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 September 10, 2009

Have a Health Care Question? Ask Us Today

The Heritage Foundation and POLITICO have teamed up to bring you a live web chat today at 12 noon ET on health care.

Stuart Butler, Heritage’s vice president for domestic and economic policy, will answer your questions about the health care debate and react to President Obama’s speech last night to a joint session of Congress.

For more than 30 years, Butler has played a major role in shaping Washington’s policy debate on a wide range of domestic issues from health care and Social Security to welfare reform and privatizing government services. His abiding passion is health care, where he has argued for a restructured system based on consumer choice and state-led innovation.

Click below to join the chat.

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Comments Author: Rob Bluey
  • bell2u64
    Defend or attack the following statement. "Health care costs are out of control and increasing conflicts between employees and employers are likely as employers try to reduce health benefit costs".
  • bell2u64
    Defend or attack the following statement. "Health care costs are out of control and increasing conflicts between employees and employers are likely as employers try to reduce health benefit costs".
  • kling
    1. I'm glad Joe Wilson shouted out.

    2. There should be NO govt. healthcare bill. The state & fed. govt. should repeal the laws which have stifled competition, such as the mandates and no selling across state lines. Also needing to be repealed are the laws forcing hospitals for treat illegals. (how stupid are we?)

    get the govt out of the way and let the private sector and charities take over
  • Rob Bartlett
    here is another casualty of the truth in this "ask the expert" dialogue today: are illegal alients covered? Stuart Butler said: "It's not very clear to me either. A lot of this depends on who is interpreting legislatice language and writing rules."

    in fact, Sec 246 of HR3200 says specifically, "NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS." how could it be any more clear? again, there is a diff between a hospital covering the cost for an undocumented person who shows up in the emergy room (which we all pay for) and a government insurance plan providing insurance coverage to that same person. the Heritage Foundation is quite ingenuous in pretending that this issue is "unclear."
  • mikebennion
    While Rep Joe Wilson used the wrong time and the wrong venue to bring it up, his point is valid. Congress had rejected an amendment to rule out illegal aliens for funding in the health care provisions. I noticed that the "new" number of uninsured is now set at 30 million, down from 47 million which included the illegal alien totals. So now the number is under the radar until a new amendment would be voted on.
  • Rob Bartlett
    Stuart Butler did not address my question -- rather he glazed over it with political jargon "sounds like government to me" in reality, all private insurance plans "specify benefits." how would they work otherwise? this hard question is still on the table" Why does the Heritage Foundation continue to say that the Obama Plan would "centralize health decisions in Washington" when in fact offering a federally-provided insurance plan is not the same thing as "making decision for a patient and her/his doctor?
    Rob Bartlett
  • samcat
    we are 15,000 Doctor short now to fill the our needs
    where are we going to get the addional Doctors?
    Why can't we just buy health Insurance across State lines?
    No Public Option for me....
  • Nancy Bassman
    I agree whole-heartedly with you. The Government has messed up or bankrupted EVERY thing they have ever controlled...ie" Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, Social Security, Medicare, USPS...and now they will do the same with the healthcare system.....Why do you think all the countries that are on Government Run healthcare are telling us "it doesn't work?"....Does Obama and his cronies REALLY think they will do it better??? I don't think so. It is just another power grab to bring this country into Socialism.
  • samcat
    Thank you I do not Trust this President and his congress along with his
    Czars and friends
  • suzebearie
    And you trust those that put our country on the verge of bankruptcy? You approve of borrowing national funds from another country (China) to pay for our wars and rebuilding and investing in the country we destroyed? You approve of building hospitals and supplying that country with medical supplies on those borrowed funds?
  • samcat
    suzebearie Read your American History and after that lesson read the US
    Constitution No Free American will buy the progressive movement. If you are
    so unhappy with our way of live you have the freedom to move to another
    country or Use the Greatest gift you have VOTE
  • Nancy Bassman
    I agree, samcat. If our 'elected' officials will NOT listen to "NO" from the American Taxpayer in emails, faxes and letters then we can send them all a BIG "NO" in 2010 and 2012. That includes ANY Democrat or Republican that goes along with this idiocy.

