This weekend, Barack wrote an op-ed in the New York Times entitled "Why We Need Health Care Reform." Here are a few choice snippets:
Our reform will prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage because of your medical history. Nor will they be allowed to drop your coverage if you get sick. They will not be able to water down your coverage when you need it most. They will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or in a lifetime. And we will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses. No one in America should go broke because they get sick.
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This is what reform is about. If you don’t have health insurance, you will finally have quality, affordable options once we pass reform. If you have health insurance, we will make sure that no insurance company or government bureaucrat gets between you and the care you need. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. You will not be waiting in any lines. This is not about putting the government in charge of your health insurance. I don’t believe anyone should be in charge of your health care decisions but you and your doctor — not government bureaucrats, not insurance companies.
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In the coming weeks, the cynics and the naysayers will continue to exploit fear and concerns for political gain. But for all the scare tactics out there, what’s truly scary — truly risky — is the prospect of doing nothing. If we maintain the status quo, we will continue to see 14,000 Americans lose their health insurance every day. Premiums will continue to skyrocket. Our deficit will continue to grow. And insurance companies will continue to profit by discriminating against sick people.
That is not a future I want for my children, or for yours. And that is not a future I want for the United States of America.
In the end, this isn’t about politics. This is about people’s lives and livelihoods. This is about people’s businesses. This is about America’s future, and whether we will be able to look back years from now and say that this was the moment when we made the changes we needed, and gave our children a better life. I believe we can, and I believe we will.
I don’t have health insurance at all. I am 57 with degenerative disc disease and emphezma. I don’t want this health care reform bill passed. I will make my own disissions when it comes to my health.
We need to fix the system that we have now. They can still for caps on these insurance companies and drug companies. You may like to go to my blogs and read the article that I posted today: CONTROL: 101 OBAMA STYLE. Someone left that last quote that you have on yours…..it infurrated me and I posted my thoughts and opinions on it.
@lizzygram: I’m sorry to hear about your condition and illness. May I inquire as to why you don’t have health insurance? I’d genuinely be interested to know and to discuss this further.
As I understand it, the purpose of the health care reform bill is just that, to reform the current system, making health care more affordable as well as more available. It will not be perfect (and who defines ‘perfect’ anyway?) but if it goes any way towards covering the almost 50 million people who don’t have it, as well as making health care more available for the millions more who are underinsured, then I think I’ll support it.
I can’t work anymore due to the medical conditions that I have. I worked as a waitress for over 40 years. I have been told by my doctors, state run health, social security that I can work. Even thought these medical conditions I have dont’ stop me from working entirely….the reason I can’t is: I never know when I am going to start coughing and coughing (and when it starts in goes for quite a while). Would you like your waitress to bring you food while she is coughing alot? I never know when my back is going to act up and there are days that I have all I can do get up.
My husband is on disabiliteis, he is covered by the VA, Social Security, and Medicare. I have a 17 year old son that I receive Social Security for because his dad recently died. He has no health insurance.
Living on Social Security and the little bit we get from the VA there isn’t enough money to pay for health insurance with all the other basic bills we have (rent, food, electricity, gas, phone, car insurance). Christ my three medicines every month is $450. Even though my husband has medicare and the VA we still spend close to $60.00 a month for his medications and a that isn’t the counting the out of pocket that the VA and Medicare don’t pay. So 95% of the time I go without my medication. The state don’t take into account that you pay for car insurance…even though they demand it here in this state. They tell us we have too much income coming in to qualify for their help on health costs.
Our government is in way over their heads in spending and the deficit here in this country. I am willing to die to save my kids and grandkids from a government who will tax them to death just to try to make a name for themselves. If they really cared about people like me with no health insurance because you genuinely can’t afford it then they would higher their poverty rates and the food stamps and state ran health care so people could get their health care needs met. And even possibly get our own insurance.