Oh, goodness. Politicians are about to ‘fix’ health care.
When this President says he can find $300 billion in Medicare and Medicaid savings to partially fund a proposed new government health care entitlement, the skeptic is inclined to ask: If $300 billion in savings are possible when politicians are looking for money to spend, why wasn’t $300 billion in unnecessary spending eliminated?
We all know the answer. When politicians talk about future costs of proposed entitlements, they lie. And what they profess to find in “savings” from existing programs and what they actually deliver are miles apart. On spending and “savings” they have no credibility. None.
The Congressional Budget Office projects the cost of a new health care entitlement at up to $1.6 trillion, though of course some politicians, including Sen. Max Baucus (D-N.D.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, dismissed that projection as outdated. The final cost, he predicted, will be presented at less than $1 trillion. Those “savings” would come from fees paid Medicare and Medicaid providers, said Baucus.
Insurance for families with incomes of less than $88,000 would be subsidized, while that transfer of income would be made possible by a tax on some health insurance benefits. Details, however, are still changing. Formal work on the legislation starts today in the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee headed by U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.)
Whatever you think about health care in America and the cost of it, sit tight and watch. It’s about to get worse.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Guides
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2009 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
184 comments Add your comment
Larry Craig
June 17th, 2009
8:11 am
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) has acknowledged an extramarital affair with a campaign staffer in a statement released by his office. “I deeply regret and am very sorry for my actions,” said Ensign. He is expected to announce the affair at a press conference at 6:30 pm tonight. The affair, which was with a woman who worked for both Ensign’s re-election campaign and his Battle Born leadership political action committee, began in December 2007 and ended in August 2008. Ensign’s wife, Darlene, said that the couple’s “marriage has become stronger” and added: “I love my husband.”
Larry Craig
June 17th, 2009
8:13 am
“When former Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in an airport men’s room in the summer of 2007, Ensign was among Craig’s toughest critics, saying Craig should step down because he had been charged with a crime.
“I wouldn’t put myself, hopefully, in that kind of position, but if I was in a position like that, that’s what I would do,” Ensign told The Associated Press at the time.
During the 1998 impeachment of President Bill Clinton, Ensign, then a Senate candidate, called on Clinton to resign.”
He will not heed his own advice, we know that!
Aquagirl
June 17th, 2009
8:18 am
Jim, it’s already “worse” for many people. I suppose you favor the Republican approach: bribing old people with socialized medicine for their votes, while everyone else goes to h3ll in a handbasket.
AH
June 17th, 2009
8:23 am
I’m shocked at anyone who would support anything coming out of DC by either one of the parties. We need to stop looking at this as if our team is winning or losing up in DC because every time anyone up there does anything for us we all lose.
HDB
June 17th, 2009
8:36 am
Question that should be asked is that why does this nation NOT have universal health care? Reason: Insurance companies would not have a monopoly on the marketplace; insurance companies would not have the influence with Congress; insurance companies would not control the cost of medicine!! If there were a nationally subsidized health care plan, EVERY American regardless of pre-existing condition could be treated at a reasonable cost! Too many Americans are falling through the cracks because of the profit motive of insurance companies.
Jackie
June 17th, 2009
8:41 am
We have the most expensive health care in the world. Our system is based purely on profit, profit from those who suffer.
Today’s topic speaks of the attempt by the government to “fix” our current system. If left to the free market, we would pay premiums that are more outrageous than they are currently. We can not afford continuous increases in health care insurance premiums.
One only needs to look at personal premiums to get an idea of what it actually costs your household to be “protected” from a medical emergency.
The world’s other industrialized countries have a “socialized” system of health care and the myth perpetuated by those who control the media continues to say other systems do not work. Really?
Churchill's MOM
June 17th, 2009
8:41 am
As a doctor’s wife I am opposed to anything that reduces our income.
As a wife I hope that Ensign’s soon to be ex wife takes him for everything he has and then some.
Peadawg
June 17th, 2009
8:46 am
HDB, “Question that should be asked is that why does this nation NOT have universal health care?”
Go ask that question to people in Canada that come to the United States for their health care needs and they will tell you universal health is the dumbest idea!
Jo Atlanta
June 17th, 2009
8:49 am
It is a simple fact that healthy people pay more for their care than sick people. If I am healthy and do not use the insurance, in effect I pay more than the person who uses the insurance a lot. Another simple fact is that health insurance is dropped as an unnecessary expense when the healthy person loses a job and cannot afford the insurance or when the private insurance company raises the price to more than the healthy person can bear. What remains is people who desparately need insurance that is continuing to get more expensive. Single payor, universal health care is not the least expensive solution for a healthy person. But it is a sane solution for all of us.
ideclarenothing
June 17th, 2009
8:50 am
actually, i dont mind universal health care. since it will be underfunded, it has to ration care. that means the old will go without treatment cuz they are old. there goes a large voting block for the dems. also, immigrants will be rationed because of their immigration status. all the free healthcare they get now (and despite the main stream media, they do get free healthcare) will go away by government mandate. so, there goes another big voting block for the dems. the way i figure it, the health and working folks will be the only ones left, and we are mostly conservative.
not a bad plan, not a bad plan at all.
Jackie
June 17th, 2009
8:51 am
@peadawg
Those Canadians that you speak of coming to the USA for SPECIALIZED health care treatments were for procedures like liver transplants.
Do you think those in this country are not required to wait for specialized remedies to their health emergencies?
catlady
June 17th, 2009
8:56 am
Here is what I DO know: I pay for my health insurance (which is allowed to decide what is and is not “necessary”, and how much each year they will go up on costs and down on coverage). I pay my co-pays and deductibles. I pay (in taxes) for Medicaid, Medicare, and Peachcare. I pay for the indigent through taxes and because the rates go up for those who pay to cover the care of those who don’t. So, it looks like I am paying NOW, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t it be bettter to cut out at least ONE middleman (the insurance companies) who make a profit off of me? Universal health care does NOT need to subsidize the insurance companies!
So saying, I would hope that if universal health care would have financial penalties for those who use services wantonly. For example, I have a neighbor who goes to the ER a dozen times a year, never paying her bill. She works and has health insurance available, but does not buy it. (Her money goes for cigarettes, for example). She even went the other day for a tick bite! For any of our supported care including Mediaid, Medicare, and Peachcare, there should be penalties, to be taken out of pay or welfare checks or whatever, for unnecessary use of the ER or other services.
reservoirDAWG
June 17th, 2009
9:01 am
This is a disaster waiting to happen. Honestly, what private enterprise that the government has become involved in have they ever gotten right?
William Casey
June 17th, 2009
9:07 am
Jim… people who oppose health care reform USUALLY ALREADY HAVE programs for THEMSELVES. What is your program and what do you pay for it? In the interest of full disclosure, I’m a retired teacher with a decent-but-not-great program that costs $270 per month for me and my 18 year old son.
