I do worry about government option. Having come from India where they have government run hospital & paid doctors since its independecne, most of the poor patients that they go there, quality of care is very very poor. In fact, they leave those hosptials even sicker than when they entered and death rates are very high. So, in India even having government run hospitals, most people don't have any trust with government run hospitals or even many cases government doctors. Most people end up going to hospitals or nursing homes where you pay premium and get good care. So, I agree government run institutions can get equally get corrupted over time as extreme monopolistic insurance industry here. As a patient, choices should be very important. You can at least reject an insurance company and go somewhere else. That will keep insurance industry on toe. whereas if govt screws things up, you won't be able to go anywhere if you don't have a choice. I believe America's rise to the super power after 2nd world war is because of its free market system and individual liberty. That has kept this nation most vibrant compared to the rest of the world.

Thanks for the thoughtful comment. I hope you participate in Monday's discussion. - eileen

Like it or not Medicare and Medicaid already provide a "public [insurance] option" to the elderly and the poor. If the government is going to reimburse for medical care, what sense does it make to confine it solely to the mostly costly populations where medical loss ratios are highest? Wouldn't a public [insurance] option open to younger, healthier populations stabilize costs and help make the program pay for itself? Right now there is an irrational and anticompetitive market division that dooms the government to losses.

Thanks for the comment. Hope you join Monday's chat. - eileen

I appreciate my counterparts observations of the healthcare system in India. However, to provide a few counterpoints to this point of view:
a) it sounds like India is government run health care while what is being proposed is government paid healthcare - and really this is only a part of the proposal here,
b) India's population density and healthcare system setup are different than the US - perhaps not a major difference but perhaps it is, i.e., who can say how well the current US system would work in India as it may make the situation much worse, c) also, if India's system were like ours then where would the poor be treated? Would there be even more deaths or would the poor overrun the other hospitals when they became too sick?
d) the reasons behind America's rise to superpower are many and not necessarily just because of the reasons listed, and
e) I am not sure what is meant by this nation being kept "most vibrant." How so? The US is not first or even the top 10 or 20 in many areas, so this viewpoint may not necessarily hold up to a true factual defense. I appreciate the US' freedom and many advantages but I am not blind to its shortcomings or areas of opportunity as well.
I agree that there are concerns with opening up the healthcare system to more people but really it may not be so much of an opening up of the system as a rearranging of the system as the ones who currently are "left out" still end up in the emergency rooms when they become too sick because they avoided earlier treatment.
I don't expect the currently proposed bill to fix the healthcare situation for all but I think it is better and possibly much better than the current alternative. We will see if others agree.
In any case, many thanks for holding this discussion, Eileen. I look forward to trying to catch it.

I government run option will not solve the problem we have with healthcare costs. All it will do is change how we pay pay those costs, it will not slow or reverse the upward trend.

Healthcare cost have been skyrocketing because of things like: American Lifestyles, diet, and many other social issues which a government run health plan will have no impact on.

For example 40% of Americans are offically obese, the obese populations spends 77% more on drugs than the rest of the population. In Japan the obese rate is 3%

Drug & alcohol usage is at record levels. The US has a 1000% higher homicide rate than the rate in the UK.

The road mortality rate in the US is 300% higher than in Japan.

Our survival rate for illnesses is very good, we have a better cancer survival rate than Germany, France, Canada and the UK. Indicating our quality of care is very good.

Thanks for the comments. Hope you can join our chat Monday. - eileen

ATTENTION!! Congress Has The Votes Needed To Pass A Public Option - TODAY http://bit.ly/TCq7O

Why A Strong Public Option Is Essential - By jacksmith - Working Class

Robert Reich explains the pubic option: http://bit.ly/dDYSJ http://robertreich.blogspot.com/

John Garamendi on the Public Option and the Grassroots: http://bit.ly/TJMty

It's not just because more than two thirds of the American people want a single payer health care system. And if they cant have a single payer system 77% of all Americans want a strong government-run public option on day one (86% of democrats, 75% of independents, and 72% republicans). Basically everyone.

It's not just because according to a new AARP POLL: 86 percent of seniors want universal healthcare security for All, including 93% of Democrats, 87% of Independents, and 78% of Republicans. With 79% of seniors supporting creating a new strong Government-run public option plan, available immediately. Including 89% of Democrats, 80% of Independents, and 61% of Republicans, STUNNING!!

It's not just because it will lower cost. Because a strong public option will dramatically lower cost for everyone. And dramatically improved the quality of care everyone receives in America and around the World. Rich, middle class, and poor a like.

It's not just because it will save trillions of dollars and prevent the needless deaths of millions more of YOU, caused by a rush to profit by the DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX!

It's not just because every expert in every field, including economist, and Nobel laureates all agree that free market based healthcare systems don't work. Never have and never will. The US has the only truly free market based healthcare system in the World. And as you all know now, IT IS A DISASTER!

It's not just because providing or denying medically necessary care for profit motivations is wrong. Because it is WRONG! It's professionally, ethically, and morally REPUGNANT!, Animalistic, VILE and EVIL.

THE REASON THE PUBLIC OPTION IS ESSENTIAL:

The public option is ESSENTIAL because over 200 million of you are trapped in the forest of the wolves. Which is the forest of the DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX! With no way out except through needless inhumane suffering, and DEATH. While the wolves tear at your flesh, and rip you limb from lib. Then feast on your lifeless bodies like a dead carcase for transplant parts.

At the most vulnerable times of your lives (when you were sick and hurting), millions of you have had to fight and loose cruel, but heroic battles. Fighting against the big guns of the DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX! in the forest of the wolves. All because you have no place else to go. You have no other CHOICE!

