Archive for category Health Care Reform

The health care debate rages on & on & I’m wondering if anyone really cares much anymore. It’s basically you & me against the corporate insurance world, Big Pharma & their lobbyists. Anything that has a snowball’s chance of passing both the House & Senate is likely to be some watered-down reform that almost certainly will not be any godsend to the American people. That’s if anything passes at all.

Many Republicans call it socialism. Well, many of these naysaying politicians have no problem with the premium socialized medical insurance & drug benefits they enjoy. They just don’t want you & I to have the same perks. Did you know that Congressmen enjoy their own on-site walk-in clinic staffed with doctors & nurses right there on Capitol Hill. They pay around $500 a year for this service. We’d be lucky to pay $500 a month.

It’s always struck me that in a country so incredibly wealthy as ours, everybody could & should be covered by decent health care. I believe it is our right, not a privilege. Why not just exp& Medicare to cover us all. It will never happen, but something has to change. Medicare is the gigantic white elephant in the room because if things progress the way they are, every dollar of government money will eventually go toward caring for us, the aging Baby Boomers. The rate of Alzheimer’s Disease alone is skyrocketing & doubling every 15 years or so.

Health care for one & all would surely save a fantastic sum of money in the long run. The scores of millions without insurance often wait until they are in dire straits, then go to the only health care provider left to them: the emergency departments of hospitals all around our once great l&. That is, by far, the very most expensive health care known to mankind. If these folks were covered, they would tend to get care earlier on in their disease cycle & have a much better chance of recovery at far greater savings than is now possible for them. Also, they might be more inclined to seek preventative care, again at much greater savings.

I fear, heck I’m conceding, that whatever may pass as health care reform will continue to fatten the already plump insurance industry & Big Pharma (remember Bush’s great trillion-dollar boondoggle giveaway with his maniacal Medicare prescription drug plans & all the subsequent confusion that followed.). There are just too many competing parties for this to ever give the American people what they so rightly deserve: decent health care & medicines at affordable prices.

There’s always the agrument that government will only botch things up. Well, what about Medicare & Social Security. Those have seemed to be pretty successful programs, to put it mildly. I am reminded of a placard my father saw at one of the Tea Party rallies on TV that said: “Get government out of Medicare!” Well, if it weren’t for the government, we wouldn’t even have Medicare! This kind of ignorance by those who would benefit most is simply mind-boggling. But, the fear mongers out there, the talking heads who want to scare you out of what would be in your best interests by using the “S” word, Socialism, are only looking to line their own pockets & those of their constituents who contribute so heavily to politicians’ campaigns.

I wonder what it’s going to take to really make a difference in health care reform. Just stay healthy.! Maybe we could get vouchers for fruits & vegetables & a tax break if we quit smoking & drinking.

With the economy in shambles & many losing their jobs, their retirement savings (what numbskulls thought 401k’s were a good idea so they could go belly up thanks to unregulated derivatives trading based on fraudulent & toxic subprime mortgages.), their homes, & their overall sense of pride & security, it’s no wonder that there’s a prevailing mood of despair & hopelessness. The American people deserve a break, but it doesn’t appear they’ll be getting one in the foreseeable future. There ain’t no “public” in this health care option.

One of the most affected industries regarding the new health care reform is with biotechnology. One of the many provisions in the new health care reform bill is to reduce the prices of the medical prescriptions charged to Medicare and Medicaid. This will hurt the biotechnology industry because the research for new medication is very expensive and tedious work.

The size of the impact to the biotech industry is beginning to be realized and the health insurance providers are starting to resort to eliminating new medication, in favor of the more traditional medications of years ago. Since it takes time for the pharmaceutical companies to exhaust their patents on new health care medication, the health insurance industry is turning away sooner than what was originally expected.

This will translate into less medical prescriptions for the medical healthcare provider and the individual to choose. Many of the medical health care prescription medications we have on the market today are slowly disappearing as the pharmaceutical demand for them are dwindling by the millions.

The losses to the biotech industry is becoming evident and many of the staff are deciding how much longer they will continue with the companies. The provisions, suppliers, health insurance industry, and supporters are no longer able to offer high finances to continue the funding of current projects.

What will this mean for you and your family members? This will mean the health insurance industry will have more control over what you are able to purchase unless you have the monetary means to pay for a given medical prescription out of pocket. It always comes down to what is affordable and what is not affordable.

Many individuals who suffer with orphan diseases will find they will no longer have access to the medication they so desperately need. The funds are drying up because of the new health care reform bill and the prescription medication for the orphan diseases will dry up. This is because as funding dwindles, the money that remains will be focused on the more popular diseases.