One Voice
June 17th, 2009
9:07 am
We need universal health care. I don’t care how much it costs. It can and must be done. It’s easy to gripe about the costs of health care when you actually have health care. And even those of us who have health insurance now have worse coverage than ever. As an educator, I have benefits that used to be considered one of the best perks of the profession. But now it’s not that inexpensive and the coverage is terrible. They deny every claim they can, like a leukemia test for my daughter, saying tests due to obesity are not covered (She’s actually skinny and just tall, hence at the top of her weight range, and luckily, she’s perfectly healthy). That’s what happens when you have for-profit insurance companies making money off of others’ illness. It’s a deplorable system. There needs to be a public option and an array of non-profit private options. I don’t care how much it costs.
Citizen of the World
June 17th, 2009
9:08 am
If the “fix” for our health care system is to be a true fix, we need to get for-profit insurance companies out of the equation. As long as they are part of the system, they will continue to seek ways to deny coverage to anyone but the healthy (unless you’re covered by a group policy, which fewer and fewer of us are), and they will continue to seek ways to deny claims for those they do cover. And even when insurance companies come through, a family’s responsibility for a major medical problem could run into the 10s of thousands of dollars, if not $100,000 or more. It’s estimated that up to 60 percent of bankruptcies in the U.S. are related to medical bills, and this is for people who have coverage!
There are two good Frontline documentaries for view online (go to pbs.org) — one is called Sick Around America and the other is Sick Around the World. They give a good look at our problems and how other countries have avoided these problems using several different models, any one of which would be better and less expensive than what we have now. Of particular interest is Switzerland, mostly because it used to have our exact same non-system and it adopted a better way.
The U.S. spends upwards of 18 percent of its GDP on healthcare; most of these other countries spend less than 10 percent and get much better outcomes.
It would be unfortunate if any doctor had to make less money, but it’s certainly not right for insurance company shareholders and executives to get rich off people’s pain and suffering. Other industrialized countries don’t allow this because it’s shameful, and we shouldn’t allow it either.
Get involved and let your representatives know that you want a public option for health insurance. Anything less will not be a fix.
Pockasnocka
June 17th, 2009
9:10 am
Met a person who went to Australia, had a serious cardiovascular event, got off with a bill one-tenth of what it would’ve been in Nashville where he lived.
BugKiller
June 17th, 2009
9:13 am
The fact of the matter remains… nationalized health care will cause a brain drain in the medical profession.
Why does everyone else in the world (where they HAVE nationalized health care) come to America for the truly special, life-or-death procedures?
Why are our heart surgeons, brain surgeons, eye surgeons, oncologists (cancer, people), and other specialists the best in the world?
Because the medical professions in this country attract the best and the brightest people.
Why?
Because they can make a ton of MONEY in those professions.
Nationalized healthcare will reduce the amount of money hospitals will be able to pay their specialists.
Specialists with their own offices will be told by the government that no, this heart surgery no longer costs $20,000, it now costs $5,000, and because we’re the government, you’ll take it.
You know what will happen then?
The smart people follow the money, people. The best and the brightest will go into pharmaceuticals (they’re already starting), into engineering, into computers.
Then you’ll have the same issues in America that they have in Canada, and Europe, and that they had in the Soviet Union:
Bad doctors. Or even worse… INCOMPETENT doctors.
Nationalized health care, in the end, is good for no one.
Our government tends to mess up everything they meddle with. Why are private schools better than “public” schools?
Because those “public” schools are actually GOVERNMENT schools. Why does the teaching profession not attract the best and the brightest (for the most part)?
Because there’s no money in it, accept for private schools. And why are many teachers so bad? Because for them, they couldn’t make $35,000 a year doing anything else.
It’s easy as hell to get certified from Aderhold at UGA. DId you know that to become a history teacher out of UGA, you don’t even have to take more than 4 or 5 history classes, and are not required to take much, if any, upper level history courses? The secondary social studies ed majors at UGA don’t even take 1/4 of the history classes of a history major.
And people wonder why kids “public” schools in Georgia roundly fail the history portion of their CRCTs.
Government is NEVER the answer people.
Not for schools.
Certainly not for health care.
What happens the first time some new, incompetent doctor in this “fair” land of Obamanation screws up so badly a family member of yours dies?
Do you think you’ll be able to sue him or her?
Keep on drinking the kool-aid NObama keeps on serving, socialists. You only have about 3 more years of it left.
conservative democrat
June 17th, 2009
9:13 am
The system is already broken. I was rear ended in traffic by an idiot that was following too close at 7am and went to the emergency room for my injurieson March 18th. A tetanus shot that would’ve cost me $10 at the county health department was $186. At that rate, the nurse that administered the shot was making $3500/hour. Dr. Patel, who examined me for 2 minutes was getting about $18,000/hour. Fortunately, I wasn’t severely hurt. Tenet was paid twice by my health insurance and again from my auto coverage. It has taken months to get then to agree to reimburse the overpayment and the money hasn’t changed hands yet! I hope Obama’s plan can fix this, but I withhold judgement. So far, I like what I hear.
One Voice
June 17th, 2009
9:14 am
reservoir dawg @ 9:01 (Do you even have a degree from UGA?): That was one of the dumbest statements I’ve ever read. Did you know that “the private enterprise that the government has become” controls less than .003% of the businesses in this country? Absolute silliness.
AmVet
June 17th, 2009
9:16 am
I say leave our “health care” system alone. There’s nothing at all wrong with it.
In America, 18,000 Americans die each year because they cannot afford health care, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Many more get sick or become sicker.
None of the advanced western countries in the world spend more than 11% of their GDP on healthcare. The U.S. spends over 16% of its GDP on health care and does not cover 47 million people.Tens of millions are under covered.
In the U.S. the drug companies charge their highest prices in the world, even though we, the taxpayers, subsidized them in large ways. In other countries like Mexico and Canada, they cannot get away with such drug price gouging, with a pay or die ultimatum.
In the U.S., computerized billing fraud and abuse cost over $200 billion last year, according to the GAO arm of Congress. In other counties, single payer prevents such looting.
In other countries, administrative expenses of their single payer system are about a third of what the Aetna’s and other insurers rack up.
In other western countries, medical outcomes for children and adults and paid family leave are far superior to that of the U.S. The World Health Organization ranks the US health care system 37th in the world.
Disgraceful…
ideclarenothing
June 17th, 2009
9:19 am
oh, i cant wait until daschles federal health care rationing board gets fully funded. then the fun will really start. if youre old, sorry, you are going to die in a couple of years anyway, so no health care for you (daschle actually stated this in an interview in the mid 90’s). your child does not fit within the government requirements, sorry, no health care for you.
finally, we get rid of all the poor people, immigrants and old people and us health 20-40 year olds get to rule this country.
AWESOME!!
Elephant Whip
June 17th, 2009
9:19 am
Survey:
Who has watched “Sicko?” If you watch that movie, you will see how universal healthcare works in France and Canada, among other places. In that movie, people go from the US TO Canada to save exponentially on prescription drugs and treatment. The people in France talk about how small a proportion of their income goes to medical care. The philosophy in those systems is preemptive medicine, which is not the focus in the US.