But the PUBLIC OPTION will give you someplace safe to go. And it will give us someplace safe to take you. The public option will be your refugium (your refuge). Where the wolves cannot get at you when your down, hurting, and vulnerable. Where everyone who needs it can find rest, security, comfort and the care they need. Protected by the BIG GUNS of We The People Of The United States. THE MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE AND COUNTRY ON EARTH.

This is why it is so critical that we do not lead another 50 million vulnerable, uninsured Americans into the forest of the wolves, without the protections of a Strong Government-run public option. We The People Of The United States MUST NOT LET THAT HAPPEN to any more of our fellow Americans. If healthcare reform does not contain a strong public option on day one. YOU MUST! KILL IT. Or you will do far more harm than good. And millions more will die needlessly. Rich, middle class, and poor a like.

To those who would continue to obstruct good and true healthcare reform for the American people, and who seek to trap millions more vulnerable Americans in the forest of the wolves. We will continue to fight you. We are prepared to wage all out war against you, and will eagerly DESTROY! you. Time...is...UP! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! No Co-op's! No Triggers! NO INDIVIDUAL MANDATES! without a Strong public option on day one.

Healthcare reform can be the GREATEST! Accomplishment of our time and century. A time when future generations may say of us, that we were all, AMERICAS GREATEST GENERATIONS.

BUT WE MUST ACT!

I therefore call on all my fellow Americans and the peoples of the World. To join us in this fight so that we may finish becoming the better America that we aspire to be for everyone.

SPREAD THE WORD!

I have been privileged to be witness as many of you fought, and struggled to take your first breath, and your last breath on this earth. Rich, middle class, and poor a like. Life is precious.

Whatever the cost. WE! MUST SUCCEED.

God Bless You My Fellow Human Beings

jacksmith - Working Class

The State Of "Yes We Can", Minnesota Knows Better !!

1. As regards a make-believe scheme, the source of funding coming from a middle class is utterly against the commitment of Democratic party.

2. No cost-competitive advantage does not clear the grave concern about the unsustainable cost of overall health care program in the long run.

3. Even with some benefit for primary practitioners, the baseless scheme does not come with fundamental payment reform, or a pay for value reimbursement formula. It means that the insurer-friendly scheme is not cleaning up the concerns over a quality issue and $9trillion of deficit over the next decade.

((Here is some of CBO analysis : While the costs of the financial bailouts and economic stimulus bills are staggering, they are only a fraction of the coming costs from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that each year Medicaid will expand by 7 percent, Medicare by 6 percent, and Social Security by 5 percent. These programs face a 75-year shortfall of $43 trillion--60 times greater than the gross cost of the $700 billion TARP financial bailout)).

4. For Medicare & Medicaid system to survive from the most wasteful structure on earth, enough savings by ways of fundamental changes need to be secured, in return, the savings thereof suffice to meet the goal of well-planned public option.

((Even with far less visits to docs, which average a half or a third of them in any other free states, Americans pay roughly twice as much per person right now)).

5. For the record, prior to nation-wide deployment of reform, The State Of "Yes We Can", Minnesota influenced by Mayo clinic spends "20 percent" less per patient than the national average and 31 percent less than in the highest cost state. It highlights that no substantial tax raise is needed at least for sure.

((The $583 billion of revenue package, and the astronomical savings of public option aside, "20%" of $923.5bn (the combined Medicare and Medicaid cost per year, as of July) represents around $184.7bn per year and 1.847trillion over the next decade, and this patient-centered value alone could be sufficient to meet the goal of public option)).

6. In brief, the long-awaited and most hopeful health care plan is to meet these criterias : Affordability, Quality, and A Check function against runaway premiums thereof.

Clearly enough, due largely to its lower overhead cost, purchasing power and fundamental payment reform, the well-planned public option would be an even better candidate than the fabricated scheme by THE INDUSTRY in these aforementioned regards.

Now is the moment to turn page to contemporary energy and financial upgrades glossed over in 8 years.

Health Insurance is just that, insurance against catastrophic illness. When the insurance companies win, they win, but when they lose the bet, then they want to push everyone off to Medicare & Medicaid.

Yes, healthcare costs are skyrocketing, but the insurance companies don’t pay what they get billed, we know this.

How do we fix that the hospital has to give you the meds you take at home, you can’t bring your own because that would be a liability for them, you could bring legal action you know. So, they spend lots of time, money, and resources to duplicate your home meds. Several people copy and recopy the information they think is correct six ways till Sunday. This means it costs $20 for the same pill you already overpaid $1.00 for.

Does this mean there aren’t mistakes still made? NO. Now they have another layer of CYA is what it means. “But the Doctor ordered this” Sure he did No, the doctor didn’t order it. The nurse or other tech filled out the paperwork on the computer which generated a meds list, a doctor, not necessarily YOUR doctor, but some doctor or Hospitalist you haven’t seen before signs off. So basically, you have or a really save representative has to really know what you take, because by the time you catch up with your physician, you could have a real problem. And this is only a small part of the overall hospital experience,

Frustration sets in. The hospital still bills and generates documents that mean nothing, and the insurance company still pays the reduced negotiated rate. So you had great emergency doctors and survived the MI, now the real fun begins.

So, better take care of yourself, because if you need to go into the hospital, it could kill you, and if it doesn’t, untangling the bills and what you really owe will.

Government option? No thank you, where I live, they have trouble repairing a pot hole, leave my healthcare alone!

I heard that if a family does not buy health insurance, They can be fined up to, and over $3000.00.

If they cannot afford health Insurance, how do they expect to collect a fine like that???

Alexandria East