Give us health tax deductions
Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:
U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Roswell) drafts the national health care plan that Congress should consider. Tax credits and deductions give consumers money to purchase medical coverage in the private sector, shopping across state lines. State high-risk pools would cover those with existing medical problems. One vital feature, missing from the Democrats’ plans, are provisions to curtail excessive medical malpractice awards. It is a national policy calamity that a more open and honest congressional debate didn’t occur.
Don’t know Glenn Thomas, a candidate for mayor of Atlanta, but he offers a profound insight into taxes collected by one government and handed over to another to spend, specifically Atlanta’s spending of federal largesse. Said Thomas: “It’s not that we don’t have the money. We don’t know how to spend it.” He was speaking of the wasted $100 million Empowerment Zone money that the Clinton administration shoveled to Atlanta.
Same topic, different point. The Empowerment, now called Renewal Community, has about $37 million remaining and may have to return about $30 million to the feds at year’s end if it’s not spent. “The goal of the [Renewal Community] board is not to send any money back,” said Peggy Harper, board chairman. “We’re going to look for the most expedient way to spend the money.” In two sentences, Harper has just explained the failure of 99 percent of federal social programs – and how people end up in jail, though far less often than they should if federal programs were properly monitored.
You be the judge: The honesty of John Thompson, a 29-year state employee is so startling – “I do nothing” – that a) Diogenes works for Georgia or b) he’s really angry with superiors and wants somebody fired. You gotta admit, though, that moving him to a “do-nothing” job from “chief of operations” and giving him a 22 percent pay increase is the way that large corporations and big governments with too much money deal with their personnel problems.
East Point officials appear to be doing a commendable job of managing the city out of its recurring financial troubles, prompting the question of why City Council would now invite future financial trouble by recognizing a union, East Point Professional Firefighters Local 4717, to represent its fire department.
Other than newspapers, the single company I’d like most to see succeed is Ford Motor Co., which just posted second-quarter profits of $2.3 million. Executives there took the risk to borrow $23.5 billion in 2006 and 2007, putting the entire corporation on the line, to prepare for the downturn. No government bailout. That kind of free-enterprise risk-taking should be rewarded in the marketplace.
Fulton County’s new elections chief, Barry Garner, makes an outlandish promise. “We are not going to be the laughingstock of the election community anymore” by always being the last to get ballots counted,” said the brash young newcomer. He’d just as soon promise to end traffic congestion.
Oh, car hijackee and Atlanta City Councilman Ceasar Mitchell, was not the victim of crime; he was the victim of perception of crime. According to the mayor, the city’s “safer now than it has been in decades.” But people like Mitchell and Council President Lisa Borders seem to be noticing crime more.
The whole world knew when the shakedown of Big Tobacco succeeded that they’d be coming for the soft-drink and snack-food industries at the earliest opportunity. Answer the door, Maggie. They’ve come. The liberals at the Urban Institute, allegedly alarmed by increases in obesity, think a 10 percent tax on “fattening food” would “reduce consumption while raising more than $500 billion over 10 years.”
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© 2009 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
283 comments Add your comment
Michael H. Smith
July 30th, 2009
7:46 pm
U.S. Rep. Tom Price draft is missing a few other items, namely the absence of the Private Public Co-Op healthcare option which companies or individuals could form, which is found in the GOP healthcare outline. A State high-risk pool is not enough.
clyde
July 30th, 2009
9:48 pm
Good evening Jim,
If the present mayor can’t spend the money,it must be unspendable.Send it to Ray Nagin.He’ll make it disappear along with e-mail.
By his own admission,John Thompson needs to be gone.
East Point can survive a union and prosper if everyone does things right.I’ve worked for and against unions and non-union companies all my life and unions are hardly the bugaboo that Jim likes to picture.The key is that both sides understand the rules and abides by them.When I say against,I mean I was in management.
I too want to see Ford succeed.They certainly deserve to,but the government and all it’s money and weight is pretty stiff competition.
I seriously doubt that Atlanta is safe.We won’t discuss degrees of safety.That would be like discussing how far along you are in a pregnancy.
As I’ve said on numerous occasions,The shakedown on Big Tobacco didn’t succeed.They’re still in the business of killing people.It needs to cease.
Most food is fattening when you over indulge.Cucumbers and watercress might be the exceptions.
GibbGA
July 30th, 2009
10:49 pm
While I rarely find myself in agreement with your positions, I almost always find your articles enlightening. For this one, let me say, “thank you” for the perception of crime jab. As we have all heard, perception is reality. In this case, it’s just real.
Reconcilliation is a Comin' Baby.
July 31st, 2009
1:07 am
No co-op has been licensed in this country.
Reconcilliation is a Comin' Baby.
July 31st, 2009
1:26 am
Price’s plan is totally stupid. It does nothing to stop recision which is to cut off palying insureds when they get sick. It does zero to cover everyone. It does zero to stop the bills a mastectomy patient incurs when she has surgery and chemo and her deductible turns out to be double what she was told in the fine print and her premiums triple.
Price’s plan does zero to reign in insurance companies destroying medical care or to control big pharma.
Price and Gingrey have been away from medicine a long time and it shows.
Reconcilliation is a Comin' Baby.
July 31st, 2009
1:31 am
The shoes are beginning to drop into place and once again Wooten’s pride cedomes before he gets squished just as he crowed that Dumb and Dumber were beating Obama in 9/08.
WASHINGTON — The House Energy and Commerce Committee resumed work Thursday on major health care legislation, voting to establish a government-run health insurance plan, as top Republicans stepped up their criticism of the ambitious legislation.
