13 Responses to “What Happens To My Medical Insurance If Obama Passes Universal Health Care?”

1. 

   Anonymous said on Thursday, July 30, 2009, 9:11

   First up, Obama isn’t passing Universal Healthcare, he isn’t even trying. He’s creating a non-profit insurance group to cover people who can’t afford corporate insurance benefits. That’s a very very long throw from the single payer healthcare programs found in Canda and Europe.
   Second, why is your employer stuck with the cost of insuring the health of you and your family? Why SHOULD they?
   Third, if you honestly believe that free market Healthcare is SOOOO great, then why don’t you believe it can compete adequately with a government nonprofit option? Surely the higher quality of their product will see them through, right?
2. 

   Greg said on Thursday, July 30, 2009, 13:06

   Your benefits will decrease over time. First, you cannot change your health insurance from one provider to another because the new health care bill will prevent any insurance company from covering NEW people. If you lose your coverage, that’s it….no new plans.
   Doing this will put such a strain on the insurance market that companies who have to cover people but can’t sign up new people will fail. It’s a sneaky way to eventually get everyone under government welfare health care and destroy more private sector.
   Added: “Elway”. Yes, you can keep it. Just don’t lose it, and you’d better be happy with the one you have because you CANNOT change providers. That’s a fact right in the bill.
3. 

   AceKings said on Thursday, July 30, 2009, 13:12

   “you get to keep what you have if you like it”
   unless your company does what you have already figured out for yourself, pay the $750 per employee per year mandate penalty and send you out on your own.
   then your “keep what you have if you like it” disappears due to your current coverage being non-existent.
   what a great choice you will have!
   Edit: Elway, what do you consider a huge fine? $750 per employee per year is a steal compared to 70-90% employer contribution on a $1400 per month family plan. (thats what most good employers with high quality in demand employees pay)
   Greg, you are absolutely correct. page 16 of the houses proposed bill does indeed outlaw all new private employer and individual private plans after the date the public option would become law.
   so, you would get to keep what you have, assuming your employer keeps the plan intact or you currently have individual coverage, providing you never make another change. once you decide that plan isn’t working for you anymore you will have one place to go,
   the public option.
4. 

   sir_kris said on Thursday, July 30, 2009, 18:53

   That won’t happen, because employers who don’t continue to provide coverage to their employees will have to pay far more. And even if they are dumb enough to cut your benefits, chances are you’ll get better benefits than you’re getting now on the government plan.
   As it stands now, millions of people are having their employer health benefits cut. It’s happened to me more times than I can count, until eventually I didn’t have any coverage at all. At least under Obama’s plan, I wouldn’t have to rely the emergency room and watch my credit go down the toilet when can’t pay the two thousand dollars worth of bills that come thereafter.
5. 

   Elway_th said on Thursday, July 30, 2009, 19:50

   You missed the part in the bill that will prevent employers from doing that by levying huge fines on them for attempting to do such a thing. Private insurance companies are going to adjust and they will be forced to stop raping the consumer, and the companies that employ those consumers, in order to remain in business. They will do that long before they consider closing their doors. If you have private insurance, you will be able to keep it, as it exists right now. I don’t know how many times people have to be told that before it sinks in.
   EDIT:
   Greg:
   I am VERY happy with my current insurance, and so is the questioner. There is no sound reasoning that suggests my benefits will decrease. Right now that opinion amounts to little but doom-crying and is opposed by this clause:
   LIMITATION ON CHANGES IN TERMS OR
   CONDITIONS.—Subject to paragraph (3) and except
   as required by law, the issuer does not change any
   of its terms or conditions, including benefits and
   cost-sharing, from those in effect as of the day before the first day of Y1.
   And, as concerns being unable to change insurance should I wish, that is outlined under Title II as not being allowed, UNLESS my employer is a participator in the Healthcare-Exchange program. Then I would be able to make a different choice. It has a structured set of time tables in which large employers will be given the choice to offer their employees a switch from their insurance to the public option. Even in the summary of the report, it is more complicated than you are putting forth. http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/p…http://docs.house.gov/edlabor/AAHCA-Bill…
   EDIT:
   AceKings:
   There are many, many restrictions put upon employers, not just huge fines – and when you employ thousands, that’s not chump change – that make it unpalatable for them to make the sort of changes you guys are complaining about. Take another look, there are clauses that specifically PREVENT them from doing what you are suggesting, not just fine them. I left the links, take a look.
6. 

   paul s said on Friday, July 31, 2009, 0:53

   Wow, Barry didn’t expect you to be so smart. The Government will operate at a loss until they destroy private insurance. They say it won’t but he knows better and who are you to question the anointed one. It will cost far more and offer far less. His only motivation that I can see might be if he wants to be in a position to kill off the baby boomers and have a bureaucracy to blame
7. 

   Thomas D said on Friday, July 31, 2009, 7:53

   Productive citizens will get taken again, get used to it. You picked a good company, a good career and made wise choices. Prepare for the Liberals to make you regret making the right choices in life.
8. 

   Beachgir said on Friday, July 31, 2009, 12:41

   keep it for as long as you can, because once you don’t have it anymore you will be forced to take the government plan, no new plans will be written.
9. 

   Holy Cow! said on Friday, July 31, 2009, 14:18

   You mean like the “quality” medical insurance that denies care based on the good ole all-purpose “pre-existing conditions.” I imagine such people’s rates would become affordable.
10. 

    chris h said on Friday, July 31, 2009, 17:24

    Well the odds are that person making medical decisions for you is no longer working in a call center in bangalore handling Your health care issues and giving me wrong information about repairs to my pc!!!!
11. 

    Jesus loves Ann Coulter said on Friday, July 31, 2009, 18:24

    It eventually gets eroded.
    You get to see the same formerly smiling doctors except it will be to tell you youve been refused treatment or to tell you where you are on the waiting list.
12. 

    scott b said on Friday, July 31, 2009, 23:13

    You premiums will go down, and your care will improve due to competition.
13. 

    brown950 said on Saturday, August 1, 2009, 4:57

    Nothing…except you will realize how badly you have been getting ripped off.