Health Care Reform, Then and Now

Jake, why not call Obama on his stretching the truth?
According to Fact Check, Obama said that the U.S. spends 50 percent more per capita on health care than the next most expensive country. False. We spend 20 percent more than the second most expensive country.
“If you repeat a lie often enough…”

Too bad they didn’t remove restrictions on interstate sales of insurance, uncouple insurance from employment by treating individual policies the same as employer-provided ones under the tax code, and institute tort reform in 1993, Who can say how much lower premiums would be today.
Note that the first two of those three reforms simply involve the repeal of prior governmental inanities.

“According to Fact Check, Obama said that the U.S. spends 50 percent more per capita on health care than the next most expensive country. False. We spend 20 percent more than the second most expensive country.”
Independent voter | Sep 9, 2009 6:41:47 PM
Absolutely, lets get the truth out there. Other than Luxembourg, a country with a population less than Albuquerque, the US spends 50% more than any other first world nation. We spent twice as much as the four nations with the highest life expectancies.
Does that make ANY difference to the point?

What proponents of interstate sales of insurance policies don’t seem to understand is that it would require a federal regulatory scheme for insurance that is much more comprehensive and intrusive than anything proposed in any of the bills currently being considered.

So $900 billion would be roughly 1.4 trillion if kept to inflation. What made the difference – 1.1 trillion?
Well, litigation and defensive medicine plays a part but I admit it can’t be the whole picture.
Last year of life costs have exploded over the past 30 years – $2500 in 1976, $23,000 in 1995, over $100,000 estimated today. This is $200 billion or so over 1993. This is a big chunk, but maybe combined with defensive medicine, malpractice we’re only a third of the way there (and it doesn’t explain much of the differential with the 1st world nations except maybe the rationing and acceleration of euthanasia known in European systems)
But did you know that $700 billion dollars are spent on elective surgeries a year? Some is covered in insurance, some is covered in medicare (angioplasties alone are $40 billion a year and only some are for acute intervention many are preventive), much is out of pocket but that’s still part of the same 2 trillion costs. Who had elective surgeries 20 years ago? Many procedures were unknown. (millions of knees, hips and backs) Many unaffordable and plastic surgery was seen only for the Hollywood crowd.
Medical costs increase for the same reasons anything else does – supply and demand.

“…the CBO did a number of detailed analysis on exactly those questions in the early 2000′s”
Really? The CBO studied interstate sales? Since there were no such sales, what was their methodology?
CBO studied individual insurance policies that were tax deductible? Again, since there were no such policies, what was their methodology? (I eagerly await, but do not expect, straightforward answers.)

He’s speaking now. He’s exhausting. He repeats and repeats the same thing. He won’t get out of our faces with the incessant speeches. Oy, Fidel, Jr. Leave us alone for a minute, will you? By the way, President Brilliant, it’s mastectomy, not massectomy. Learn the terms before you use them in shameless vignettes to put another one over on the American people. I, for one, am not buying what you’re selling.

Is Obama turning to Castro???
If this speech goes longer, I am going to call OCastro!!!

What is up what that speech?! The President spent 45 minutes knocking down strawmen that no one is arguing and gave us no DETAILS of anything. Unless the President is going to tell us his plan is H.R. 3200, that he didn’t write, then he is lying when he says he has a plan…there’s no plan and no details for us to even formulate a plan.

Obama : you’re all going to die, business will fail.. if I don’t get my way..LMAO at Obama and the boogey man scare tactics…
Stand Up Chuck Biden : waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa……… Nancy Botox Pelosi WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA teddy is gone
LMAO this piece of crap will NOT pass…They do not have the votes with public option

I just wonder what Julieterra, or anybody else, sees in this guy. Hasn’t he harmed this country enough alrady?

“Same old rehash eh? You’re might be prejudiced beyond your own comprehension.”
Said the pot to the kettle…
Very little new here. 45 minutes of the same ole’ same ole..all to thunderous Democratic applause. Was a prime time Health Care State of the Union necessary?
Worse, it was filled with lies. Increase our care without increasing the costs? That’s a complete and by far the worst lie. The “I won’t sign any bill that will increase the deficit by a dime” was by far the second worst lie.

BH – it doesn’t matter what the President might have said, you’ve prejudged the whole matter. People like you are a lost cause, your blinkers are on so tight when the economy recovers you’ll say Obama had nothing to do with it, when a good health care system is in place, you’ll say Bush did it.
This close-minded doesn’t do you or anybody else any good. But wallow away in it. It’s your right.

