You can read the the full text House bill here. All 1,990 pages of it. It may not be as dramatic as a Sydney Sheldon or a Danielle Steele novel, but this is very important for everyone. There are many key provisions of the bill but I specifically like:
Creates a public health insurance option and a national exchange for the uninsured and small businesses to purchase health insurance. The Secretary of Health and Human Services would negotiate rates with doctors and hospitals on reimbursement rates.This is a sigh of relief to have an option instead of being locked with an HMO.
Insurance companies are prohibited from denying coverage based on a pre-existing condition. There are caps on deductibles and annual out of pocket spending is capped at $5000.
Again this will force HMO to give coverage to all individual regardless of their medical condition.
You can read more about this key provision here.
I've been working for a non-profit clinic for years. We see more than 20,000 patients a year of which more than 60% are either uninsured or under-insured. For the past years, that number have shoot up due to people losing their job and consequently lose their medical coverage. I've seen funding from the State and Federal Government reduced so much that it caused a heavy burden to Community Clinics. But we have no choice. Our clinic has a standing policy NOT to refuse patient regardless of their ability to pay.
This bill, (despite vigorous opposition) is a positive step towards fixing a broken system. Is it perfect? maybe not but it's better than continuing what we have right now. Of course this bill still has to pass through the Senate and expect a full throttle lobbying from the HMO's to kill this bill.
If nothing is done about the U.S. Health Care System then you either not allowed to get sick or move to Canada or France where they have universal health care.
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