I proposed an alternative to a health insurance mandate

[Tony_FLADEM]

Make it more difficult to get rid of medical bills via bankruptcy. I proposed that before and DU didn't like it.

Maybe they should consider it now since the mandate (and possible jail) will prove to be unpopular.

[dflprincess]

1. You do know that most the people who declare bankruptcy because of medical bills

have insurance, don't you? Generally, they have plans with high out of pocket expenses (not unlike the bill in front of Congress). It's called being "underinsured" - many people don't even realize they are in that boat until they actually try to use their "coverage".

If you haven't seen it, I would suggest you rent "Sicko". If you have seen it I would suggest you watch it again and pay attention this time.

[Tony_FLADEM]

2. That's the system we have now

Under reform most insured people would not be in a position to file bankruptcy.

[dflprincess]

3. The "reform" allows for deductibles up to $5K for singles and $10K

for families as well as premiums that equal as much as 11% of income (all of which may increase annually). There will be plenty of people, especially those with chronic conditions, who meet those annual out of pockets each year and wind up having to use credit cards to pay medical expenses or let medical bills go unpaid.

There may be fewer, but there will still be medical bankrupcies. The bill passed tonight does little more than try to protect the status quo by trying to force us to bail out a failing system.

[Hello_Kitty]

5. In the Senate plan, premiums don't count toward your out of pockets. eom

[dflprincess]

8. That is also true in the House bill

Premiums do not count toward the out of pocket maximums and you will also have "incidental" out of pockets like like dental and vision.

[Hello_Kitty]

4. Dr. Steffie Woolhandler disagrees

In Massachusetts, we have three years of experience with the kind of plan the House is now debating, and it’s a sad experience. Reform hasn’t made care affordable for the middle class, and it has decimated the safety net that the poor continue to rely on. In 2007, only 5.4 percent of Massachusetts were uninsured — the lowest in the nation. Yet, medical problems underlay 3 out of 5 bankruptcies — the same proportion as in the rest of the country.

In our state, failure to buy insurance is illegal, punishable by a $1,000 fine — as big a fine as for beating your wife or making a terrorist threat. For a middle-income 56-year-old, the cheapest coverage available through the Connector — the state’s insurance exchange — costs $4,900 for a policy with a $2,000 deductible before it pays for any care, and a 20 percent co-payment after that. A diabetic with such coverage is almost certain to lay out $10,000 each year for medical care. In two years he’d accumulate $20,000 in medical bills — more than the amount that bankrupted the average family in our study. This kind of insurance — sold with the stamp of approval of the Connector — is a cruel joke which Congress should not repeat.



http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/july/testimony_of_steffie.php

[Motown_Johnny]

6. So you want people who have so many medical bills they can't pay them to go bankrupt and still owe

the huge insurance corporations all that money?

Why in the world do you think this makes any sense at all?


Wouldn't it be better to create a form of Medical Bankruptcy so that people could get out from under those bills and not lose their home and savings?

[Tony_FLADEM]

7. It would give people an incentive to get insurance with a mandate

It would apply to the uninsured.