At least that is what Senator Reid says.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that he expects to see a health care reform bill finalized by early next month and he expects it to include a government-run health plan to compete with private insurers. [Las Vegas Review Journal]
Republicans, however, aren’t so sure they like the idea. They do not want the government to unfairly drive private insurers out of business and it is too much interference in the health care system.
Of course the cost of implementing a new healthcare system is a major factor impacting the reform, as it should be. It is going to cost a ton of money. However, Reid says:
“We can’t maintain the status quo. It’ll break our country. We will be penniless in less than another generation.”
If he is right then it seems to be a question of going broke now or later.
A woman in Pahrump said her severe asthma has her laid up at home on an oxygen tank and lots of medication, treatments she said she would never be able to afford without Medicare, the government-run health insurance for seniors.
“I lie here and think of all these Republicans who talk about how terrible Medicare is,” the woman said. “They couldn’t be more wrong. If this reform goes through without a public plan to suppress the motivation, greed, of the insurance companies, I think we can chalk this up as a failure.”
Reid agreed with the woman saying Medicare is “unbelievably efficient.” Note: I’ve been on Medicare for years now and I must say it has worked very well, at least for me and my wife. We have additional private insurance. Any problems we’ve encountered as to medical care has come from the private insurance. They control what treatment you can get. Which, I must say, seems to be an interference in the doctor-patient relationship. I haven’t encountered that problem with Medicare.
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