Bluegrassrivals

REPUBLICANS’ COMMON-SENSE REFORMS WILL LOWER HEALTH CARE COSTS
Last Saturday while delivering the Republican weekly address, I discussed Republican health care proposals to lower health care costs and make it easier to obtain quality, affordable coverage without imposing a massive burden on the American people. I also mentioned that in the coming days, Republicans would offer their own alternative health care bill to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's massive $1.3 trillion takeover of health care. Today, I released the following one-page summary of the Republican alternative plan.

Fact Sheet: Republicans' Common-Sense Reforms Will LOWER HEALTH CARE COSTS

Americans want a step-by-step, common-sense approach to health care reform, not Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s costly, 1,990-page government takeover of our nation’s health care system. Republicans’ alternative solution focuses on lowering health care premiums for families and small businesses, increasing access to affordable, high-quality care, and promoting healthier lifestyles – without adding to the crushing debt Washington has placed on our children and grandchildren. Following are the key elements of Republicans’ alternative plan:

• Lowering health care premiums. The GOP plan will lower health care premiums for American families and small businesses, addressing Americans’ number-one priority for health care reform.

• Establishing Universal Access Programs to guarantee access to affordable care for those with pre-existing conditions. The GOP plan creates Universal Access Programs that expand and reform high-risk pools and reinsurance programs to guarantee that all Americans, regardless of pre-existing conditions or past illnesses, have access to affordable care – while lowering costs for all Americans.

• Ending junk lawsuits. The GOP plan would help end costly junk lawsuits and curb defensive medicine by enacting medical liability reforms modeled after the successful state laws of California and Texas.

• Prevents insurers from unjustly cancelling a policy or instituting annual or lifetime spending caps. The GOP plan prohibits an insurer from cancelling a policy unless a person commits fraud or conceals material facts about a health condition. It also prohibits insurance plans from instituting annual or lifetime spending limits.

• Encouraging Small Business Health Plans. The GOP plan gives small businesses the power to pool together and offer health care at lower prices, just as corporations and labor unions do.

• Encouraging innovative state programs. The GOP plan rewards innovation by providing incentive payments to states that reduce premiums and the number of uninsured.

• Allowing Americans to buy insurance across state lines. The GOP plan allows Americans to shop for coverage from coast to coast by allowing Americans living in one state to purchase insurance in another.

• Codifying the Hyde Amendment. The GOP plan explicitly prohibits all federal funds, whether they are authorized funds or appropriated funds, from being used to pay for abortion.

• Promoting healthier lifestyles. The GOP plan promotes prevention & wellness by giving employers greater flexibility to financially reward employees who adopt healthier lifestyles.

• Enhancing Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). The GOP plan creates new incentives to save for future and long-term care needs by allowing qualified participants to use HSAs to pay premiums.

• Allowing dependents to remain on their parents’ policies. The GOP plan encourages coverage of young adults on their parents’ insurance through age 25.


Scorecard: Speaker Pelosi's Government Takeover vs. GOP Common-Sense Solutions


Speaker Pelosi’s Bill
GOP Alternative

Job Losses
Up to 5.5 million
0

Medicare Cuts
$500 billion
0

Tax Increases
$729.5 billion
0



To download a PDF copy of this summary, click here. For more information on Republican health care solutions, go to http://Healthcare.gop.gov


http://johnboehner.house.gov/

Looks like a revolution by the Republicans to join forces with my party. "The Common Sense Party". Been preachin that for a long time on here. Perhaps the democrats will pay attention and follow suite as well.

thecavemaster Wrote:Is is common sense that people shouldn't die or groan in pain because they lack affordable healthcare? Is it common sense that people shouldn't go into bankruptcy because they are sick? I'm just asking.

So you like this alternative plan?

• Lowering health care premiums. The GOP plan will lower health care premiums for American families and small businesses, addressing Americans’ number-one priority for health care reform.