By a vote of 35 to 24, Democrats defeated a Republican effort to eliminate a section of the bill that would create the public health insurance option.
“Our constituents should have the choice of a public plan,” said Representative Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut. “There is nothing to be scared of here. No one will be forced into the public plan.”
President Obama supports a public plan, saying it would foster competition and keep private insurers honest.
Reconcilliation is a Comin' Baby.
July 31st, 2009
1:33 am
So much for the power of the Blue dog morons.
Gerald West
July 31st, 2009
6:41 am
Jim, your “health care” ideas are nonsense, just like the Republican politicians’. A large part of the American population are struggling financially just to get by. In case you haven’t heard, the standard of living of the working middle class has been declining for many years. Granting tax deductions and offering tax-deductible medical savings accounts are of no help for those who do not earn enough to pay high taxes or cannot afford to set aside money in a savings account. Nor does it reign in the cost of medical care for the government and individuals.
Everybody needs access to medical services, whether they are employed, unemployed, young, old, poor, or wealthy. A medical services plan that doesn’t provide that is worthless: just a ploy to continue the broken status quo.
Do you have any sense of social responsibility?
Road Scholar
July 31st, 2009
6:51 am
You shouldn’t criticize Barry Garner….yet. At least he has recognized a problem and has set a goal to correct it. That is a first step in cleaning up a mess. What has Gov Perdue done lately to be proactive with transportation, water, education…etc.?
Since you are such a problem solver, why don’t you get a job to correct other deficencies with government operations? Oh, yeah, I forgot that you are a commentater, who can only criticize…no responsibility!
Michael H. Smith
July 31st, 2009
7:34 am
A licensed Co Op in this country.
Founded in 1947, Group Health Cooperative is a consumer-governed, nonprofit health care system that coordinates care and coverage. Based in Seattle, Wash., Group Health and its subsidiary health carriers, Group Health Options, Inc. and KPS Health Plans, serve more than half a million residents of Washington state and Idaho.
http://www.ghc.org/about_gh/index.jhtml
eagle scout
July 31st, 2009
7:48 am
What we keep hearing from the republicans (and Tom Price) is the Lewin Group has done a study…
which backs his and the republicans nonsensical stance….When confronted with who is the Lewin group he stammers and stutters, and he can’t come clean that the Lewin Group is owned and operated by United Health INSURANCE.
They talk about how the bureaucrats will be in the middle of you and your doctor….I say BS!
If you are now on medicare which I am, NO bureaucrat has stepped in between me and my doctor! The program is seamless, efficient, and effective. I have found it to be much better, and less costly then the insurance I had when I worked for a fortune 100 company.
The right wing as usual tries to scare anyone now on Blue Cross/Blue Shield…Kaiser etal with there blathering about socialized medicine….They have only one goal and that is to make sure the Insurance companies won’t have to compete. In other words lower there prices!
Wooten next time you see Price….ask him if we would vote yea or nay for Medicare.
Will
July 31st, 2009
7:50 am
Did you forget to include the price tag for this bloated gift to the taxpayer? According to Representative Price, his plan will cost “around 800 billion”. Of course we don’t have to worry because he has assured us the savings will pay for the cost.
Hmmm……sounds pretty just like someone else’s promises to me.
clyde
July 31st, 2009
7:52 am
Then there’s Healthpartners,based in Minnesota,Which is larger than Group Health Cooperative.
bob
July 31st, 2009
7:56 am
why did reconcillitation shut up after 7:34 ?
Michael H. Smith
July 31st, 2009
8:03 am
It really doesn’t matter what the Democrats or Republicans want. It is what the citizens of this country want that should determine the outcome of healthcare reform.
Michael H. Smith
July 31st, 2009
8:13 am
Founded in 1957, the HealthPartners (www.healthpartners.com) family of healthcare companies serves more than one million medical and dental health plan members nationwide. It is the largest consumer-governed, nonprofit health care organization in the nation, providing care, coverage, research and education to improve the health of members, patients and the community. For the fourth year in a row, HealthPartners is rated one of the best commercial health plans in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, NCQA’s “America’s Best Health Plans 2007” and is ranked “Highest in Member Satisfaction among Commercial Health Plans in the Minnesota-Wisconsin Region” by J.D. Power and Associates.
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/healthpartners
jconservative
July 31st, 2009
8:13 am
The national health care plan that Congress should consider first is some solution to the baby boomers hitting Medicare & Medicaid in the next 10 years. In the next 20 years that is going to cost taxpayers $28 trillion (per the CBO). Not one Republican or Democratic member of Congress has introduced a single sentence on dealing with this problem.
Sweep the dirt under the rug & no one can see it! Is everyone happy with the incumbents they have been returning to Congress? Answer: yes you are happy. Why are you happy? Because they have an “R” or a “D” after they name on the ballot. Nothing else matters.
Michael H. Smith
July 31st, 2009
8:32 am
There are solutions to the Medicare & Medicaid problem. One solutions is to move these patients into consumer ran Co-Op healthcare systems such as the two already mentioned and phase out these two government ran schemes. The problems now seen in Medicare & Medicaid should be clear evidence as to why this Public Option which really has no options, will result in the same fiscal disastrous outcome.
Same old, same old: Anytime we buy a claw hammer it cost $7 or less, when government buys that same $7 claw hammer for us, it will cost us $7,000 or more.
"Charles", The Original
July 31st, 2009
8:51 am
The Lord God Almighty has a controversy with the so-called educated integrationist Negroes and their minions. You know as well as I that there is no solution to criminality in Atlanta or other cities. If the Atlanta mayor puts an additional thousand police officers on the streets, it will prove to be futile. In order to reduce crime, there must be a bond of trust among the masses of people and their leadership. And God has to be on your side. Thanks to the so-called educated integrationist Negroes, neither exists. They were the casualties of involuntary integration.
