Comments on: Caterpillar Opposes Health Care Bill, AARP and AMA Support It

By: Shyloh Pain Center FL

Shyloh Pain Center FL — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 16:45:48 +0000

Thank you for this article! I am not sure how I feel about the new health care bill. I think we should be asking the people in places like Pain Center FL after all, who knows more about health and their city than them?

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 12:43:43 +0000

I don’t oppose this bill i HATE it. It will put yet another “wrecking ball” through our country, whether you want to believe it or not. Small businesses will be chased out, and big business will be forced to pay up. Oh by the way, we the people will be forced to pay up, and if we don’t, we will have fines. How is that “change” especially when the unemployed cant get work because their area has a choke hold recession going on! WAKE UP.

By: Dwayne

Dwayne — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:32:58 +0000

I think many people are missing the point. This is an insurance mandate. Call it what it is. If you do not have insurance now you will have to or be fined!

By: Lydia

Lydia — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 20:53:37 +0000

I don’t understand Caterpillar’s stance on the bill. Are they saying that giving their employees health insurance puts them at a disadvantage in the global marketplace? Does that mean Canada and every other major industrial nation with health care for all, has put their companies at a disadvantage? And how far can we carry this competition complaint? There are surely country’s without workers rights and safety regulations which makes their products cheaper to produce, so should we eliminate workers rights and safety rules? Just where would this end?
Hurrah for AARP and the AMA for actually reading the bill and judging it on the world of good it will do for our country.

By: Lydia

Lydia — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 20:45:22 +0000

moderate, I don’t see how tort reform can influence much, as it is less than 2% of our total health care expenditure. As for the idea of pools for those with pre-existing conditions, by segregating them you would guarantee that their premiums would be sky-high unaffordable. The only way to insure them is to include them in a pool with healthy people, as their smaller number but greater need would be evened out by the larger number of healthy people with little expenses.
Yes, that is the way insurance is supposed to work. I’ve paid house insurance premiums for the last 30 years with no claims because I can rest easy that if disaster strikes, I’m covered. That is how healthy people should look at their insurance premiums. Yes, they are paying for sick people’s bills but when it is their turn to be the sick one, they’ll be covered by the healthy people’s premiums as well.
Passing this health care bill is a huge step in the right direction.

By: justj joey

justj joey — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:23:09 +0000

The AARP has done a lousy job with this piece of…well, guess we call it, legislation. Much ado about nothing. ..and some of the insurance companies they support through their “use our name prorams”……..just another insurance giant….not sure just whose side they are on anymore.

By: progressive mama

progressive mama — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:24:24 +0000

I truly believe if this bill is defeated, we can get some bipartisan legislation done in an incremental fashion. Tort reform. National pools for high risk individuals. The end of the antitrust exemption. Regulations on matters like pre-existing conditions and caps. Large pools for small businesses and individuals.
______________
I do not believe we could get a bipartisan bill, or that a bipartisan bill would be better than this legislation. (We’ve seen what the Republicans have to offer, and as a whole, it doesn’t address many of the main problems, including the growing number of uninsureds.) In regards to incrementalism, I agree with what is said about that in a post titled “A Consumer Advocacy Group Refutes The Anti-Health Reform Myths” at the Health Affairs blog.

By: moderate

moderate — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 03:20:28 +0000

Aw, progressive mama, surely you don’t really think that this is a case of the perfect being the enemy of the good. This bill is not good. It is jury-rigged with special deals and loopholes galore– which are NOT all removed in the fix legislation. It ignores the good ideas that president said he heard from republicans at the white house summit last month and thought should be included– lip service again? It is financially irresponsible and will harm our economy in both the short and long run.
I guess I’m just more of an optimist than most around here. I truly believe if this bill is defeated, we can get some bipartisan legislation done in an incremental fashion. Tort reform. National pools for high risk individuals. The end of the antitrust exemption. Regulations on matters like pre-existing conditions and caps. Large pools for small businesses and individuals.
We need legislation that the states can afford and that the federal government can afford. We need legislation that actually addresses health CARE costs, not insurance costs. (As the cost of health care continues to skyrocket, the cost of insurance companies paying for that health care must also skyrocket.)