The problems with the healthcare industry in the US come from one problem: the Hippocratic Oath v. Profit. The healthcare industry is all about profit, when profit should be secondary to the duties of doctors under the Hippocratic Oath.
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
June 17th, 2009
9:19 am
President Barack Obama is expected today to introduce a plan to reshape
financial regulation and give the Federal Reserve greater supervisory
authority over large financial institutions whose problems pose
potential risks to the economic system.
It would also create a council of regulators, led by the Treasury
secretary, to fill in regulatory gaps.
Mr. Obama told reporters Tuesday that a “lack of oversight” allowed
what he called “wild risk-taking.” He said it led to “very dangerous”
conditions that imperiled the global economy.
Reacting to the proposal, John Boehner, the Ohio Republican who leads
his party in the House, said in an interview today on “Good Morning
America” that it is “going to be too big of a foot on an industry that
already is having financial problems.”
Today’s plan is the product of weeks of meetings among government
officials, financial experts, lawmakers, industry executives and
lobbyists, The New York Times writes.
Now, lobbyists who lost the initial skirmish inside the administration
will head to Congress to try to influence the final product.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright
June 17th, 2009
9:21 am
Ah, that’s my boy. Fake left, move extreme left. It always gratifying to see Jr., er, the President take his socialized medicine plan straight from the church. You know, the Trinity United Church of Christ, where the current President grew up. We has a saying that 20% of the members support the other 80% as concerns the weekly contribution as well as other work. But I must confess, in the church, that 20% still RUNS the place – only responsible way to run the church.
Not that I’m trying to sound an alarm or anything but Jr.’s socialized healthcare reform sounds more like a return to plantation days. You know the 20% (masters) stealing from the 80% (slaves) and asking ‘em to grin and be grateful. At least in the church those that pay the tab still govern, here, well, I’m not sure I can agree with Jr. on this one.
This just sounds too much like slavery.
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
June 17th, 2009
9:23 am
The managing director of a collapsed Chicago hedge fund, Lake Shore
Asset Management, was indicted by a federal grand jury. Prosecutors say
Philip J. Baker, now on the lam, operated a $300 million fraud.
Col. Harumph
June 17th, 2009
9:25 am
Truly, no sane person would allow the useless bureaucrats of Washington to have anything to do with their health care. This is just another bald-faced communistic scheme to confiscate my personally-generated wealth to the Obamafascists to fund their nefarious schemes to enslave the upper-crust of Our Great Nation.
I personally prefer the skimming vulture bureaucrats of the private insurance industry to make my choices for me. That is what makes America great!!!!
Sincerely and etc.,
Colonel Nathan Bedford Harumph, US Army (ret.)
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
June 17th, 2009
9:26 am
Bernard L. Madoff’s sons are being sued by two former traders at their
father’s firm who allege that the two men helped their father cover up
his massive Ponzi scheme,
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
June 17th, 2009
9:28 am
A judge approved a settlement requiring a unit of Banco Santander of
Spain, which fed $3 billion to Mr. Madoff, to pay $235 million for
potential legal claims.
Shar
June 17th, 2009
9:28 am
While I share AH’s frustration at the bald-faced, shameless lies that politicians of all stripes intone with becoming gravity (and for which they are usually not around to take the consequences) as well as their genius for creating ineffective, wasteful solutions (ditto on the consequences), in the case of health care doing nothing is no longer an option. Between unaffordable premiums, lost coverage, inadequate access and skyrocketing costs – with no end to any of it in sight – our cowardly, corrupt representatives must finally look at our national delivery system and wriggle just a bit in the suffocating clasp of their Big Pharma/Big Insurers/AMA/Advocate-For-The-Poor patrons and find some adjustments that will allow medicine to continue to be available.
As roughly 80% of health care expeditures occur in the last five years of life, and as the chronically or catastrophically ill are not able to fund their own care, the young and the well will continue to bear the burden of health costs either through cost shifting in private insurance or through taxes. The latter does not have to include a profit margin, which would make it more attractive if only the government could take on the task with any hope of efficiency. This is as unrealistic as the hope that for-profit companies will responsibly moderate their cost structures and treatment protocols to consumers who are not liable for paying the charges and who are fearful and desperate. Perhaps the utility model, wherein a public necessity is delivered through a monopoly with regulatory oversight, can be adjusted and improved for health care.
The costs incurred by patients who are unable to pay them must be addressed, however painfully. Under our current system, there is no check or accountability. The risky lifestyle choices that individuals make are paid for by us all; the interventions made to extend a terminal patient’s life are stupendously costly – and profitable – to everyone but the person making the decision. Having government make rules about efficacy and availability of care smacks of Big Brother, but those kind of difficult and painful choices must be made if cost factors are to be included in health care decisions. The social debates about welfare mothers paying for their own children’s costs can and should be extended to national health care. Taxpayers may be willing to pay for treatments that improve health and restore wellness, but are they as comfortable paying and paying and paying for treatment of emphysema and lung cancer patients who are life long smokers? For irreversible brain damage among motorcycle drivers? For cardiac care for the morbidly obese? For renal failure among alcoholics? For chronic care of non-citizens?
These are really hideous issues that have been swept under the rug as interested parties across the spectrum have writhed and bargained to maintain the status quo and enlarge their slice of an exploding pie. I don’t hold out much hope that all the crucial issues will be addressed, but the financial unsustainability of the current system and the shrinking availability of care have forced us, kicking and screaming, to the point of making some decisions. Let’s hope that the pros and cons of other nationalized systems are evaluated rationally and changes can be made to reflect American needs and expectations while ensuring financial viability.
Curious Observer
June 17th, 2009
9:29 am
I have employer-provided health insurance as well as Medicare. The employer-provided health insurance costs me and my employer $11,000 per year–for a family of two. Even then, I’m faced with a $3,600 corridor deductible and a 20% co-pay. Somebody is getting wealthy off this insurance, and I know it’s not me. And I see what the insurer actually pays the doctors, and they certainly aren’t getting rich. For instance, my participating doctor bills my insurance company $136 for an office visit and lab work and eventually receives reimbursement of $42.
I humbly suggest that there is no way a few individuals undergoing critical care can account for the gap between what my employer and I pay and what my health insurance company pays. I can only conclude that the insurance company is not only adding tremendous overhead to the cost of my insurance but is also making a handsome profit–thanks to squeezing both the doctors and the patients.
I’m ready to see single-payer national insurance. The supporters of the status quo don’t scare me with their projections of rationed care and governmental inefficiency. We already have rationed care and inefficiency with the current private system. The insurance company even decides what pharmaceuticals I can be prescribed, and no governmental program would be so inefficient as to charge $11,000 per year for coverage and pay out only $2,000 per year.
I say bring single-payer universal care on. Nothing could be more inefficient or costly than the current private system.