Without question, young African Americans have no regard for the appointed so-called educated integrationist Negro leaders and their minions, and rightly so. After God Almighty had delivered the Negroes from the hands of their oppressors and placed them in the wilderness of separation, the so-called educated integrationist Negro leaders and their minions conspired against the masses. They delivered the masses of Negroes back into slavery via integration and called it freedom. And to further conceal these crimes from Negro children and their silly women, the centers of power in the United States award betrayers of common Negroes with money, plush jobs, status, awards, and Presidential Medals of so-called Freedom. But don’t despair. God is not mocked. Before all is said and done, the so-called educated integrationist Negroes and their minions will suffer the fate of Saddam Hussein.
The God of Israel has a controversy with the so-called educated integrationist Negroes and apostate Negro Christian leaders. God is using the language of crime and death in the cities to express his sore displeasure.
EVIL REPUBLICANS TIME IS UP
July 31st, 2009
9:03 am
DICK CHENEY SAID IN A SPEECH IN 2001 THAT IF YOU DONT MAKE 250,000 A YEAR YOU ARE NOT A REAL REPUBLICAN,SO POOR WHITE TRASH WHY ARE YOU A REPUBLICAN WHEN THE POOR WHITE TRASH ISNT GETTING ANY OF THE BENEFITS THAT THE RICH REPUBLICANS GET,ALSO ANYTIME REDNECKS LIKE JIMBO TOM PRICE AND PHIL GREEDY AGREE ON SOMETHING,IT MEANS THE GEORGIA TAX PAYER WILL BE SCREWED OVER!
EVIL REPUBLICANS TIME IS UP
July 31st, 2009
9:09 am
CHARLES YOU ARE RIGHT,MARTIN LUTHER KING TOLD ALL THOSE UNCLE TOMS LIKE JOE LOWERY JOHN LEWIS AND ANDY YOUNG NOT TO TAKE THE JOBS OR MONEY,BUT ONCE HE DIED ALL THOSE HOUSE NEGROES PLAYED STEP AND FETCHIT!JESSE JACKSON TO!
Perception of Crime Watch®: All About Meme | Fresh Loaf
July 31st, 2009
9:09 am
[...] what just showed up in Jim Wooten’s Thinking Right blog: Oh, car hijackee and Atlanta City Councilman Ceasar Mitchell, was not the victim of crime; he was [...]
"Charles", The Original
July 31st, 2009
9:11 am
Now I’m a servant of God. But if I were a young Negro, I would do crime too. Look, there are no black institutions available to feed, shelter, educate, employ, etc Negroes. When you find yourself in that position, you have three choices. You become an integrationist, do crime, or become a mongrel in order to survive.
Tray
July 31st, 2009
9:13 am
Hey Jim, and good morning all. How about 1 more topic?? The complete failure of the Cash for Clunkers program that was over in less than a week!!!
"Charles", The Original
July 31st, 2009
9:14 am
EVIL REPUBLICANS TIME IS UP, you are exactly right. It’s really a sad state of affairs.
Mid-South Philosopher
July 31st, 2009
9:15 am
Good morning, Jim,
Tax deductions for health care are a joke for middle and lower middle class (economically speaking) working people…especially when you consider the % level that must be met before the deductions kick in. Instead, I agree with the tax credit idea of anything over $1000 in medical expenses.
Think the Congress or the President will go along with that?….Sure, right after you and I are invited to the White House for a beer, Jim! LOLOL!
Michael H. Smith
July 31st, 2009
9:19 am
Yep, objective journalism at its’ finest. Never let it be said that at the AJC any slant exist, nah.
Wooten never told us his birthplace was coal country West Virginia were the term REDNECKS originated and was applied to unionizing coal miners. That would probably make Wooten a HILLBILLY as well, seeing as how HILLBILLY applies to anyone from the Appalachians, which could be anyone from southern New York state to northern Alabama.
Wooten, heaven forbid, are you a Yankee too?
"Charles", The Original
July 31st, 2009
9:21 am
And you know white people in the south cautioned the so-called educated integrationist Negroes time and time again about the perils of integration. Yes many of them were racist, but they understood that Negroes were about to make a fatal mistake.
Tray
July 31st, 2009
9:21 am
@EVIL REPUBLICANS…(blah blah blah)-Why would i vote republican? Well, i may be poor white trash, but unlike you, i have a plan and more determination than you can imagine, I’ll be that rich guy one day, because all you Democrats need someone to lurch money from!
Aquagirl
July 31st, 2009
9:22 am
Maybe there would have been a more honest, open debate on health care if Obama hadn’t been so busy with the financial collapse. Cleaning up Dubya’s droppings requires a mighty big shovel. Plus, there is no honest and open debate when Republicans are more concerned about a “Waterloo” for the president. Nice to see such naked honesty from Jim DeMint(ed), why pretend the subject is health care?
Side note: Charles = living proof health care reform MUST include a mental health benefit.
No Fat Chicks!
July 31st, 2009
9:25 am
If taxing fatties’ food will keep some of it out of their chubby Jimmy-Dean-sausage fingers, senators, pass that bill!
"Charles", The Original
July 31st, 2009
9:28 am
Today, the so-called educated integrationist Negroes are more evil than southerners were sixty years ago. I think it’s God’s doings. White southerners have taken on the Godly temperament of Negroes and Negroes have taken on the devilish temperament of white Southerners sixty years ago.
