I think this article is a load of garbage, but I won't write any more, because I don't want to get into THFGT territory.
Go Gators!!!! Ken B. (NYC Gator) Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed -----Original Message----- From: Shane Ford <go.ufgator...@gmail.com> Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 08:05:38 To: <gatorn...@googlegroups.com> Subject: [gatornews] [SUN]: UF expert: Health care law is a good thing [Chun] UF expert: Health care law is a good thing By Diane Chun <ch...@gvillesun.com> Gainesville SUN Staff writer Published: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 6:01 a.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 7:26 p.m. He doesn't put it quite as succinctly as Vice President Joe Biden, but one University of Florida health policy expert agrees with Biden that the health reform bill signed into law Tuesday is a good thing. Professor R. Paul Duncan heads the University of Florida's Department of Health Services Research, Management and Policy. Over 30 years, Duncan has conducted research into health policy for both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, some of it focused on disparities in access to health care, health insurance and Medicaid. Will the health reform legislation solve all the ills of the U.S. health-care system? Probably not, Duncan says, but it is a step in the right direction. "I think this is a really big deal and an important legislative action," Duncan said. "Is it the biggest thing since the advent of Medicare? Certainly it is up in that category. Having 32 million uninsured people in America is a national travesty." It's too early to say what a middle-class Florida resident will see in terms of an effect on their health insurance premiums, according to Duncan. The premiums might go up somewhat in the short term, he said, but he expects that will level off. For years people have tried to determine what portion of today's premium paid by an insured person and/or his employer is going to pay for the care of uninsured, he explained. "If those 32 million people become insured over the next three to five years, whatever part of your premium was targeted to them ought to be going down," Duncan said. A 2008 census report concluded that 24 percent of all Florida residents under Medicare age were without health-care coverage. That puts Florida third in the nation in the severity of its uninsured problem. In Alachua County, census figures listed 57,977 uninsured residents, or 28 percent of the county's population. Duncan added, "We all pay for the uninsured in various ways, and the theory is that we are paying more than we'd need to pay if they had insurance in the first place." The major health insurance companies, according to Duncan, have made some major concessions, including not excluding children with pre-existing conditions and dropping the lifetime limit on coverage. In return, they asked lawmakers for some protections. What they wanted in return, he said, was a fairly robust mandate that said, "If we can't cherry-pick the fairly healthy people, then people can't cherry-pick us in reverse," meaning the only (uninsured) people who will buy insurance are those who are sick. If the 32 million uninsured do buy insurance, Duncan added, companies should make out well. "After all, they will have 32 million new customers," he said. -- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us To unsubscribe from this group, send email to gatornews+unsubscribegooglegroups.com or reply to this email with the words "REMOVE ME" as the subject. -- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us To unsubscribe from this group, send email to gatortalk+unsubscribegooglegroups.com or reply to this email with the words "REMOVE ME" as the subject.
