Kerry has a GREAT plan to bring down health insurance premiums for all

[blm]

(Even Ceci Connolly can't spin it against Kerry)

Kerry Plan Could Cut Insurance Premiums
Catastrophic Relief Garnering Support

By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 5, 2004; Page A01


All it took was one cancer case and one chronic illness -- two employees out of 50 -- and the health insurance premiums of an Ohio faucet company jumped from $200,000 to $350,000 in a year.


Raymond Arth, who owns Phoenix Products in Avon Lake, Ohio, said he could not blame his insurer, Medical Mutual of Ohio, for the increase; for every &dol;1 he had paid in premiums, the insurance company had paid out &dol;2.08 in claims. Medical Mutual could not afford to take that kind of risk again and Arth could not afford the higher premium, so he went searching for a new policy.

Such catastrophic claims account for less than half of 1 percent of all claims but generate 20 percent of the nation's health care costs, according to the latest federal data. To cover those costs, insurers such as Medical Mutual boost premiums, often forcing companies and individuals to dig deeper in their pockets or go without care.

For more than a decade, the health care debate in America has focused on the millions of people without insurance. Now, Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), in an unconventional twist for a Democrat, is focusing on the 162 million Americans who are purchasing insurance and what can be done to ease the double-digit premium increases paid by employers and their workers.
>>>>>>>>>>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A16748-2004Jun4?language=printer

[hlthe2b]

1. but, but, what's that got to do with Reagan dying?

:evilgrin:

Thanks for posting on something besides the (soon becoming) monotonous...

[blm]

3. My little family will save about $2000 a year in health premiums.

That will make a huge difference to us. I'd much rather put that $2000 aside for baby blm's college.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. Great Post. Thank God it's not about Ronnie!

Once this "show" blows over, Kerry should name his VEEP at the end of the month to coincide with Clinton's Autobiography and Fahrenheit 9/11.

[RedEarth]

4. Sounds logical to me........good post

[blm]

5. That's the winning point. It's LOGICAL and easily DOABLE.

Kerry wins and my family saves 2000 bucks starting in 2005. He has promised to push it through in his first 100 days.

[camero]

6. Another Kerry idea I like

He wants to drop the two year waiting period for people on disability getting medicaid. Hope he can do it.

[dumpster_baby]

7. and if the govt gradually increases the amound covered to more than 75%

...first 80, then 90%, then decreasing the threshold from $50K down to 25K, and so forth. And then the govt would have more reason to control medical costs, which it could do by building more medical schools and graduating more doctors, and building more hospitals, then we might actually have a country that might come close to being HALF as great a country as most Americans think it is....

[Forkboy]

8. Kick for something that's actually important

:kick:

[cheezus]

39. no kidding.

aren't redundant threads supposed to be merged or linked and closed to something?

:kick:

[Deja Q]

9. Fucking stupid way to do things.

We need a system that goes by the individual, not by the company who hires a bunch of workers, the conditions within the company that may or may not make more patients for the industry to exploit.

We need a NATIONAL, government controlled system to prevent prices from skyrocketing and the people gouged.

If you want your capitalism, it's got to be controlled. Otherwise you get the quagmire the US is experiencing, with no sign of improvement in sight.

[dumpster_baby]

10. we do need a nat'l system, but to get there, we need some sort of lever

this may be a path to get there. We need some way to get into the American mind, to break the propaganda hold that has been placed on rural and suburban whites in America.

[Kanary]

11. WIth you completely!

All this cheering because it "relieves" those who already have insurance....... and those without.........???


Kanary, sensing an ugly tide of the future

[JerseygirlCT]

13. But if this plan begins to bring down the cost of insurance

even for those who already have it -- then lowered costs will begin to make purchasing insurance affordable again, wouldn't they?

There are a lot of working people who don't have insurance -- their companies can't afford to cover them. If the cost was within reach, then a great deal many more people might find themselves covered.

I think it makes sense.

[Kanary]

14. sure, it makes "sense" to you....... you aren't without

Ever think what it's like to have a debilitating illness, and can't get to the dr? Yet, you want those in that situation to be "patient". Try walking in their shoes for just a minute, and think about how that would sound to *you*.

Because of circumstances beyond their control, some will *NEVER* be able to "purchase" insurance.

I guess, in this great country, they're just SOL, eh?

Ya know, what I really grieve is the loss of the American spirit of understanding what others deal with.

Kanary

[blm]

18. Why are you criticizing without noting the whole plan?

Kerry has a plan to extend healthcare to the uninsured. If this issue was truly important to you, you would have noted that Kerry's FULL plan does extend healthcare to the uninsured. He and Kennedy came up with the CHIPS bill, y'know.

