That sounds to me more like a lousy ER than anything to do with your insurance. If you were indigent, you should have gotten more care than that.


Sadly, that sounds about right.


Did you ever go to a doctor for a physical exam or anything like that?


Fair enough. I meant that the coverage you currently have won't be directly affected by the proposed plan.


Keep in mind that the additional services to be provided are to be provided by private insurance companies, and they will be paid with premiums from individuals, just like everyone else's insurance. The only cost outlays from the government are for subsidies for the poor and from the semi-private "public plan", which is required to pay for its own expenditures through premiums just like any other enterprise. It is explicitly not supposed to be funded by the taxpayer. It does have the potential advantage of getting potentially cheaper loans due to its supposed backing as a GSE or GSE-like enterprise.

This actually points out a big difference between this system and CHAMPUS. Under the reform bill, if you're unhappy with your insurance, you can switch to a competing provider. CHAMPUS was a monopoly.


Any company with a payroll greater than $250,000 a year that doesn't provide healthcare insurance for its employees is required to pay into the subsidy fund.

So that does mean that smallish businesses that currently provide no healthcare have increased costs. But the insurance marketplace also works for them, as small businesses have generally been unable to get decent group plans. And the small businesses that do choose to provide insurance for their employees will get a tax break.

I guess my point is, assume for a second that there is no public option at all. The reform bill is still significant in the creation of a marketplace for group health insurance that can be bought by anyone, and in streamlining medical recordkeeping. I, for one, am sick of filling out the same 8-page form at every doctor's office I go to.