Cavemaster, did you not read this part of it?

I'm just asking?

Mr.Kimball Wrote:• Lowering health care premiums. The GOP plan will lower health care premiums for American families and small businesses, addressing Americans’ number-one priority for health care reform.

Cavemaster, did you not read this part of it?

I'm just asking?

Mr. Kimball,.......I'm surprised, you know by now that some are not worried about lowering the premiums, they want it given to everyone at no cost after all isn't it the governments responsiblity to take care of us all. :eyeroll:

Old School Wrote:Mr. Kimball,.......I'm surprised, you know by now that some are not worried about lowering the premiums, they want it given to everyone at no cost after all isn't it the governments responsiblity to take care of us all. :eyeroll:

Thank God we have the Government to take care of my every need. I don't need competition in the marketplace, I need my Government to take care of my health care, my childcare and my welfare.......:igiveup:

Mr.Kimball Wrote:• Lowering health care premiums. The GOP plan will lower health care premiums for American families and small businesses, addressing Americans’ number-one priority for health care reform.

Cavemaster, did you not read this part of it?

I'm just asking?

Oh, I read it, but it's just the kind of politico speak that was written into the Republican drug reform bill that created the doughnut holes and the like. I do not see any guarantee in this language, though I am open to it. I don't particularly care which party accomplishes the two goals I have repeatedly stated.

I have a friend who runs her own small business. She buys her own healthcare. This plan, to be at all affordable, carried a $5,000 deductible. She suddenly had some glandular related problems... had to come up with $2,500 up front BEFORE the hospital would give the tests she needed. It is the working poor and the lower middle class who perhaps would benefit from some type of public option most. This explains why this type reform is so slow in coming.

Im kinda at the point that as long as they do 3 things, I dont care.

1. Remove anti-trust protections of insurance companies.
2. Number one will create number 2 which is make HC insurance more affordable and available to everyone.
3. Cover pre-existing conditions, and also prevent Insurance companies from dropping someone because they get sick. These insurance companies gladly accept your money until you get very sick, then they drop you, that is not the idea of insurance, that would be the same as if you paid your car insurance for years, full coverage, but one day you tbone a Ferrari and since it is so expensive they decide that they dont have to pay for it, you are left on your own.

Stardust Wrote:Thank God we have the Government to take care of my every need. I don't need competition in the marketplace, I need my Government to take care of my health care, my childcare and my welfare.......:igiveup:

I believe in a society that has safety nets for its weakest and most vulnerable members. I also believe our current "safety net" programs need to be comprehensively overhauled, but not eliminated. I would favor a long term, gradual movement away from any kind of program that rewards those who refuse to work. There are those who are too old to work, to sick to work, to handicapped to work, to young to work, etc. Safety nets have to exist in these areas in a decent and just society.

thecavemaster Wrote:I believe in a society that has safety nets for its weakest and most vulnerable members. I also believe our current "safety net" programs need to be comprehensively overhauled, but not eliminated. I would favor a long term, gradual movement away from any kind of program that rewards those who refuse to work. There are those who are too old to work, to sick to work, to handicapped to work, to young to work, etc. Safety nets have to exist in these areas in a decent and just society.

Cavemaster , I dont know about the all states, but are you not aware that the state of Kentucky offers free medical cards, to those who qualify financially? Isn't that the safety net that your talking about? Doesn't it already exist?

Mr.Kimball Wrote:Cavemaster , I dont know about the all states, but are you not aware that the state of Kentucky offers free medical cards, to those who qualify financially? Isn't that the safety net that your talking about? Doesn't it already exist?

Medicaid to the poor: medicare for the old and disabled... as the 60 minutes piece detailed, stopping fraud needs to be a major push of any reform. I'm talking about the working poor and the lowest of the lower middle class. They have no safety net for the most part. In fact, a friend who is a pharmacist tells me that the government is much easier to work with than private insurance companies. Imagine that.