YOU are more interested in attacking Kerry without noting ONE fact of his plan.

This particular article was featuring the aspect of his health plan that saved money for the working class people who are paying through the nose for the health insurance they do have and yet you change the thrust of the article merely to promote your false conclusion in regard to Kerry's policy.

[dsc]

19. With all due respect

the article does discuss his plan for the uninsured, and it is pretty much as described above.

In exchange for the benefit, Kerry would require employers to offer insurance to every worker and to provide health programs that detect and manage chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure early enough to prevent the diseases from worsening.

snip

"How do you reduce costs for Americans as well as cover the uninsured?" Kerry said in an interview. "Mine is the first and only plan that has sought to do both. In fact, we've found a way to do them." He envisions a chain reaction in which lower premiums entice more individuals and companies to buy insurance, and as more people are covered, costs come down again.


end of quote

Now one can argue about the efficacy of Kerry's idea. Maybe he would end up covering the overwhelming majority of the uninsured and maybe he wouldn't. Presumedly the mandate would be limited to full time employees. That would leave quite a few out. The discount would be around 20% or so according to Kerry's figures. That leaves a lot of people with fairly low incomes trying to pay pretty high costs. In short, I don't think her critque is all that off the mark. And before you say Dean would have had the same problem, you will note that I favored Gephardt's plan. Though I favored Dean as a canddidate I didn't like his health plan nearly as much as Gephardt's.

[Kanary]

21. So, if you're uninsured, and without a job..............?

[dsc]

25. this one I will leave to a Kerry person

I honestly am not totally sure he what he does in that case.

[Kanary]

27. Exactly

Yet, you wanted to get your back up, and hint that I'm just being mean to Kerry.

What I'm interested in is the care and concern for citizens who are having a hard time... financially and medically. That SHOULD be considered a Good Thing. At least it was in the Dem Party in the days of old.

I would suggest that it's time to step back a bit from this sense that we have to always defend the candidate. Especially when we are among "friends". There are simply too many people really hurting in this country, and pushing them aside in the name of "loyalty" isn't winning us one damned thing.

Kanary

[Lars39]

23. How would this help the self-employed who have no employees and have

individual insurance policies? :shrug:

[dsc]

24. Your premium would be cut by around 20%

due to the costs of the catastrophic cases being absorbed by the feds.

[Lars39]

29. I went back and reread the article....

It really didn't specify the self-employed and their individual policies benefitting from this. I'd be grateful for any thing positive at this point; I'm on COBRA at $1000/month because of a pre-existing condition. I recently found HIPPA comes into play for pre-existing conditions. I don't think a lot of people know about that.

[dsc]

36. The theory is that costs would drop 20% across the board

and it seems reasonable. I also cut and pasted his actual plan. You would get a 30% tax credit (not sure if it is refundable or not).

[blm]

28. When you go to Kerry's more detailed policy at his site

you get a clearer picture of his intentions to insure MORE of the uninsured as well as helping the working class and the small business owners with their premiums.

[dsc]

31. I did

and here is his plan.

Saving workers up to $1,000 with premium relief. John Kerry’s plan will provide relief for employers who do the right thing by offering their employees quality health care coverage with choices. His plan will help make health care more affordable for all employers and employees by helping out with certain high cost health cases – providing approximately 10 percent in annual savings.

Allowing Americans to buy into the same health plan available to members of Congress. John Kerry’s plan will allow Americans to access the same range of affordable health care plans that members of Congress get today. This plan will give Americans more choices for high-quality affordable health care – providing better coverage at lower prices than is generally available for people who do not have access to high-quality employer-sponsored insurance today.

Providing tax credits to make health insurance more affordable. John Kerry’s plan will provide tax credits to make health insurance more affordable for people and small businesses buying into the new Congressional Health Plan. These tax credits total $177 billion over ten years – more than twice as generous as the health care tax credits proposed by Bush.

Kerry’s tax credits include:

A 25 percent tax credit for people ages 55 to 64 whose salaries fall below 300 percent of poverty.

A 75 percent tax credit for people between jobs and below 300 percent of poverty.

A tax credit of up to 50 percent for small businesses that cover low and moderate-income workers.

A tax credit for workers not eligible for other provisions of the Kerry plan, which would limit premiums to less than 6 percent of income for workers below poverty and then phase out to 12 percent of income for workers at 300 percent of poverty.

