Has congress done enough to constrain long-term spending growth?

"...Government bureaucrats would be able to cut costs—but only by shrinking access to health care, as in Canada, and engendering a Canadian-style nightmare of overflowing emergency rooms and yearlong waits for treatment. America is right to seek a model for delivering good health care at good prices, but we should be looking not to Canada, but close to home—in the other four-fifths or so of our economy. From telecommunications to retail, deregulation and market competition have driven prices down and quality and productivity up. Health care is long overdue for the same prescription."
1. Allow health insurers to sell across state lines.
2. Remove their exemption under the antitrust laws.
This would lower health insurance costs dramatically as competition always does and improve the product.
Charles Krauthammer said that if California growers could not sell their oranges across State lines then Wisconsin would have to pay very high prices for oranges in the winter.

The more important question is whether the Obama administration and Congress is likely to do enough to enact true health care reform, which should have the following:

1) banning discriminatory rates based on age, gender or existing health conditions with no loopholes

2) guaranteeing universal health care coverage for all persons legally in this country

3) making health care affordable to all people

4) promoting more healthy lifestyles among people in this country

The bills emerging in both houses of Congress only seem to address the first issue. Health care is too important to be seen largely, from the perspective of most conservatives and moderates as a cost issue. We are talking about the health of human beings.

Health Care reform is so caught up in the details that they are forgetting the bigger picture.

Texas each year spends an estimated 1 billion in illegal health care (now add all the other states, multiply that by 10 years and what is the cost? Close to the savings on the expected national health care plan???

Is the crisis health care or those that are using the system, but not contributing to the bottom line. Women around the world by planes, car, walking etc are coming here to give birth so their child has a chance. But this means the tax payers could very well be raising the child from birth to adult. The citizen laws may need to be reformed to if you are born to one USA citizen than the child is a citizen. I don't mean to make anyone upset, but we need help to support our economy and to many free medical services for non payers (except those who should legally be here) is putting us in a bind. It is not that we are in a health care crisis, we are in an illegal aliens moving here crisis. Look at Russia, they have a huge problem with illegal aliens and look what it has done to that country.

2) We need more laws to protected the insured. Why does someone who has insurance and goes out of network have to pay huge cost above usual and customary charges? Those charges to the consumer are really to offset the low paying Medicare and non payers. Who is protecting the middle class? We don't want to be split poor and rich class someday, than we will look like the rest of the 3rd world countries.

3) The PPO game is a joke. Instead of health plan reform, how about a set rate for services based on cost of living (no more in or out network games) for that area. Why do we need a government health plan? Why not just change the laws to protect consumers, but at the same time be fair doctors and have "set" rates for care. This way there are no insurance discount games and the $75,000 hospital bill that gets reduced to $35,000 to incorporate the PPO discount is removed. Just bill the $35,000 :)

Why not have a state self insured plan for those that work, but don't have insurance. The cost for premiums of the entire group (risk spread out) would be divided by the number of participants.

Do we need some type of health reform? yes But I don't think it is a new government health plan that would be outdated in a few years anyways and may really benefit more special interest groups, rather than consumers.

I have been working with insurance for an employer much of my life and it makes me sick thinking that now routine care and dental services might be consider "Cadillac" plans. That is just crazy, routine and dental services are medically necessary and now you want the tax the heck out of working Americans and companies that give us jobs, come on with a better idea (see some of my suggestions, just some food for thought....)

How many people only work because you need insurance? Will America retire early if we have a national health care plan? Will recent college kids go back pack across Europe (I might go with them) because they don't need insurace if they have it through the goverment plsn. And what about all the full time mom's working that only work for insurance because their spouse is self employed. Will they retire early?

it's getting absurd - there is just not enough about health education in the discussion.

long term cost control and long term health improvement will only begin to take shape when people begin to practice healthier lifestyles.

children of all ages need to know how to get and stay healthy.

at the current rate of expenditure - obesity and smoking alone costs $220 billion/year in DIRECT HEALTH CARE EXPENDITURES.

so far - most of the discussion revolves around insurance. all that means is - the existing costs will be moved around while either staying at the current level or rising!

we need to focus ALL of our energy on getting and staying healthy. this is the ONE AND ONLY WAY TO ACTUALLY CUT COSTS in both the long and short term.

it's getting absurd - there is just not enough about health education in the discussion.

long term cost control and long term health improvement will only begin to take shape when people begin to practice healthier lifestyles.

children of all ages need to know how to get and stay healthy.

at the current rate of expenditure - obesity and smoking alone costs $220 billion/year in DIRECT HEALTH CARE EXPENDITURES.

so far - most of the discussion revolves around insurance. all that means is - the existing costs will be moved around while either staying at the current level or rising!

we need to focus ALL of our energy on getting and staying healthy. this is the ONE AND ONLY WAY TO ACTUALLY CUT COSTS in both the long and short term.