While the President’s Away, Health Care will Stray?

Call it what it truly is………
……….HEALTH SCARE!!

Matt, You are definitely part of the problem.

Matt:”Time to cut out the Republicans from all of this.”
Can’t due to the filibuster. Democrats have only 58 votes. One more can be literally wheeled in on a gurney, but it is unlikely they can get both Kennedy and Byrd (why is he still there?!?!?) in.

It’s not time to cut anyone, Dem. or GOP from all this. I’m disgusted, though, with the extent to which the health care industry owns Congress. Fortunately, the insurers and everyone else involved in it know the current health care system is unsustainable.
When all is said and done, I don’t expect major changes to occur. But if we can nudge things away from complete dependence on for-profit care which is NOT free market – most people have no idea what their procedures actually cost – it will be a step in the right direction.

“According to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the United States is the “only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage” (i.e. some kind of insurance).”

In America we have developed a very warped definition of poverty. Our definition has been developed by years of having entitlement spoon fed to us by passivist’s and politicians. Politicians prey upon the financial hardships of the general population with flowery speeches and promises to change their situation, time after time these promises prove to be empty and the people of this nation are left with the same hardships and a new sense of victimization and entitlement. Entitlement is the belief that whether or not you have earned it, you somehow deserve everything that everyone else has, even worse than that it is the belief that you don’t have to work for the means to survive or the luxuries, that they ought to be handed to you by those who may have worked very hard in order to earn them. Entitlement is an excuse for apathy and laziness and it is the bane of our society. The people of America have let entitlement become an excuse to give the government far too much control, we have let the hope of effective government aide be an excuse to surrender to overbearing taxes and in the end we are left with poorly run and ineffective government solutions.

It would be wonderful for everyone to have health care, everyone needs it! This is one of the basic necessities of life! Regrettably, the Obama proposed system is not one that will work, it will just screw things up even more than they already are.

scott jeffries:”A surcharge on individuals because they are sucessful to pay for others health care is WRONG”
Are these people really so incredibly ignorant that they don’t realize this is the exact situation we have now? We don’t have people dying outside of ER rooms or having arms amputated with hatchets. WE HAVE UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE NOW – STUPID, INEFFICIENT, HEALTHCARE-BY-EMERGENCY-ROOM-AND-ER. It’s why we spend two to three times more per person for healthcare than all the other first world nations (10-20 trillion $ more over 10 years). We need to fix it.

Nobody can collect the money to pay for health care as cheaply as the government can through a national sales tax Posted by: Bill Watson | Jul 10, 2009 2:49:27 PM
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Does this mean all private medical institutioons disappear under this system?
If not, how is a sales tax everyone must pay fair if one has to pay the sales tax and also has to pay their insurance premiums?
If so, are you saying the sales tax pays for basic care for everyone and then one can 1) buy extra coverage, 2) employer can buy or share extra coverage costs, or 3) one can pay retail as the incident happens?
Thanks.

Posted by: jhw539 | Jul 10, 2009 3:13:52 PM
Why can’t the government provide insurance premiums for those that don’t have it in the form of paying their premiums for them? If you have 50 million people and you can give them basic coverage for say $1000 a year, it would cost 50 billion dollars (if my calculator works right). They could choose whatever coverage they wanted: Cigna, Kaiser, whatever. They would stop going to the ER all the time.
When you got that stabilized and the people are into the system then look at the big picture of why it costs so much. You could do that for a couple of years while Congress (with the help of the people) work this all out.

Traffic Cop Timmy:”Does this mean all private medical institutioons disappear under this system? ”
Probably not. Every other first world nation has a variation of public health care, ranging from no public institutions to a thriving parallel public market. This is not new stuff, just research what everyone else does to see how the various options would likely work.

