Obama Care

     Obama Care is a set of guidelines for healthcare reform. In these outlined guidelines President Barrack Obama is trying to do several things. He wants to cap off healthcare premiums so that they can be affordable. He intends to deny insurance companies the right to refuse to pay for services due to pre-esxisting conditions, cap off total lifetime benefits, dropp coverage, or restrict benefits. He has covered several points of issue in his guidelines. The president wants to make preventitve care free, moniter how much of the premium money can be used for advertising, profit and salaries. President Obama also has incorporated hardship waivers, tax credits for small buisnesses, lowering the cost of healthcare for seniors, subsideis for working families, improving and extending the quality of Medicare, and a health exchange to increase choice and guarantee coverage. More importantly President Obama clains that this will reduce national deficit and that the money is already there to make this happen.
     I am against this healthcare reform. I do want to be able to choose my provider. I am a nurse and very selective about the care of myself and family. We all use different providers suited to each of us, not just one family doctor.  I would love to see insuarance companies shaking in their provebial boots, and pay out on everything for everyone. As a wife, mother, and chronic care patient, I love the concept.
     The reality of it is that this will bankrupt insurance companies. No advertisement means no consumers. The big names will float and the little names will drown. Insurance companies will be forced to work as non-profit companies, but no sanctions will be provided to stay afloat. Making preventitve care free would reduce physiscian pay significantly. Who wants to be a doctor if you aren't getting paid? Money does motivate people to go to medical school, as well as offsetting the cost of the four year education and four year  internship. I make higher hourly wages as a nurse than an intern makes as a "baby doctor".
      The attempt to cap off lifetime benefits will result in liberal use of hospitals and medical staff. The weight of this alone will bankrupt many companies. My lifetime limit is $2,000,000. I hop that I never even get close to that limit. My husband has diabetes, severe asthma, and sleep apnea. The clause that refuses the companies the ability to refuse to pay for his care is music to my ears. I would never have to worry about insulin, breathing teatments, and help with payment of equipment for him.
     There are some positives to Obama Care. The reduction of costs for seniors and extending Medicare. I think we need this. Our elders are left behind because we don't accept their decline, and there income becomes limited with physical capapbility. The reform should include new guidelines about family responsibilty to the patient, and family should prove every avenue was taken to reduce expenditure to care for the familly member. We as a society should help those as individuals understand this.
     The subsities for care that would pay out the individual are a good idea. This would put more money in the pockets of patients, but where would that money really go? The tax credits are a good idea. You have to provide proof of expenditure and payment of services for tax credits. That means that the money went to where it was meant to go in the first place.
      I could go on all day about this topic. The point is that this type of healthcare reform will stop competitve pricing, insurance company options, and overall patient choice. It will also result in another lapse of patient responsibility. Why should we as patients worry about how we take care of ourselves if we don't have to worry about whether or not the coverage will be ther. I think some points to Obama Care are valid, but I believe our new reform needs reform.
    
Sources:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100321224851AAJ59Og