Brad Steel
July 31st, 2009
9:30 am
So Price’s contribution to health care reform is a pork pie for the insurance industry?
Well, at least its not the typical republican contribution of “no” or the other republican health care plan: Plan on Not Getting Sick.
clyde
July 31st, 2009
9:33 am
Notice the words”consumer governed” in the cooperative, not for profit health care mentioned by Mr.Smith and self?Not insurance governed nor government sponsored,but ‘CONSUMER GOVERNED”.
Jake
July 31st, 2009
9:33 am
jcon – It’s in there. They want to create a health commission headed by a health czar to curtail future Medicare increases. With 70 million baby boomers about to enter the Medicare system in a couple of years, how do you think the czar/comission will curtail Medicare costs?
Tray
July 31st, 2009
9:34 am
Let us list what the government RUNS SUCCESSFULLY:
Schools-Nope
Medicare/Medicaid-Nope
Social Security-NOPE
(recently)Cash for Clunkers-NOPE
…And you people really want them to take ove rand run our healthcare?? When i just demostrated above that they can’t run anything successfully!!
What’s worse is that we actually have people in government (like our pres!)who do not look over legal documents before signing them, 1000 pages or not-that’s ACTING STUPIDLY!
"Charles", The Original
July 31st, 2009
9:41 am
Aquagirl is just another silly woman.
Negroes just don’t get it. Professor Gates believes that he should be afforded the privileges of a white person. Yet white people have institutions capable of sustaining the lives of white people. Black people can’t sustain their lives without the assistance of white people. How can the two people expect the same privileges or equal protection and treatment under the law?
I appreciate white people for allowing me the opportunity to work for them until I was able to establish a business of my own. I wish other Negroes had that outlook and attitude.
Matilda
July 31st, 2009
9:43 am
U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Roswell) drafts the national health care plan that Congress should consider. Says you because he’s your buddy. Or so you think. He’s USING you, like he uses all the other local media hacks who think he’s their buddy. You don’t think he actually sees you as an EQUAL, do you? Haha! “Darnit Jim, I’M A DOCTOR!” Power & money care about power and money, and your fortune is a tiny dribble next to his overflowing bucket. “Thanks for the years of faithful support, sucker.”
Tax credits and deductions give consumers money to purchase medical coverage in the private sector, shopping across state lines. GREAT! Oh, well, except for all those people to whom the insurance companies REFUSE coverage. Flat out. (Been there myself.) Dr. Price’s prescription for THAT common malady? A vague, non-commital reference to something socialized. Nothing to see here, folks. Move right along.
One vital feature, missing from the Democrats’ plans, are provisions to curtail excessive medical malpractice awards. One feature never included in any Republican discussion is the collective raping of doctors by insurance companies who reap record profits by doing so. It’s not the occasional mutilated patient killing medical practices, it’s the insurance companies with whom Dr. Price frolicks between the sheets and in random hot tubs. (Oh yes, his secrets are not entirely secret….)
It is a national policy calamity that a more open and honest congressional debate didn’t occur. AGREED! That should have happened years ago. Why DID the Republicans shut down every attempt to have that debate? I smell a column idea, Mr. Wooten!
Jackie
July 31st, 2009
9:45 am
@Charles
If you were a servant of God, YOU would provide means and methods for those young Negroes that are causing ALL those social problems with the rape and pillage of society that you purport they perpetuate.
I wonder if those that you purport hurt society most have come close to the carnage the Bernard Madoffs of the world left us?
When do you step forward and help those poor souls with your godly benevolence and astute observational skills?
I contend that you are a fraud and have neither the inclination nor the ability to provide anything positive to anyone. Further you only provide flatulence to a social-economic problem.
"Charles", The Original
July 31st, 2009
9:46 am
White people were not born to meet the needs of Negroes via their institutions. The basic needs of Negroes should be met by the institutions of lazy minded so-called educated integrationist Negroes.
"Charles", The Original
July 31st, 2009
9:51 am
It appears that Jackie has an inclination to maintain control of her Negroes. And the idea of integration gives her the opportunity to do just that.
Jake
July 31st, 2009
9:51 am
Tray which part of “public option” don’t you understand? Theoretically, no one will be forced into government run health care, it will just exist as an option to privately run health care. If it isn’t cheaper or better run, don’t opt into it.
NOMAD
July 31st, 2009
10:00 am
Can someone explain to me why the Democrats in Congress are trying their best to ram a healthcare plan that, according to a recent WSJ/NBC poll, 47% of American’s think is a bad idea?
I thought that it was government for the people by the people. If the people think it is a bad idea, shouldn’t Congress listen to them and make needed changes?
NOMAD
George American
July 31st, 2009
10:01 am
“Charles” you might want to add that if an Africa-American cannot find work as a integrationist, criminal or a mongrel, they can apply democrat funded ward of the state programs so they can get free housing in government-owned apartments, free food with food stamps and free medical care with medicaid. There is lots of other free government stuff too.
No wonder none of them have a real job.
Diogenes
July 31st, 2009
10:06 am
Good morning, Jim,
First question: What do you mean by an “excessive malpractice award”? I haven’t seen one yet that I thought was excessive, and I’ve seen a lot that weren’t even close to compensatory.
Second question: Do you think a 10% tax on “fattening food” is enough? It seems to me that it needs to be 50% or more. Most of that money could be used to pay for health care. We might also curb the epidemic of obesity in the process.
Brad Steel
July 31st, 2009
10:07 am
NOMAD,
If polls and public opinion ran the government, we’d still have colored-only bathrooms in Georgia. Let me clue you in:
the electorate is dumber than congress.
