Federal Judge: ObamaCare Unconstitutional

[GoVegan]

Call it a premium or call it a tax. Either way we all have to pay for health care and the costs are getting downright ridiculous. I am getting well over $600.00 getting taken out of my check every month for health care and that is after my employer kicks in $500.00. Enough is enough. There is absolutely no way I could afford this if I was not getting help through my employer. Yes, I know there are cheaper plans out there if you are 20, in excellent health and are willing to travel to Tijuana for major medical issues but I have to pick from what my employer offers. Now I have heard that the rates are going up again this year.

[raptor]

Be glad you have any health insurance Vegan, a lot of companies are just plain dropping plans.

[GoVegan]

Be glad you have any health insurance Vegan, a lot of companies are just plain dropping plans.

I am very glad that I have health insurance available. I am just getting tired of all the people who are complaining about "Obamacare" and how much it is going to cost us when the truth is we are already paying an arm and a leg if we are lucky enough just to have it. The entire medical system is in crisis right now and a lot of politicians are acting like everything is fine. They are also acting like Obama is trying to create some sort of new tax without realizing that we are paying for this already. This is nothing new but it does get old after a while. The mere mention of something like a single payer system or a government option will got you labeled as a communistic or socialistic traitor. You might as well be Assange preaching free speech at a Palin rally. The Tea Party seem to be the biggest whiners about all of this and yet they also offer the fewest solutions to this dilemma. I would really like to see our whole insurance system be scrapped at this point as they are just poisoning the well rather than trying to help out.

[sgreger1]

I am very glad that I have health insurance available. I am just getting tired of all the people who are complaining about "Obamacare" and how much it is going to cost us when the truth is we are already paying an arm and a leg if we are lucky enough just to have it. The entire medical system is in crisis right now and a lot of politicians are acting like everything is fine. They are also acting like Obama is trying to create some sort of new tax without realizing that we are paying for this already. This is nothing new but it does get old after a while. The mere mention of something like a single payer system or a government option will got you labeled as a communistic or socialistic traitor. You might as well be Assange preaching free speech at a Palin rally. The Tea Party seem to be the biggest whiners about all of this and yet they also offer the fewest solutions to this dilemma. I would really like to see our whole insurance system be scrapped at this point as they are just poisoning the well rather than trying to help out.

True on all counts, but are you under the impression any of this will get cheaper once "ObamaCare" gets implemented? This health care bill did nothing to address the rising cost of medical care.

Right now: hospitals eat the bill if people can't pay, so they increase the price for the rest of their paying customers to make it up >>>> this leads to inflation in the cost of medical treatment.

Post-ObamaCare: Now, the hospitals will get paid every time no matter what, since they know everyone has insurance. This may or may not (likely not) slow down the ever-rising cost of medical treatment, since in theory the hospital doesn't have to foot the bill for broke dicks who can't pay. But now the insurance companies have to pay the bill when folks is broke. So now the insurance companies are going to raise premiums on everyone else (people who have better than minimum plan), in order to adjust for the cost of the cheap packages they are not profiting enough from.





This is why I personally don't like this new health care reform bill. Because it does nothing to fix any problem, it is simply another transfer of wealth. It is paying off the hospitals for their support by giving them the reassurance that everyone will pay after they get treatment, and the insurance companies get paid off because they will have a larger risk pool (more customers) and can use the whole thing as an excuse to raise premiums.

[snusgetter]

Number of insured in Mass. rises to 98 percent

BOSTON—More than 98 percent of Massachusetts residents now have health insurance of some kind.

A report released Monday by Gov. Deval Patrick's administration found that 98.1 percent of state residents were covered during a survey between May and June.

That's up from 97.3 percent covered last year, and 93.6 percent in 2006, when former Gov. Mitt Romney signed the state's universal health care law.

Only about 120,000 people now lack either private or government-paid insurance in Massachusetts.

The state plan was a model for national universal health care legislation President Barack Obama signed earlier this year. A federal judge on Monday declared the law's mandate to get coverage is unconstitutional.

Patrick says the survey results are positive, and the state should focus on controlling the cost of insurance.



"A federal judge on Monday declared the law's mandate to get coverage is unconstitutional."

Gotta wonder how this ruling will affect Taxachusett's plan?

[GoVegan]

Number of insured in Mass. rises to 98 percent

BOSTON—More than 98 percent of Massachusetts residents now have health insurance of some kind.

A report released Monday by Gov. Deval Patrick's administration found that 98.1 percent of state residents were covered during a survey between May and June.

That's up from 97.3 percent covered last year, and 93.6 percent in 2006, when former Gov. Mitt Romney signed the state's universal health care law.

Only about 120,000 people now lack either private or government-paid insurance in Massachusetts.