It is the private option, which is currently working VERY poorly for businesses who are seeing 20% a year increases in premiums (businesses have the same sort of situation of requiring their plan to admit pre-existing conditions similar to what your suggestion would require).
Posted by: jhw539 | Jul 10, 2009 4:18:32 PM
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“Preliminary information from Hewitt Associates, a global human resources consulting and outsourcing company, shows that HMO premium rates will increase by approximately 11.8 percent in 2009.”
“While initial 2009 HMO premium rate increases remain high, we expect to see that employers will once again be able to reduce overall increases–by at least 2 or 3 percentage points–through aggressive negotiations, changes in plan offerings and designs and an increased focus on employee health and productivity,” said Jeff Smith, a senior consultant and co-leader of Hewitt’s HMO rate analysis project.”
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So with the reduction, some companies could end up with 8-9% not the 20% you mention.
The $1000 was a guess on my part not knowing what the demographics of uninsured looks like. I figured not all would be old, sick people with pre-conditions. But even at $2000, the bill would be 100 billion dollars a year. That’s not a bad deal to give the country time to evaluate a carefully thought out plan instead of a 3-month panic plan.
And what about the CBO report saying that 26 million people will still be uninsured under Obama’s plan?

Americans polled (NYtimes) as supporting the “Public Option” for health care by 72%. —- It’s a huge issue. But Congress isn’t really hearing enough from the people I think. The lobbyists meanwhile are working very hard to protect lucrative ways in which they have us all against the wall, financially, via our desire for great care at any cost. — Meanwhile, the costs of health care currently were supported in a signficant way by the credit bubble. Now that the credit bubble has ended, only Congress can feed the giant profits the industry wants. — In exchange for that level of money, about twice per capita of other first-rate systems in the top health rated nations like France, well….shouldn’t we get *more*, like more coverage for everyone? — Why isn’t ABC news mining this gold mine of public interest??? Believe me, plenty of people tuned out after hearing about M.Jackson the 3rd time. And no, we don’t care about Russia or Afghanistan much, compared to health care reform. — Read the polls, ABC. Follow up. Gain viewers.

AMERICA’S NATIONAL HEALTHCARE EMERGENCY!
It’s official. America and the World are now in a GLOBAL PANDEMIC. A World EPIDEMIC with potential catastrophic consequences for ALL of the American people. The first PANDEMIC in 41 years. And WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES will have to face this PANDEMIC with the 37th worst quality of healthcare in the developed World.
STAND READY AMERICA TO SEIZE CONTROL OF YOUR NATIONAL HEALTHCARE SYSTEM.
We spend over twice as much of our GDP on healthcare as any other country in the World. And Individual American spend about ten times as much out of pocket on healthcare as any other people in the World. All because of GREED! And the PRIVATE FOR PROFIT healthcare system in America.
And while all this is going on, some members of congress seem mostly concern about how to protect the corporate PROFITS! of our GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT NATIONAL DISGRACE. A PRIVATE FOR PROFIT DISGRACE that is in fact, totally valueless to the public health. And a detriment to national security, public safety, and the public health.
Progressive democrats the Tri-Caucus and others should stand firm in their demand for a robust government-run public option for all Americans, with all of the minimum requirements progressive democrats demanded. If congress can not pass a robust public option with at least 51 votes and all robust minimum requirements, congress should immediately move to scrap healthcare reform and request that President Obama declare a state of NATIONAL HEALTHCARE EMERGENCY! Seizing and replacing all PRIVATE FOR PROFIT health insurance plans with the immediate implementation of National Healthcare for all Americans under the provisions of HR676 (A Single-payer National Healthcare Plan For All).
Coverage can begin immediately through our current medicare system. With immediate expansion through recruitment of displaced workers from the canceled private sector insurance industry. Funding can also begin immediately by substitution of payroll deductions for private insurance plans with payroll deductions for the national healthcare plan. This is what the vast majority of the American people want. And this is what all objective experts unanimously agree would be the best, and most cost effective for the American people and our economy.
In Mexico on average people who received medical care for A-H1N1 (Swine Flu) with in 3 days survived. People who did not receive medical care until 7 days or more died. This has been the same results in the US. But 50 million Americans don’t even have any healthcare coverage. And at least 200 million of you with insurance could not get in to see your private insurance plans doctors in 2 or 3 days, even if your life depended on it. WHICH IT DOES!
If President Obama has to declare a NATIONAL STATE OF EMERGENCY to rescue the American people from our healthcare crisis, he will need all the sustained support you can give him. STICK WITH HIM! He’s doing a brilliant job.
THIS IS THE BIG ONE!
THE BATTLE OF GOOD Vs EVIL!
Join the fight.
Contact congress and your representatives NOW! AND SPREAD THE WORD!
God Bless You
Jacksmith – WORKING CLASS