Michael H. Smith
July 31st, 2009
10:13 am
For some reason I can’t respond to clyde. What gives AJC? More of that objective journalism at play?
What’s to fear, people choosing something you might oppose?
"Charles", The Original
July 31st, 2009
10:14 am
George American,
The so-called educated integrationist Negroes doesn’t want them to have real jobs. The so-called educated integrationist Negroes want to keep controversy going between white and black people while in the interim, a third entity steal power from white people.
The so-called educated integrationist Negroes doesn’t support the interest of the masses of Negroes. They support the interest of the third entity.
sharecropper
July 31st, 2009
10:17 am
I can’t believe Wooten actually wrote something I agree with, so I have to rethink my position. But being empowered to shop — honestly shop — for health insurance, vs. the current, for instance, RX plans, would be good. Either I must be wrong or Wooten is wrong.
Jake
July 31st, 2009
10:17 am
Diogenes – What’s almost always excssive is the 30-70% of the judgment that goes to the blood suckin ambulance chaser instead of the victim/victim’s family. Of course the Dems won’t touch that because the ambulance chasers are some of their biggest contributors.
EVIL REPUBLICANS TIME IS UP
July 31st, 2009
10:21 am
TRAY FUNNY HOW YOU REDNECKS POINT OUT DEMOCRAPS BEING ON WELFARE,BUT THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE ON WELFARE THE 70% ARE REDNECK WHITE WOMEN,SINCE THERE ARE NOT MANY BLACK PEOPLE IN STATES LIKE WYOMING UTAH NORTH AND SOUTH DAKOTA MINN IOWA MAINE ARIZONA NEVADA OREGON STATE OF WASHINGTON,OK NEBRASKA NEW HAMPSHIRE AND NEW MEXICO,PLUS YOU DID`NT HEAR ANYTHING ABOUT WELFARE FOR THE RICH WHEN THE REPUBLICAN CROOKS WERE IN OFFICE,BUSH AND CHENEY GAVE WELFARE CHECKS TO THEIR OWN COMPANIES,BUT YOU RACIST OVERLOOK ALL THE CRIME A REDNECK GOP DOES! REAL CRIMINAL VALUES YOU CAN COUNT ON BY THE GOP,AND ALSO I`M A INDEPENDENT VOTER AND THINKER,DEMOCRAPS OR EVIL REPUBLICANS NEVER THINK FOR ME TRAY!
Got Paranoia?
July 31st, 2009
10:21 am
Michael H. Smith,
Posting to a blog does not make you a journalist! The AJC has not initiated a conspiracy against you. No one really cares about what you have to say.
Tray
July 31st, 2009
10:23 am
@Jake,
That’s the problem with Dems, Jake, they don’t look further down the road than their own intentions. The ‘public (government) option’ will put the other options out of business. First off, please address is as it is-the government plan, because there will be no option, that’s one of B.O’s illusions.
1)the govt plan does not need to make profit to compete, the other plans do.
2)since no profit is needed, services will be cheaper, thus taking customers away from other ‘options’.
3)once the other ‘options’ start losing customers and thus profit, they WILL HAVE TO CLOSE.
4)after they all close, WHERE’S THE OPTION??
On top of that, if this plan were so good, how come the politicians are written OUT OF IT!
If this plan really were the answer, ALL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS, down to post office workers, should eb on this government plan. But they know it won’t work, which is why the politicians aren’t a pert of it!
George American
July 31st, 2009
10:26 am
“Charles”,
The integrationist keep them away from real jobs and enslaved with the meager government handouts. Why would they get a job if they can gets it for free? That’s how they keeps them away from the jobs. They won’t get off the couch for anything other than going to the mailbox to see if their check is in.
Michael H. Smith
July 31st, 2009
10:27 am
No paranoia on my part but the journalist at the AJC must have paranoia if they fear objective opinions being expressed on their blogs when the comment is decent, clean and does not express hate in any form.
As to who cares about what is said by whom that is completely up to the real experts on journalism to decide – the AJC readers.
Tray
July 31st, 2009
10:35 am
@EVIL REPUBS..
Dude, give me abreak with your racist crap. here YOU ARE bringing it up, not me. Funny how that’s all you have. And no, whites aren’t the only crooks. Let me break it down for you:
White-Big time million dollar corporate greed schemes, child molestors, some racists.
Blacks-Murder you for your shoes, most rapists, most petty theft, B&E’s, some rapes
mexicans-theft, rapists, child molestors (less than whites).
Betwen you and me, I’d rather get ripped off by my white boss and lose my job, than get murdered or raped…
Alex Neill
July 31st, 2009
10:41 am
…except that in Jesse’s case it was more like, Step-Up-and-Fetch-It…
Matilda
July 31st, 2009
10:42 am
Tray, I’m sure your 10:23 contains all the answers I could ever need, but I’m a little slow this morning, so please help me out. Where’s the option you propose for people with pre-existing conditions who are currently REFUSED coverage by competitive, private, for-profit companies? I know you’re not telling these nice folks to eat doo-doo and die, because that’s what Kaiser already told them. You’re FAR too fine a man to stand for THAT! Please clarify.
Jake
July 31st, 2009
10:45 am
Tray – That’s a good argument for the not-for-profit co-op. I’d just like my health care dollars to go for my health care, or, at worse, mine and part of some less fortunate person’s. I don’t want to also pay for insurance company profits and ambulance chasers.
Michael H. Smith
July 31st, 2009
10:47 am
It is obvious clyde, certain individuals who control this blog will never allow any serious honest public discussion on Co Op healthcare and other alternative ideas for meeting the needs to fund individual healthcare.
