Congress' healthcare plan is one of the many "rewards" given to elected representatives. When they leave Congress, they can keep this cadillac plan at a low cost. The bottom line is that the new Health Care Bill does not and will not apply to Congress. That alone should be a warning signal. Of course, if you are out of a job due the economy, any plan is better than no plan. That is exactly why the ecomony continues to remain a low-priority - the longer people are out of work, the more they are willing to accept what the government is offering. It is actually a very brillant way to implement change that would normally never get passed.
You people aren't going to get anywhere. You are not free to benefit from your own efforts. You are not allowed to legally complain about the incompetent, unproductive, often unconstitutional acts against our society. Some special people in this fair and equal land under THE LAW are not subject to it. What makes ANY of you think, you are going to change human nature? I have complained in Court. I was told by the Court "..defendants are immune to prosecution.". You think your life is yours? You think your free to check your leaders, question them? THINK AGAIN! You can't even carry a weapon to protect yourself or some other poor fool being victimized without notifying "the proper authorities". We are all properly authorized though our civic duty. I believe that we the people don't prevent or circumvent our human nature. In other words, we don't punish properly. You can't steal from a thief, you can't murder a murderer. How many people would steal if they had a hand cut off? Sounds bad, doesn't it. It is, so. I don't want to have to deal with people who take from me. I don't take from people. I produce my living needs. We are screwed. There are to many special people that the ignorant masses look up to for living advice. The Consittution doesn't create a class of special people. It also doesn't allow for a majority of people to 'decide' what rights others will have or not have. You can't vote a persons' rights. You either have them or you don't. If it's good for you, I get it too!
Please leave my Health Care alone. If you continue they will change the rules and I will loose my health care. Congress is using for the most part "TRI-CARE". All of us who spent our lives in service to our country for twenty-years of crap health care for ourselves and familes now are can have "Tri-Care". It comes out of our retirement or "if you will" retainer fee; not a Military Retirement is not a retirement it is a "Retainer" fee which is one of my reason I've been PO at calling up National guard when the Government pays us a retainer fee. Any many of us have been unemployed, that would have employed us and allowed us to use those skills we learned. But get off congress about their Health-care, let them have it.
Health Care That Isn?t: Congress Gets National Health and We Don't.
But it always amazes me that Americans mistake Health Care for Health Insurance. The two are poles apart. Health Care is the delivery of actual medical care. Health Insurance is nothing more than a lottery; you are not paying for the delivery of a service but instead purchasing the possibility that the insurance company (after taking a substantial profit, of course) might pay for some of your medical bills. One is a service, the other is a profit-taking corporation who certainly doesn?t have the interest of the patient as its bottom line. Seems pretty hard to confuse the two. Yet in his attempt to reform America?s Health Care system, that?s exactly what President Obama has done. Obama has not only let the insurance corporations set the terms of the debate, he?s invited them to the table. And not unpredictably, the result is a Health Care Reform bill that does not serve the interests of the American people or their health. The bill that has currently escaped the Senate Finance Committee is worse than useless. It takes a discussion of America?s health care needs and turns it into a wrangle over corporate monopoly. It is a sop to the insurance companies and a burden to those it was meant to help. And without the ?public? plan option, the Health Care Reform bill is meaningless, because it simply doesn?t address what?s actually broken in the American Health Care System: for decades, decisions about the health of Americans have been at the mercy of out of control profit-taking corporations. What?s broken about the American Health Care System is that American does not have a not-for-profit system that delivers medical services to all its citizens, and that is responsible to those citizens, not to a board of investors whose sole motivation is corporate greed. What?s broken about the American Health Care System is that it doesn?t have one. What America has is a number of companies that prey on its citizens in their hour of desperate need, and Obama?s current Health Care Reform Bill doesn?t change that. In the film, ?The American President?, there is a telling exchange between two of the characters over a crime bill the Chief Executive has just sent to the floor:
President: ?Government is choosing, government is prioritizing; I made no secret of the fact the Crime Bill was my top priority.?
Sydney: ?Well then, congratulations! It?s only taken you three years to put together crime prevention legislation that has no hope of preventing crime!?
President: ?Sid, please, I don?t wanna lose you over this.?
Sydney: ?Mr. President, you got bigger problems than losing me. You just lost my vote.?
Congratulations, President Obama. You have just put together Health Care Reform legislation that has no hope of delivering Health Care to the American people. And, Mr. President, you?ve just lost my vote.
whats good for the goose is good for the gander !
If the politicians worked for minimum wage you can bet there would be alot less career politicians ! I say computerize the government and run it by the people via electronic computer votes , not by biased greedy political salesmen !
Oh boy, here we go again. CBS I am ashamed you have not done your homework! You make it sound like federal employees have a cadillac plan and they do not. First of all and to all the posters, ALL of the FEHBP plans are PRIVATE...NOT Government run. They are only ADMINISTERED by OPM. This is not the same thing as the "public option"...sorry! Yes, we have choices; every "Open Season" and whoever said it was FREE is sadly mistaken. Understand that the federal government is/was our employer and no different than a private entity administering the same thing; group coverage in other words. And tell me why the FEHBP should be opened up to the general public? This is strictly for government employees and retirees only. Now, if you want to get a job and EARN the same benefits, please do so! NARFE has already stated, and waaaaaay back in March that to open up the FEHBP would be catastrophic; the general public would HAVE to be put into a separate risk pool. And last but not least Blue Cross/Blue Shield premiums just went up 15% with the Standard Plan I have. NOW tell me that you all want this? Can you afford it? I am currently paying over $300 a month which includes BC/BS and Medicare. And I happily do so considering I EARNED my BENEFITS! Now, I don't mind that the FEHBP is used as a model. But the article above is just flat at wrong and extremely left wing!
