Brain-Jockey

Planned Aging, Choice and Pining For The Good Ole Days-ADDENDUM

Written by Audrie Zettick on July 28, 2009

If recent health care reform proposals like ”America’s Affordable Health Choices Act” are passed, where might we be 5 or 10 years from now?  Here’s a link to the proposed bill by House Democrats.  Here’s a brief shot at why we might pine for the good ole days:

 

Choice–well, not so much. 

 

Despite the word “choice” in the title, private medical insurers are not allowed to enroll ANY new customers as of the first day that the government plan begins.  As Investor Business Daily notes, Page 16 of the American Health Care Choices Act of 2009 actually makes private health care plans illegal.  Hang on to any current coverage you have, since any new* policies (*ADDENDUM: new policies not in line with government mandates–see new article) written after the effective date of the Act will not be allowed.  But at least you’ll still have your current private coverage, right?

 

Choice–well, choice of one.

 

Except that there may no longer BE any private plans.  There are many reasons for this, as outlined by the Heritage Foundation.  But let’s keep this simple: 

 

Employers will have to offer health care coverage or face penalties.  For large businesses (who are the ones currently offering health insurance benefits), the penalties will likely be 40 to 60% of what they now pay in health insurance premiums.  If I was their CFO, I’d say drop the coverage, let workers take the public option and we’ll pay the penalty.  

 

But at least they’ll have AFFORDABLE health care, right?

 

 Affordable? Depends on your definition.

Obama declared that “Health care reform is not going to add to that deficit, it’s designed to lower it.”  Not so much, according to the CBO which estimates that the health care plan offered by the House Democrats will ”add more than $230 billion to the federal budget deficit over the next ten years.”

 

The doctors may have been bought off (see Pink Elephant Pundit here–but frankly after the Prez’ tonsil-yanking claims, I bet pediatricians are no longer supporting the WH), but ten years down the road, their financial fix morphs into a giant fiscal cancer where the deficit will probably force the only available health plan–the ”public option”– to ration care, lest costs spiral out of control.  

 

Planned Parenthood Aging:  Then, of course, there’s the provision to MANDATE ( see section 1233) that all seniors have Advanced Care Planning Consultation every 5 years.  While this sounds well-meaning–who can argue with giving seniors information on living wills–the topics REQUIRED every five years include an explanation of end-of-life services.  I can imagine how happy my 91-year old grandfather would be had this already been in effect.  If we start this at 65, he’d already had 6 forced sessions of hearing about planning for the end of his life.  Boy, that would encourage ME to go to the doc’s.

 

While “rationing” of services is technically not allowed to happen according to the bill, budget pressures combined with the Advanced Care Planning are certain to have a similar result. 

 

Good Ole Days

 

Come 2020, we may be wishing we still had: access to private health insurance plans, some choice in what those plans were and less government on our backs, telling us when and what to plan for as we approach our latter years….and wishing we didn’t have to persuade medical and government officials that we still deserve care in our elder years.