Sad but true, either we’ll get status quo medicine or socialized medicine.
Shawny
July 31st, 2009
10:48 am
Understand this. Americans want healthcare to cost less. They want their current plan to be less expensive and cover more. They do not want the govt to run it.
There are people that do not have healthcare as a choice. The refuse to pay for it under the premise that the premiums are more than they would pay for the care itself. I wish I could do this with auto insurance, as I always pay and almost never collect.
Then there are those that do not have insurance. Some are people that do not have a job that provides it and cant afford it (both, not either/or). And then there are the illegals that dont have it but are getting it for free at hospitals at a very expensive rate to the rest of us that pay in.
There are many things that can be done to cut overall costs so that we can get some sort of coverage for the very few that dont have it but wish they could without major overhaul. But that is not what the liberals want. And the reason they want govt to step in is simple. It is another control of a large flow of money. In politics, you can always follow the flow of funds to see where their “interests” lie.
It is the same with tobacco, oil, the elderly, the environment, you name it. Show me the money and I will show you the corruption.
Tray
July 31st, 2009
10:54 am
Matilda…I belive in helping those out who have issues. But where’s the fine line?
I’m no Mr. Moneybags, I live paycheck to paycheck as well. How are these people with pre-existing conditions my FINANCIAL responsibility? My taxes are going to increase to pay for issues that i don’t care about. Yes, i am FAR too fine a man, but when my child develops problems that i can’t afford, the only person who will help me will be myself!! Bad luck happens to everyone, but it’s not everyone’s responsibility to help others. I donate what i can, when i can-that’s the help i provide.
HEALTHCARE IS NOT A RIGHT, IT’S A PRIVILEDGE!! When you need clean drinking water, is it free? No! When you watch TV, is it free? NO! When you go see a doctor is it free?? NO!
None of those items listed above are my responsibility to provide for you!
That doesn’t mean I’m evil, racist, don’t care. I means i can’t afford to care, and damn straight i will provide for me and my family before i provide for anyone else!
Tray
July 31st, 2009
10:56 am
Jake,
There are definately issues and problems with healthcare. The best way to fix it is to analyze every possible scenario of what can be changed, and changed the few problems.
When pushing TOTAL REFORM OF THE SYSTEM through in just a few days without even reading what’s in the bill-That’s just ACTING STUPIDLY. They have done no research on where the real problems lay, and to fix this will take time. The only reason B.O. and Pelosi and her ilk want this passed through fast is exactly that-to pull a fast one on the Americans!
And STILL NO ONE CAN ANSWER WHY IF
Tray
July 31st, 2009
10:58 am
THE PLAN IS SO GOOD, THE POLITICIANS AREN’T A PART OF IT.
(I’ll give you a hint-they want something better than shi**y healthcare!)
Michael H. Smith
July 31st, 2009
10:58 am
Would you support funding healthcare subsidies on a sliding scale for individuals via using all sin taxes, a portion of gaming proceeds throughout the country and the establishment of a healthcare lottery Tray as opposed to having to pay additional taxes?
Matilda
July 31st, 2009
11:03 am
Thanks for clarifying that, Tray. I see now. If something’s not YOUR problem, then you don’t care, and no one can make you. Further, you vehemently oppose the solution of any problem that’s not yours. If your child got lukemia right after you lost your job, and you had to give up everything you’ve ever worked for your whole life and sacrifice your home and your other children’s future to pay for it, then you’d expect no less than the same “tough toenais” from your fellow citizens. Got it.
Tray
July 31st, 2009
11:04 am
Almost, but even the ’sin taxes’ and gaming proceeds won’t even begin to pay off what we’ll need!
You want a plan, let me type it up-it’s shorter and probably more effective than you think! Please keep an open mind because the only way to save our future is to save the people who will be in charge of our future…
Steve
July 31st, 2009
11:10 am
Why do Republicans think tax breaks are the answer to any problem? And why does anyone think a tax break will result in everyone who doesn’t have health insurance will suddenly go get it?
Michael H. Smith
July 31st, 2009
11:10 am
True Tray but shouldn’t everyone have to pay something for their own well-being and healthcare needs? It would seem if they didn’t it would only promote unhealthy lifestyles and more irresponsibility.
Tray
July 31st, 2009
11:13 am
You want a government plan that will work?
Provide healthcare, AMAZING COSTLY HEALTHCARE, for all children up to 18. After 18, you’re an adult, you’re on your own and responsible for yourself, however…
After all the amazing care you have received, you shouldn’t be a smoke, you shouldn’t be obese…technically, you should be the healthies kid alive. That would free up thousands of dollars in families not having to pay for ‘family plans’, every plan would be the cheaper ‘employee + 1′, no more family plans because all kids are already covered.
Secondly, (almost like in John Q with Denzel) any issues children have that may ‘evolve’ into worse complications would be identified by this GREAT care and resolved immediately. Now they won’t be in and out of the hospital as an adult.
Thirdly, if there is a medical chronic issue that the government can’t fix as a child, when that child turns 18, they can receive a voucher toward payment of medical expenses. This weeds out the phoneys because the government has an 18 year file of these chronic issues, so they know they exist.
Take care of the children, that’s #1. Once you’re of legal age, you’re on your own.
booger
July 31st, 2009
11:22 am
The main thing that bothers me about the whole Health Care debate is the way the debate has been framed.
