IMHO, this 80/20 rule is a form of government price fixing. I don't want my government involved in price fixing.

Thank you Rep Tierney for standng up for your constituents, working to ensure that we can afford good healthcare at reasonable costs. I personally do not believe or support for-profit hospitals, health insurance companies, or direct care. Just as I do not support for-profit education. Some parts of our society should never be subjected to a model that says that the bottom line is more important than the people it helps.

The insurance industry is in favor of the ACA because they wrote it. Liz Fowler, a former vice president of WellPoint, wrote much of the Senate bill that became the ACA.
The insurance industry, captained by Karen Ignagni, the president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), understood that small changes to the market were unavoidable given the scale of the crisis and its impact on the economy. From the start of the health care reform debate, the industry won its most critical demand--the individual mandate that candidate Obama opposed, but President Obama fully supported.

James Morone, author of The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office, said of the ACA, "This is a bill that actually helps the insurance industry. It's like Franklin Roosevelt saving the banks. It's like lots of other examples in American history where the industry is actually helped and protected from some of the more outraged critics--in this case, people demanding single payer." (The ACA is not your friend).
http://socialistworker.org/2012/04/05/against-the-health-care-mandate

Tierney will be gone after the next election. And he can take his Obama healthcare that he voted for with him !!!

Steph, After making that statment it shows you do not know what is in Obamas health bil. Read it.

Steph your right that the two health plans are very similar. Here are some examples Joe of many articles that have discussed how close Romneycare and Obamacare are.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44854320/ns/politics-decision_2012/t/white-house-used-mitt-romney-health-care-law-blueprint-federal-law/

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/06/romneycare-and-obamacare-differ-only-in-inconsequential-ways.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/news-analysis-comparing-obama-romney-health-laws/story?id=13909983

Stop the Tierney of government!

The MLR rule is another example of gov't regulation that works. It forces the insurance companies to spend policy holder's premiums on, oh my god, medical expenses and not administrative costs! The bits and pieces of the ACA work. Give it a chance.

The MLR rule is price fixing and it has unintended consequences.

All those health care law waivers given by the federal government is another example of government regulation causing more harm than good.

Rep Tieney, you are correct, there are a few things in Obamacare that have some merit. However, most of the law is a HUGH over reach by the Federal Government. Tort reform is not one of them.

I can not believe that you people in Washington are operating without a BUDGET. According to the White House Budget Office's budget, if we shut down the federal government completely and did not pay for defense, or any other departments then we would have just enough money to pay for Entitlements and the interest on our debt as of today. That means that this portion of our spending is $2.3 Trilion dollars. We are borrowing and printing dollars to cover the other $1.3 Trillion for defense, and all the other WASTEFUL agencies and empty buildings in Washington.

To get ourselves out of the mess you help put us in, we have to reform entitlements, reduce spending and stimulate the economy with fewer regulations and rewrite the tax code.

I do not see the leadership in Washington to accomplish this.

Tierney is going to be gone because his wife got caught being a crook and spent time in jail.

Did I just read the words "Tierney", "transparency" and "accountable" in one sentence??

After a wonderful Memorial Day weekend lets reignite this debate.

1. Jackie....you appear to be a socialist or maybe someone with socialist ideals that just benefits from the fruits of our capitalist society.
2. American businesses have been subsidizing the bloated health care system for generations creating too many hospitals, too many tests, too many administrators and zero competition for your health care dollar.
3. Back in the day...1970's...My father (small business owner) spent his hard earned money on a Blue Cross and Blue Shield policy protecting our family. This policy saved the lives of my father, brother, sister and mother over the years. How many families today could afford $15,000 for a comprehensive policy? Guess what? It should still be the responsibility of the family to provide coverage not the federal government or the employer for that matter.
4. I recently had the pleasure of spending an overnight stay in a hospital for a minor non surgical ailment. Total billed to my insurance $6,000. Huge rip off and the food sucked.
5. If more people had skin in the game...imagine how competitive health care would become.
6. The big problem is that most Americans don't have sufficient savings to pay their medical bills....So....lets ask the federal government to bail them out? Single payer is the wrong solution!!!