    I have another question. If this so-called plan will not fully go into effect until five or more years from now, can someone new coming into office get rid of it by writing Other bills?
  • suzebearie
    Believe me, I do. I'm just surprised that you favor borrowing from China to pay for our nation's wars. Call me whatever, but I do not approve of my tax dollars being spent paying interest to China. China! Aren't you outraged? It's bad enough most everything we buy in this country is made in China, but we pay them interest too?

    My children and grandchildren are beholden to the Chinese govt. And you prefer that than being responsible to our own nation? What's American about that?
    Kind alike saying "I feel like a beaten wife who is thankful that I wasn't hit a moment ago."
  • Nancy Bassman
    Yes, and it has been that way for a LOT of years before BUSH for all the Bush-haters out there.

    Back in 1979 or 1980 China could have come to us and said, "pay up" and they would have owned us so this has not just happened in the past 10 years.

    BUT for last 8 years our Democratic run Congress and our President (then Bush) went nuts with so much more spending it has really put us all in a "trick-bag". So, it doesn't matter WHICH party is to blame because it is ALL of our elitist politicians who think the American people are too stupid to see what they have been doing.

    Time to VOTE them ALL out when they don't do the will of the people who they supposedly represent.
  • suzebearie
    um ... the GOP was majority in the Senate from '81- '87, and then '95- '07.

    In the House, the DNC were majority from '81-'95, and GOP majority from '95 - '07.

    GOP controlled Congress from '95 through '07 --- 12 years.

    DNC had only controlled the Congress for the past 2 1/2 year.
  • samcat
    Thank you I do not Trust this President and his congress along with his
    Czars and friends
  • suzebearie
    Samcat ... you would deny care to an ill person because you have to wait to see the doctor? Evidently you've lived a very fortunate life.
  • samcat
    No I Am75 years old I pick up bottle in the street in the summer and I pay
    for my own health Insurance out side of Medical Care
  • samcat
    Got to do better than that your answer will not sail
  • suzebearie
    ok .... what needs are not being met by your supplemental insurance to medicare or medicaid? My father pays $290/month for his supplemental and it has covered $133.50/day that MediCare doesn't pay for his skilled nursing for .... however many days the dr. prescribes his need for skilled nursing (rehab). Whereas, he pays $90/mo to MeciCare and it's paid 100% of his hospitalization, ventilator, ICU and step down, and the first doctor-prescribed 20 days of rehab. After that initial 20 days, MediCare pays all but $133.50/day for again, however long the dr. prescribes the need for his therapy.

    Oh yeah, we had to pay $230 and $89 for two different ambulance to get him to the hospitals. Sounds pretty darned good to me, but i'm wondering why MediCare costs him so much less and pays for so much more than the supplemental that costs so much more?
  • washta
    I have a very simple question. If banks need to have Congress to market across state line, why aren't health insurance companies controlled the same way? I'm 66 and still working, and my wife is 61 and still working. I have 2 preexisting condition (lung cancer, bladder cancer), so when I sign up for Medicare B, C & D, by law I cannot be denied insurance. But if my wife had the preexisting conditions, I'm been quoted $1000 - $1800 per month for her.
  • Nancy Bassman
    I would like ask the President and Congress what medical will look like five years from now when a foreigner comes to this country to be treated with the BEST medical care in the world? Will it still be the best under this plan or will the Government ruin it to the point that NO ONE is getting good medical care?

