The bill

I find it amazing how two opposing views cause so much fighting. I disagree with giving anyone anything long term that one can work for and provide themselves, others believe that certain things should not be an individuals responsibility and should be given to them. There nothing wrong with either view except the view that it has to be one way or the other. In my opinion the more that is given to you the more you rely on the person giving. This gives them (the giver) more control. Now the same can be said when you give your money to a corporation, the only difference in my opinion is I can give someone else that money, if it becomes my government that I'm giving the money to what can I do (quickly) if I don't like what or how they are spending it?

Where government should step in is to make sure those corporations are treating everyone the same and create basic guidelines on what should be offered to the people. Personally I believe part of today's bill does some of that, but a larger part of the bills makes me do something I may not want to. With the items that are going on in my life today and the way the bill currently is, not a lot is going to change. From the looks of it I will have less in the elective coverage because I have whats considered a "Cadillac" plan. So for the same amount of money the company I have will likely drop a lot of the optional coverage because more of that money will be going to pay for others lower end plans. From the amount that is coming out of my pocket to pay for it I don't think its a high end plan, I feel as though I'm paying for it and at this time in my life and the issues we are going through it's worth every penny (and I don't have many pennies left).

Now there are other people in my family and friends that don't have any insurance because there job does not offer it. Part of the bill I like is that it will make employers get insurance or pay a fine for each of their employees. The issue I see with this is I think they are missing the reason why companies don't offer insurance. Cost is why they don't offer it, I certainly don't think the majority of companies are so greedy that they don't. Addressing cost is key. Large business picked up insurance as a way to lure more employees if the cost was affordable so would smaller companies.

The solution to this would be lets lower the overall cost of health care by 1. setting a cap on the amount a lawyer can make of the case of an individual (they currently make a percentage in most cases and most of our house and senate were what?) 2.Medicaid and medicare pay a set amount for each procedure, why? If the government pays a set amount and that amount doesn't either cover the cost or is more than most would charge whats going to happen. A. they are going to pass the extra cost onto others or B they are going to charge everyone more based on that price.

[Tangent: Just like the current issue in Florida with Home owners insurance you can't stop competition, competition lowers cost. If the (in my opinion) corrupt government official who was supposedly taking large sums of money from the insurance companies didn't stop the rule that prevented home owners insurance companies to sell under a separate company in Florida our insurance rates would not be as high as they are today. End of tangent]

Also there should be serious benefits for not for profit hospitals and Dr's at least in the short term. This would show how much the costs should really be and give you competition and a shopping option.

[Tangent: The equipment Dr's use are extremely costly no doubt but 600 - 3,000 dollars for each cat scan is crazy. If your doing just 10 a day 1,560,000 - 7,800,000 a year. From what I can see they are likely doing more than 10 a day. Cost of an average cat scan machine from 200,000 - 500,000. Now I'm pretty sure they don't replace those machines every year and I'm sure there is some kind of maintenance cost to it plus labor for the techs who get paid ok. On the low end fee and the high end machine that's 1,060,000 profit if you were to buy a machine each year. Retail store generally charge 50 -100% markup on every item so if they were buying a new 500,000 dollar machine each year this would be justified. end tangent]

Bottom line I feel and what I should of just said to begin with is I believe heath care reform is needed. I do not believe they are going about it the right way and depending on which polls you chose to believe neither do the majority of the American people. I believe the solution is to give people more choice by having government only stick a toe into it not jump in with both hands. I guess we will see where this goes I hope that it doesn't make thing worse and opens a door for real non single dependent change.