Elephant Whip
June 17th, 2009
9:31 am
BugKiller:
First: we already have bad doctors and no one in the medical profession does anything to get rid of them. And insurance companies try to kill civil remedies to dumb doctors’ heinous, harmful practices, while continuing to jack up prices.
Second: The reason that medical expenses are so high is because a bunch of profiteering leeches have come between doctor and patient (and pharmacist). Take out some of those leeches, and the doctors can still make a ton of money.
Voice of Reason #1
June 17th, 2009
9:31 am
I don’t care about insurane for every American. I want to pick my doctor from wherever, not just on my stupid “plan”. The doctor I want isn’t on my plan; he refused to join any more. sayt it takes time to fill out all those applications. I want my doctor I had! Who are they (insurance company) to tell me what doctor I can go to? That jacked me up and I still hate that.
reservoirDAWG
June 17th, 2009
9:36 am
One Voice, it sounds to me that you cannot afford healthcare. The point I was making was that these buffoons in DC, and Atlanta for that matter, are a bunch of clowns. Now go back to praising the obamanator.
gatorman770
June 17th, 2009
9:39 am
I would just like to see Congress and the President do away with their free lifetime insurance, medical plan and 401K (plan backed by the US Treasury) and have to have the same medical insurance plan and retirement plans as they scheme up for the rest of us Americans.
Jackie
June 17th, 2009
9:42 am
@Michelle Obama
For a Harvard lawyer, your ebonics are lacking and presentation of logical facts does reflect on your education.
Would you care to be more specific and remove your feeble attempt at being “street wise?”
One Voice
June 17th, 2009
9:44 am
Bug @ 9:13, You shouldn’t disparage the public education system when you write things like “[they] are not required to take much… upper level history courses”. Didn’t listen very well in your high school language arts classes, huh? The public education system does an excellent job for those Americans who choose to take advantage of the free education. Sure, it can and should always be improved. But my grandfather is a non-U.S. born citizen who to this day cannot speak English or read and write in any language, and two generations later, after going through solely the public school system, I am about to finish a PhD at a major national research institution. The opportunity is there for those who want to take advantage of it. I guess government is only okay if you want to bomb another country, drive on actual roads, or have the fire department put out the blaze in your double wide, huh?
Atlanta Native
June 17th, 2009
9:47 am
The DMV
The VA hospitals
The Schools
The DOT
These are the shining examples of government efficiency and caring for the public.
Before you trust in this healthcare system, remember that one of the present administration’s cost saving ideas this year was to quit funding healthcare for injuries sustained by veterans while in the armed forces. They backed off quickly, but it is a harbinger of things to come.
The people who will run this for the government will have something the private sector insurance companies do not have: Their government job is a property right protected by the Constitution. If they are inept, they cannot be fired without numerous administrative hearings. So they won’t be. They will abdicate any compassion or rational thought for the published guidelines and mandates.
Presently, my employees and I have the exact same insurance coverage. I spent years fighting with insurance companies on behalf of my employees. Then HIPAA came, and I am no longer allowed to help.
What will happen when the government “solution” is implemented and the health care benefits I offer to attract employees and keep them are taxed?
Simple. I will no longer provide such benefits and leave the administration of their healthcare to the government employees who either cannot find jobs in the private sector or want a job with guaranteed hours and no actual responsibility. I will get myself a either a Medical Savings account or great insurance and pay for it with the money I used to spend on them. I will go to private physicians and they will go to substandard doctors on the government list of lowest bidders for services. So, I know of one group it will be worse for and one that will get better, or at least the same coverage.
The idea is populist, but the actual results will be less for most and the same or more some.
What is needed is an overhaul of the safety net, not throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Michelle Obama
June 17th, 2009
9:50 am
I knows an affirmative action admittance when I sees one and Jackie yous affirmative action.
I was nevah prouder of my country than when it let me into Harvard past all those white and Asian males who had perfect SAT scores and GPA’s MUCH higher than mine.
Anyway that’s the way the country should work and only when the GOVERNMENT controls everthing can it work that way. Anyway …that’s the way I like it, uh-huh, uh-huh..
One Voice
June 17th, 2009
9:50 am
reservoirdawg,
My household income is more than twice the national median (I have a feeling you couldn’t define median without googling it). I also have an actual degree from UGA, a job, and health care. I know that more than half the country is in much worse financial shape than I am, which is exactly why universal health care is needed (just as you seem to be in need of more education).
Jackie
June 17th, 2009
9:54 am
@Michelle Obama
How would you know that, SLOW MOTION?
You don’t know whether to scratch your watch or wind your hip!!!!
In Plain Sight
June 17th, 2009
9:54 am
My mom was a retired engineer that had a blood clot break loose and lodge in her brain. She had, what we thought, was sound medical coverage. When the Ambulance arrived she sat in the street in front of her house for 15 minutes while they called to find a hospital that would accept her insurance. She was eventually transported to Dekalb Medical where she was stabilized and then transfered to Emory for treatment. We were told that had she gotten to a hospital quicker, she had a much greater chance of survival. As it stands, my mother passed on June 27. 2006. Now we have a 7 figure lawsuite pending and I (and my brothers) are going to do everything possible to insure that this broken system turns over as much of the profits that they covet so much in exchange for the life that was secondary to that profit. And yes I understand that insurance for Doctors is one of the factors in our medical cost being so high, But when the medical community makes money its focus, thats goes with the territory!
Pubs=Psycho Talk
June 17th, 2009
9:57 am
Wooten fails to realize we cannot afford not to revise health care and take it out of the hands of the insurance companies. It is screwing patients and doctors alike, and in far too many instances killing people and causing them to become sicker. Many people cannot afford the essential medicines necessitated partly by their age and partly by their failure to reach preventive measures early on.
What I think about health care is that Jim Wooten knows little about it. Wooten has zero experience caring for patients, and being on call 24 to 72 hours at a time. Wooten has had health care paid for by his mommy and daddy or his surrogate mommy and daddy his employers, lately Cox News for all his life. This country ranks behind several 3rd world countries in efficacy, and I think a little more I’m familiar with the medical literature and what hospitals have to offer in several areas in this country and this state than Wooten.
The AMA while useful for learning mechanisms, is completely out of step with what needs doing now, and in fact, this morning 17% or 16.666666666666 to infinity of MDs in the US even belong to the AMA. Many do so for the search availability @ JAMA which aids research or just plain keeping up with its literature offered free for a limit of 6 mo.
If we cut the cost overruns in the defense budget, and the built in complete inefficiency, and the obsolete weapons that are still in the current defense budget like the F22 which has no place whatsoever in any current defense incursions on this planet, we can find the money to forge a much better health care system.
One of Obama’s targets for gaining money is to target hospitals, and when that includes teaching hospitals like Grady, it will wreak havoc. While overbilling for all matter of equipment used has been rampant in many hospitals and should be stopped and payment refused when they happen, hospitals across the board are taking a big hit from the failed economy thanks to Bush policy and policy stemming from Raegan, Gramm, Greenspan, and lately Paulson.
