Our new governor...

While I do not agree with many of the things McDonnell stands for I have to say that his ideas on health care reform are pretty okay. He has listed six main principles he would like to work towards:

• All Virginians should have access to affordable and high quality health care, even those with pre-existing conditions.
• Incentives for coverage of wellness care and prevention must be provided to reduce the occurrence of much more expensive care later on.
• Government should concentrate its resources to ensure those Virginians most in need have access to high quality health care, while also providing incentives to Virginia employers, employees and citizens to obtain affordable health insurance.
• Virginia should focus on reforming the health care system to lower the cost of health care and reduce the growth in health care spending.
• Virginia should provide encouragement and resources for family members that provide care and support for their loved ones.
• Reform should be bi-partisan, promote innovation, quality and cost-effectiveness without adversely affecting employment opportunities and economic growth.

(http://www.bobmcdonnell.com/index.php/issues/health_care accessed November 5, 2009)

He thinks that families should decide for themselves how they would like their health care provided and that there should be focus on expanding the number of health care professionals in hospitals.

That is just a very basic blurb about what he believes. To find out more visit the above website.

President's Speech

I found this video on youtube. I haven't been able to really find any recent articles on the reform and figured youtube would probably have something. I stumbled upon this video of the speech President Obama made in September and I'm definitely liking a lot of what he had to say. I can't wait to get my hands on some documents to compare what he said to what has been written.

Already tried

President Obama is talking about putting all these policies in action but I wonder if people know that they have already been enacted in New England and have been since the 90s. Unfortunately for the President these policies are the reason that New England has the highest health premiums and taxes in all the country.
I suggest everyone in Congress take a good long look at the New England states before making any permanent decisions.

Why is the government (taxes) paying for middle class???

There is a possibility that the government will make health care mandatory. This is not such a good idea. And for those who decide not to purchase health care they will have to pay a fine which will be added to their taxes. Another bad idea. Why are these bad ideas?
Well not everyone can afford health care.

Question: How does the government expect people to pay a fine if they can't even pay for health care?
Answer: The welfare system. Sadly enough if mandatory health care is enacted the government will extend the welfare system so people who cannot afford a plan won't be fined.
Problem: There are enough problems now with lazy people who know how to work the welfare system; this could make it worse. And the government has indicated that they may extend assistance to families making as much as $100,000 a year!!

Great to know that taxes will end up through the roof...

What's President Obama thinking??

I found an article from a July 2009 issue of USA Today. It goes pretty in depth on some of the proposed policies and I can't believe some of what I'm reading.

(For now I will just go into the first section of the article)

The article starts off with a few main points. One of the main points states that all Americans will be required to purchase goverenment approved insurance plans, and if you already have an issurance plan that you are happy with but it doesn't meet the government requirements it will be considered illegal and you will have to buy a new plan. There are also plans for a government-run, tax-payer subsidized plan to be set up to compete with private companies.

It's also very unclear as to what exactly the President is proposing. His administration is introducing a generalized plan and are going to leave the details up to Congress. The article does say that if you look at who the President has choosen to work on the reform with it gives some insight to what the full, detailed plan may be.

From looking into the proposals and statements of some of these people, it can be thought that health care will not start as a government-run, tax-payer system like Canada has. Private insurance would only exist for a period of time though until it turned into little more than a public utility (the government would have total control of its operation).

Do we really want the government to have complete control over something else in our lives???

Paying for Everyone

So I've heard my parents discussing the health care reform and I've listened to a little of what the President has been talking about, and well I'm not liking the whole health care for everyone policy or "free health care". Now before everyone starts jumping down my throat I'm going to ask that you think about this. For people who have jobs, they are able, for the most part, to secure some sort of health care. If your in college, your allowed to stay on with your parents until the age of 20-something. But what about those people who don't have jobs. Where are they going to get the money? They're not. Now I understand that things happen, you get sick, laid off, whatever. But some people just don't have jobs because they don't want to. They know the welfare system will take care of them. And I'm sorry but my well earned money is already going to go towards them in this way, why would I want even more of my income taken away so people too lazy to get a job can have a regular doctor...

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for raising taxes to pay for children or people with a legitimate reason not to be working i.e. health problems or just laid off and the economy's crap so they can't find a new job. But to raise taxes even more just so everyone has a chance...

And in terms of the whole "free health care" thing, I have friends that are Canadian (in case you don't know, Canadians have "free health care") and they hate the fact that they pay crazy high taxes for what is still crap health care. I don't know how many of you know anything about military health care but it's at the bottom of the chain (possibly the worst care ever) and that's what my friends compare their "free health care" to.