The state plan was a model for national universal health care legislation President Barack Obama signed earlier this year. A federal judge on Monday declared the law's mandate to get coverage is unconstitutional.

Patrick says the survey results are positive, and the state should focus on controlling the cost of insurance.



"A federal judge on Monday declared the law's mandate to get coverage is unconstitutional."

Gotta wonder how this ruling will affect Taxachusett's plan?

You have to wonder how many of those people are covered under Medicaid. Those numbers look to good to be true.

[snusgetter]

You have to wonder how many of those people are covered under Medicaid. Those numbers look to good to be true.

Around here, most numbers look too good to be true!!

[GoVegan]

Probably lots. SCHIP and medicare too. But universal coverage = universal coverage. It doesn't matter which plan they are covered under (medicaid is a state run program anyway).

I just noticed your icon is gone. What happened?

[GoVegan]

Major Kong, is it possible this is some kind of loyalty test?

Yes and you flunked. I just get used to seeing the icon next to your name. I want to change mine soon but I am not sure what to use next. I do wish they would up the size limit a bit.

[GoVegan]

A nice tasty rare ribeye?

Irony is fun.

Actually I was trying to find a pic of a hand with the middle finger sticking out of it for an icon. Yes, irony is fun!

[GoVegan]

I tried to google "bird" - but all I got was pictures of a bunch of f'ing birds...

I will play with it later this week but I would be a bit afraid to try and use a middle finger icon. I need something that moves and is irritating after you look at for a while. Maybe one of those smiley faces that bounce around or something like that.

[snusgetter]

Actually I was trying to find a pic of a hand with the middle finger sticking out of it for an icon. Yes, irony is fun!

Hmmm...










SPOIL SPORTS!!

[snusgetter]

Oh yeah, then there's the grand poobah...

[snusgetter]

Health reform advocates have little to fear from judge's ruling

U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson, a George W. Bush appointee (and part-owner of a Republican campaign-consulting firm that fought the health-care overhaul legislation), has, as expected, ruled the individual mandate unconstitutional. So why are reform advocates so unexpectedly pleased?

There are two reasons, but first, let's put this into context. Hudson's ruling is the third from a district court so far. Previously, Judge Norman Moon found the mandate constitutional, and so did Judge George Steeh. Steeh and Norman were Clinton appointees, which is to say that the rulings have been proceeding along predictably partisan lines.

Hudson ruled against the government, but he didn't stop it. He refused the plaintiff's request for an injunction against the legislation's continued implementation.

That means the government can carry on setting up the legislation even as the legal process continues to work itself out. And, second, he refused to overrule anything but the individual mandate.

The real danger to health-care overhaul is not that the courts will strike down the individual mandate. That would be a problem, but there are a variety of ways to restructure the individual mandate such that it doesn't penalize anyone for deciding not to do something (which is the core of the conservatives' legal argument against the provision).

Paul Starr, who worked on Bill Clinton's effort to reform the health-care system, has proposed giving people the right to opt out of the mandate if they agree to be ineligible for the subsidies or insurance protections for five years. This policy problem, like most policy problems, can be worked out.

The danger was that, in striking down the individual mandate, the court would also strike down the rest of the bill. That's exactly what the plaintiff had asked Hudson to do. But the judge pointedly refused.



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[lxskllr]

So? A fool and his money are soon parted. I'm ok with that. Maybe a little bit of social darwinism.

I use Accu-Chek ($$$), but I buy them myself (they actually don't "go bad" (ever as far as I can tell - but at least 7 years so far) so I normally buy severely expired ones and pay less then a nickel a test) which is much cheaper than my co-pay.

Maybe insurance companies should only cover the absolute cheapest ones? (Strangely, the insanely cheap Walmart ones are, accuracy-wise, just as good or better then the high priced ones.)

Or maybe everyone who is not on insulin (or maybe sulfonamides) should just use pee-tests? They are not as sexy as a little electronic meter - but they are accurate enough.

Sometimes it seems like what we (US) want is completely comprehensive health care, with world class doctors, with no wait, with absolutely no rules, with completely free choice - for free.

And really - no country in the world has this.

Truthwolf - Was it "Naproxen"? We ran into that one... Insurance wouldn't cover it - insane price - well over $100, so I left it on the counter... Did 20 minutes of research - bought Aleve.

Congratulations, you completely missed the point. The point is drug companies price gouge consumers and insurance companies(which in turn price gouge consumers). If you want to use social Darwinism, perhaps people with type2 diabetes shouldn't be insured at all since it was likely their poor diet and lifestyle choices that caused the issues. I see no reason I should pay for other people's mismanagement ;^)

Btw, test strips certainly do go bad. If you haven't run into a bad batch, you've gotten lucky. Some people can't afford errors from day to day testing.