The bill is pretty good, but certainly not perfect. I believe that providing coverage to most of the currently uninsured is the right thing to do morally and financially.
The restrictions on the insurance industry are a result of their arrogance.
The bill does help primary care and that is welcome.
I believe it does not do enough for primary care. The bill insufficiently addresses GME needs.
But we really do not know the pluses and minuses of the bill yet. It will take a few years to really know. I hope it helps.
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“The bill is pretty good, but certainly not perfect.”
In what way is this bill good? Forcing people to buy full-coverage (low or no deductible) health care insurance is good? Forcing insurance companies to overcharge younger and lower risk customers and undercharge older and higher risk customers is good? Diverting money from an already expensive and underfinanced Medicare program to this new health care financing plan is good? Increasing the involvement of the federal government in every aspect of patient care is good? Blatant health care industry corporatism (with pharmaceutical, diagnostic imaging, and medical device companies spending more on lobbying than on research and development) is good?
From economic, political, social policy, and heath care quality viewpoints, this bill is an all-around loser. The winners: government bureaucrats, lobbyists, politicians who get lobbied, and copycat healthcare companies (drug and medical device makers who rarely innovate and just create “me-too” drugs or devices). Hospitals may benefit financially in the short-term. So will some physicians. In the medium-term our health care system will look like Canada’s, and in the long-term it will look like Great Britain’s.
I’m a deep skeptic of the bill. It is stongest on increasing access, although half of the newly insured will be incorporated into the Medicaid program. I don’t see any effective cost control in the system, although physicians’ compensation will be controlled. I also doubt that primary care will receive any meaningful compensation increases, despite promised to make them whole. I expect they will see increases that are less than 5%, hardly a gamechanger. In my view, the bill does nothing to increase medical quality. Tort reform was AWOL. Hope and pray.l
This bill hurts all doctors. It “helps” primary care docs by tossing them a bone so their part of the system will break down a little later than otherwise while moving the whole medical system further along towards insolvency.
While we do not know how badly the government has underestimated costs this time, the six years of benefits w/ten years of fees leads me to believe the scoring is even less credible than usual.
The bill is completely socialist. The experiments around the world like this have failed. It increases taxes and odes not improve quality. GME was not included. It is not historic. In a few words it is a sham. the ones that will loose are the doctors.
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