Healthcare Bill

Well, they did it. The house passed the health care bill and the reconciliation as well. It was a tough fight but it may have saved Obama's presidency. At least he has one thing to brag about now at the next national election. I fear for the Democrats though. After this fight and all the misleading and actual false information spread by the Republicans, they may lose lots of seats in the mid term elections. I went to FactCheck.org and checked out all the false information each time another line was invented and learned that almost all the information started by the Republicans was just pure fiction. Unfortunately the bulk of the American people don't check anything out. They just listen to the loudest voices. And, of course, the loudest voices are the fearful Republicans.

Here are the changes to take effect immediately. Does anyone here want to advocate for repeal? Which ones would you like to repeal?

* Prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;
* Provide immediate access to insurance for uninsured Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition through a temporary high-risk pool;
* Prohibit dropping people from coverage when they get sick in all individual plans;
* Lower seniors prescription drug prices by beginning to close the donut hole;
* Offer tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;
* Eliminate lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;
* Require plans to cover an enrollee's dependent children until age 26;
* Require new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations without cost-sharing;
* Ensure consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;
* Require premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs.

The low income Americans will get subsidies to help them pay for the insurance. The rest will find affordable health insurance just like they do with their car insurance....by shopping around. This should make the industry more competitive. And the industry will have another 30 million customers. They should be delighted.

They will have many customers like me...folks who never need health insurance but who pay for it anyhow. They should offset those who are ill and really need it.

One of the best things that came out of this vote was that it closed the donut hole for prescription drugs. I have a dear friend who lives on less then $1,000 a month, who has macular degeneration and glaucoma. She spends $400. a month on eye drops. Before the unfunded prescription drug bill was introduced, she spent $200 a month on the same drops. Every October, she went into the donut hole and had to pay the entire $400 a month out of her pocket until she met their limit....on top of that, she still paid the premium. She is 88 years old and struggles.

This will help her.