Actually, Bush left the country with a $456 billion deficit. Obama increased it to $1.56Trillion.

The guy that called Obama “LIAR” only said what the rest of us were thinking.

“BH – it doesn’t matter what the President might have said, you’ve prejudged the whole matter. People like you are a lost cause…”
Julie, I’m an independent who was genuinely hopeful that Obama would be of the Bill Clinton ilk when it comes to governance. Besides as a rabid 911 truther, you’re not exactly in a credible position when it comes to lecturing about prejudging and partisan blinders.

Direction of Country
RCP Average: -22.6%
Right Direction 35.8%
Wrong Track 58.4%
This says it all……take this country back from this Marxist regime

“Besides as a rabid 911 truther, you’re not exactly in a credible position”
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BH you undermine your credibility over and over with the lies you tell.

Yeah BH, Goldman Sachs really needed the money!

The White House once again taps a Goldman, Sachs & Co. alumnus. After much speculation, President Bush nominated Tuesday Robert B. Zoellick as the new president of the World Bank — less than a year after Zoellick left his post as deputy secretary of state in the Bush administration to return to Goldman as a managing director. Other Goldman alum serving in the current administration include former head of investment banking, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson; Joshua B. Bolten, the White House chief of staff; and former Goldman co-chairman Stephen Friedman, who has served as President Bush’s director of the National Economic Council.

Associated Press Fact Check:
OBAMA: “Nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have. Let me repeat this: Nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have.”
THE FACTS: That’s correct, as far as it goes. But neither can the plan guarantee that people can keep their current coverage. Employers sponsor coverage for most families, and they’d be free to change their health plans in ways that workers may not like, or drop insurance altogether. The Congressional Budget Office analyzed the health care bill written by House Democrats and said that by 2016 some 3 million people who now have employer-based care would lose it because their employers would decide to stop offering it.
In the past Obama repeatedly said, “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period.” Now he’s stopping short of that unconditional guarantee by saying nothing in the plan “requires” any change.
He’s dropped the “period.”
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I have the distinct feeling that the left-wing goofballs are feeling very let down tonight. And that’s a very good thing for our country.

“Employers sponsor coverage for most families, and they’d be free to change their health plans in ways that workers may not like, or drop insurance altogether.”
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Employers can already do that.

Obama forgot one thing.
Fire up–Ready to Go!!!
Nancy would have started shaking her pom poms.
I noticed Biden and Nancy taking names when someone yelled out at BO.

“Employers can already do that.”
Yes, they can but they’d lose good talent if they did, even in a lousy economy. Employers are not incentivized to drop their employees which is an environment Obama’s “plan” would create.

Who put the TARP funds in place and Goldman Sachs?
The White House once again taps a Goldman, Sachs & Co. alumnus. After much speculation, President Bush nominated Tuesday Robert B. Zoellick as the new president of the World Bank — less than a year after Zoellick left his post as deputy secretary of state in the Bush administration to return to Goldman as a managing director. Other Goldman alum serving in the current administration include former head of investment banking, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson; Joshua B. Bolten, the White House chief of staff; and former Goldman co-chairman Stephen Friedman, who has served as President Bush’s director of the National Economic Council.

“Who put the TARP funds in place and Goldman Sachs?”
Good point, Julie! You proved your point and then defeated your argument. TARP worked, a Bush plan and a Bush appointee.

Unfortunately, Obama is not respected or believed anymore by most Americans.
Shortest honeymoon evah…

-Who put the TARP funds in place and Goldman Sachs?-
Barack Obama. Hear he’s POTUS now. Someone told me if I voted for McCain, we’d get a 3rd term of GWB. They were right!

“TARP funds were brought forward by Bush’s economic advisors and backed all round and that includes by Obama.”
So the difference between him and Bush is?

“TARP funds were brought forward by Bush’s economic advisors and backed all round and that includes by Obama.”
So the difference between him and Bush is?”
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The difference that points out is that Obama is smart enough to go along with good ideas from many parts of the political spectrum, unlike the blind ideologues who post on here.
Or those dull rows of tired, sad looking white males we saw on the Republican side of the house tonight.

“Goldman Sachs couldn’t agree more! Can they rely on your vote again in 2012? I bet they can hand out even bigger bonuses!”
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Any one wanting to ensure the fat cats get more should definitely vote Republican – they will almost guarantee it.

