National health reform bills would exempt Hawaii

[Rob Tucker]

From the Star Bulletin:

"National health reform bills in the U.S. Senate and House would exempt Hawaii, protecting the state's 35-year-old Prepaid Healthcare Act, which has led to one of the lowest uninsured rates in the country and low premiums for workers."

http://www.starbulletin.com/news/hawaiin...awaii.html

"It ensures that whatever the final reform is, Hawaii would not be rolled back as it relates to employers providing health care, that as the national standard increases, Hawaii would move forward with that standard."

[Daniel]

Sounds great to me! I don't want to be forced into buying insurance.

Daniel R Diamond

[David M]

I suspect a partial exemption at best. I still expect my costs will rise and my care options decline even as a Hawaii resident.
David

Ninole Resident

[mdd7000]

It may be decent for single people, but married couples/families pay about the same amounts as mainland pricing. It also encourages employers to hire part-time (19 hours or less per week) employees instead of full time employees.

[centipede]

One of the few things that have gone right in my life is that I'm in excellent health at age 62, and I deeply resent being forced to take out insurance under penalty of a fine. It's my body, my health, my life, my money, and it must be my choice.

[Liz]

Well said, Centipede.

aloha, Liz

"The best things in life aren't things."

[Devany]

If you read the article as I do (and as I think that David M does), the is exemption is only concerning the part of the bill that requires Hawaiian Employers (with a certain number of employees)to provide insurance. The rest of the bill would apply to Hawaii and I think it is an excellent bill. Especially in Hawaii we need portability of plans, more choices @ better pricing and less refusal of coverage for people. The choices we have here are poor at best unless you are young and extremely healthy. You can be denied the choice for purchasing one of the two company's policies here if you take more than one medicine or if one medicine you take has been on their list by being related to something as benign as lowering blood pressure.

Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com
www.eastbaypotters.blogspot.com

[808blogger]

Can you please explain your opinion further. I am not arguing for the status quo, however I do not understand how this legislation could possibly be beneficial to the people of Hawaii.

I would argue that government intervention into marketplace's cause distortion. You will not see any new hospitals built, and you will then see the current hospitals go under higher patient load because now more people have access to more money to spend on health care. It will cause increase in demand for services, increased bureaucracies, and decreasing care. Hilo Medical center is already owned by the state. The "best" situation i can see is that it creates more "jobs" (nonproductive) as medical coders and processing clerks.

Simply adding ( by government mandate ) more $$ and access to dollars in the system does not help, infact it makes things worse. Why not take a look in our own back yard, the state DOE. Massive amount of money input and yet the output is worthless.

Its not about the AMOUNT of $$ , its about the allocation of the $$ in society, and when you have system set in place to warp the view of individuals and where people should be allocating there dollars, you get distortions, Explain why computers are falling in cost yet medical equipment is not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIcfMMVcYZg

[Devany]

Bottom line is there are many people living on this island (even more all over America) with no health insurance, refused for a variety of reasons by the ridiculously small variety of carriers, people who moved here, with health insurance from the mainland and then discovered that they could not qualify for insurance with Hawaii's only two carriers (the other carrier is minor.) This is also the case of the unemployed, of which we are gaining in numbers.

It is also true there are a very large amount of medicaid patients on this island and of course lots of people on medicare too. These people along with the veterans and disabled are already getting government health care and that system is working just fine. It only takes one serious illness to bankrupt a family and the community pays for that and health costs rise. People are not getting tests and preventative medications. This is what is causing the rip in our health system.

I personally do not want the government option, unless it is my only option, but I do want to be able to buy insurance coverage. I can but my husband who is 3 years from medicare eligibility cannot and he is a healthy man who simply could not get coverage because of a medication he took 6 months ago. That in my book is absurd.

The proposed bill encourages competition and provides overall availability to consumers in every stage of life and every economic situation.

That all sounds fair and very much needed to me.

No it is not a matter of dollars, it is a matter of human compassion, that people can at least be able to buy affordable health insurance.

Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com
www.eastbaypotters.blogspot.com

[DickWilson]

One reason computer are falling in cost is demand and sales. Medical equipment is very specialized and sales don't total in the multi-millions. Free enterprise in the health care field has resulted in people who were covered, but leave or lose their jobs being denied coverage because of "pre-existing conditions". Will a public option be a bureaucratic mess, probably. Is the existing health care system a nightmare, you bet. One reason health care is so expensive van be seen every time you turn on a tv and see a add for lipitor, viagra, or the like. But the drug companies maintain that the high cost is because of research costs, yah right. and they give those tv adds away.

dick wilson
"Nothing is idiot proof,because idiots are so ingenious!"