Paying $300 a month to Blue Cross is not a benefit. My premiums have doubled in 4 yr. I now pay $412 a month for me. I have to cut down on groceries just to afford it. And I'm healthy and fit. If your sick and tired of rising costs and greedy insurance companies, you need to support Health Reform. If we don't have a public option the Ins. Co will have no incentive to lower premiums. Go to Healthcare-now! and get involved.
I didn't get a sounding that fed.imps have a cadillac plan from the article. I did get a sounding that the special people in our fair, equal and free society, get what they want at my expense. My company isn't taking money from you. Your 'company' is taking money from me. If you don't like people wanting to end your ease, get a job with some entity that doesn't have a gun pointed at every other entity. Why does the gov. have almost a fifth of its workforce making more that $100,000?
How does an entity that doesn't produce anything justify the expense? Oh, thats right, it's for the public; it's for the greater good; it's for health and safty; it's for stealing from some and giving to others. I don't know you, I am sure I can do without 80-90% of my so-called government, can you?
Ms. Attkisson - thank you for your bravery in pointing out this awful insult to the American people after we are expected to have a public option and they refuse to participate. Not only that - WE HAVE TO PAY FOR THEIR WONDERFUL HEALTH PLAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Main stream media has not mentioned this before and I praise you for doing so - you are a great reporter and CBS is lucky to have you. Bless you.
they should offer there same insurance OPTIONS as the public option and or include a clause that if you make kore than 115,000 a year you need to pay your own ins.
I have always thought that Americans should have the exact same health care as Congress. What a conflict of interest that they get to decided what I get or don't get. I raise a family of 5 with NO health care insurance and work every day of my life. Health care is not offered by my employer and I earn too little to pay my own and earn too *much* (ha HA!) to qualify for any assistance. Too *much* in my case is $100 a month over the qualifying limit.
Give me a plan that I can afford WITH a public option. Government employees get a public option. Who do you think pays for their plan? Me, the public. I want the same thing.
We are seeing a surgeon on Monday for my 14 year old son. I will have to pay every dime of his surgery. Without a doubt it will take me years to pay off. Meanwhile, my taxes will continue to help fund their public option.
Sorry to hear about your son's surgery. You should be able to get your children covered under the CHIP Program. You can find them here: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/home/chip.asp
Then go to Healthcare-now.org to support healthcare reform. They make it easy to get involved and contact congress. NOW is the time to get involved! Everyone that is complaining here needs to let Congress hear their voice. They are voting on this now. Please get involved.
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But it always amazes me that Americans mistake Health Care for Health Insurance. The two are poles apart. Health Care is the delivery of actual medical care. Health Insurance is nothing more than a lottery; you are not paying for the delivery of a service but instead purchasing the possibility that the insurance company (after taking a substantial profit, of course) might pay for some of your medical bills. One is a service, the other is a profit-taking corporation who certainly doesn?t have the interest of the patient as its bottom line. Seems pretty hard to confuse the two. Yet in his attempt to reform America?s Health Care system, that?s exactly what President Obama has done.
Obama has not only let the insurance corporations set the terms of the debate, he?s invited them to the table. And not unpredictably, the result is a Health Care Reform bill that does not serve the interests of the American people or their health. The bill that has currently escaped the Senate Finance Committee is worse than useless. It takes a discussion of America?s health care needs and turns it into a wrangle over corporate monopoly. It is a sop to the insurance companies and a burden to those it was meant to help. And without the ?public? plan option, the Health Care Reform bill is meaningless, because it simply doesn?t address what?s actually broken in the American Health Care System: for decades, decisions about the health of Americans have been at the mercy of out of control profit-taking corporations.
What?s broken about the American Health Care System is that American does not have a not-for-profit system that delivers medical services to all its citizens, and that is responsible to those citizens, not to a board of investors whose sole motivation is corporate greed. What?s broken about the American Health Care System is that it doesn?t have one. What America has is a number of companies that prey on its citizens in their hour of desperate need, and Obama?s current Health Care Reform Bill doesn?t change that.
In the film, ?The American President?, there is a telling exchange between two of the characters over a crime bill the Chief Executive has just sent to the floor:
President: ?Government is choosing, government is prioritizing; I made no secret of the fact the Crime Bill was my top priority.?
Sydney: ?Well then, congratulations! It?s only taken you three years to put together crime prevention legislation that has no hope of preventing crime!?
President: ?Sid, please, I don?t wanna lose you over this.?
Sydney: ?Mr. President, you got bigger problems than losing me. You just lost my vote.?
Congratulations, President Obama. You have just put together Health Care Reform legislation that has no hope of delivering Health Care to the American people. And, Mr. President, you?ve just lost my vote.
If the politicians worked for minimum wage you can bet there would be alot less career politicians ! I say computerize the government and run it by the people via electronic computer votes , not by biased greedy political salesmen !
How does an entity that doesn't produce anything justify the expense? Oh, thats right, it's for the public; it's for the greater good; it's for health and safty; it's for stealing from some and giving to others. I don't know you, I am sure I can do without 80-90% of my so-called government, can you?
Give me a plan that I can afford WITH a public option. Government employees get a public option. Who do you think pays for their plan? Me, the public. I want the same thing.
We are seeing a surgeon on Monday for my 14 year old son. I will have to pay every dime of his surgery. Without a doubt it will take me years to pay off. Meanwhile, my taxes will continue to help fund their public option.
I'm just saying.
Then go to Healthcare-now.org to support healthcare reform. They make it easy to get involved and contact congress. NOW is the time to get involved! Everyone that is complaining here needs to let Congress hear their voice. They are voting on this now. Please get involved.