Firedoglake
Posted on March 24, 2010
I am not one to quote liberal bloggers like the folks at Firedoglake. But when they are right, they are right.They analyzed this bill and their conclusions are devastating (here is the link: http://budurl.com/qxx8)
In a nutshell, this is what they say:
This bill is not universal (24 million will still not be covered in 2019).
The insurance companies don’t really hate this bill. (Why should they? Their stocks have risen close to 30 percent since last October 30th, and the plan that was adopted is very similar to the one penned by America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP))
Premiums are not going to go down. They are going to go up at the same rate as the status quo.
This bill will not help middle class families (a family of four making $66,370 will be forced to pay $5,243 per year for insurance. After basic necessities, this leaves them with $8,307 in discretionary income — out of which they would have to cover clothing, credit card and other debt, child care and education costs, in addition to $5,882 in annual out-of-pocket medical expenses for which families will be responsible).
This plan may be like what has happened in Massachusetts, but that can’t be comforting for those who care what has actually happened in the Bay State (21% of residents forgo medical treatment because they can’t afford it).
You can’t keep your insurance if you like it (in fact, the excise tax will convince employers to switch to a plan with higher co-pays and fewer covered employees, which means older, less healthier employees with be forced to pay more out-of-pocket).
This bill may help Wal-Mart cover more employees but only because most of their employees will qualify for subsidies, which will be picked up by the taxpayers (thank you very much).
The idea that this bill provides immediate access to the uninsured who have pre-existing conditions is a mirage. According to Firedoglake, only 0.7% of those who qualify for the high risk pool will get coverage, and it will run out of funding by 2011.
Because the bill has no enforcement mechanisms, the idea that people can’t be dropped from their insurance because they get sick is just that, an idea.
This bill will do nothing to limit the insurance companies from jacking up premiums 30 to 40 percent.
And despite what the President says, the most popular provisions, the end of pre-existing conditions, don’t go into effect until 2014.
The Vice President called this bill a big frickin deal (or something like that). The problem for the Democrats is that they are overselling it. It may have a big price tag, but this will not be a good frickin deal for most people, just a big frickin waste of money.
When a liberal blog like Firedoglake tears the bill apart like they just did, we should all start to take notice.
This is a bad bill, and no amount of selling is going to make it any better for the American people.