To begin, Obama and most of those who want a much larger govt. hand in Health Care are fond of saying “Health Care In America is broken”. Now I have seen things which were broken, and this is not one of them. It does have some problems, primarily in accessability and cost, but the quality of care is unsurpassed. They are fond of citing the WHO ranking of US Health care as 37th among industrialized countries, but if you read the report, the only things which make it that low are cost and access which they weigh very heavily. The debate should focus on those things only. By saying the whole system is broken they are able to propose much deeper and wider ranging changes with much more Govt. involvement than is needed.
The second Issue the reformers have latched on to is the insurance industry. They are presented as evil, money grabbing villians who must be contained. I have never worked for this industry, but in my job, and in my personal life, I have used their services and continue to do so. I have never had one problem with the insurance companies I use, and I have had claims. To compare the quick and courteous service from these companies with service from Govt. agencies is eyeopening. The biggest problem with them is that they refuse to insure high risk clients. Once again, fix that problem don’t bring down an entire industry.
Michael H. Smith
July 31st, 2009
11:24 am
Tray
July 31st, 2009
11:13 am
If that was direct at me, the answer is not only but HECK NO!
I want consumer owned and operated Co Op healthcare plans, where we control the care, the money and the responsibilities with as little government involvement and reliance on business to furnish healthcare as possible. It is the only way I see that healthcare could ever be truly accessible, affordable and portable for every individual (U.S. Citizens and LEGAL ALIENS only) without bankrupting the country.
Take care of the children, that’s #1. Once you’re of legal age, you’re on your own.
Exactly, the world owes no one anything. Too bad government employees didn’t get the message at home or from their teachers in school like most of us did before the gimme, gimme crowd took over.
Got Paranoia?
July 31st, 2009
11:30 am
Here is a fine example of a self-congratulatory oxymoron from Michael H. Smith:
“real experts on journalism to decide – the AJC readers.
ha ha a million laughs. AJC readers are experts on the Real Housewives of Atlanta and American Idol. That’s about it.
eagle scout
July 31st, 2009
11:32 am
Michael H. Smith .. You say “Exactly, the world owes no one anything.”
Mr. Smith, is that to say that veterans who have served the country are not owed or deserve medical coverage?
How pathetic!
Tray
July 31st, 2009
11:38 am
THE VETS GET COVERAGE!
And YES THE WORLD OWES YOU NOTHING!! if it did ‘eagle scout’, then where is the world handout booth that i can go to to get what’s owed to me?
Tray
July 31st, 2009
11:39 am
And still no one can answer why if this plan is so good the politicians aren’t a part of it…
Michael H. Smith
July 31st, 2009
11:44 am
eagle scout
July 31st, 2009
11:32 am
I would say YOU are truly the pathetic one if YOU think veterans didn’t EARN what they receive. The expression the world owes no one anything does not apply to what someone earns and veterans would likely be the first to again step forward and make whatever sacrifice would be needed for well being of this country. Losing three days pay or taking a layoff until they could find work wouldn’t be anything compared to what many of them have already gladly given up.
You are truly one sick thinking person.
eagle scout
July 31st, 2009
11:46 am
Tray …. I have no idea what you are talking about.
I know the veterans get medical coverage…I happen to be one!
I was responding to another blogger who stated “The world owes no one anything”
The U.S. does owe it’s veterans…Mr Smith per his statement says that’s not so.
Capice Tray!
Michael H. Smith
July 31st, 2009
11:48 am
Tray
July 31st, 2009
11:39 am
That question answers itself. If everyone on the Federal payroll was forced to receive all their healthcare from this Public Option it would never get to the floor of the House or the Senate for a vote.
Tray
July 31st, 2009
11:53 am
OK Eagle, the the US owes the troops. The world owes nothing.
MH Smith-you and i both know it would never get to the floor. How dare those politicians bring themselves down to my level…
Michael H. Smith
July 31st, 2009
11:57 am
eagle scout
July 31st, 2009
11:46 am
Nice try sicko but Tray didn’t say people that actually EARN something don’t deserve to receive what they’ve already EARNED. Veterans have faced cuts before and most that I know personally never cried like some of these government gimme, gimme workers that feel they are owed full regular pay for government cut-backs in services due to economic conditions that everyone else is forced to accept with a smile.
You are truly sick.
eagle scout
July 31st, 2009
11:58 am
Michael H. Smith….You didn’t say that …. Your comment was “owes NO ONE anything” When one says NO ONE … I would expect that’s what they actually mean NO ONE.
Not to hard to understand is it Mr. Smith?
Reconcilliation is a Comin' Baby.
July 31st, 2009
11:58 am
Coops are never licensed and very little tangible is known about them. Big pharma and big insurance will spend millions next month and they’ll lose. Price’s plan does nothing to stop insurance companies from dropping insureds when they get sick–and it happened to the tune of 20,000 from the Big 3 insurance companies the last 5 years. Price’s plan does nothing to recover the 400 million bucks United Health was ordered to pay physicians because of crass overbilling after a class action suit was successfuly filed against them. Wooten knows as little about medicine as he knows about the Reconciliatoin law in the Senate we’ll smack the pubtards with.severely limit access to the Public Option by (1) separating it from the rest of the market by placing it inside an “exchange,” and (2) limiting access to the “exchange(s)” in the initial years.
Matilda
July 31st, 2009
11:59 am
Somebody sounds bitter….
Reconcilliation is a Comin' Baby.
July 31st, 2009
12:04 pm
Mr. Wooten crowed about the power of the Blue Dogs. The Blue Dogs went down late yesterday and early today as I predicted. A public option passed the Energy and Commerce committee. You believe Wooten and you will believe predictions like President McCain and VP Moron Palin won the White House. Except they didn’t. They got crushed. Wooten talking about what will happen in Congress is like Britney Spears handling patients in an ER.
