Health reform news reaches far and wide, even into the middle of the Serengeti, where I learned today that the NYTimes published a piece by David Leonhardt commenting on a variation of Bob Laszewski’s Affordability Model.
It’s more and more apparent that the train wreck scenario is coming to pass. And increasingly clear that some form of taxation is going to be required for health reform to happen.
Jul
29
I really enjoy reading this blog. I have put together a website on health reform that touches on many of the issues on this site. I would love for any or all of you to visit and both enjoy its content and let me know what you think.
The ads for all visits go to charity to fight Ulcerative Colitis too!
http://www.satvathealthcare.com
Best,
Amir
Thanks in advance.
The most important part of health care reform is winning – without giving away the store, the farm, the house, and three of the four kids. And WITH a strong public plan.
We just did it in Connecticut. With tremendous grass-roots support, we took on the insurance industry and the Republican Party and our own governor and we won. So it can be done.
On July 20th, our state House and Senate successfully overrode Republican Governor Rell’s veto of the SustiNet health care reform plan – one of the most ambitious plans for universal health care anywhere. The SustiNet law mandates the creation of a nine member committee to be known as the SustiNet Board. The board, co-chaired by State comptroller Nancy Wyman and State Healthcare Advocate Kevin Lembo, will lay out the steps for implementing a plan to provide health insurance to the state’s 325,000 uninsured and to broaden the range of insurance options available to employers.
The centerpiece of SustiNet involves making the state employees plan self-insured, then opening it up (with quality care and sliding-scale affordable rates) to: the uninsured; Medicaid recipients; small business employees; nonprofit employees; municipalities; and individuals who have unaffordable or inadequate employee –sponsored plans.
According to health economists Jonathan Gruber of MIT and Stan Dorn of the Urban Institute, SustiNet will return $2.80 to employers and employees for every dollar invested by the state.
In the insurance capital of the country, with a Republican Governor, a broad-based coalition of small business owners, providers, faith leaders, union leaders, health care advocates and other stake holders beat the odds.
If we can do it here, you can do it there.
More about SustiNet is at: http://www.healthcare4every1.org.
My 7 year old is a 5 year neuroblastoma survivor. My husband and I have chosen to only work for employers with those so-called “cadillac plans” after nearly going bankrupt due to inadequate insurance during our son’s treatment. I actually would have no problem with our cadillac plans being taxed, but I am afraid that a tax would encourage empployers to only offer crappy plans. If we could go out on the proposed insurance exchange and choose insurance, even that wouldn’t be a problem – but the proposals I have seen would not allow people who work for companies with health plans, no matter how lousy, to purchase their own insurance on the exchance. To me, that is unacceptable. Having good insurance is critical for my family. If you have never faced $100,000 in bills after 3 months of chemo despite supposedly being insured, you have no idea how scary underinsurance is.