Reader comments
Act now for secure future of health care

So, where's the details? Who pays more under your plan and who will pay less for healthcare? A mandate to buy health insurance is great for the insurance industry but if premiums and co-pays are high enough then most people who have health insurance will still not be able to afford healthcare.

Your health connector will do nothing for families that earn less than $40,000 per year-- which happen to be the families that can least afford healthcare now. Is your plan really a solution if we ignore them?

Here are some of the provisions that I believe a comprehensive health care insurance reform bill should have.

Health care insurance should be available to all employed or unemployed.

The article and the above contributions are very good. The latest idea I've heard is having a Universal Risk Pool for all insurances so that they each have the same risk. With this, costs could be reduced and "pre-existing conditions" and non-covered would start to be eliminated and the plans would start to become more affordable. This would help the many people that are "in the middle" (making too much for aid, yet don't have enough money for the high costs of insurance.)
In addition, we would have the low-income plans for those who need it.
I hope it happens soon since I am one of those people "in the middle."

This plan will help insurance companies, they only out to make money. not the people, it will make the healthcare need become worse. Insurance will not cover people health problems or a catastrophe for
example cancer, brain injury ect. If they cover individuals pay more and progress claims slower, or
make them go without treastment. We need afforable
healthcare for all. We need to help our brothers and
sisters this a family orientate state we need to make sure everyone can have affordable healthcare. We take politic out of it work together to solve the healthcare problem it is the right thing to do.
everyone

Insurance companies on the Universal Risk Pool would be accountable to participate. They would have to start to reduce costs. More people would like this than to have to go to a government sponsored healthplan for all. People are afraid of this since they have heard about the wait lists and such in other countries.
I think that the risk pool would be a better choice for our country.

It is obvious that most of you don't understand the principles of insurance underwriting, or economics in general. I suspect that most would be offended if I said that many of you sound like Karl Marx taught you about these things. But any student of Marx would be pleased to see the progress that has been made. The last thing we want is the kind of proposals being made here. If any are adopted the mess will be much bigger than it is now - only since the government is part of the mess it won't be cleaned up (social security is an example) and we will be stuck with a nightmare health care system.

I am from Utah and I want a single payer system. Any system that is for profit is undesirable.

More people in Massachusetts now have no health
coverage. Insurance companies are out to make money
they care about people they care about the money.
There are to many people that have to take out bankruptcy, it get worse if this Healthcare Plans
passes. There to be Afforable for All a Single Payer
System. This Healthcare Plan gets a F.

It! I totally disagree with the attitute FRK shows. I have been an insurance person for many years plus I have studied the health care issues. We can find a "go-between" the socialist government that so many are afraid of and the nightmare we have now.
We have to find solutions that work and I think that good new ideas are coming. Sounds like many people just want to give up...well we will not.

What's a "go-between"? Socialism is a one-way street. A little won't work and the answer is always "we need a little more", which won't work, and the answer is "we need a little more", which won't work .... until we are in the middle of a nightmare. I have a daughter who has had to live with 2 european plans and she doesn't like either. The reasons she doesn't like them are reasons that you will not hear proponents in this country talk about. There is nothing wrong with profit. It is what drives innovation and quality. We don't have a market driven health care system now. We have a train wreck and it is not the fault of the market. The government, our government, has done this to us. We don't need more from these guys.

Most people do not understand the concept of insurance. The fact is, most of the uninsured do not seek coverage until they encounter a health related cost. That is equivalent to wrecking your car, then calling Allstate for coverage! As a home and auto insurance agent I believe our healthcare system in Utah is excellent - it is only expensive because of the pressure we place on it for easy solutions to more complex problems. In reality, until we address obesity related illness, over use of psychotropic medications, and poor diet little is going to change. IHC and BlueCross are not for profit companies and their rates simply reflect the pressure of claims made by their insureds. So, lets start becoming healthy through conscious decisions such as exercise, proper diet, and mental stability. The Health Connector, in my opinion, is going to destroy the best healthcare system in the nation. If you understand the problem, you understand that this concept is going to be extremely expensive. It is being hyped by politicians and know-it-alls that think they can override what really is causing the problems of inflation. They hack at the leaves but never reach the root of the problem.

I too work in the insurance industry and have been forutnate to have healthcare at an affordable cost. We talk about children but what about the young adults and others that don't have good company plans? (Some company plans are a joke!) Many Utahns earn less than $12 per hour. Have you priced stand alone insurance lately. I have two children that are uninsurable in the standard markets due to previous medical conditions. They are fit active kids that had depression issues as youth which is now treated and under control. Great healthy (now) positive kids that have been declined by IHC, Blue Cross, Altius and more because of the previous conditions. The cost to go to the state high risk pool is almost as much as they make in a month. Yes companies need to make a profit but the high risk pool needs pricing caps that are realistic with earning levels so those that want to purchase insurance can afford to do so. I for one would pay a little more each month to assure my "kids" and others like them could be covered as well.