If you have a pre-existing condition Republicans want you to

[rubato]

DIE

That is the Repuglican Way.


_____________________
Romney and "Insurance"

When I talk to Romney people, they say--look: providing coverage for people who have been diagnosed as having chronic diseases (like, say, Ann Romney) isn't insurance: it's redistribution. And we don't like redistribution.

The view that the chronically ill in our society are moochers who have it too easy is, I think, a rather odd one...

Jonathan Cohn:

Romney, MS, And The Stakes Of The Campaign: If you have MS, or any other serious chronic illness, you need more than a devoted spouse. You need a way to pay your medical bills…. The bills are high enough that even patients with private insurance have struggled with out-of-pocket expenses or run up against annual or lifetime limits on payments. And those patients have been, in some respects, the lucky ones. People who buy coverage on their own or through small businesses frequently end up with exorbitant rates or skimpy benefits, or can’t get coverage at all….

The Affordable Care Act will not fix all of these problems. The standards for insurance it sets allows for substantial out-of-pocket expenses, which means many patients with MS and other chronic disease will still struggle with the cost of care. But the health reform law will certainly make the situation better, by making sure almost everybody can get health insurance, no matter what their pre-existing conditions, and by making sure everybody’s coverage includes at least a minimum set of benefits and limits on cost-sharing…. These are just some of the reasons that the MS Society, like virtually every other chronic disease group, advocated for the law and endorsed it after enactment.

But patients with chronic disease like MS will lose most or all those protections if Romney becomes president and, as he has promised, he repeals the Affordable Care Act. He's promised to replace it with other reforms but, based on what he's said, his reforms won't be much of a substitute. Worse still, the tax and regulatory changes he's proposed would quite likely undermine existing insurance arrangements without providing a suitable alternative…. Those who rely on Medicare and/or Medicaid to pay for MS treatments will also struggle if Romney gets his way.

Although he has not been terribly specific about his plans for for Medicare, he’s made clear his intention to transform Medicare into a voucher program that no longer offers the same guarantee of benefits. Romney has been more specific about Medicaid: He intends to turn the program over to the states but with a lot less money….

MS belongs in this presidential campaign, along with every other major disease. But the conversation should go beyond what it says about Romney as a husband and father. It should include what it says about him as a potential president.


_____________________________


yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

"Everybody dies" - can't get much more democratic than that

[Lord Jim]

No link...

So where'd you dig that one up from rube...

The Hack Krugman or some know-nothing from the DeShlong blog?

Those seem to be your only pipelines to reality....

[Andrew D]

So where'd you dig that one up from rube...

From Paul Krugman, who knows more about economics than all the Republicans in America combined?

Fixed that for you.

[dgs49]

I hate to keep beating the dead horse, but the issues here are greatly obscured by politicians (and pundits like this guy) playing games with the facts.

If the Government mandates that health insurance cover pre-existing conditions, "chronic diseases," elderly children, birth control pills, or trips to the spa, the insurance companies will simply add those projected costs to their rate calculation, increase everyone's health insurance premiums, and it's done.

Republicans are less inclined to include mandates like this, because they reek of socialism and socialized medicine. Healthy people, mainly young people, who may not even need health insurance, end up having to pay huge medical insurance premiums to fund care for everyone else. Employers, who are in fact the ones who pay most of the insurance premiums, would be forced to eat this enormous cost increase (particulalrly where a union contract is in place), because it is culturally unacceptable to LOWER WAGES to compensate for this increased cost.

So Democrats make political hay by pretending to be "giving" something to those with extraordinary health expenses, when in fact the cost is merely being extracted from those who work and pay taxes.

The purpose of Government is not to protect everyone from the forces of nature. People with extraordinarily high medical costs should be paying proportionately more than those who are healthy, and if special supplements are required on a need basis, then that should be addressed, but I don't think Americans have voted that they want socialized medicine, either through the front door or the back door.

If you or someone in your family has a chronic, costly disease or condition, it's mainly YOUR problem, not everyone else's. This ain't Canada or Europe.

Yet.

[Big RR]

Yep; and if you only studied harder in school and took the right courses, you could have avoided that condition. I don't have one because I assumed responsibility for myself.

[dgs49]

B RR:

???

What "condition"?

[Gob]

Any condition. One which would have incapacitated you for work.