QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jan 29, 2010 -> 08:31 AM)
I've pointed out many times before, and have been ignored many times before, that this bill was merely a reform on insurance, but not the industry as a whole. Once again, the hospitals/doctors send the bills to the insurance companies, not the other way around. If you're not going to bother reforming hospitals and how costs are calculated, applied, and what have you, then reforming insurance will do nothing to lower the bills being sent. Therein lies the problem. While vilifying the insurance companies, and trust me in many ways they need to be, they've given a free pass to the rest of the industry, including pharma, doctors, hospitals, etc. In the end, this equates to insurance companies going out of business due to new restrictions/mandates while the bills they receive remain the same or higher. The government, in turn, would have to increase it's subsidies (and thus control), but it does nothing to save money. The money is just going to/coming from another place.
Congratulations, you've successfully saved people 3000$+ a year on insurance costs they no longer have to pay, while simultaneously raising their taxes 3000$+ in various ways so the government can subsidize the cost. In the end, the people gained nothing, the bills from the hospitals remained the same, the insurance companies disappear, and the government pays -- only the government can't just pay with magical fairy money fresh off the printing press, so your taxes increase, be it soda, liquor, coffee, water, sales, internet fees, taxes, they'll all be rising in order to cover this.
How is that exactly?