The insurance companies have controlled health care since Truman, and they have run it into the ground cost wise for the consumer just as the Credit Default Swap mavens ran the economy into the ground.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright
June 17th, 2009
10:01 am
O’bama jes don’t know when to stop and smell the…well, with Michelle you don’t wanna do a scratch n sniff.
It jes ain’t gonna be plesant.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright
June 17th, 2009
10:03 am
Every time I go to the grocery store they ax me if I’m gonna pay. Everytime. I wonder when those greedy grocery store managers are gonna be regulated likes they ought to.
How long will the man keep us down?
reservoirDAWG
June 17th, 2009
10:08 am
One Voice, good for you. You seem to think highly of yourself. I am doing fine as a business OWNER in the INSURANCE field. I may know a little more than you about the subject. You probably majored in a social science.
reservoirDAWG
June 17th, 2009
10:09 am
Oh yeah One Voice, are you trying to insult me? You are a grade A idiot.
Dusty
June 17th, 2009
10:15 am
The USA has the best healthcare system in the world. Now we are going to make it mediocre. Everybody will get sorry medical care.
Obama is going to cut out the “slack” and save millions. Oh yeah!! Like he’s done with the economy.
Unfortunately, you get what you pay for. We are heading for the fire sale on healthcare, the flea market of cheap. Better buy a home first aid kit ’cause you are going to need it.
Ben
June 17th, 2009
10:18 am
If Medicare is bankrupting us, why do you think more government health care is the answer? Make them prove they can get their existing systems to work before vastly expanding it. Or do we just ignore reality to live in Obama-fantasy land?
Also, health care is NOT a right. In order for something to be a right, it cannot force anyone else to give up their rights. A doctor has the right not to provide care, but if health care is a right, then doctors become slaves who, eventually, will go to jail or face some other punishment if they don’t give up a portion of their lives to provide care when they don’t want to, or are not being paid adequately for their services.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright
June 17th, 2009
10:21 am
I likes me some KC and the Sunshine Band, shake-shake-shake, shake-shake-shake, Shake your booty,…
Back at TUCC, they used to be a sayin’ that when Michelle hauled a$$, she had to make two trips…
Jes sayin’.
Ben
June 17th, 2009
10:22 am
Also, the thing about us having a lower life expectancy than countries with universal health care is an obvious misdirection. Those other countries also have less deaths from non-healthcare related events, like violence, car accidents, etc. And they may not have the obesity problem we have here, another thing that affects life expectancy and has nothing to do with us having universal health care or not. It’s a straight lie to say our system is worse because of life expectancy, because healthcare is only one of many factors in life expectancy. I’d like to see some stats adjusted to take out deaths from violence and accidents, and then compare.
Keisha Waites
June 17th, 2009
10:22 am
Certainly in a civilized society there has to a solution to this problem. Although I am not sure government is the answer. Per a USA today article, if the proposed national health care system fails it will be because it promises to do four things that contradict themselves: extend medical care to all (universal coverage); reduce medical costs in both the private and public sector; continue the current rate of advancement in medical technology; and preserve the patient’s right to choose his or her own doctor or form of medical care. Most of the current proposals can accomplish some of these things, but none is likely to do all.
BimBamBum
June 17th, 2009
10:26 am
president barack HUSSEIN obama (small p, small b, capital HUSSEIN, small o) and his posse do not need to screw up healthcare like they are screwing up the economy.
One Voice
June 17th, 2009
10:26 am
Bug,
“Senior Thesis” shouldn’t be capitalized. Are you actually implying you finished college?
reservoirDAWG
June 17th, 2009
10:30 am
One Voice, that is what I thought. Stick to what you know.
One Voice
June 17th, 2009
10:31 am
reservoir dawg,
I don’t need to insult you. You’re doing an excellent job embarrassing yourself as is. As far as being an idiot, I have a feeling my education and experience matches up well against yours (read: vastly surpasses). If you’re in the insurance field I can see why you would be defensive. You’re part of the problem, and thankfully, you’ll be out of work in a couple years.
jconservative
June 17th, 2009
10:36 am
We already have Universal Medical Care paid for by the taxpayers – it is called Medicare Part A, B & D; it is called Emergency Rooms where those without insurance go to get medical care & then do not pay for it; and it is called Medicaid that pays for medical care for those with low incomes. All of the above is why the U.S spends more per capita on medical care than any other country. All of this exist due to the support of every President since FDR. “American Conservatism” is a myth.
AmVet
June 17th, 2009
10:37 am
“VA Hospitals…These are the shining examples of government efficiency and caring for the public.”
The one here in Atlanta saved my life. It was FAR better than ANY experience I’ve EVER had in the “private sector”. There is absolutely no comparison. They absolutely smoke the over-priced half-decent care provided at any for profit hospital.
So tell me about your experiences with it…
AmVet
June 17th, 2009
10:39 am
“The USA has the best healthcare system in the world.”
Among those ranked 37th in the world by the World Health Organization, I agree…
reservoirDAWG
June 17th, 2009
10:43 am
One Voice, no, you are the problem. You feel as though something (i.e. healthcare) is owed you. I also am in the property and casualty field and have intentionally avoided healthcare because it is a pain. As far as your education and experience? Good one idiot.
Citizen of the World
June 17th, 2009
10:44 am
Anybody who claims the U.S. has the best health care system in the world is cherry-picking their anecdotal evidence, just like the insurance companies cherry-pick their customers.
privatelover
June 17th, 2009
10:45 am
Actually, I am one that is looking forward to private health care. i make about $300k a year, so i will keep any private health care still being offered. several of my doc friends are thinking about starting up a clinic specifically geared towards providing private insurance and no insurance only services. i am tired of waiting in my doctor’s lobby for other people. it will be nice to finally get the service i deserve.
separation of classes is a good thing and this will go a long way towards accomplishing that.
Rhonda
June 17th, 2009
10:46 am
I am a widow with 2 boys in college and a daughter in HS. My premiums are 800 a month with a 5000 deductible…..HOW are people like me suppose to make it??? I AM A REPUBLICAN and I do not want anything free BUT what are we suppose to do? I had to pay my deductible this summer and it was not easy. Something has to be done. AND I have friends in Canada and the UK and they do not complain about their insurance nor do they have wait times any longer than we do. I just do not have the means to pay the premiums nor the deductible. I am very scared as I am having health problems now.
Chris Salzmann
June 17th, 2009
10:47 am
Conservatives seem to love to complain about the Canadian health care system and about how inefficient it is. They always forget to point out that the “waiting periods” for treatments, are for elective procedures. Also, Canada still spends far less per person, than the United States, to take care of its population. We spend more per person on health care than any other industrialized country on earth; therefore you would think to expect a more efficient system.
