Comments on: Age Discrimination and Health Care Reform http://www.ncpssm.org/entitledtoknow/?p=822 The Truth About Social Security and Medicare Wed, 1 Sep 2010 23:22:29 -0400 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Catherine Dodd RN http://www.ncpssm.org/entitledtoknow/?p=822&cpage=1#comment-5766 Catherine Dodd RN Fri, 27 Nov 2009 22:53:13 +0000 http://www.ncpssm.org/entitledtoknow/?p=822#comment-5766 Thank you for shining a light on this discriminatory element of financing reform. Reform is neccessary and all of us will have to pay more to help cover those who have no coverage at this time- however - allowing people over 50 to pay premiums as high as 4X (Senate bill) is unfair and will leave many unable to comply with the "individual mandate." Senate staff offer an unsubstantiated reason for this unfair burden: 1) people over 50 use more health services - on the contrary, women in their reproductive years and children requiring emergency care are higher utilizers. Indeed many people develop pre-existing conditions by age 50 - this is a form of discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions. Spread the costs across the larger risk pool - we are all in this together. Thank you for shining a light on this discriminatory element of financing reform. Reform is neccessary and all of us will have to pay more to help cover those who have no coverage at this time- however – allowing people over 50 to pay premiums as high as 4X (Senate bill) is unfair and will leave many unable to comply with the “individual mandate.” Senate staff offer an unsubstantiated reason for this unfair burden: 1) people over 50 use more health services – on the contrary, women in their reproductive years and children requiring emergency care are higher utilizers. Indeed many people develop pre-existing conditions by age 50 – this is a form of discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions. Spread the costs across the larger risk pool – we are all in this together.

]]> By: coberly http://www.ncpssm.org/entitledtoknow/?p=822&cpage=1#comment-5744 coberly Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:06:13 +0000 http://www.ncpssm.org/entitledtoknow/?p=822#comment-5744 What's worse is the sheer stupidity of the concept. We all will get older, and if medical care costs are going to go up, it would make more sense to pay a high enough premium while young (and employed) to spread out the cost. But american workers aren't smart enough to understand that. And neither, apparently, are our representatives, or the non partisan experts who advise them. What’s worse is the sheer stupidity of the concept. We all will get older, and if medical care costs are going to go up, it would make more sense to pay a high enough premium while young (and employed) to spread out the cost.

But american workers aren’t smart enough to understand that. And neither, apparently, are our representatives, or the non partisan experts who advise them.

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