Dear US NEWS & POLITICS Community,

Abortion debate does not belong here.  This thread is being moved to the Abortion Debate board where such discussions are more appropriate.

The only thing I've heard President Obama say was that Federal funds would not be used to pay for abortions, but that abortions will still be legal. This way he is not asking the PL's to pay for something that they oppose.The people the insurance companies want to be able to cull out are people who are at risk for genetic diseases like Huntington's , or diabetes, or any condition that might make them at high risks to profits. From there it can be just the people who have been to the doctor or hospital more often than the norm. The best thing that he has directly said was that it was no longer going to be business as usual for the mega-medical corporations.

We still have medical insurance, but at least once a month we learn of something else that will either raise the deductible or they've decided not to provide some medications. In the last two months we lost our dental and vision coverage.

If you want to see where the industry is making money, look at any bill from a doctor and see how much they had to write off between what the patient would pay without insurance and how much the doctor actually gets. It would be called "price fixing" in any other industry.

I'm just waiting for them to stop paying for miscarriages by claiming they didn't know if it was due to the action of a third party who would pay instead of them. Last time I got a letter  asking if a third party was involved it was for a kidney infection.

The one thing we know about our health care in this country is too many people don't have it, regardless of what the problem is.

Insurance fighting is something I've listed as a hobby for years because I do so much of it. My husband got his last visits kicked out by telling us :

a. He went to an out -of network doctor. (Wrong; I picked this doctor from their list and also  checked with his office.) 

b. Immunizations by an out-of -panel doctor aren't covered. (Wrong. It wasn't an immunization.)

c. Medicare has refused to pay for this visit. (Yes, they tend to do that when you submit claims on someone before they are elligible for benefits.)

Obama wants to change the staus quo on health insurance? YAY!!!!!  There's nothing like being on hold for 20 minutes while being told how to lower your blood pressure  or having spent so much time dealing with issues that when you ask your then 3-year -old to pick up his toys he tells you "Not right now. I'm on a business call...'

It's just another industry where the people higher up on the food chain think of all the things they can do for themselves with the money paid in for benefits.  I think the first battle is to make sure we all have minimal coverage and then argue over what procedures will and won't be covered. It's certainly less expensive monetarily to have an abortion than a hospital delivery, especially if something goes wrong for either the mother or fetus during delivery. Do I think that might be a factor, along with not being able to afford pre-natal care, that might swing the decision towards abortion for young couples or someone on their own? Pro choice also includes feeling like you've got a choice.

Aug 16, 2009 -- 10:01PM, bluehorserunning wrote:

Everybody keeps on talking about how the Massachsets plan (?) is a success 'because something like 98% of the people there have insurance now.'  Well, yes - they're forced by the state to pay for insurance.  Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that they actually have any more access to health care than they did before.

That's right. Those that cannot afford health insurance usually buy the least expensive policy they can. Most often when they get sick they get dropped. Their deductibles are high, and annual ceilings low. Either the state ends up paying or the person has to file bankruptcy. Some help.

Aug 16, 2009 -- 10:27PM, bluehorserunning wrote:

What an effing scam.

It's a scam that is being protected by many congresspersons - on both sides of the aisle.