"Choice" is the biggest red herring in this whole debacle. "Choice" is meaningless if the choices available don't do you any good. In many states you have a choice between methods of execution. You could be electrocuted or die by lethal injection. Whooppie! But what if you didn't want to die? Oh, well, sorry, that's not a choice.
Yes, you can choose private insurance right now. Or rather, you can choose to try and get private insurance. Ever tried doing that? I tried getting coverage through BCBS for my family with individual under writing. They wouldn't do it. Know why? Because my wife has a history of back problems. That's it. I was 34, she was 30, 1.5 year old kid. No cancer, no heart disease, we aren't smokers. Educated, white, lower middle class, honestly about the lowest risk pool you can find. But they wouldn't underwrite us because she told the truth on a questionnaire about being seen for back problems that were never fully resolved because, well, her back still hurts sometimes. Oh and she gets migraines. But mostly they didn't like the unresolved back problems. It is virtually impossible to tell the truth and get individual underwriting in the United States. If you do, it will almost assuredly be really crappy health insurance (talk to me about my plan through Mega Life and Health that didn't even cover well child check ups so we had to get immunizations through the county clinic) and it will be really really expensive. Can't afford $500, $700, $1,000 a month in premiums? Then guess what, its not a choice. Only a very few lucky individuals in the current system get any meaningful choices. And those are often the people that need the system least anyway. Choice is the very last thing I'm going to worry about in the health care debate. Get affordable coverage out to people. Then we can talk about choice. Judah On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 11:25 AM, Cameron Childress <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 2:10 PM, Larry Lyons <[email protected]> wrote: >> Not really. Most people get their health coverage through their employer. >> They >> cannot change coverage until the current year's coverage period ends. >> Therefore >> you don't have a market choice here. > > I see alot of choice there. You choose your employer. You employer > can choose any insurer. You also have the choice to get your own > coverage if you wish, even while employed. > > -Cameron > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:288680 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