    Also, if the President says that this bill will NOT cover illegal aliens or will NOT cover abortion why aren't those WORDS in the bill? A simple statement would clarify it and let people know they are not lying.
  • suzebearie
    Nancy - Page 143 states: "Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States." ?Doesn't that cover illegal aliens?
  • Nancy Bassman
    Only if they do not circumvent it with passing of an Amnesty Bill which they are working on right now also.
  • suzebearie
    Isn't that the Bill that John McCain sponsored?
  • Nancy Bassman
    He and Kennedy sponsored one bill that was killed because there was so much rebellion from the American people. They are ramping up another one right now in Congress.
  • Ann
    Whether or not it will be in the bill, we're already paying for abortions. The TARP bailout included this for overseas abortions. Nothing to do with stimulating the American economy. And federal $$ pay for abortions now in our country.
  • suzebearie
    Ann - references please? My insurance pays for a necessary medical care for me, the patient. What do you have done with a tubal pregnancy?
  • Nancy Bassman
    You are correct there. In case anyone doesn't know this already, there are 4000 babies killed everyday in this country by abortion. I think that says a lot for the mindset in Washington regarding the sanctity of life in this country.
  • sammyjoe
    Is there a concern that there might be more abortions with this health bill? Will it effect individual states' laws regarding abortion?
  • suzebearie
    What were our Republican legislators waving? Is that our health care reform suggestions? What does it include? Does it include something to prevent our children from being denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions? My children need that. Immediately.
  • Marta73
    Just because nowadays your children are being denied coverage for pre-existing conditions now doesn't mean they'll get adequate care under a gov't plan. The gov't plan might very well limit care for certain conditions like your children's, especially if the care is very expensive and your children very ill--and you would be unable to find care for love or money. At least now care would be available if you had the money. This is the way it is in the UK--care is supposedly available to everyone but the care may be minimal and that's the only care you can get, because care is rationed and you aren't allowed to pay for extra care since medical care is a scarce resource "owned" by the people. If you need more than the NICE board in the UK thinks is fair, well you're out of luck and must go out of the country on your own dime.
  • suzebearie
    Yeah, but I'd like the opportunity to find out. I mean really, my daughter fainted while volunteering at MD camp years ago, they discovered a slight heart murmor ... along with her asthma ... so she's "uninsurable" or it would cost $1,800/month to insure her. Along with teh copays - there's no way for her to be a responsible young adult paying her bills, college loans and making her tithe. So we're now ordering her inhaler from Israel. Made in the USA, shipped there and we ship it back as "samples".

    She traveled to England while in college and loved the care there. Of course, she was in London and not out in the country where care is more sparse.

