Do you think this health care legislation that was just passed will help lower health care costs and how so?

This new legislation is basically universal health care which requires everyone to be covered, so shouldn't that lower costs for everyone, across the board?Do you think this health care legislation that was just passed will help lower health care costs and how so?Countries with universal health care--which is all the developed countries except the US--pay about half what we pay, for care as good or better.



A lot of what we pay for health care goes to pay for the care of the uninsured, even today. This is a civilized country, nobody bleeds to death on the steps of the Emergency Room. If they get there, the hospital has to care for them, at least to a point. A certain number of people aren't insured and can't pay, the hospital makes that up by raising the prices on the rest of us. That's why a Tylenol in the hospital costs $20.



Health insurance companies have the incentive to cover only healthy people. So they refuse to sell insurance to people with pre-existing conditions, or price the insurance out of their reach. These are the people we ALL pay for. The only reason we have Medicare and Medicaid in the first place was that the insurance companies didn't want to be bothered with them so they got the govt. to take them off their hands, and WE ALL pay for their care.



And if someone does have insurance, and pays the premiums for years and years, and then gets a serious illness, the insurance companies will often just drop them, as we see in the movie Sicko. That film is not about people who didn't have insurance, it's about people who HAD insurance, but then got dropped by their insurance companies when they got sick.



In fact we already have a 'single payer' plan in the US, Medicare. Medicare has much lower costs than commercial insurance, but the same outcomes, the same or better customer satisfaction. If we just expanded Medicare to cover everyone in the country, we would save hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Part of the cost savings is that commercial insurance companies spend quite a bit of money in excluding people.



The problem is that the insurance companies are so powerful that no politician wants to cut them out. GHW Bush had a health care plan, so did Bill Clinton, and both Hillary and Obama both outlined plans in the campaign last year. ALL of these plans have a common feature--they keep the commercial insurance companies in place, and strengthen and perpetuate their ownership of American health care. They all have the fed. govt. buying insurance from these companies, at their going rates, for some uninsured. In other words, they really amount only to federal subsidies to the insurance companies. Actually caring for peoples' health is not the priority.



The way to save money on health care is for everyone to be covered in the same big pool. It has to be 100% participation or else you will still have uninsured people showing up at the ER to be treated in the most expensive way possible. Plus the govt. has to do what it can to limit the rising costs of health care, which are rising about 3x the rate of inflation. The best way to do this is through a Single Payer system, where the hospitals and doctors remain private, commercial, for-profit, but the govt. administers a universal insurance plan. It works great almost everywhere else! And this is the idea most Americans say they want in poll after poll. But because of the importance of money in politics today, and the power of the insurance industry, the Single Payer plan is not even being discussed.Do you think this health care legislation that was just passed will help lower health care costs and how so?
When you pay taxes you'll know that isn't true.Do you think this health care legislation that was just passed will help lower health care costs and how so?No. They better not pass this bill.
NO.Do you think this health care legislation that was just passed will help lower health care costs and how so?Are you serious?Do you think this health care legislation that was just passed will help lower health care costs and how so?
No it won't, just the opposite!
clearly you do not understand this bill and what will happen if passed, do your homework, everything comes with a priceDo you think this health care legislation that was just passed will help lower health care costs and how so?
No. Whatever the government gets involved in becomes bloated and inefficient.
Nope.
as far as I know, it hasn't passed the Senate yet, just the house. It's also not a foregone conclusion that it will pass as there are a few moderate dems who don't especially like the $1.5 trillion price tag attached to the bill.
Shouldn't the American people have a say in this? It's too dramatic an action for us not to?!?!?!?

75% of the country DOES NOT want this to happen. Why is it even a question?
It hasn't passed.



It won't lower health care costs. It will just take more money out of more pockets to pay increasing costs for a failing system.