(Updated August 6, 2009)
Healthcare reform raises the passions of Americans like no other. It will either support or attack our health and our wallets. It has never been more important to separate the facts from the fiction and lies.
Here are some of the statements that are being made, and some ways to get the factual information about them. As new ones come along, I'll add them to this list, so you may want to bookmark this page.
What Healthcare Reform Will Address
Most acknowledge that the current healthcare system does not work well in general. It may work fine for us individually, as long as we have a payer and can afford the premiums. It does not work well for those who can't afford insurance and therefore do not have decent access to care.
Most of us don't realize the real cost on a population basis, and how healthcare reform may help or hurt us.
Healthcare reform is intended to do only two things:
- give more Americans access to healthcare, and
- direct how the costs will be borne.
It does not tell us what care we can get, who we will get it from, or what care we can't get.
The Real Costs of Healthcare Today
If you have insurance today, then you either:
- Have private insurance that may, or may not, be paid for through premiums subsidized by your employer.
- Have Medicare, if you are age 65 or older and/or are disabled.
- Have a state-subsidy plan like Families Plus or Child Plus or Medicaid.
You may not realize that if you pay federal income taxes, then you are also paying for someone else's healthcare already. That's how Medicare and state programs are paid for. Even if you pay no state income tax, the federal government gives money to the states to support healthcare payment programs like Medicaid.
Also, if you pay premiums for private insurance, more than $1000 of your premiums is going toward supporting someone else's healthcare, too.
Public Options and Private Insurance
As of the end of July 2009, and understanding the point made above (that no decisions are set in stone, and no new laws or policies exist yet) the President has requested that the federal government offer a public option for healthcare coverage as one of the ways we can access healthcare. The idea is that a plan like Medicare would be offered to anyone else who wants to pay for that kind of plan, and that it would be affordable.
There seems to be no attempt to move toward a single-payer system. The President, the Senate and the House are all concentrating on a combination public and private insurance-based system.
Universal Healthcare - Who Will be Covered?
The concept of universal healthcare is only based on who will receive care, and not how it will be paid for. The president has called for, and both congressional bills seem to be working toward, universal care -- coverage for 97% or more of Americans.
Questions that remain as of the end of July 2009: will everyone be required to purchase insurance or opt-in to a public plan? Also, will illegal aliens be covered? Those decisions have not yet been made or signed into law.
Primary Care
If Massachusetts, where universal healthcare was instituted in 2008, is any example, and if universal care is implemented, then primary care (internists, OB GYNs, pediatricians, geriatricians, and others) will become much more important to all of us. Therefore, it will also be more difficult to get an appointment with a primary care doctor until more of them finish their medical education and go into practice.
In the United States, we already have a huge shortage of primary care doctors. Once universal healthcare is the law of the land, there will be 46 or more million people who will be eligible to access primary care, making it far more difficult to find one to care for us.
Take time to learn more about the shortage of primary care doctors.
Pre-existing Conditions
The President insists that all healthcare payers include patients with pre-existing conditions in their insurance offerings. That point has been addressed in the bills being put together by both the Senate and the House. But like all the other aspects, it is not yet the law of the land.
How Will Healthcare Reform Affect People Who Already Have Good Insurance?
How Will Healthcare Reform Affect Senior Citizens and Older Americans?
How Should We Pay for Healthcare Reform?
And - if you continue to have questions or concerns, we have a place for you to share them. Share Your Healthcare Reform Concerns - Dispelling Rumors and Finding Facts.
Where does Healthcare Rationing Fit In to Healthcare Reform?
Or, learn more about healthcare reform in general and why America needs healthcare reform.
