Attack of the Zombie Healthcare Plan
Just when you thought it was safe to understand your healthcare options…
Like in the cinema-graphic thriller, Night of the Living Dead, the zombie like GOP healthcare plan keeps coming at you…chasing you till your last breath has been exhausted. Of course, the night of the living dead is supposed to be an apocalyptic thriller to keep us all on the edge of our seats even though we all rationally know that the movie is just one of many Hollywood’s efforts to make us forget about real life for a while. But this new apocalyptic thriller which emanates from the hallowed halls of our nation’s capital is no passing whim to entertain us for a short while. This shakeup of the fledgling national healthcare system is a very close copy of the Republicans failed attempt to reboot the American healthcare system earlier this year. Like most horror films, this sudden return of the overthrow of the national healthcare system will likely have a scary effect upon many…and for years to come.
The House of Representatives seemed to have run this new version of the American Health Care Act through fairly quickly getting just enough votes to pass the measure 217 votes to pass and 213 votes against. The cliff note version, according to the New York Times, is that the people who stand to gain the most are high income individuals who earnings are at least $200,000 or couples whose income is that of $250,000 as they will receive a tax breaks. Upper middle class folks who do not have a pre-existing condition will also benefit as more individuals will be able to reach assistance thresholds than under the Affordable Care Act. The GOP plan also gets rid of the mandated coverage for individuals so unlike ACA where an individual had to maintain coverage or else face penalties when filing their taxes, now, that threat of punishment is gone. As a side note, people who fail to maintain their insurance, let’s say they have a 60 day laps where there is no coverage, insurers can now charge up to 30% premium fee…Ouch! The other winner in this new version of the health care plan is that larger companies are no longer required to provide insurance to their workforce.
The people who suffer the most from this new bill? The low income and the elderly. The Medicaid system that provides a huge portion of the healthcare coverage by most states will have to face significant cuts which will ultimately reduce the help that many people need. People can expect loss of funding for services like mental health services and for drug addiction services. It is also expected that smaller hospitals will feel the crunch as more and more people who lose their insurance because of the new plan will overload the emergency department with issues that could have easily been managed with their local doctor.
Again, I’m not saying that the Affordable Care Act was perfect, but the people who are going to bear the brunt of this change in the system will be the poor and the elderly. A child born into poverty has no control over their circumstances yet what little chance they had at receiving minimal healthcare was voted out the window the other day by people who have no idea what poverty is. I don’t know what the right answer is but I believe that as a nation we need to show a little compassion towards our children and the elderly. Many of these measures wouldn’t take place for years but the Congressional Budget Office still expects that 24 million people will lose their health insurance when they do. Even though the measure scraped by the House, it still faces opposition in the Senate. We’ll see what come of it over the next few weeks.
Have a good weekend everyone, thanks as always for reading. Take care of yourself and each other, remember, we’re all in this together.
Wm Reid
Best Home Care Services
325 N Eastern Ave
Connersville, IN 47331
765-827-9833
wmreid@bhcshealth.com