California Health Insurers Must Reinstate Policies

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Ok, McCain plans on us paying for insurance, eliminating the tax break that employees currently get on their health insurance benefits and instead giving people a tax credit of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families to put toward buying coverage. My company is too small, we would lose. McCain does not care, none of the government does, they have perfect health coverage, so to them cutting something means absolutly nothing to them. Let them live off of what we make and then on top of it all pay for insurance that when they don't like what is coming at them, they cancel you. Americans need to take back their government. We for too long have let them tell us what is best for us, I think America is going down in flames because of this thinking. They are all crooks, and we elected them...

GG of WA 6:34PM April 18, 2008

Yes, of course, let's have national health care! Because putting overwhelming power in the hands of politicians and arrogant, accountable-to-no-one civil servants always the best route to humane and efficient services -- just look at the Post Office and the IRS!
What we have now is a patchwork that is often expensive, inefficient, and even heartless. But when it comes to waste, ineptitude, and sheer brutal inhumanity, an mere insurance company cannot begin to compete with the U.S. government. Ever try to straighten out a misunderstanding with a government agency? Think that's going to be different when the feds get control of health care?
That said, although only 5 percent of insurance buyers buy privately, and their problems must be managed. I agree that McCain's approach, absent regulation, won't help nearly enough, since it doesn't address cherry-picking and these disgusting rescission games. But there are a lot of interim steps that can be taken before handing life-and-death decisions for all of us to the feds.
(And I do have some standing to talk about this: I was uninsured, with a serious chronic illness, for a dozen years, and had to get my health care from county facilities. So I know *exactly* what government health care is like -- which is more than most people who are all starry-eyed about the idea can say.)

Bridey of CA 6:33PM April 18, 2008

Health care, as a for profit buisness, will not provide what Americans need.
Living and Dying isn't a part of monolopy, why is it part of Wall St?
Shareholders do not have PHD's in medicine. Why do we let them dictate our treatment options?
I might be a little overly liberal about this but, corporatism has failed us this time.

Christopher of UT 6:26PM April 18, 2008

There is something fundamentally morally wrong with a society that allows profit to be made from people getting sick. It turns the health profession into a swarm of circling vultures. Should health care be free? Probably not, given our current culture. But there must be a giddy psychic somewhere so that we can find a happy medium.

Ethan Q of CA 6:22PM April 18, 2008

McCain thinks that a family can buy health insurance for $5000.00? What planet does he live on? Any family health premiums where I live are over two times that amount, which means that what McCain proposes is a tax-increase for those of us who have coverage and an unusable tax-break for the rest of us. Typical of the Republicans, who don't worry themselves with folks who can't get health insurance.

Joel Miller of NY 6:18PM April 18, 2008

1) Why would people lie on their applications, as the insurance companies claim?
To get insurance, of course!
2) The insurance companies say they rescind less than 1% of their customers. I wonder what percent they rescind of their customers who need expensive health care?
We need single-payer insurance which covers all Americans. It would be cheaper per capita than what we are paying now. The insurance companies are digging their own graves with their unethical behavior.
I worked for a big health insurance company as a file clerk and read the files. That's when I started to believe they were evil.

Wu Ming of CA 5:48PM April 18, 2008