Expanding state-based programs to insure all children and millions of adults. The Kerry plan will pick up the full cost of more than 20 million children enrolled in Medicaid. In exchange, states would have to expand eligibility for children’s coverage to 300 percent of poverty, as well as expand coverage for families up to 200 percent of poverty and for adults up to 100 percent of poverty.

Cutting waste and costs. In addition, John Kerry’s plan will improve the health care system by making prescription drugs more affordable through reimportation and other measures; cutting administrative costs and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse; enhancing disease management efforts; and making malpractice insurance more affordable. All of these measures will improve health outcomes while reducing health care costs.

end of quote (if there is an error in paragraphing that is on me as it didn't transfer on the cut and paste)

There are a myriad of programs here that should cover many people. One big detail left unaddressed as far as I can see is refundability. Are these refundable credits? If they aren't they won't be very effective.

The only neglected groups I see are adults making low incomes.

[blm]

32. That's an overview.

Look at the detailed policy in his healthcare speech and the press release from before the primaries.

It's a GIANT STEP towards the ultimate goal of universal healthcare. It's DOABLE.

[dsc]

37. I remember his stuff from the primaries

You would be one to know, are those credits refundable or not? I can't find a place where that is answered.

[Kanary]

20. Actually, if you read what I posted

I was replying to someone who was dismissive of those without care.

It's very sad, the depths to which the Dems have fallen. To expect those of us on the outside to content ourselves with merely being cheerleaders is ........... well, I'll just leave that blank.

Kanary

[blm]

26. You don't HAVE to be a cheerleader, but be INFORMED before you decide

to smear Kerry and his plan with false accusations.

[JerseygirlCT]

30. That would be me, I think

And I honestly fail to see where I was at all dismissive of those without coverage.

I simply said that this aspect of his plan would help to make coverage a reality for many more people. Where's the problem with that?

I never said we shouldn't be working to insure everyone and provide decent healthcare for every citizen. I'm not sure where you gleaned that idea from my post. But I do think this is a step in the right direction.

Or does it only count as a good idea if it solves your immediate problem?

[Lars39]

35. There are quite a few people here at DU that are literally at the end

of the line. They are on full disability looking at possible cuts being made that could mean their death. No medicines, no housing, no transportation to doctors, all can equal a death sentence.

[JerseygirlCT]

38. And that's a terrible thing and something that should be fixed

I'd never argue against that!

But I don't want to disparage progress b/c it's not 100% progress, KWIM?

It's a horrible national shame that anyone in this country should be denied decent healthcare. Just as it's a horrible national shame that anyone should go without food or shelter. We have the ability to fix these things, and we ought to do that.

What's the saying? Every journey starts with the first step?

[dsc]

12. I actually wish our winner would have done Gephardt's plan

but this is a good idea. But, unless it is combined with something for the uninsured there will still be a huge gap.

[Blue_Roses]

15. this is one of the many reasons I like

Kerry. We need decent health care insurance in this country. I'm so frustrated with the insurance I just had.

[CHIMO]

16. The Canadian Plan

The cost for 33 million people is estimated to be 85 billion(going from memory on this). Some provinces require a monthly payment and some don't. The difference in any event comes out of general taxes. On an individual basis this works out to about $2,600.00 per person. Off the bat the costs are reduced by 15% because the insurance companies do not have to have inspectors checking up on everything. Because there is one payer the payer has a control over the doc's fees.

[lostnfound]

17. kick

[Massacure]

22. Great

Now we just need to get the House and Senate in Democrats control to make sure this plan makes it through in one piece.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

33. It's a positive step.

[Beatrix]

34. I wish people would get real

First of all there will be NO SERIOUS HEALTH CARE REFORM in the first Kerry term. Anyone with health care concerns right now (including me) is shit out of luck until at least beyond 2008. In fact - there will be no serious advancements past where we were in 2000 at all.

The repubs will still control at least one chamber of congress and you are in dream land if you believe they will permit any kind of serious health care reform or anything else on the democratic party platform. Unlike Daschle et al they will not cave in every other day or break ranks. If there is one primary trait of the repubs this is it.

The fist Kerry admin will almost entirely be dedicated to cleaning up the mess of this administration and getting us back to the pre-regime status quo. This regime has fu**ed things up so badly that this is the best we can realistcly obtain.

These little "plans" sound (somewhat) nice on paper, but no one get your hopes up. If you do you're going to be disappointed.

[Nlighten1]

40. This same thing happend to the company I work for.

They have cut our health care down significantly because of it. I have even seen them fire people who had or needed surgery.