(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to take meaningful steps to lower health care costs and increase access to health insurance coverage (especially for individuals with preexisting conditions) without—

(1) raising taxes;

(2) cutting Medicare benefits for seniors;

(3) adding to the national deficit;

(4) intervening in the doctor-patient relationship; or

(5) instituting a government takeover of health care.

Actually that sounds great to me - too bad it won't be able to pass.

(6)Lowering health care costs

(7)Increasing access to health insurance coverage

(8)Actually doing anything

Not sure if the CBO or anyone is actually going to run numbers on this bill, but it would be nice to see them put it to the test to show the idiot GOP that caps don't work.

Also, any GOPer that votes for this bill, assuming it is voted on, should never be allowed to sue a doctor that slices up the wrong body part. If they do, they must settle for $250,000. No matter how bad the doc screwed up, that is all they should be allowed to get in settlment.

Mind you, $250,000 is between 1 and 4 years salary for most middle class Americans. Think about that. If a doctor screws you up so badly and you can't work for several years or ever again or die, you are only entitled to 1 to 4 years of salary. Good luck...hope you like food stamps!

As useless as always.

Too bad they didn't institute their magical reform when they had all the power from 2001 to 2007. Of course, they were too busy laying the groundwork for Wall Street's destruction of the economy while the republicans lined their pockets and planned for their now-defunct "permanent conservative majority."

Who elects these miscreants? Other pinheads?

If it really did those things, and improve outcomes for the average insured individual, it would be good. But (2) is not sustainable without (1) or (3). If there were consumer protections, especially for rejections due to pre-existing conditions, I could see (4); as it is, the GOP is doing nothing to stop the intervention of insurance companies in the doctor-patient relationship. And (5) is just plain silly. Does FEMA flood insurance count as "government takeover of the insurance industry"? Why would government-supported health insurance (not health care), for people that private insurers find high-risk anyway, be that different?

If you think a government plan will only cover a few, then you shouldn't be so worried about it. If you think everyone will bolt (or be forced to by companies) to a government plan, you should look at the company owners, who are not invested in the wellbeing of their employees, or the insurers that provide such a low quality of service that people are willing to deal with government instead.

If the GOP was serious about individual rights and freedoms, they would end Medicare Advantage (benefits companies far more than individuals), end regional monopolies, and enact consumer protections to give individuals greater market power compared to insurers. Free markets work best with intelligence, transparency, and equal power between consumers and producers. I don't see a lot of that here.

I can get sued for more than that if I hit someone's car.

But you know the republicans. Taking away the rights of the little people to seek damages is their answer to everything. Well, until THEY need to sue someone, like when bush sued a rental car company over a fender bender.

Useless, f*cking republicans.

...Harry Reid says forget about health care reform this year:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091103/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_care_overhaul

This will be the second time Congressional Dems ignore Obama's deadlines (remember when he said he wanted it on his desk by August? Heh. That was cute).

Pretty gutsy pushing the whole imbroglio into an election year. It'll either pay off big or blow up in their face.

Providing access to health care to those who are not a U.S. citizen or national should not be the issue. Though, with the selfish GOP, it always is. If someone who is not a citizen walks into the ER anywhere in this country, I think its safe to say they're getting health care. The worst part of the Gooper bill is not so much what it contains but what it doesn't. Without a means for low income, uninsured or underinsured citizens to obtain QUALITY and affordable health insurance, this bill, to me, is worthless as a whole. Then again, the lower you are on the food chain the less any Gooper will notice you.

Do you really believe the GOP bill is intended to accomplish those goals?

the gop is gettin' soft.

So these fat rich bastards can save a few pennies or dollars in taxes, thousands of people will die or suffer. It is hard not to despise the GOP, especially when you have a friend that is dying due to lack of health care.

The $250K cap is interesting also. Who is gonna pay for the screw ups that exceed $250K--which is very easy to do? Why, the taxpayer of course. Who else? So why not just eliminate tort claims totally? Why even bother with the Republican eye wash here? Oh, yeah. Gotta have something so the insurance companies can keep gettin' richer! Free markets!

The perfect world for these slime ball politicians would be Twilight Zone where, for all eternity, they felt the pain of the people they caused to suffer.

See, that is exactly the problem. Right wing followers believe what the right wing leaders SAY without ever bothering to think about or investigate whether or not what they say is TRUE or RELEVANT.

The Democrats' health care plans do all of what the Repub plan claims it does as well, but with the added benefit of actually doing something besides--lowering everyone's costs**, in addition to not effectively raising taxes and even lowering the tax burden over time*, improving Medicare benefits for Seniors, lowering the deficit, not just not adding to it.

But I guess doing things in general, even good things, doesn't appeal to those who love shooting themselves in the foot.

Even if you claim more than $250K on your income taxes and have to pay 1% more in taxes, you will:

*1) Pay lower real taxes under the Democrat plans because they lower the deficit and don't defer costs, which would see you paying higher taxes over time because of interest accumulation ($190.9 billion interest payment on fiscal year 2009, which CBO predicts will balloon to $806 billion in 2019). U.S. interest on its debt in fiscal 2009 was $190.9 billion. That's much more than Washington collected in corporate income taxes or what it spent on benefits for the nation's millions of unemployed. Projected $806 billion interest on the 2009 deficit in ten years is about half of all current individual tax revenue combined! If we lower the deficit even just by the Dem health plan's -$81 billion in that time, we decrease the interest payments by projected billions of dollars more than the added tax burden.

It's the same concept as paying off your credit card bill earlier vs. later.

**2) In addition to lower real taxes, insurance costs will be lower in the face of the public option competition and lowered "passed on costs" from the uninsured, to the tune of possibly thousands of dollars per individual or family per year.

It's amazing that many right wingers call themselves "fiscal conservatives", is it not? They don't even want to save themselves money if it helps anyone else.