DRAC'S FORUM

Oh I KNOW it will be a failure. My only question is why then. If it is so obviously dumb..then why do it. Whats to gain and who's to gain it? I read an article about Brock Lesnar, who loves Canada, say he had to fly back to America to get fix after trying a few Canadian doctors first. And he said, although its far from perfect..we had the best medical doctors in the world.

Oh and I think the healthcare thing is a good idea and long overdue. Isn't the whole idea behind the reform to bring healthcare to the poor citizen? How can that be a bad thing? If youre rich you can still pay for a private doctor. Of course there might be some bugs in the system but that is inevitable with any big reform.

Johan and Amando, two people who don't understand whatexactly this mean health care means.

Yes. Please explain.

Just a few things -

1. I'm from Europe, (UK) so to not have universal healthcare seems like something out of the dark ages for me? Our healthcare may not be the world's greatest, but I can go see a doctor about any problem I have for FREE, and so can anyone else who is legally in the UK.

2. To fully understand why so many Americans are against the Healthcare bill, it would be nice to know the reality of what the situation was beforehand. Say I'm a 24 y/o U.S Citizen, just lost my job due to no fault of my own and I find some problem (lets say a lump) that I feel needs to be looked at. I've got no insurance, I've probably not got much money, what would have been the procedure here? If the case is that I get no healthcare at all (all all the implications for me that comes with that) do you guys think that's acceptable?

3.  Sorry to bring this into it (especially seeing as my country CANNOT talk in this regard) http://costofwar.com/ - Would you rather see that money spent on Healthcare reform or in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Not sure how relevant it is, but the figures are both astronomical and I guess in that way comparable...)

4. What is everyone's ideal version of healthcare? Totally free market? Just interested.

in my opinion, as a citizen of a country, you have to take part for building up your country; and that's whith taxes.  i live in beglium, and we are one of the most taxed countries in the world.  but, that's the system, and as long as you can live well, then it is my pleasure to help other people.  and this has nothing to do with being a socialist country. i visited the united states, many years ago, and spoken with people about the taxes; believe me, the taxes that you have to pay are very very low. for responding what sam hall says, i understand perfectly his point. i don't want to start a political discussion here, because i don't want to offense anyone, but if a country can start a war in iraq(which by the way has nothing to do with the war against the war of terror) they can also improve the healthcare system.  the war will by the way also get payed by the citizen with taxes...
so guys, that's just a small overview of my opinion.  think like that, we are just bjj students who share our passion for a fantastic martial art, let us by be friends and exchange our opinions and be open minded for other ideas and respect each others.  take care of all of you and god bless

chewie; europe has been liberated in ww2 by a coalition americans, candians, british, north african, european soldiers, etc...
we will be eternally thankfull to those people ! but that doesn't mean, that we have to follow blindness nowadays its policy. everyone has his own opinion, you should respect that !!! concerning obama, no one here stated that he is so great; we just said , that he did a good move towards the healthcare system.
hope you understand little bit my point of view

i understand your point of view, however, those of us who currently pay for healthcare and are being taxed to pay for indigent care should have the final decision on how healthcare should be handled in the US. the new healthcare legislation that was passed doesn't fix the problems we have, nor does it get us any closer to proper healthcare coverage for the masses. basically the new plan will "cover" indigent individuals who currently can't pay for or afford to acquire healthcare. those same patients were already having the government...the people...pay for their healthcare... nothing has changed.

btw...the unprecidented vote that took place was manipulated under an obscure parlamentary procedure to force a vote that was not representative of our democracy... we'll see how things go... i appreciate your interest in our policies...

That's cool. We can agree to disagree.

No offense to anyone, but I'm seeing a lot of misconceptions about the bill, so just to keep the debate healthy, I'm going to post some straight up facts about what this bill does:

- Your insurance company cannot drop your coverage if you get sick or injured.

- Your insurance company cannot put a cap on the amount of coverage they provide over your lifetime. If you get sick/injured, they have to keep covering after you've paid your part until you die. Health and Human Services is now empowered to restrict annual limits.

-Children cannot be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition.*

-Your parents can keep you on their health plan until you are 26.

-There are numerous tax credits available for small businesses that provide coverage.

-Indoor tanning services will have a 10% tax. Sorry ladies, your tanning sessions are going to get more expensive.

All of that is now law since Obama signed the bill last month.

Medicare will be overhauled in the next 7 years. I didn't read too much into those provisions because they really don't apply to me, but the major change to Medicare is the amount of prescription drug coverage is being greatly increased.

By 2014, web-accessible insurance exchanges will be established in every state. What is a health insurance exchange? It is a government-run marketplace where individuals go to buy private insurance plans. The private insurers must comply with government regulations. Basically, if you participate in an exchange, you shop for health insurance the same way you shop for utilities. Also, a national mandate that everyone must purchase healthcare will take effect. Failure to do so will result in a "fine". It's not really a fine, in the language of the bill it is written as a tax.

*There's been a lot of news articles saying that health insurance companies have found a loophole that allows them to deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. Why they even thought to look for one is beyond me, but I'm telling you right now it won't work. There is what a law says and what a law was intended to do. The executive branch will make sure that the intent of the law is followed.

I am a single father, 5 or 6 years ago I had serious medical problem, with no insurance I was in between jobs. I was able to get help through our Free Health Care System that we now have in place, like I said it was a system that I had to learn how to use, its not perfect but it is available to everyone. So Amando I do know a little about this topic. In This country there is Free Health Care to the poor and to people out of work, people with money and a income will have a choice, to buy insurance or not. A simple plan that works, it's not perfect but it works.

We should learn the system that we now have, work out some of the problems or we can do the Obamacare thing and get taxed on at least 1/2 of our income, have our Social Security retirement & benefits go away (I only have 14 years to go and have payed into it all my life). And then louse our freedom and become a socialist country?