SELF in our culture let alone responsibility..

Another thing is that most the reason that health care is so ridiculously expensive is because of government intervention. Government programs pay fixed prices for procedures..so where does the medical industry pass
on the cost…ME THE CASH PAYING CUSTOMER(or the insurnce companies which I’m no fan of)...How about ALLOWING ACROSS STATE COMPETITION(more regulation restrain the one thing that bring cost down..COMPETITION) ....I got four stitches that cost almost $500 because a doctor had to look at me(government regulation)...if a nurse could do it with out taking up a doctors time it would cost less than half that much…our system is based on moral hazards already…I could go on all day but i won’t..cause all I know is people just think about them selves and not the bigger picture..good luck to all and to all a good night

P.S.—I’m also not an unsympathetic person considering medical issues..I know life is difficult and throws things at you that all most nobody could handle…but deep in our heart we know the government isn’t gone to fix our problems…only we can do that..

@Beserious Just a hint…

Tacking this: P.S.—I’m also not an unsympathetic person considering medical issues..I know life is difficult and throws things at you that all most nobody could handle…but deep in our heart we know the government isn’t gone to fix our problems…only we can do that..

… after a blind, misinformed, and hateful rant does not make the blind, misinformed, and hateful rant any less onerous. Ok, that rant was a little bit crazy as well. That line you screamed in all caps about this once great nation being punished was just plain nuts.

You really should watch your anger issues. That kind of rage is harmful to the blood pressure and, eventually, the heart.

Oh my cardiac ailment is genetic. I am a martial artist and have been for decades despite it after being denied entrance into the military due to it. In no way is it lifestyle related.

It’s easy to call somebody is blind while the only thing you think about is yourself. It’s simple to call somebody hateful when you are unable to grasp the larger picture.

how about instead of thinking how this affects you directly..use your sense

@Beserious Your opinion of me, right or wrong, does not change your rant. My words are up to judgement for others to decide if I think of more than myself.

I am not concerned.

@Beserious – Lots of government programs start out fine and get broken later. Social Security was fine for a long time until the Eisenhower administration decided to give it out for other things than retirement without funding the increase. Medicare worked fine until GWBush’s administration passed Medicare Part D and didn’t fund it (simply adding the cost to the national debt). The government itself was capable of a surplus under Clinton’s administration, but Reagan and the Bushes spent more than the government took in. In all cases, it’s not the government itself that fouls something up, it’s shortsighted mishandling (by spend-and-don’t-tax Republicans, in these cases).

The government pays fixed prices for procedures, sure. That keeps the price down for single-payer programs like medicare, which is why when all the payments are fixed (such as in Japan), people get more health care for less money.

If every person using health care was a motorcycle-riding smoker with type 2 diabetes, you might have a point. But they’re not – some are people that simply work hard right up until they’re cut down by a tragic accident or genetic defect. To say these people cannot get health care because someone, somewhere, might get it “undeservedly” is to throw the baby out with the bath water.

@laureth Your posts in this question are fabulous.

One thing about medicare is that the system is flawed. Much of that flaw, I believe, comes from the hyperinflation of medical services in this nation. No matter what is done, until that is addressed, the issue is not going to be brought under control.

Medicare is a single payer system, however, the prices are set by the industry.

Often services are denied medicare patients. I have one who has septicemia and she cannot get treatment because she does not… quite… meet the criteria for treatment. So, she suffers.

… err I meant “prices are set by the medical industry” not the insurance industry when it comes to single payer coverage.

Prices for medication and products are not much affected by who buys, be it government or privatized industry. There is some variance due to deals with various goods providers but it is not that great.

@Beserious you say, “how about instead of thinking how this affects you directly..use your sense”. Maybe you need to re-read the question? It asks how it affects you not the big picture. I think you are grasping at straws.

As someone that currently is uninsured – and going in for major surgery (life threatening, so they cannot deny me, even though they put it off as long as they could, perhaps hoping I would die and take care of it) Wednesday second in 2 years and someone that already has a high medical debt, I cannot help but look forward to it. When you have nothing, anything is an improvement. Are there issues I dislike? Definitely. But, to me, the good outweighs the bad. Let it pry open the door that the moderate and more wealthy are pushing closed with all their might, and we may see real reform begin.

I will have an even tinier paycheck, I’ll find work even more depressing as I will not actually be working for less. Oh but noooo!!!!! Now I’ll have an insurance I can be super healthy! Everything will be taken care of for me, I just need to keep being a good citizen, keep working and not dare to open my mouth in protest, lest I be mistaken for one of those “tin-foil hat wearing motherfuckers”.

And due to my conditions, I won’t actually benefit for what I’m paying for until they get that shit worked out, sweet, so now I’ll have less money to pay my medical bills, because some “progressive” liberals wanted to feel accomplished and pass a shit useless bill through Congress so they could all high five or something.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m 100% opposed to government regulated health care, however other people have other views and I’m only one solitary American with one insignificant vote, so I’m pretty friggin tolerant. I’ll let my neighbors decide they know better than me, and that just because my views are different from theirs, they should not even be regarded, because after all, we need to see the bigger picture! I accept that no government system would work if it cared about what I thought. I have come to terms than my independent spirit is a joke because I’ll be forced into dependency. My options are deal with it, or stop living.

This bill was passed in anger and madness, because the Left has to oppose the Right simply just because, and of course, vice versa. We watched the Executive Branch tell Congress how things were going to go down, we all saw Massachusetts, a state legendary for being Liberal minded all about, vote in friggin’ Scott Brown in hopes of ending the bill, and Congress doesn’t even seem to stop for a moment to realize that Americans directly gathered and opposed the bill.

Whether you’re a Liberal or Republican, or if you even know what your party built its foundations standing for, it looks like you lost. Well at least those poor insurance companies that spent decades pushing the prices out of any reasonable reach will be rewarded for their years of swindling with shiny government protection and guaranteed bulging wallets.

uhh, do you have any facts to support those claims?

@cockswain Sorry I forgot to add sources which backed up my “claims”. I mean yeah taxes won’t increase at all, I was just trying to scare people into standing behind me. Turns out the government is for this entirely out of their pocket with gold they stole from the Nazis.

Scott Brown? Who is he? Just a random shot in the dark I through your way so I’d sound smart. Hell I just heard the name once somewhere, is he even a politician? Sorry I just speak out my ass all the time, it’s routine from trying to outdo the lefties. Shhh they don’t know that I’m a Secret Jesus Soldier here on direct orders from Limbaugh to lead the unwary to sheep to NeoUberConservatism, hiding under the cover of a justly concerned and liberty minded average American.

That bit about the Executive Branch rolling through Congress to tell them what was up was all made up too, hell I don’t even know who our President is right now, I think I heard Mr. Rush say he was a halfling or a halfie or along them lines. I’ve definitely not been almost drowned in news stories from all spectrum of the press, where the . . .hobbit . . . or ummm that Mr President straight up challenges Republicans to actually try and use their Legislative powers to do anything to stop the bill. Nah, I’ve experienced none of that, you see, like everyone else who doesn’t see things your way, I don’t watch or read the news. Nah, fuck wasting my time, I’d rather not even form thoughts at all, I get my opinion straight from FOX.

Sorry, my bad. I thought maybe you were nuts or something.

@Anon_Jihad Into complete independence, right? So would you lift the requirement that hospitals have to treat everyone, regardless of ability to pay?