Insurance companies will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or lifetime, and we will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses – because no one in America should go broke just because they get sick.
Finally, we’ll require insurance companies to cover routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies – because there’s no reason we shouldn’t be saving lives and dollars by catching diseases like breast cancer and prostate cancer on the front end.
That’s what reform means. For all the chatter and the noise out there, what every American needs to know is this: If you don’t have health insurance, you will finally have quality, affordable options once we pass reform. If you do have health insurance, we will make sure that no insurance company or government bureaucrat gets between you and the care that you need. And we will deliver this in a fiscally responsible way.
I don't think Obama is addressing the fears many have: That the cost of the plan will end up coming from reductions to benefits to seniors. He's not specific enough about where the reductions will come from. He says:
If you’re worried about rationed care, higher costs, denied coverage, or bureaucrats getting between you and your doctor, then you should know that’s what’s happening right now.
He's lumping too many things together. Many who have health insurance and Medicare now appreciate the benefits and are worried that the plan will lead to insurance companies revising plans in a way that results in "rationed care," either by reducing payments to doctors so that there are fewer doctors willing to treat seniors or by refusing to cover treatment their doctor recommends based on some schedule that says after age X, a particular diagnostic treatment or surgery won't be covered.
With the huge number of baby boomers in this country on the precipe of Medicare age, he needs to be more specific about how the bill will ensure "that no insurance company or government bureaucrat gets between you and the care that you need."
While a large part of the opposition to the plan is politically driven, I think there are many who are simply not supporting the bill because of Obama's vagueness on cost-savings, which generates fear and speculation as to how those savings will come about.
My health insurance agent this week sent out a mass e-mail to his clients with the 1,000 page bill as an attachment for us to read for ourselves. Of course, it's Greek to most of us.
Most of us know how powerful insurance companies are. Here's what I think would be helpful. Every year when my policy renewal arrives, there's a page at the beginning that explains the changes made. I'd like for Anthem (my insurance company) to prepare and send me now a copy of the revised policy I will be getting once the bill passes, so I can see the changes in coverage and premiums that will be made to the policy because of the bill.
If all insurance companies did this, those with insurance would be better informed and (hopefully) less fearful because they could see the changes in black and white.