E

VABO = Vote Against Barack Obama...

Barry, Yes.

Joe, Ha ha!!

Anything that takes over 2700 pages to explain is wrong - You can become an expert in Complex Variables in about 600 pages. Obamacare is a sham filled with deals that are not related to Health Care. The very nature of its obsequiesness (spelling?) makes it impossible to read completely. That's why most of us take the word of people we trust who have found really bad things in the bill and point those out to us, citing the text straight from the bill.

I agree Steve

Just a reminder to please be civil when commenting.

ObamaCare takes 716 Billion from MediCare to fund ObamaCare. Don't tell the Elderly about that.

Ha Joe, Peter, and Barry. It's people like you that have turned this forum ugly. Go find a hobby or another blog to hijack. The people in NR and Reading are sick of seeing your childish and unprofessional comments on every damn article Patch posts.

Most of us seem to be on the same track here. The ACA is a misnomer, it is anything but affordable! Those who think it is like Romneycare ignore the fact that Romney care is administered on the state level which allows for greater accountability and it is designed to address ONLY the needs of the 8% uninsured, whereas Obama care is administered by Czars from a labyrinthine bureaucracy in Washington and encompasses everyone! What could go wrong?

For those of you spouting the right wing party line were you to actually check sites like factcheck.org you would find that far more outlandish assertions by the right are considered outright lies than those from the Obama administration. Part of the reason the ACA is so unwieldy is because Obama and the Democrats tried to be inclusive to actually get an act passed that the republicans are opposed to now that it comes from a democrat as opposed to when it was proposed by a republican (Romney). Alot of you sound like teaparty types who if you were holding up a sign it would likely misspell something about keeping government out of your medicare, not recognizing for a second that medicare is a government program. Or for that matter a red state person who doesn't recognize that those states that generally benefit most from all sorts of government programs live in a red state rather than a blue.

Becky, you mean the Medicare Obama is gutting to pay for Obama care?

I live in the bluest of states, that doesn't mean I cannot read or cognate!

I'd like to second and third what Steve has to say.

I'd like to add a point on ObamaCare. The President isn't much of a leader. He left the details to hundreds of Democratic lawmakers - who knew he'd sign anything they'd pass. And the Democratic lawmakers should be ashamed at what they passed.

The main parts of the Affordable Care Act were proposed by Conservatives over the past twenty years and are consistent with conservative principles. The act mandates that those with the means to do so must insure themselves. This prevents people from becoming a burden on society should they become ill. Before, we were made to care for uninsured people at public expense. Government health care for the indigent was mandated by the courts decades ago. Conservative opposition to this provision is a nonsensical knee-jerk reaction to something they should welcome, i.e., personal responsibility.

I wish the Patch would block articels of sensitive political nature from being commented on. I am sick and tired of coming onto the Patch to see ignorant rants from the right and insults from the left.

Lets all agree to disagree and using your power of the vote in the voting box, not on this forum. The opinions of Joe, Steve, Mary, Archie et. al. are not going to changes the minds of Barry, Gene, Peter et. al.

Throughout this country the hate and anger being spouted by opposing people of view points is what is keeping our country from growing and healing. It is not the politics of Tierney, Obama, Warren, Tsei, or Brown that is ruining this country, It is an unwillingness to compromise and understand the otherside that is our downfall.

In the US people are entitled to differing opinions, please lets all be civil in our political discussions and make the world a happier place, not a place full of hate.

It is time to move forward and learn how to work with others, not reduce everything to name calling

Ellen, Unfortunetly the very ones you say don't matter, OBAMA,BIDEN,TIERNEY AND OBAMA'S STAFF OF DANGEROUS MEN, ETC. are the ones that have been "elected" to lead and make decisions for this country and if they continue to make such BAD and socialist decisions we are headed for a HITLER type country. Get rid of thes terrible people who are running this wonderful free country. We DO have the right to voice our opinions and we do not have to lay back and just play dumb---like you would have us do. It is the Constituion that rules this land of ours.