Honestly this whole Healthcare thing is making me tired and frustrated. I'm not sure that we are going to get something that actually helps. Washington DC doesn't really care about average people... cause they can't buy campaign commercials.

They released another Healthcare plan today, we waited all summer for this one because it was supposed to be magically "bi-partisan". The bill is proposed by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, the Finance Committee is supposed to vote on the bill by next week.

I'm calling it the "Baucus Bill" because he proposed it and he's probably the only guy who likes it (besides Insurance Company executives). I'm sure he worked his ass off trying to get Republicans and Democrats to agree, and that's a fine goal, but if the bill doesn't work, it's useless.

The Baucus Bill is the worst of both worlds.... I'm reading more details of this plan as I write, and it just gets worse.

1) Everyone is forced to buy Health Insurance. If you don't you will pay a fine.....
2) No Public Option. You are forced to buy Health Insurance from a Private Company.
3) And you can't buy insurance across state lines.

If you can't afford Health Insurance now, you will be forced to buy it. How much is it going to cost? Nobody knows, but there's nothing in this bill that will make it cheaper. The government option would be cheaper, because they don't have to buy advertisements or pay bonuses, but we don't get a government option. There is no added competition for the insurance companies, there is no incentive for them to lower costs.

4) Some of us get tax credits or subsidies to help us buy insurance. how much and who, is a little fuzzy.
5) Medicaid Income eligibility becomes 133 percent of poverty ($30,000 a year for a family of four) Childless adults making up to 133 percent of poverty ($14,400 for an individual) would be eligible for the first time, after but not till 2014...

This is what bugs me, Health Insurance is expensive, confusing, cruel, and an all around terrible product... Now we are being forced to buy it, and we still have no guarantees that the government will protect us from abuse.

The Washington Post analyzes the cost to individuals more specifically "as many as 4 million of the 46 million people who are currently uninsured would be required to buy coverage on their own, without government help, by some estimates. Millions more would qualify for federal tax credits, but could still end up paying as much as 13 percent of their income for insurance premiums -- far more than most Americans now pay for coverage. People further down the income scale would receive much bigger tax credits, effectively limiting their premiums at 3 percent of their earnings."

Alright, so the government is forcing us to spend money, they do that with car insurance too right? Yes, but you only buy it if you have a car, and nobody forces you to buy a car.

I have a problem with this plan, even if the government picks up all of the tab. If the government told all of us, "Private Health Insurance is too expensive, so we'll buy it for you!" I'm sure that would make a lot of people happy, but it does nothing to control costs! All it is is a gift to the health insurance companies that allows them to keep doing things the same way. "yea but they have to cover all pre-existing conditions now", thanks... apparently we're giving them a huge bailout for the favor.

OK, well, this is not the final plan, this is one bill out of many, but there's been so much emphasis on bi-partisan love that this bill seems like the most important for now... and it's absolute garbage.

A Public Option government plan will be cheaper because it is not for profit, it does not have to advertise and it will have enough people to bargain with insurance companies. Co-ops cannot do that, it would take 8-15 years for them to be competitive.

How are we eliminating waste, inefficiency and redundancy in the healthcare system? That's how we bring down costs. The Baucus plan is useless because it doesn't save us any money, maybe years down the road when a couple of those state based co-ops get enough bargaining power to help people within that state.

We need more guarantee than that. A Public Option or Medicare for All would save us money because it eliminates waste and inefficiency, it could offer cheaper insurance, and it would break the private insurance monopoly.

We have to do something that works.

The news is mostly bad, I'm tired of it. I was going to post some pictures, but I'm still working on that. And in the meantime news keeps happening. I liked the president's speech on healthcare, I think his plan might work, but I don't know how we get there.

Sorry for the rant. I swear I'm going to post about something besides healthcare soon. :)