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On Dec 26, 2009, at 3:18 PM, Dogan Gocmen wrote: > > ...My simple questions is this: is this bill (despite all defects) any > improvement compared to the previous one... There is, of course, no "previous" health-insurance bill. He presumably means the status quo, not the contemporary (and only slightly less bad) HofR draft. And the answer is simple: the Senate draft is worse than the status quo. Why? First of all, it provides a $half-trillion subsidy to the justly reviled Health Insurance Corporation parasites. Secondly, it imposes mandates for the "uninsured" to buy whatever the HICs want to provide, however inadequate, and fines those who don't want or can't afford (even with subsidy throughputs) such "coverage." Third, it penalizes those states with less-inadequate Medicaid coverage by reducing their federal reimbursement. Fourthly, it directly injures those like me, whose Medicare Advantage plans provide low co-pays, gratuitous Medicare D coverage, eyeglasses, and discounted dental care (among other real advantages). Enough already? Oh yeah, it also (except for some taxes) doesn't go into effect until 2014, so the public outcry over its inadequacies cannot have any effect in motivating a movement for real health reform until the election of 2016 (more likely 2020) at the earliest. And it would deprive millions of women of coverage for the consequences of undesired pregnancy while opening a new arena for state-by-state prohibitionist demagogy. I could go on.... Shane Mage > This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it > always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire, > kindling in measures and going out in measures." > > Herakleitos of Ephesos ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
