US/healthcare/reform

Overview

It is widely agreed that the US healthcare system is in need of some kind of reform. Due to the vast inefficiencies of the existing US system, which among the wealthy/industrialized nations has both some of the highest per-capita costs and lowest service quality, most liberals and a few conservatives agree that a major overhaul is needed.

The majority of conservatives are generally against a major reform and instead favor regulatory changes to improve the existing system, keeping it both "competitive" (a code-word meaning "profitable to investors" and "big-business friendly") and "uniquely American" (a meaningless phrase in this context, since any solution would be dealing with the "uniquely American" style of government and healthcare infrastructure, thus making it "uniquely American" regardless).

In the middle months of 2009, having dealt with the immediate emergency of the ongoing 2008 financial crisis though various bailouts and stimulus packages, The Obama-Biden administration began a push for healthcare reform. This plan immediately came under fire from members of the political Right, who have generally become the pawns of well-funded interests of all varieties; in this case, the medical insurance industry was found to be backing many of the protests and Tea Parties".

Reform legislation eventually passed in March, 2010, with absolutely no Republican support -- even though the bill was essentially identical to a Republican proposal made during the Clinton-Gore administration.

Initiatives

• 2009-07-14 US 111 HR 3200 (OpenCongress, THOMAS), "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009", has the backing of Obama-Biden; more complex, retains option to use existing insurance plans
• 2009-01-26 US 111 HR 676 (Wikipedia) sponsored by John Conyers, Jr. "To provide for comprehensive health insurance coverage for all United States residents, improved health care delivery, and for other purposes." Essentially makes Medicare universal; single-payer plan. Obama-Biden is not backing this bill, as Obama has apparently dropped support for single-payer, and it seems to have dropped off the radar -- which is too bad, because most people who support HR3200 would probably support HR676 even more.
  • FAQ

Links

Reference

• Wikipedia:
  • Health care reform in the United States
  • Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: signed 2010-03-23

Official

• HealthReform.gov

Related

• 2016/06/22 [L..T] The most overrated intellect in Washington "So Ryan's latest health care package is at war with itself. It rails against top-down decrees from Washington, all while imposing a structure on states that would effectively neuter their insurance laws. And it's only the latest in a comedy of errors that includes a proposal to phase out Medicare and an accidental effort to nationalize the means of production. Nor are these the only examples of Ryan's allergic response to math – we haven't even discussed the multi-trillion dollar "magic asterisk" Ryan relies upon to pay for his tax proposals."