What makes any sane person think that the government can manage health care. Look at what the government has done to Social Security, Medicare, Public Housing, and now AIG. With this kind of a track record they have proven that they aren’t even capable of successfully operating the local burger stand. To start with where will the money come from and not cause an increase to the government debt any more than it is? In his first 132 days in office Obama has increased the debt of the government by 694.2 Billion dollars. At this rate he will increase the debt of the Government by 1.9 Trillion dollars in his first year alone and 7.6 Trillion dollars by the end of his 4 year term in office. If he is elected for a second term with the same rate of spending then the government debt will increase by 15.3 Trillion dollars. Since the debt owed by the Government was 10.6 Trillion dollars when he took office an additional 7.6 Trillion will almost double the debt in just 4 years to 18.3 Trillion dollars and at the end of his second term it will have increased to an unthought-of 26 Trillion dollars. The interest alone on this amount of debt will consume more than half of the entire federal budget. This does not even include what Obama wants to put into healthcare which has been estimated may actually cost upwards of 1.6 Billion dollars. This is money that the Government does not have and cannot conceivably have without raising taxes to the point where everyone in the country will be paying a much higher tax rate than they are currently paying. No matter how you want to put it any healthcare reform will require government involvement which will lead to required government spending so the money is an important issue, if it’s not there then healthcare will have to wait until such time as it is available. Obama promised change but this is ridiculous he makes all who came before him look minor on their spending while in office. Time to stop spending and do what should have been done long ago, cut spending which is not specifically authorized in article 1 of the constitution.
There is NO money for healthcare, there is NO money for education reform or any other dreams in the upcoming budget. Look at what the government has done to Social Security, Medicare, Public Housing, and now AIG.
When Medicare was created in 1965, benefits were relatively limited and retirees paid a substantial percentage of the costs of their own care. In 1965, Congressional actuaries expected Medicare to cost $3.1 billion by 1970. In 1969, that estimate was revised to $5 billion, and it actually came in at $6.8 billion. Things have gotten worse since, and Medicare today costs $455 billion and rising. Medicaid was intended as a last resort for the poor but now covers one-third of all long-term care expenses in the U.S. — that is, it has become a middle-class subsidy for aging parents of the Baby Boomers. Its annual bill is $227 billion, and so far this fiscal year is rising by 17%. Schip was pitched a decade ago as a safety net for poor kids, Schip is now open to families that earn up to 300% of the poverty level, or $63,081 for a family of four. Any new federal health plan will inevitably follow the same trajectory, no matter how much Senators might claim they’ve guaranteed otherwise. The Lewin Group consultants estimate that 119 million people who now have private insurance could potentially be captured by the government under the Obama public option. This is on top of the 90 million already in Medicare or Medicaid. This would guarantee a spending explosion that would over time lift federal outlays as a share of GDP into the upper 20% range or higher. This health-care debate isn’t like the “stimulus” bill, which was largely about short-term spending and deficits. This one is about whether to turn 17% of the U.S. economy entirely and permanently into the arms of the government.
You aree wrong on this issue, the Congressmen do not have FREE health insurance. Their employer is the federal government and like many employers, it provides him with an insurance plan from a private insurance company. Congressmen have been required to get their health insurance in this manner since passage of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1983. In this case the federal government utilizes the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) plan to provide a choice of different private insurance plans to choose from, The federal government as the employeer pays a portion of the monthly premium and the Congressman as the employee pays the remainder. The Congressman is responsible for any copays or deductable payments when service is provided by a healthcare provider.
The governments only other involvment with the FEHB is to negotiate rates and benefits for each plan once a year. If you want to get educated just Google FEHB and go to the site and see what the differnt plans are.
If the government were to open these plans to the public the monthly premiums for a family plan would roughly be between $425.00 and $1300.00, for an individual the monthly premium would roughly be between $177.00 and $550.00. One of the differences in the plan costs is the level of benefits provided and the amount the patient pays when receiving healthcare. To me this would be a viable option as the government would not have to make a large outlay to open these plans to the public and they already negotiate the cost and benefits each year with the plan providers.

