Wow, glad we got rid of steamed... makes more room for Gramps.
Go back and re-read the title to this posting. It is entirely factual. Even if the GOP has another epic win next year they will have a hard time getting rid of all parts of the healthcare reform.
This isn't like the kind of material that steamed used to post at all.
Obamacare. Making my insurance at LEAST $2000 a year less affordable. That's some awesome reform.
I just attended a medical conference where a physician who is an expert on what Congress is up to gave the latest in his series of Legislative Updates on health care reform.
First off, no one says "Obamacare" because Congress has had a lot more to do with this reform than the president. This isn't political spin, just objective fact.
Anyway, this doctor make up a chart of what he sees as the good part of the reform and what isn't good, which in his world are the parts that the medical societies have to lobby against. And of course he speaks for his profession with an eye out for quality of patient care (if you can believe what he says)
Anyone who has been fed a diet of political spin on this topic, either for or against the reform, would feel disoriented listening to this guy. He see a lot of worthwhile aspects of the reform, especially in that more people will be covered by medical insurance of one kind or another. Specifically, uninsured patients will be migrated to Medicaid for the various States, with federal assistance.
And for those who champion the reform, there is bad news for you as well. There are several new regulatory agencies looking over the shoulders of the doctors and hospitals to make health care more affordable, which may well have the opposite effect. And there is currently a shortage of many medications because manufacturers can't get paid enough to make them. This early into the reforms, that is a bad sign.
Toward the end of his talk he said that near the end of this month there is a deadline for cutting costs in the Congress which will probably not happen, because GOP members don't want it to happen. But he predicts that if cost cutting does happen, it may be reversed by the end of this year.
Happily for everyone on every side of this issue, he says nothing will happen at all in 2012 as Congress and the White House go into election mode, with this being too hot of an issue for election year for anyone.
stewartm0205
i hope not. Obamacare is saving me $7,000 a year.