It's too bad that the new health care reform bill which will have such far-reaching benefits for so many Americans is being treated to inaccurate attacks in our local papers.
So many of us who have pre-existing medical conditions will now be able to get coverage. Young people up to 26 years old will now be covered under their parents' policies. Health care policies can't be canceled if you get sick. Small businesses will get tax credits to help them cover their employees. The Medicare prescription drug donut hole will be closed. The new rules will put a cap on co-pays and deductibles and will eliminate the lifetime limit on benefits. In other words, many millions of people will find health care much more affordable. That's particularly urgent in these financially troubled times and particularly in rural areas such as our own where a much higher percentage of people pay for insurance out of pocket.
So let's not reduce this critically important topic to frivolous conversations about whether or not an ED medication will be available to offendsers, which incidentally it has been ever since the medication came on the market if a doctor has been willing to prescribe it.
It is absolutely true that there is still much work to be done to reduce health care costs. What is highly unlikely is that Wisconsin will suffer financial hardship because of the new health care bill, as Senator Dale Schultz suggested in a recent letter to the editor. Since the bill provides funds to states to cover the transition, states such as Wisconsin which already does such a great job of covering its citizens under BadgerCare is more likely to receive a significant health care credit from the federal government under the new health care reform bill. It is only states that are currently doing a poor job of covering its citizens that may have to pay more.
As for Rep. Ron Kind's involvement in this legislation, no one has done more than Rep. Kind to correct our Medicare payment formula for doctors and to bring down the cost of future medical care. In fact, I read in a recent article that he was at the White House until the wee hours of the morning two days before the legislation passed fighting to obtain fairer payments for doctors and hospitals in the Midwest, a provision that was in fact included in the final bill.
As has been said many times, democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the other forms that have been tried. But democracy demands that we all work hard to find the best solutions.
So many of us who have pre-existing medical conditions will now be able to get coverage. Young people up to 26 years old will now be covered under their parents' policies. Health care policies can't be canceled if you get sick. Small businesses will get tax credits to help them cover their employees. The Medicare prescription drug donut hole will be closed. The new rules will put a cap on co-pays and deductibles and will eliminate the lifetime limit on benefits. In other words, many millions of people will find health care much more affordable. That's particularly urgent in these financially troubled times and particularly in rural areas such as our own where a much higher percentage of people pay for insurance out of pocket.
So let's not reduce this critically important topic to frivolous conversations about whether or not an ED medication will be available to offendsers, which incidentally it has been ever since the medication came on the market if a doctor has been willing to prescribe it.
It is absolutely true that there is still much work to be done to reduce health care costs. What is highly unlikely is that Wisconsin will suffer financial hardship because of the new health care bill, as Senator Dale Schultz suggested in a recent letter to the editor. Since the bill provides funds to states to cover the transition, states such as Wisconsin which already does such a great job of covering its citizens under BadgerCare is more likely to receive a significant health care credit from the federal government under the new health care reform bill. It is only states that are currently doing a poor job of covering its citizens that may have to pay more.
As for Rep. Ron Kind's involvement in this legislation, no one has done more than Rep. Kind to correct our Medicare payment formula for doctors and to bring down the cost of future medical care. In fact, I read in a recent article that he was at the White House until the wee hours of the morning two days before the legislation passed fighting to obtain fairer payments for doctors and hospitals in the Midwest, a provision that was in fact included in the final bill.
As has been said many times, democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the other forms that have been tried. But democracy demands that we all work hard to find the best solutions.
