H.R. 3200...A Middle Class View

I'm in the process of reading H.R. 3200 which is the National Health Care bill that's on the table for confirmation. I got the idea of reading the bill because of the recent 9/12 protests rallies. I was asked to attend the one over in Odessa, but I declined. My reason for declining was because I wasn't quite sure what I was protesting. I mean, what if this health care bill really is a good one and I'm out there yelling against it, that would be pretty asinine of me.

So far, I've not come across anything that scares the beegeezus out of me. But I'm only at the beginning and I fully intend to read the bill, the entire bill and nothing but the bill...no commentary or someone else's opinion on what he/she thinks it really means. I'm rather tickled with the naysayers and doomsayers.

There are a few things that I really like about the proposal; strong insurance reforms, allowing us the option of a national health payer or private insurance, reduced insurance costs set according to one's income (that's sorta like reduced and free lunches for kiddos at school), but...I'm not so sure exactly what "shared responsibility" is referring to, and that's the one I'm gonna have to read a bit more about. I'm thinking that the "shared responsibility" has to do with the basic concept of our government "promoting the general welfare."

As I kept reading, I came across something truly wonderful and that's this:
Prohibiting pre-existing condition exclusions. That's a big one and a major reason why a lot of people can't get insurance. I worked in human resources for about 3 years. When a person leaves a company, they have the option of continuing their insurance coverage under something called COBRA. Of course, the person loses what employer contribution was being made, and has to foot the entire bill. Most times this is extremely expensive...upwards to about $700 - $800 per month. Some people have no choice, but to keep the insurance due to maybe already having a disease, such as diabetes or COPD. They just can't fore go having insurance until the next job, also they risk being denied new coverage for "pre-existing" diagnosis. It's a horrible calamity.

I also keep hearing (ooops, I said I wouldn't listen to others) that the feds have screwed up medicare. I think medicare works just fine. Medicare claims are paid timely. In fact, years ago, a provider could electronically submit claims to medicare get reimbursement within a few days...an electronic deposit. It wasn't until SOMEONE decided to farm out the management of medicare to some PRIVATE insurance groups such as SECURE HORIZONS that things started getting really messed up.

That's all I've read so far, and I'm only at the beginning. The only thing I've come across that I'm not liking is the tax on people who don't have insurance.