Anyone quoting a “definitive” poll on health care is being misleading.
“A CNN-Opinion Research poll found that 51 percent of Americans favor Obama’s health-care plan,but a Wall Street Journal-NBC poll found that only 33 percent think it is a “good idea.” A New York Times-CBS News poll found that nearly six in 10 would be willing to pay higher taxes so that all could be insured,but a Kaiser poll found that 54 percent would not be willing to pay more to increase the number.
A Quinnipiac University poll found that a majority – 54 percent – believe that reducing health-care costs is more important than covering those who lack coverage, while the Times-CBS poll found that 65 percent thought that insuring the uninsured was a more serious problem. A Washington Post poll found that 57 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the health-care system – but 83 percent are satisfied with the quality of their own care.”
We have great health care in this country despite the skewed biased WHO reports which regularly surface from the US-hating UN. We do have a problem with health costs, but a government run problem will not solve that. Nothing run by the government is cheap as we all know. Personally, what scares me the most about public health care is that the Obama administration continually talks about “lower costs”, but they never seem to mention the quality of care. Universal health care is rationed health care. Period.

It seems there are two significant issues. “Public option” means we can keep our private insurance, but if necessary the public option will be available to the 30-50 million (data varies)currently uninsured. However, since the public plan will be less expensive than the private ones it is likely that many will choose the public one and it will be hard for private companies to compete. Thus, they are lobbying like crazy (big bucks to reps and senators)to stiffle the public option. The second issue is whether public insurance will work. It seems to have with medicare, but it is better to look at nations with it. There was a study looking at 35 developed nations with national health care. All had higher life expectencies and lower infant mortality. Finally, since about 3/4 of us want it, why is it such a big deal for our representatives (what does the term “representative” mean other than representing their constituencies) have a hard time supporting it?

SOME OF THESE FOREIGN COUNTRY SURVIVAL FIGURES THAT SOME OF THESE BLOGGERS ARE THROWING AROUND ARE MEANINGLESS. THE USA HAS A MUCH HIGHER MURDER AND DEATH BY ACCIDENT RATE THAN DO MOST OTHER COUNTRIES, WHICH DISTORTS THE FIGURES. CONSIDERING THAT, WE SHOW A VERY SUPERIOR RATE THAN DO THOSE COUNTRIES WITH SOCIALIZED MED PROGRAMS. I DON’T WANT SOME POLITICAL HACK IN DC DECIDING WHETHER OR NOT I CAN HAVE AN OPERATION AND WHEN I CAN HAVE IT. RIGHT NOW WE HAVE INSTANT ACCESS TO MEDICAL PROCEDURES. I DON”T WANT THAT SCREWED UP FOR THE SAKE OF 10 PERCENT UNINSURED. FIGURES LIE AGAIN – MILLIONS OF YOUNG ADULTS HAVE NO INTEREST IN OBTAINING HOSPITALIZATION. WHEN I WAS THAT AGE I DIDN’T EITHER – TOO MANY OTHER PRIORITIES (smile)!!! PLEASE COMPARE APPLES TO APPLES.

H1B Folks steal US Projects into India.