Goog 411 Glenn Beck ERISA
Here's what I learned this morning:
- Goog 411 still sucks — both the text and voice version. I tried it awhile back and was very unimpressed with the results. I tried it again today (since it's "free") and, once again was given old information and unrelated results what I needed.
This doesn't bode well for Chrome OS, as far as I'm concerned.
- On Glenn Beck, his lawyer Joe Kelly (who also doubles as a DC comic writer, I guess) explained in detail how trial lawyers will force private insurance companies out of business if health care reform 2009 becomes law.
Basically, there is an ERISA provision that protects insurance companies from pain and suffering damages when they deny coverage to a patient. This ERISA provision will be waived in the bill that passed the House of Representatives.
Trial lawyers support this, of course.
This will cause insurance companies to raise premiums, which will end up — through another legal caveat — subjecting them to more government regulation.
So, basically, the bill is designed to do away with private insurance.
Here's my reaction to what I learned on the Glenn Beck Show:
- so, there are restrictions on pain and suffering already, and premiums continue to go up. So much for the Tort Reform argument.
- It's hard to sympathize with insurance companies who deny people medical coverage. Sorry.
- It's hard to sympathize with trial lawyers.
- I do believe having choices helps consumers … so, I am against one monopolistic Government-run health insurance plan, because we're all going to get, as Zane Black says, "The magic enema."
Getting back to Goog — their ever-present expansion into everything (Chrome OS, anyone?) reminds me of a great quote from our DailySkew Year Four eBook:
“”Who watches the watchmen? The answer is: who doesn’t? Privacy is out the
window. Someday, you’ll be able to Google Earth what your neighbor is doing.
We’ll have real-time video of crimes, and automated justice. The circle will soon
be complete … we will all be monitoring each other.”
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Politico ran an article about Obamacare..highlights-
"When it comes to the public option…only about 1 in 10 Americans will be eligible, mainly people who don’t get insurance through work. Only about 6 million are expected to enroll. The plan doesn’t even start until 2013."
"…only about 30 million Americans — 10 percent of the population — would even be eligible."
"And most people who get insurance on the job would have to stick with it. No shopping in the new “insurance exchanges” for them."
"Cutting costs relies on everyone owning insurance, but penalties in the Senate Finance Committee bill to force compliance are weak. Skip the fine, and all you’re asked to do is to one day pay up. A so-called millionaires tax in the House bill could eventually snare more and more families."
"The public option could be accessed only through a new insurance marketplace known as an exchange, where consumers would shop for plans. Only certain categories of people could use the exchange: the self-employed, small businesses, lower-income people who qualify for tax credits to purchase insurance and those who are otherwise unable to find affordable private coverage."
"Even if families don’t have insurance, they can get it if someone gets sick — because of new prohibitions that would bar companies from denying coverage over a pre-existing condition."
"One feature of the plan is designed to make sure insurance companies don’t sock older Americans with higher premiums — so lawmakers put in provisions that limit the differences in costs between young and old."
"One study by experts commissioned by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation recently predicted the House bill would add more than $1 trillion to the deficit over the next 20 years. But without indexing the tax, they’re leaving behind a ticking time bomb in the bill."
ANYWAY…
Just to stick to basics, I support the uninsured to get government healthcare. "It's not fair" that if an uninsured person gets injured that he is responsible for the $1,500 emergency room bill. (Heck, depending on your insurance insurance, you still have to pay a deductible and/or co-payment that may result in a $500 bill if you sprained your wrist very bad).
That's a dog-eat dog world…certainly not a civilized super power that the U.S. claims to be.
I also don't believe Glenn Beck is an independent or "for the people" like he claims; he's a Republican in sheep's clothing who is schilling for the insurance companies; any true populist believes in some sort of available healthcare for all, and to stop squeezing people making $30,000 a year.
It seems like it comes down to defending insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and doctors or defending the bloated bureaucracy of the federal government.
I'll pass on both, hope for reform, and hope for some government mandated 2013 coverage for people with no insurance.
I'll try not to get sick before 2013.