I am reading: Health Care Reform Bill Passes House – What’s In It?  and I thought I would comment on the Health Care Reform as I have a bit of Insurance background.

Insurance mandate – Uninsured Americans will pay a penalty; low-income people exempt. House bill charges a penalty of 2.5% of adjusted gross income: that’s $500 on $20,000, for example.

Why force someone to buy insurance? Then again it could lower premium costs because everyone has it.

Employer coverage – All employers with a payroll above $500,000 must help pay for some kind of health insurance for their employees, or pay a tax. The Senate Finance Committee version of the bill does not have this requirement.

Sounds good at first, but dig down deeper that the government plan could really suck, but the employer pays and your good to go right? Well, what if this was the cheaper option for the employer so they drop coverage and now you are on a socialized health care policy which no government in the World can run correctly. How is ours different?

Insurance exchange – Allows people who are not covered to buy health insurance in nation- or state-wide markets. Available to employees of small businesses, and others not eligible for coverage.

Sounds great, insurance pools. As long as there isn’t an un-fair mixture like sticking in all the sick people in. This would be great.

Public plan – Would create a new federal government-run insurance plan with its own physician and hospital rates, separate from those negotiated by Medicare. Senate Finance Committee instead offers nonprofit insurance cooperatives in each state.

The government cannot even run VA Hospitals, what makes you think this will be any better. You could be in a worse condition or dead before you get treated. Or travel to a major city in another state to get ongoing treatment. Just think of all the driving, time and gas. Maybe you can’t afford it and skip treatment?

Subsidies – Households earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level would be eligible for subsidies of health insurance premiums when they buy insurance through the exchange.

 I have no clue what this means.

Small business subsidies – Tax credits for small employers that provide health care coverage for employees.

Ok, could be good or bad. But why not put the money towards paying un-employment and keep state governments running. Michigan roads are bad, and there won’t be much money for them next year.

Coverage – House and Senate Health Committee versions require plans to pay for 70% of all health care spending that the plan covers; Senate Finance Committee version requires 65%. Insurers cannot deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions, and premiums may not vary according to age on the individual insurance market as widely as they do now. People receiving federal subsidies for insurance may not enroll in a plan that includes coverage of abortions.

You know the cost of for-profit insurance companies? Because they rate by age and pre-existing conditions. Plus, on top of it, they want to make a profit too. Non-Profits are more expensive, but take sick people and do not rate by age. They could still miss-manage money. There are ways to cheat the system and cost non-profits money by playing each other against themselves. Hopefully both see this and have rules in place. Abortion is touchy. In one way, why cover an elective (optional) as it will bring the cost of the plan up by how much it is used. If it is just cause it is an ethical thing, this is a free country. Or just allow abortion for rape victims.

Medicaid – Households with incomes up to 150% of the federal poverty level would now be eligible for Medicaid. Senate Finance Committee would expand to 133% of the federal poverty level, starting in 2014.

I do not know how it is handled now, but sounds like money best spent somewhere else.

This could lead to socialized medicine and I do not like it. I want to be in control. I like my non-profit medical, dental (I think it is for profit), Vision (not sure) plans just fine. I want to see who I want, if anything is wrong, get it taken care of before it is too late……

There maybe a better way, but rushing is not going to do it. The only thing that may work is something like Michigan catastrophic for auto insurance (but there maybe some funny business with that now) but for medical insurance and give someone the option to join a insurance pool of a non-profit and for-profit. These pools would have diverse ages and healthy and sick people allowing the rates to be lower. The larger they are, the less cost they will be. Small Business premiums are higher than mid-sized, and for mid-sized more than large companies. There are more breakdowns than that by carrier, but each rate differently.

What do you think? Please comment below.