Another interesting point: How many people in this country have died because (1) They had no insurance and therefore could not afford treatment for curable conditions (2) Were denied treatment because their insurance company denied them coverage for any number of excuses??? Another fact is that 60% of all bankruptcies in this country are related to illness.
EVIL REPUBLICANS TIME IS UP
June 17th, 2009
10:47 am
JUST LIKE THE EVILS, NO ABORTION LET THEM LIVE SO WE THE GOP CAN KILL THEM WITH OUR NO HEALTH CARE PLAN,AND ALSO WE WANT TO BE ABLE TO KILL BY WAY OF CHEMICALS ALL IN THE WATER AND THE AIR,SO DIE PEOPLE WITH CANCER AND OTHER SICKNESS WITHOUT HEALTH CARE,THIS IS WHAT THE GOP BELIEVES IN. IT IS ONLY THE RICH GOP THAT BELIEVES IN THIS,YOU HICKS THAT BELIEVE IN IT ARE JUST STUPID!
One Voice Wanna Be
June 17th, 2009
10:49 am
BugKiller: “dude, the one thing about these blogs that really get to me is that i’ll never actually meet a piece of work like you, so i’ll never get to slam my size 13’s up your kiester…”
Sorry – that would be: DOOD, the WON thing about these blogs that really get TOO me is that AISLE never actually MEAT a PEACE of work like EWE, SEW I’ll never get TWO slam my SIGHS 13’s up EWER kiester.
Atlanta Native
June 17th, 2009
10:49 am
Keisha,
You are correct. There is a problem with the safety net and it needs to be fixed. But there is no way to do all the things that are being proposed.
AmVet
I am not a veteran. My father served as a bomber pilot in WWII. His various experiences with the VA are chilling. I remember numerous experiences with the VA where he was not seen, where my 80+ year old mother had the schlep all over to get him a wheelchair because of “not my job” syndrome, ad nauseum. He gave up and relied on his own resources.
My sister’s father-in-law, who was closer to me than it sounds, insisted on using the VA doctors and things went very poorly with his eye.
I believe that the VA doctors are well intentioned and we have had some good experiences with them. It is the bureaucracy that scares me.
Mr In-Between
June 17th, 2009
10:51 am
Rhonda – are you hot? If so give me a call (I’m just sayin’…..)
stinger
June 17th, 2009
10:51 am
Evil, send them to Grady and the govment picks up the tab anyway
Koz
June 17th, 2009
10:52 am
We need to get rid of health insurance altogether. Doctors will be forced to provide affordable care or well go broke.
One Voice
June 17th, 2009
10:52 am
bug,
Oooh, threats. Believe me, the last thing I’m worried about is your big clumsy feet controlled by your slow, small mind. I would absolutely love if a right-wing redneck tried to bully me on the street. Then they would get a first hand look at how the health care system really works.
reservoirDAWG
June 17th, 2009
10:57 am
ooooh, threats. Huge mental capacity.
Chris Salzmann
June 17th, 2009
10:57 am
Rhonda June 17th, 2009 10:46 am SAID: I am a widow with 2 boys in college and a daughter in HS. My premiums are 800 a month with a 5000 deductible…..HOW are people like me suppose to make it??? I AM A REPUBLICAN and I do not want anything free BUT what are we suppose to do?I had to pay my deductible this summer and it was not easy. Something has to be done. AND I have friends in Canada and the UK and they do not complain about their insurance nor do they have wait times any longer than we do. I just do not have the means to pay the premiums nor the deductible. I am very scared as I am having health problems now.
CHRIS SAYS: Sorry Rhonda but as far as Republicans are concerned, you are out of luck. If you want better health care insurance then GET ANOTHER JOB!!!…..that’s what a Republican would say.
On the other hand, as a Republican, are you willing to pay higher taxes to support heath care insurance similar to what they have in Canada or the UK??? That’s the million dollar question. As a liberal, I’m willing to pay higher taxes for better health care for EVERYONE because I believe that decent health care is a RIGHT. The conservative view is that you only get decent health care if can afford it. If you can’t afford it, change your circumstances or else, too bad.
One Voice
June 17th, 2009
10:59 am
reservoir dawg,
Oh, so you sell cut-rate auto insurance to high risk customers? You charge them out the arse and then refuse their claims when they plow into someone? Respectable work. No, obviously you are part of the problem. I pay far more in insurance premiums than I will ever even come close to redeeming. Does that mean that something is owed to me? I don’t know, but insurance should never be for-profit. People should never make money from someone else’s suffering. All insurance should be non-profit and we should have universal health care. You’re on the wrong side of the argument, one you can’t win. Get out of the way or progress will run you over.
Chris Broe
June 17th, 2009
11:02 am
Healthcare? Insurance Companies handcuff doctors with arbitrary cost cutting measures. Doctors are not able to conduct prudent search and destroy imaging for cancer diagnosis. Strategic therapy options are limited. Patients die. Thank you, conservatism. We know you’re just trimming the herd, and it’s righteous. Amen.
Problem: Insurance companies presume to diagnose and prescribe Rx. Diagnose + Prescribe Rx. dpRx. (OMG another 666). Christ diagnosed and prescribed Rx too.
Mark – A man walked the earth dispensing free healthcare. “Believe in me, and you will live forever”, he said. He claimed that everyone would be covered by some divine universal plan.
Luke – A man was offering pro-bono medical treatment and divine healthcare insurance at the same time. He claimed that everyone on the earth was entitled to this insurance and treatment, which would be payed for by a sin tax.
Mathew – A man was giving away a Divine Heathcare Insurance Plan. Everyone who believed in the plan was healed. “The ten commandments are the surgeon general’s warning that comes with your original sin”, he claimed. “Have faith in this Death Tax Bailout Plan, and you will live forever.”
John – A leper was brought to a Man who had healed other lepers simply by willing it so. The leper didn’t believe he could be healed, saying, “Lord, my deductible is too expensive, and doctors don’t believe I can pay them. They refuse to treat me.” The Man said, “Your presence alone with me has healed you.” The leper objected, expecting to be thrown in debtor’s prison for the added debt. “Fear not,” said the Man, “For you are entitled to this Eternal Healthcare Plan, and your premium is prayer.” Because the leper had been fooled many times by similar plans from dishonest Samaritan insurance salesmen, he picked up stones and threw them at the Man who suddenly disappeared into the crowd. Pharisees, observing the whole incident from the periphery, began to spread rumors of deficit spending on unnecessary liberal entitlements.
The Lost Gospels.
2Bcontinued.
cranky old man
June 17th, 2009
11:03 am
Okay, I just checked my last pay stub, and it looks like I pay about $50 per month to Medicare, and $200 per month for my company’s medical insurance, for a total of $250 per month. The private insurance covers my whole family (and I have 5 kids under the age of 18, including an accident-prone 16-year-old who averages 1-2 trips to the ER per year). I’m pretty happy with the coverage.
As I understand it, my company pays about another $1,200-$1,500 per month to cover the rest of my premium. Let’s say it’s on the low end at $1,250, which, combined with what I pay would make it a nice round total of $1,500 per month.