By a vote of 35 to 24, Democrats defeated a Republican effort to eliminate a section of the bill that would create the public health insurance option.
“Our constituents should have the choice of a public plan,” said Representative Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut. “There is nothing to be scared of here. No one will be forced into the public plan.”
Free Market Woman
July 31st, 2009
12:08 pm
The free market can take care of the military as well as veterans needs if the government will just get out of the way and let the free market work!
Andy Rooney
July 31st, 2009
12:09 pm
Ever notice that in that picture of Wooten that he has a bunch of big teeth and no lower lip?
Reconcilliation is a Comin' Baby.
July 31st, 2009
12:11 pm
Here’s how the Republicans will get crushed. They already got crushed soundly in the Energy Committee that shapes what the House will pass. The Tri and Progressives in the house have 53-55 votes to override anything the Blue Dogs are Republitards who try to turn tricks for their johns the insurance companies and big Pharma.ave
In the Senate, Reconciliation will rule the day and that only takes 51 votes and the Dems have them in spades to crush Enzi and the rest of the Blue Dogs there. Kennedy and Byrd will also definitely vote and the dems could have 60 if they needed them.
Ole Wooten talked about how terrible it’d be for his witless mouseketters if 60 happened. It happened baaby, and although some in the “60″ would vote against the dems on certain bills, that’s not haippening on health care, and Kennedy and Byrd will come in to vote.
Even if it did, the Dems simply will go to Reconciliation where by law they only need 51 votes and they have ‘em.
Michael H. Smith
July 31st, 2009
12:17 pm
eagle scout
July 31st, 2009
11:58 am
Knucklehead, “the world owes no one anything” is an expression that means exactly what I said it means.
Reconcilliation is a Comin' Baby.
July 31st, 2009
12:17 pm
The free market has screwed the veterans and their wives for years. Most Iraqi war vets who need significant health care can’t get it in the VA system and they are all fighting for care.
The free market has kicked 20,000 hard working premium paying Americans or their employers out of health insurance from the big 3 in the past 5 years simply because they committed the sin of filing a claim because they got sick.
Thousands of women with infiltrating ductal carcinoma who need mastectomy, chemo, lab, path, imaging bills paid with the surgery costing $35,000 and up depending on location go into bankruptcy.
The status quo has health care costs growing at the rate of 300% since 1980 (remember Altzheimer Reagan who was senile while in office and whose predictions have proved flat wrong) and the economy has grown at one-third that rate.
So much for “free market.” The credit default disaster that sent us to the brink of depression was the Republitard free market baby. It turned to pure sh_t. The pubtards’ deregulation drove the economy into a ditch.
Reconcilliation is a Comin' Baby.
July 31st, 2009
12:22 pm
The free market has been a total failure as the pubtards drove the economy to a ditch with deregulation of credit default swaps.
Michael H. Smith
July 31st, 2009
12:22 pm
If you want socialism then go live in a socialist country, pseudonym a.k.a. brucie.
crazy joe
July 31st, 2009
12:22 pm
Is that nut charles still around?! He hasn’t been beaten by a cop yet?!!! I’m amazed!! Such uppityness from a “supposed” negro, should’ve cost him an azz whippin by now!!!
II'M MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU
July 31st, 2009
12:22 pm
That’s why I do all of my post in bold despite how obnoxious it obviously is!!!!
OR IN ALL CAPS. THAT’S OBNOXIOUS TOO!!!
Free Market Woman
July 31st, 2009
12:25 pm
Sorry Mr. Reconciliation, but it was the government’s interference in the free market that caused your litany of grievances. Get educated to reality and read some Ayn Rand.
They ued to call me crazy joe now they call me the batman!
July 31st, 2009
12:25 pm
Wooten STILL ALIVE!!! My god!!! Does he have a pact with the devil or something?? Wooten, are you really a vampire sent to drain the life, (and common sense) out of man? Some of your pro Gop, Pro GOP, PRO GOP, posts are getting (snarc) “dumb and dumber”!!! Oh well, old man, go back to your crypt, the sun came back out, until it’s time for you to drain more brain cells from the minds of “thinking” individuals…….
They ued to call me crazy joe now they call me the batman!
July 31st, 2009
12:32 pm
That free market woman is a nut job!!! Speaking of nuts, hey lady, ate any good not regulated peanut butter sandwiches lately? I bet that free market infected peanut butter tastes reallllll good huh? This Barfs for you!!!!
Matilda
July 31st, 2009
12:38 pm
“Get educated to reality and read some Ayn Rand.”
HAHAHAHA! HAHA! HAHAHAHA! *Stop, please!* HAHAHAHAHA!
crazy joe
July 31st, 2009
12:38 pm
Tray, no worries. When you get picked up for tax fraud, credit fraud, sleeping with your daughters, child porno, or just for being stupid; you WILL get raped. Ever watched that Richard Speck video of him in prison? Did you see what he ended up with? THAT will be you your first week in the can — you’ll be traded for some cigarettes, (1 pack), and some dental floss. Start practicing your blowing skills now!!!
WBK
July 31st, 2009
12:39 pm
When will it stop? Liberals really hate freedom! They are obsessed telling people how to live.
I do not want to eat healthy! I like drinking beer! I like hunting, fishing, and golfing! I like greasy burgers and fries! And I do not want to go to college to become brainwashed by the Professor Gates.
Let me live free! I will not bother you SO you do not bother me. If I get sick I will pay the bill or die. But leave me alone! I want to live free. Can you liberals understand that?