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Monroe wrote:Aye there's nothing in the bill that says they can't go up.

Which is my main issue with the bill. It pretty much seems like just a "Hey, we tried. See?" sort of thing, without any real changes for the better.

So your not feeling that Hope and Change^TM?

Well no one can deny that the act implements major changes. The problem is that "change" and "improvement" are not synonyms.

There's some good ideas.

The problem is that those good ideas were given to Congress, which is like stripping a ten year old naked, tieing them up, and throwing them in a room with a bunch of child molesters.

Captain Seafort wrote:Well no one can deny that the act implements major changes. The problem is that "change" and "improvement" are not synonyms.

Exactly. I think simpler and smaller steps would have been more productive and saved more money. I don't oppose the new taxes, but would prefer they be used to pay off portions of the debt rather than spawn a huge new program of entitlements.

What we really have in insurance reform rather than healthcare reform.

Frankly I would have started by trying to bend the cost curve on prescription drugs and gone from there. I think that is the simplest target. Simply put all you would have to do is pass a law the prohibits the selling of those drugs on favorable terms to other developed nations. This would spread the R&D burden equally among Europe, Japan, Canada and the United States rather than how it is now, where those nations negotiate preferable rates with their national systems and US consumers pay more at Walmart for the same thing.

Couple that with robust patent protection policies and you can start to bring many of those cost under some measure of control.

Hell, tell the states to offer personal coverage that isn't 600$ a month. That would be a good starting point.

600$ a month, is that a joke? I barely pay that for rent!

No joke, In Maryland the most basic state cost is over 300$. In PA and NJ and NY I've heard they go well over that.

The only part of this bill that I find useful is that I can now remain on my parents health insurance till I'm 27, as opposed to 25. Whether or not its independent of college courseload, I have no idea.