Health care reform: what it means

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Nov 27, 2010

Health care reform just gives business the go ahead to tighten the belt and work everyone to death.

Businesses are tightening their belts due to the slumping economy, not healthcare reform.

In fact, the most significant provisions of the health care bill are not slated to kick in until 2014, possibly later.

allnurses Guide · Nov 27, 2010

Businesses are tightening their belts due to the slumping economy, not healthcare reform.
In fact, the most significant provisions of the health care bill are not slated to kick in until 2014, possibly later.

Large businesses cut costs to increase profits. They will use any excuse they can get away with.

Health insurance companies are among the most profitable. Yet I don;t think they do anything useful.

We should all be able to choose Medicare.

jdarling1 · Feb 17, 2011

yes, we have tried to pass health care reform since the 1990's. i really don't go one day without hearing something or being asked my opinion on health care reform from patients, family, and friends. i have to admit, hearing some of the comments on why people think reform is a bad idea are pretty upsetting. most people say things like, "i like my doctors, i don't want to change" or "we can't afford to pay for everyone else to get health care". the fact is that many people outside of healthcare just don't get it. there is no truth to these statements, it is purely misinformation and rumors. the other theme to these statements is that people are looking out strictly for themselves, they dont see how leaving others without healthcare affects us all. for people with health care insurance already, their premiums will actually be decreased according to obama and he promises nobody will be forced to change doctors. health care reform is so incredibly overdue. the uninsured are forced to use the ed as a primary care site because that is the only place that cant turn them away, preventative screening isn't being done, illnesses are being discovered too late and then we are forced to pay for them during the worst time--practically just before death in many cases. families are being sent into debt and losing everything in the event of serious illness. businesses cant afford to pay for employees insurance without going under. the list goes on and one, the current system is just not working; we need change and we need it stat!

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middleager · Feb 17, 2011

jdarling, it is true those outside healthcare can't see the issue from your side. However, as a business owner with 170 employees I can tell you, you can't understand it from my side. Obama made a lot of statements and promises that are not exactly true. I can tell you I have spent time and actually read the bill and have made the decision, if it goes as is, I will drop my company healthcare, pay the fines, and go on. It's true you can keep your health insurance IF your employer keeps the policy, many have already said they will not. I for one will not, I can not afford to do so as it is written. Many of the big companies including McDonalds, Walmart, and numerous others have already been given waivers. The concept is admirable, but this bill is seriously flawed. When you run the economics on it you will see it will not work. There is a reason they had to use the cornhusker kick back, the Lousiana Purchase, and numerous other bribes to pass it when they had a super majority, because the numbers do not work. they had to carve 250,000,000 out for the Medicare Dr Fix and pass it under a seperate bill to get it under a trillion and every study including the governments Office of budget has said it will INCREASE not DECREASE the deficiet at a time when we are drowning in read ink...I appreciate your passion and faith in the President,,,but I have read the bill, it won't work.

kcmylorn · Feb 20, 2011

I'm confused- Middleager- If your a business owner, why are you on a nursing website/forum?

I don't see how the healthcare reform can be such a bad thing. As far as raising taxes and all the other cost increases the reform bill is being accused of , I guess I just don't see it. What I do see is that over 100 people were arrested for medicare fraud this week=saving medicare $225Million dollars. I saw and listened to the FCIC's finding on it's investigation into the financial meltdown=Those responsible I think can expect their charges to be in the mail. I see and listened to the so called Tea Party giving a crap filled talk to some causus with that woman Michele B. in a breathy voice( and Harris tweed jacket with leather patches on the sleeve $$$$$) saying "the governement took over this and that but it can't have our enery resources and healthcare, and tooting the constitution and free enterprise". The government should take over the healthcare industry- take the competition out of HEALTH care. It's the competition and corporate GREED that driving the cost of getting health care in this country through the roof. No one is ever going to convince me that it is cheaper to pay for dialysis treatment( End stage Chronic Disease manangement) than to give some one a Lisinopril tab( Primary Care). As for cutting jobs- whose jobs. Nurses may not be hired in the droves in the hospital area but they are going to be desperately needed in the Primary care arena- if 45million unensured people can suddenly buy a government insurance plan at an affordable price. If your one of the Major Health insurance Companies- yes, to stay competive with the governement's offered public insurance plan, your going to have to cut your rates to stay in business. How many people are going to buy an insurance plan(either employER or out of your own pocket) for $590.00/month when you can buy a government plan for maybe $200/month. The hospitals are going to HAVE to honor the plan or I suspect that hospital will stop being given government "free bee" money. Now these GREEDY CEO's are not going to go for that- that may mean they would have to cut their own salaries to stay afloat. Let these hospital's keep up their hiring freezes- according to some state laws- there only has to be 1(ONE) RN on the floor/unit or in the building and guess who that is- the NURSE MANAGER, VP of Nursing, CNO!! Guess they better get busy, get out of those Pradas and start figuring out which part of the bedpan goes where. OBAMACARE- BRING IT ON!!!

Kathleen Sebelius, the HHS Director, is stating the health care shift will be from an acute(illness) model to a wellness model(Primary Preventative health).

I also listened to the hearings on raising the unemployemnt taxes to employERs from $7,500 to $15,000. I think this is the government's way of acknowledging that alot of the firing, terminations and layoffs are bogus and out of profit monging and greed. Unemployment and economic meltdowns go hand in hand and parasitically feed off on another. "They ENGAGE each other" to quote nursing management lingo.

The CEO's and the Administration(Nursing and NON nursing) have fueled( like gasoline on a fire) this economic crisis, health care crisis and unemployment crisis. I sincerely hope there is a government committee formed like the FCIC to investigate the Healthcare crisis- fiscial misappropriation, why so many of the little worker bees( nurses, intensivists, docs) have been let go, who stood the most to gain, the effects(risks to) on patient over all conditions. Staff Nurses can only be blamed and held accountable up to a certain point- then it becomes the 'power' decsionmakers accountablity.

Donald Trump has it right- cut the fat from the top, not the bottom.

Can we not delete this post. What's wrong with an educated nursing audience?