-Any one wanting to ensure the fat cats get more should definitely vote Republican – they will almost guarantee it.-
Barack Obama: Closet Republican. Who knew? Seriously, why “almost” guarantee it? Vote for Obama and the Dems and you’ll guarantee it. No question! Obama in 2012!

Don’t forget Bush’s tax cuts which amounted to something like a loss of over a TRILLION dollars from the public budget.
Almost $988 Billion of those tax cuts being money going directly to the wealthiest 5%.
Vote Republican.

“Do you, julieterra, have nothing better to do but defend Obama with blind faith and unwavering devotion?”
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Not here to defend Obama, here to counteract the lies, the smear and fear tactics and the outright fear mongering and hate spams posted here. I’m here to take that down.

Julieterra,how much revenue accrued to the federal government from the business expansion generated from the tax cuts?Take an economics course. Study JFK and Walter Heller’s tax cuts that fueled JFK’s economic recovery.Cutting capital gains tax rates generated more government revenue than the original tax receipts. These are elementary economic principles that you should be aware of-decreased tax receipts does not mean decreased government revenue.

“Julieterra,how much revenue accrued to the federal government from the business expansion generated from the tax cuts?”
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Apparently not nearly enough since Bush doubled the national debt while in office, passed along a trillion dollar deficit, and left the country in complete economic collapse with 700,000 people losing their jobs in a month ..

(Well, one of them does, but never mind…)
Lights are on, but nobody home…Cut and paste work from julie.

The White House press office could not have written a more effective piece to defend their argument than that which is found here in this classic piece of mainstream media “journalism.”
Of course, the advancements in treatments for a wide array of health conditions, in that same time period, have been tremendous, and though ABC and Obama would like us to think otherwise, they haven’t come about without a price. Would have been fascinating if you had found a way to include such a counterpoint to your puff piece on behalf of Barack Obama!
And, didn’t the president just tonight say that the number of Americans without insurance is 30 million? And, how many of those people choose not to have it even if they can afford it?

-And, how many of those people choose not to have it even if they can afford it?-
Are you counting illegal aliens?

I have the distinct feeling that the left-wing goofballs are feeling very let down tonight. And that’s a very good thing for our country.
Posted by: Fascist Hyena | Sep 9, 2009 9:58:58 PM
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You’re distinct feeling is WRONG!!! The President did everything he needed to do: He laid out what he strongly believes in with clarity and conviction; he made a powerful argument for why health care reform is imperative; he called out the fearmongerers and their phony scare tactics; and he provided momentum to the people around the country who voted for him and want to get this done, giving them a reason to keep working hard to make it happen. For his base, he made it crystal clear that he is for a public option, though he did leave his options open. He also reached out to Republicans who are serious about working in a bipartisan manner.
Be sure to check out the results of instant polls and focus groups. So far they look great :>)

I am highly critical of Mr Obama’s Healthcare policy, simply because it does not include the Tort reform.

“Not here to defend Obama, here to counteract the lies, the smear and fear tactics and the outright fear mongering and hate spams posted here. I’m here to take that down.”
Sorry, but your posts do the opposite.

Joe Wilson just represented the frustration for 190,000,000 of American who have extreamly opposed the Death Pannel.
GO JOE WILSON/2012

First of all there was no death panel and like most republicans Johnny Isackson who insisted the part about talking to a doctor in the end was put in at his request. Has he come out to say “I suggested it?” NO he has let the president take the heat for something that was his idea. All I can say over and over to people who have any doubts about the bill FactCheck.org which is a non partisan organization has addressed these issues and this one in particular. There is no reason for people to be clinging to the mis-information…just check it out yourself. You don’t have to believe a friend or cohort or politician for tht matter. Check it out.. What Mr. Wilson did last night was inexcusable however, it is no different from the disrespect our president was shown when he tried to talk to children to advise them to get a good education and stay in school. The fact that he had to have his speech reviewed is insane..he is our president and deserves better than that. This shows how deep the hate goes in some peoples hearts. No one puts limitations on the rhetoric of Limbaugh or Hannity or Beck but the president of the United States has to have his speech to children approved. What have we become? I am ashamed of our country as what kind of impression are we giving to other countries? We are only fostering “racism” to our children when we do something like this. Please don’t insult my or any other person’s intelligence by saying it was not racism.

Any plan that does not reign in drug companies from pushing their poisons and does not address Tort Reform is only going to shift costs from policy holders to taxpayers. There will be no savings.