So finally, at long last, America has joined the rest of the world in offering near-universal healthcare to its’ citizens, instead of relying on a hodgepodge of private health insurance coverage
That... would be nice. Unfortunately (from what I've read so far), what it has actually done falls short of this mark. Instead, we're going to be required to buy into one of those hodgepodge insurance companies on penalty of increasing fines, and our employers are going to be required to offer plans through one or the other of those hodgepodge, and pay for a certain percentage of it, lower income americans will get a government subsidy to help them afford it (only up to, IIRC, a few percent of one's income, not sure what this means for the unemployed), and there are some improvements in the restrictions on what those hodgepodge of companies can do to screw you over. On the face of it, it seems better than what we had, but it's a far cry from a true public health care system.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-03-22 11:00 pm (UTC)That... would be nice. Unfortunately (from what I've read so far), what it has actually done falls short of this mark. Instead, we're going to be required to buy into one of those hodgepodge insurance companies on penalty of increasing fines, and our employers are going to be required to offer plans through one or the other of those hodgepodge, and pay for a certain percentage of it, lower income americans will get a government subsidy to help them afford it (only up to, IIRC, a few percent of one's income, not sure what this means for the unemployed), and there are some improvements in the restrictions on what those hodgepodge of companies can do to screw you over. On the face of it, it seems better than what we had, but it's a far cry from a true public health care system.