    Rationing care? If I can't afford my copay, I don't go to the dr. now and in the UK, like here in the US it depends upon where you live. How far do you have to travel in say, South Dakota to a dr?
  • Ann
    I've had experience with local socialized medicine. Long waits for appointments AND in the waiting rooms. The Democrat Congressmen don't dispute this, and in meetings are trying to figure out how to deal with this. On another level, patients don't have choice about their treatments, to refuse or to choose. It's insulting to the patients' intelligence to not include them in the decision for treatments to their own bodies. WHY CAN'T THE DEMOCRATS UNDERSTAND THAT OPTIONS WITH PATIENT CONTROL IS NECESSARY?
  • suzebearie
    where do you live? what is local socialized medicine? The VA? They've been pretty darned good treating my father. In fact, wonderful. I do have to schedule his appointments, but geez, with my own insurance I wait sometimes up to an hour to see the dr, and that's with an appointment. But then I've heard the VA in Florida is better than anywhere else. And my dad had a heart attack 2 months ago, the cardiologist said "we'll treat only the damage we see from the Echo, no intrusive because he's over 80 years old. Treatment will be medicinal only." and that was utilizing his private supplemental insurance.
  • mlkiewel
    Just to let you know there are other options. My uncle at 85 had a triple bypass and is still doing well and still drives and goes out every Sunday to the casino to have brunch with his 96 year old sister in law he is now 91. Just because someone is in their 80's is not a measure of whether they should have surgery or not. I prefer to think of possibilities not probabilities
  • suzebearie
    Maybe, but my dad's cardiologist said "nothing more" ...
  • mlkiewel
    Dear suzebeane I am sorry that your dad is not doing well. We need to keep our options open. Government never seems to get it right that we are individuals and each one should be treated on his or her own merits. Government seems to feel one size fits all and that scares me.
  • suzebearie
    it had nothing to do with the government. His doctor explained that more intrusive testing would put my father's life in danger. thanks for the well wishes ....
  • mlkiewel
    Do you see how that is between you, your father and his doctor. We do not need to put the government into the mix. Would you want some government person telling you what should or should not be allowed for your father. I sure would not. My best to you and your father, make the most of his time here.
  • suzebearie
    His mediCare would have paid for it had the dr. prescribed it. The private insurance, we're not so sure. They are slower to pay than MediCare and they pay less. When I go to the dr., he always has to know what insurance I have and then he prescribes/codes what that insurance company will pay most for.
  • mlkiewel
    I am not saying that there are things that need fixing. I must admit I just don't trust the present administration they seem to change their minds often, they are not honest in their presentations. If people who are not in this country legally will not be covered why did the present administration refuse to put that exclusion in the bill???? It was thrown out and not allowed to be included. Maybe honesty is not as important to some but it is important to me. I do not trust them with the final say so on my life.
  • Ann
    I live in Texas. We have county-covered healthcare for the needy, just like every other state does.
  • suzebearie
    sounds as though your county is in need of some real help with such long lines of those in need. Wouldn't preventative-care lessen those lines? And everyone who is able to see a doctor, get cured and healed, I'm thinking they are pretty darned appreciative of that "local socialized medicine", right? Cheaper than going to a family doctor, specialist or the hospital via private insurance.
  • Marta73
    1) After the speech last night, are prospects politically better or worse for a gov't option, whether implemented immediately or after a "trigger"?

    2) I have a policy I buy individually through my state bar association which excludes some pre-existing conditions. Is this policy likely to be cancelled as soon as a bill passes, in order to be sure the company doesn't end up having to cover me for things which have been excluded (in my case for many years)?
  • suzebearie
    I heard nothing of a gov't option. I'm a proud member of the public, and I bet you are too. I'm proud that as a member of the public in my community I know that if I need them, the firemen are there to assist me.

    The President said last night - "if you've got health care you can afford and like, you keep it." That is unless your state bar assoc. decides to do away with it. Wonder if they'll lower the yearly dues too?
  • Eric C
    My question is on the Health Care Exchange that Obama speaks about. In order to accomplish this wouldn't the states have to allow interstate business from insurance companies? And if that is the case why not just allow the Interstate competition without the Exchange?
  • Candy Pender
    Why did Rep. Jim Wilson feel the need to apologize for his comment? The Dems would not have apologized. They treated Pres. Bush awful when he spoke and Nancy Pelosi sat behind him and scowled. It is time for the Repubs to stand together because there is a consensus that Obama is in the White House to stay. I have heard numerous comments that talk about him becoming a Dictator. This is scary!!!
  • Marta73
    Candy, I share your outrage at the President's words but I wish Joe Wilson had been able to contain himself. It just doesn't help anything, even though this whole political speech in a Joint Session was inappropriate from the get-go. Lets the Dems continue to argue that Republicans and tea party goers are crazies.
  • suzebearie
    Candy, a scowl is far different than proper behavior. As Meghan McCain said today, she wasn't permitted to yell at her brother across the dinner table.
  • Katbol
    Unfortunately, you must occasionally be rude to be heard when the big lie is being shouted out repeatedly.
  • suzebearie
    What lie? It says on page 143 that "Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States."
    Doesn't that cover illegals? My neighbor's cleaning lady went to the county hospital ER when her kids needed stitches. I don't know how much she paid or if they asked for her ID.
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