Let’s assume (yes, I know the dangers of assuming, but humor me) that any government plan would cost about the same. I doubt that I would be charged $1,500 per month, because most people can’t afford that. Let’s assume (I know, I know) that my share of the premium would remain around $250. So where is the other $1,250 coming from? Here is a list of those sources I can guess off the top of my head:
1. I’ll now pay income taxes on that $200 dollars for premiums, which is currently tax exempt. This would amount to maybe $10-$20 extra in income taxes for most people.
2. Let’s assume (I’m sorry, I can’t think of another way to phrase it) that the Chicken Little crowd is correct and my employer will stop offering insurance. The company now has an extra $1,250 in its coffers, and will have to pay taxes on it. The tax would not be anywhere near $1,250 because, as far as I know, there is no 100% tax bracket. Alternatively, the company could decide to give everyone a $1,250 pay raise, and keep their tax burden neutral, meaning I’ll have to pay the taxes instead (I can dream, can’t I?). Either way, this won’t come anywhere near $1,250.
3. Despite dismissive scoffing from the political right, a government plan could actually reduce costs, which would make that $1,250 target somewhat smaller. There are precedents in Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA. So here are a few of the possible savings:
A. If Wal Mart, that darling of the free market ideologues, can use its size and market clout to negotiate lower prices, why shouldn’t the government? We in the US are currently subsidizing medical and pharmaceutical research for the rest of the planet, because most other countries either have price controls or allow their public health plans to negotiate prices. So Americans end up paying extra to make up what the drug companies can’t charge in other countries.
B. Built in to that $1,250 dollar figure is about 30% for administrative costs for insurance companies. The government would certainly have administrative costs, but not for profits for investors, marketing, or multi-million dollar compensation packages for executives. If the government’s administrative costs are half that of private insurance companies, that would knock the cost down by 15%, or $187.50.
Some worry that health care providers, including many hospitals that are barely able to stay in business as it is, will see reduced revenues because of lower reimbursement rates. But they could also see their expenses go down, as they won’t have to eat the costs of indigent care. Would it even out? Who knows? But at least they’d have a more predictable budget.
fearless fosdick
June 17th, 2009
11:03 am
Atlanta Native….
I disagree with your assessment of the VA. I only have the VA here in Atlanta as a model, So I can’t speak to other facilities. But, what I have witnessed here is a model of efficiency, and quality healthcare. As far as the wheelchair episode….The VA hospital has valet service parking and there are wheelchairs in abundance waiting for those who require them!
reservoirDAWG
June 17th, 2009
11:05 am
One Voice, oh my God. You have just nailed the last nail in the coffin. You are possibly the most irrational person in the world. We are not Safe Auto. I am willing to bet your insurance score would not allow me to place your insurance with any company we represent. Again, grade A!
Pubs=Psycho Talk
June 17th, 2009
11:05 am
@ Koz–
In reality physicians have been squeezed already in every way imaginable by this government and the insurance companies and what you’re going to see is a significant migration of them from medicine into fields where they can make a decent living for their long hours at work, as well as the long hours outside of work that most of them spend keeping up with the literature and rapid new developments, new meds, and new procedures.
Rhonda
June 17th, 2009
11:05 am
Mr. In-Between——VERY HOT!!!!! LOL
Chris Salzmann
June 17th, 2009
11:12 am
Another point conservatives love to harp on is that “bureaucrats” in Washington will be making decisions regarding treatments. Here’s my question, isn’t some flunky analyst sitting in some cubicle at an insurance company making those decisions right now anyway??? How is the current system any better where the bottom line isn’t my health but the insurance company’s profits??? Strangely, you never hear that question answered.
One Voice
June 17th, 2009
11:13 am
reservoir dawg,
I can understand you being defensive because of your inability to find respectable work, but it’s clear that you’re also very angry. Name calling only makes you look more foolish. Obviously, you are inadequate at assessing rationality and intelligence, which says nothing about me but a lot about you. There is hope in education. My advice is that you should improve yours.
Pubs=Psycho Talk
June 17th, 2009
11:14 am
I might add that links like mine that have been stripped and censored have been widely quoted in the press other than AJC of course, and on numerous blogs.
It looks like Julia Wallace and her Cox boses have forged a little Theran right on Marietta Street.
Rhonda
June 17th, 2009
11:15 am
Chris @ 10:57, you are so right. I agree with you 100%. If you listen to Boortz, etc. they all say we are losers if we cannot afford insurance. BUT when you have a situation like mine AND I am NO LOSER, I simply cannot afford what is offerred now. ALTHOUGH I am still paying 800 a month. I do work, a small job at the local high school, but NO INSURANCE.
I basically work to pay for my individual policy. BUT as time goes by I am not going to be able to continue to afford private insurance. The premium goes up every year, along with the deductible.
reservoirDAWG
June 17th, 2009
11:16 am
One Voice, no, I’m highly educated. Is taking care of people when they have issues on what they worked for not respectable? You are the irrational one.
Peadawg
June 17th, 2009
11:16 am
There are some thing that I don’t mind the government regulating (like the tobacco industry) but STAY OUT OF HEALTH CARE.
reservoirDAWG
June 17th, 2009
11:17 am
Why do you think the premiums and deductibles increase every year?
The Anti-Wooten
June 17th, 2009
11:22 am
A few things:
One Voice and ResevoirDawg, please just exchange contact info so that you can meet either for a beer or a duel.
Jim, Max Baucus is the Senator from Montana not South Dakota, although both are flyovers.
The right keeps floating their Lush FlimFlamBaugh talking points about the rationing of healthcare in this country. The fact of the matter is that healthcare is ALREADY rationed in this country. All of us that have private insurance, employer subsidized plans or Medicaid/Medicare fund the care that is provided by increased costs in our care. Private coverage has evolved from what we knew as Blue Cross/Blue Shield in the 60s which operated as a non-profit into the free marketeers wet dream that we see today.
I hear a lot of whining, crying and gnashing of teeth about the levels of care in Canada and the UK but if you’d actually read something(I know hard and foreign that is to Georgians)you’d find that the systems are effective and workable, not perfect but far superior to what we have now.
Matilda
June 17th, 2009
11:23 am
It’s hilarious to hear people squawking how awful it would be for BUREAUCRATS to make their health care decisions for them. Really? Who’s making them for you NOW? The BUREAUCRATS at Kaiser, Blue Cross, Aetna, Cigna, etc., that’s who. What you and your doctor decide is only a minimal part of the equation!
Insurance company executives decide, based on their long-term profit projections, what will be covered and what won’t under your particular plan, the rates for which will go up next year whether you ever visit a doctor or not. Y’all remind me of Mrs. Ensign telling us how wonderful you have it. Uh-huh….
reservoirDAWG
June 17th, 2009
11:24 am
It would not be a beer as I have a feeling One Voice drinks malt liquor.
