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desire to deny coverage for those with Pre-Existing conditions...good luck Sr. Quixote...
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Others, however...like Steven Brill (Author of "America's Bitter Pill") suggests the following elements of new federal legislation...i.e. he favors integrated Hospital/Insurance entities...like those I've mentioned earlier (Kaiser/Permanente, Cleveland Clinic, UPMC, etc.)...in essence cutting out the "Middlemen. Here are the key elements...from his book...(Note:...he's looking at HC providers as "Utilities")

>"The first regulation would require that any market have at least two of these big, fully integrated provider-insurance company players. There could be no monopolies, only oligopolies, as anti-trust lawyers would call them."

>"The second regulation would cap the operating profits of what would be these now-allowed dominant market players, or oligopolies, at, say, 8 percent per year, compared to the current average of about 12 percent."

>"A third regulation---which, again, the hospital systems would have to agree to in return for them being allowed to achieve oligopoly or even monopoly status---would prevent hospital finance people from playing games with that profit limit by raising salaries and bonuses for themselves and their colleagues (thereby raising costs and lowering profits). There would be a cap on the total salary and bonus paid to any hospital employee who does not practice medicine full-time (or) sixty times the amount paid to the lowest salaried full-time doctor, typically a first-year resident."

>"A fourth regulation would require a streamlined appeals process, staffed by advocates and ombudsmen, for patients who believe adequate care has been denied them, or for doctors who claim they are being unduly pressured to skimp on care."

>"A fifth regulation would require that any government sanctioned oligopoly-designated integrated system had to have as its actual chief executive (not just title) a licensed physician who has practiced medicine for a minimum number of years."

>"Sixth, any sanctioned integrated oligopoly provider would be required to insure a certain percentage of Medicaid patients at a stipulated discount."

>"Which brings me to my final regulation: These regulated oligopolies would be required to charge any uninsured patients no more than they charge any competing insurance companies whose insurance they accept."

Once again, I encourage you and any other viewer who cares about Affordable Health Care, to read Steven Brill's book...and others...to get details and a fuller understanding of previous, current, and future HC systems, so as to make informed voting decisions on this very important issue.