GOP Health Care Bill Summary

Off Topic Politics & World Issues
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http://gopleader.gov/UploadedFiles/summary.pdf

Republicansâ?? Common-Sense Reforms Will LOWER HEALTH CARE COSTS
Americans want a step-by-step, common-sense approach to health care reform, not Speaker Nancy Pelosiâ??s costly, 1,990-page government takeover of our nationâ??s health care system. Republicansâ?? alternative solution focuses on lowering health care premiums for families and small businesses, increasing access to affordable, high-quality care, and promoting healthier lifestyles â?? without adding to the crushing debt Washington has placed on our children and grandchildren. Following are the key elements of Republicansâ?? alternative plan:
â?¢ Lowering health care premiums. The GOP plan will lower health care premiums for American families and small businesses, addressing Americansâ?? number-one priority for health care reform.

â?¢ Establishing Universal Access Programs to guarantee access to affordable care for those with pre-existing conditions. The GOP plan creates Universal Access Programs that expand and reform high-risk pools and reinsurance programs to guarantee that all Americans, regardless of pre-existing conditions or past illnesses, have access to affordable care â?? while lowering costs for all Americans.
â?¢ Ending junk lawsuits. The GOP plan would help end costly junk lawsuits and curb defensive medicine by enacting medical liability reforms modeled after the successful state laws of California and Texas.

â?¢ Prevents insurers from unjustly cancelling a policy or instituting annual of lifetime spending caps. The GOP plan prohibits an insurer from cancelling a policy unless a person commits fraud or conceals material facts about a health condition. It also prohibits insurance plans from instituting annual or lifetime spending limits.
â?¢ Encouraging Small Business Health Plans. The GOP plan gives small businesses the power to pool together and offer health care at lower prices, just as corporations and labor unions do.

â?¢ Encouraging innovative state programs. The GOP plan rewards innovation by providing incentive payments to states that reduce premiums and the number of uninsured.
â?¢ Allowing Americans to buy insurance across state lines. The GOP plan allows Americans to shop for coverage from coast to coast by allowing Americans living in one state to purchase insurance in another.
â?¢ Codifying the Hyde Amendment. The GOP plan explicitly prohibits all federal funds, whether they are authorized funds or appropriated funds, from being used to pay for abortion.

â?¢ Promoting healthier lifestyles. The GOP plan promotes prevention & wellness by giving employers greater flexibility to financially reward employees who adopt healthier lifestyles.
â?¢ Enhancing Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). The GOP plan creates new incentives to save for future and long-term care needs by allowing qualified participants to use HSAs to pay premiums.
â?¢ Allowing dependents to remain on their parentsâ?? policies. The GOP plan encourages coverage of young adults on their parentsâ?? insurance through age 25.

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How is it ever going to work to have any form – whether the above pool or something else – of “insurance” where coverage is guaranteed regardless of health status?

Why will this not wind up being just as poor an idea as auto insurance that you can wait till you’ve wrecked your car to buy?

How can an insurance company offer “insurance” against what is not risk, but certainty of extreme high bills?

If it is completely predictable that a person’s bills in the next few years will be say $50,000 or perhaps even hundreds of thousands of dollars, how is “insurance” (I put this in quotes because it is not insurance) going to be “affordable” unless someone else foots the bill?

Who will this be: the other people buying into this insurance? How can that work (think about it.)

Not that the Democrat proposal is any more workable in this regard.

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You do realize the majority of health insurance problems could be alieviated by doing 2 simple things that wont happen because of lobiests.

  1. limit the freaking trial lawyers and frivilous law suits so doctors dont have to run everything in triplicate to cover their butt…

  2. open up state boarders so that things are truely competitive at a national level… I know, it sounds crazy but hay, isnt that kinda how we work in this country??

If they just did those two things prices would drop a LOT… people would get in and out quicker… If you also wanted to speed things up, make it so the emergency room can turn away people who are NOT actually having an emergency but just their because they dont have insurance and have a cold…

This stuff is not rocket science. Then again, anyone can make stuff more complicated, making it simple, now thats harder…

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However the House bill, as posted elsewhere, actually goes out of its way to stop states from doing anything with regard to tort reform.

Trial lawyers are major, major contributors to the Democratic Party.

Of course if the real issue were solving problems that make health care more expensive than it need be, a very simple bill with really no downsides could be written that would address only those issues. Then if desired more complex issues, and issues that actually could or definitely would cost money, could be addressed separately if desired.

But doing that would not accomplish the purposes of the politicians in question.