Turker Slayer
June 17th, 2009
11:24 am
Guys, This is very simple. Our Government is not capable of running any type of business let alone one as complex as healthcare without screwing it up. I challenge anyone to give an example of a department that runs within budget and acheives its goal. Just look at the people who work for the government. They are over paid underacheivers. They cannot be fired so whats the motivation? I personally would’nt trust the government to CHANGE my flat tire. Please, take responsability for yourselves and get out there and buy your own healthcare.
ideclarenothing
June 17th, 2009
11:26 am
running a national health care system just isnt going to work. sorry. i am not willing to give up my benefits for the entitled. healthcare is not a right. there is nothing in the constitution giving that right. its just not there. But, i do realize that as a growing society, we have a duty to each other, and thus, that duty extends to providing WHAT WE CAN to help out others. am i willing to give up my great coverage so some lady on welfare that cant keep from having babies gets free medical? nope, sorry. I didnt go through 4 years of college, 6 years of postgraduate and 2 years of professional school, ALL PAID FOR BY ME, to give away something that I have worked hard for.
But, I am not an insensitive soul, and am not a republican. I do believe that there has to be a change to our healthcare system. I think as a first start, we need to start looking at ourselves. Overwieght people, smokers, etc. need to pay more for their share, as they drain the healthcare system. Second, insurance companies should be non-profits subsidized by the government. In a for profit company, there is an inherent conflict of interest between the company and its customers. Non-profits at the state level can run more efficiently than a centralized system but still provide the patient first and expansion of coverage people are looking for in the central system.
No easy solutions.
fearless fosdick
June 17th, 2009
11:29 am
ONE VOICE
reservoirDAWG is a poseur… Yesterday he was Eli Whitney posing as a black man. Today he’s an insurance executive. He also goes by Che, 1984 and Commie AJC. Tomorrow who knows!
He has graduated from Duke, Florida the University of Chicago depending on the day. In other words he’s an asshat, and crazier then a rat in a sh*thouse!
reservoirDAWG
June 17th, 2009
11:30 am
Fearless, you could not be more wrong. Mind your own.
Pubs=Psycho Talk
June 17th, 2009
11:33 am
I like anal sex.
Richard Ruhling
June 17th, 2009
11:35 am
Medical care cannot deliver healthcare for two reasons:
1. The doctor can’t eat for you or quit smoking for you. What we put into our mouths takes us from 6 or 8 pounds at birth when we were healthy to 150 or 250 pounds in 40 or 50 years. If we have a problem, we did it to ourselves. We can reverse the process, but it takes time and we are impatient. Thankfully, our bodies are designed for self-healing. Heart disease, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes are reversible if we know how to cooperate with the body’s healing mechanism. Nathan Pritikin showed this in the 1970’s; echoed by the cover story of US News & World Report, 8-6-1990.
2. Unless you want surgery, medical care uses drugs. The science of drugs is pharmacology, formerly called toxicology when they determined how much of a chemical would kill 50% of the rats. The rules have changed, but the game is similar. People should ask their pharmacist for a list of adverse effects of their prescription. Otherwise when they become toxic to the chemical and get “headache, diarrhea or abdominal pain” [purple pill], they think they need a second prescription when they really need to get rid of the first one. Taking a prescription to cover up the toxicity of another drug puts them in a dangerous position. The list of drug effects is usually long, hard to understand, and more severe than people expect. It’s safer as Hippocrates said, “Let your food be your medicine.”
Supporting the idea of reversing disease by diet is Salvatore Frascinella. He was a 65-year old executive with three cardiologists who felt he was too risky for bypass surgery, so they had him taking 12 pills a day, but he was getting worse. He couldn’t walk two blocks without severe chest pain. Desperate, he attended a seminar series and in eight weeks he was off all of his drugs and was starting to play tennis again. That was 26 years ago. He’s alive and has done well with no drugs, now at 91, he says, “You saved my life!”
It comes down to a choice of self-government or BIG government.
At 67, I have turned down Medicare Part B and D for three years now
because medical care does not offer healthcare.
Richard Ruhling, MD, MPH, retired
Board-certified Internal Medicine
Assist. Prof. Health Science, Loma Linda Univ.
cranky old man
June 17th, 2009
11:36 am
Another method of savings I forgot to mention: preventive care and early treatment. People with either no insurance or poor insurance with high deductibles tend to avoid going to the doctor for regular check-ups, and try to ignore illnesses until they become unbearable, when the treatment is much more expensive and less effective.
clyde
June 17th, 2009
11:36 am
I have trepidations posting among all you highly educated people,but here goes:Canada’s health care system works for sick people.Employers offer insurance coverage for such things as dental and drugs.These items are not covered by the federal government.Like here,insurers do not cover pre-existing conditions.
We,in the U.S.,need health care of a similar nature to Canada. We need it now.It has been put off far too long.
Now i’ll apologise in advance for misplaced grammar and spelling and also,punctuation.Don’t want to ire the blog policeman.
Copyleft
June 17th, 2009
11:39 am
I love the confident assertion from the wingnuts that “national healthcare, BY DEFINITION, cannot possibly succeed and has never succeeded.”
That’s why every industrialized nation on Earth other than the U.S. has it. Riiiiight. All those countries–from Brazil to Canada, China to India, Australia to Saudi Arabia to U.K. to Japan–ALL those countries are crashing and burning due to their failed “healthcare experiment,” which in some cases has been going on for DECADES and working just fine.
Talk about living in la-la-land…. healthcare haters are so far from the real world they’re losing radio contact.
Chris Salzmann
June 17th, 2009
11:39 am
ideclarenothing June 17th, 2009 11:26 am SAID: am i willing to give up my great coverage so some lady on welfare that cant keep from having babies gets free medical? nope, sorry. I didnt go through 4 years of college, 6 years of postgraduate and 2 years of professional school, ALL PAID FOR BY ME, to give away something that I have worked hard for.
CHRIS SAYS: I don’t see your point because that’s how any type of insurance works. I have very good and affordable insurance through my employer but rarely need to visit the doctor. On the other hand, there are plenty of mostly older fellow employees who seem to be going to the doctor all the time. My premiums probably subsidize their health care. They pay the same premiums I do. I don’t see a problem with it. Again, that’s how any type of insurance works.
ideclarenothing June 17th, 2009 11:26 am SAID: But, I am not an insensitive soul, and am not a republican. I do believe that there has to be a change to our healthcare system. I think as a first start, we need to start looking at ourselves. Overwieght people, smokers, etc. need to pay more for their share, as they drain the healthcare system. Second, insurance companies should be non-profits subsidized by the government. In a for profit company, there is an inherent conflict of interest between the company and its customers. Non-profits at the state level can run more efficiently than a centralized system but still provide the patient first and expansion of coverage people are looking for in the central system.No easy solutions.
CHRIS SAYS: You old softy, you!!! I agree that something needs to be done. The present system is broken, costs are going through the roof and things aren’t getting any better.