By: progressive mama

progressive mama — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 01:46:18 +0000

Poppycock…
Seriously, please stop insisting that only people who agree with you on THIS BILL are good people, moral people, people who value all that is best about America. It simply isn’t true. We who oppose this bill also care deeply about this country and the health of all its citizens. You seem to have fallen for the president’s line that the alternatives are this bill, in its entirety, or the status quo. That simply isn’t true. There are alternatives. We should defeat this bill and start working on those alternatives immediately.
Posted by: moderate | Mar 20, 2010 8:15:05 PM
I included “poppycock” because that just cracked me up and I wanted to say “fiddle faddle” in return.
Other than that, it’s disingenuous to claim that given the Republican ‘tude and tactics and their past history on health care reform, as well as the composition of the Democratic caucuses in Congress, that anything would change significantly if the bill were to be scrapped and they started over. the issue would be kicked down the road. Period. Sensible people get that.
this is a decent starting point toward comprehensive health care reform– and its very much like plans that have been proposed by Republicans in the past, with some progressive elements. Letting the perfect be the enemy of the good prevented Congress from doing anything to regulate Wall Street and the GSE’s during the OO’s and we can all see where that got us (though many on the Right don’t seem to really understand the various problems and what happened– they do see the result.)
Onward.
One day more!

By: moderate

moderate — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:15:05 +0000

Oh, Sharon, where does one begin to respond to your emotional, illogical post? Let’s go over it line by line:
“One American dies every 12 minutes for lack of heath care.”
For openers, this statistic is IMPOSSIBLE to prove. The assumptions in that study are ludicrous and it still takes some major mental gymnastics to infer that it is a ‘lack of health care’ that led directly or indirectly to the deaths attributed to it. This is just fearmongering masquerading as research, and there is plenty of this on all sides of the issue (not just the pro-Obamacare crowd, I want to make clear).
” This bill covers children, veterans and those with hardships.”
Covers them HOW, in what way that they are not covered otherwise? Veterans are already covered and do not need Obamacare to get health care. Children’s coverage was vastly expanded by the expansion of SCHIP last year. “those with hardships”– what does that even mean and how does this particular bill address them? A republican proposal to create a nation-wide pool for such ‘uninsurables’ and to provide government subsidies to cover the cost for those who could not afford it went nowhere.
“This bill is imperative to Americans and as the republicans drag their feet more are dying.”
Poppycock. The Republicans do not have the numbers to stop this bill. You must know that. And if ‘foot dragging’ means people die, why are the measures that will supposedly provide that health care you are ranting about not going to kick in for 4 YEARS? Are folks going to postpone dying for four years? Didn’t think so. This line of argument is unconscionable.
“I don’t understand how some Americans are saying the dollar value is more important than the value of life. When a republican puts the all mighty dollar above the life of Americans,…”
Providing access to good quality health care at affordable prices is the goal of many involved in this debate, including most Republicans. Paul Ryan, for example, tries to explain how this bill does not lower prices and is unaffordable and unsustainable, but folks like you are simply not listening. Damaging our economy, limiting access to quality heath care, discouraging innovative, cutting-edge medicine– those are not things that are going to improve the quality of our lives. Please realize that people who disagree with you, as I do, about the specifics of this bill are equally concerned about improving lives and providing excellent health care to Americans. We disagree with whether this bill improves our ability to do that and whether it does more harm than good. We do NOT value money over human health. Stop demonizing what you do not understand.
“I change sides and will most certainly find time to work to help the Democrats in elections. This is a moral vote on integrity.” That’s lovely. I’ll continue to work to remove those Democrats from office. We’ll see where the majority of americans fall come the next elections. For example, today, when one congressman from my state announced he was a no vote this time, I contributed money to his campaign, even though he is a democrat and I am not. The threats of reduced funding and being ‘primaried’ that he is facing from the left should be, and hopefully will be, counteracted by those of us in the sensible middle as well as on the right on this particular issue.
Seriously, please stop insisting that only people who agree with you on THIS BILL are good people, moral people, people who value all that is best about America. It simply isn’t true. We who oppose this bill also care deeply about this country and the health of all its citizens. You seem to have fallen for the president’s line that the alternatives are this bill, in its entirety, or the status quo. That simply isn’t true. There are alternatives. We should defeat this bill and start working on those alternatives immediately.