1. doesn’t require any imagination. Youngest-first treatment and the concept of life-years saved has already been well documented and approved by many close to this administration (http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/PIIS0140673609601379.pdf). The details of this bill leave it pretty wide open for shifts in the personal or political agendas of the few that would be overseeing everyone’s care.

This isn’t new stuff. Despotism in all forms has existed since people have had need to be governed. It was exactly this type of collection of power into small groups (or a single person) that the Constitution of the United States was designed to avoid.

You are absolutely right. And all of us who are boomers should clearly understand that this is what we aging Americans are going to be getting for health care. We are a large voting block, and someone needs to engage our power on this issue fast.

According to SEC. 201. ESTABLISHMENT OF HEALTH INSURANCE EXCHANGE; OUTLINE OF DUTIES; DEFINITIONS, private insurance will continue:

(a) Establishment- There is established within the Health Choices Administration and under the direction of the Commissioner a Health Insurance Exchange in order to facilitate access of individuals and employers, through a transparent process, to a variety of choices of affordable, quality health insurance coverage, including a public health insurance option.

If the bill banned private insurance, the Health Insurance Exchange wouldn’t have to say “including a public health insurance option.”

The Gov’t wants to cut health care costs…how about not allowing people to file frivolous law suit against doctors and hospitals for using FDA approved drugs and later finding out they could have caused a problem. (i.e. Levaquin, Trasylol) I keep seeing ads on TV to encourage people to call to make a claim. If you stop this, maybe the doctors and hospitals would not have to charge so much to cover malpractice insurance.

The current system works because people are taken care of by the surplus generated by the system. I work in a hospital, and in the case of many who cannot pay, the bill is eaten by the hospital. That’s out of the goodness of their hearts.
You are advocating that the govt grab them by the neck and shake it out of them. Last guy I tried that on died. (Shhh. Don’t tell anybody!)
We cannot afford Canadacare. We can’t afford UKCare. Right now, we can’t afford government without adding another thing! You want to pile on another trillion? You say that you can’t afford care after retirement, take a look at your check. Find the FITW. Multiply by .5, then take that times 40 years, then add 5-6% for interest. If you had that in your pocket, would you be able to afford care?
Everybody is trying to “fix” this problem the wrong way. One major reason for the high cost is administrative costs associated with DRGs and Medical Necessity rules. Guess where those came from?

What happened to people working hard and paying there own way. Im unemployeed right now and it would greatly help me because i need a shoulder operation but it would hurt our economy. We have to think of whats best for the countries finances. If the dollar is worth more. Then these people have more value to buy insurance right?
Two Voices | Two Guys

If you read this thread you will understand the ranking ued by the WHO, we are number one with premature birth survival rates, the reason the other countries are higher on the list is becaue they do not count a child as being a live birth ,depending on the country, for 24 hours to 7 days after it is born, they also do not consider a child born prior to 25 weeks gestation to be alive same for children born under 18 ounces, they don’t count those dead babies against their live birth rates they just let them die. We save those children’s lives everyday.

The United States HAS THE LONGEST LIFE EXPECTANCY IN THE WORLD, when you subtract car wrecks and murders, we drive more and we are more violent, that has nothing to do with health care.

Lets just get straight to the point. We should work on fixing the health care system we have by correcting all of it’s flaws that put us where we are. Life in general is not fair, but it doesn’t help to have so many people out there abusing the system in every aspect. (Medicaid abuse, to rediculous lawsuits) We are better off keeping the governement from making our health choices for us and paying for our healtcare out of pocket, than having the bill pass with horrible choice and health choices forced on us and still paying for insufficent healthcare through taxes on things like food that we need too. Sounds like over kill to me. Paying double for electic and food to pay for healthcare that is dictated to you without choice. No Thank YOU!

Mandatory Auto Insurance Really Raises Rates
Monday, September 24, 1990
NYTimes

UninsuredDrivers Create Other Kinds of Wreckage sggests that enforcing mandatory automobile insurance laws has the favorable impact of reducing auto insurance rates. Every study on compulsory auto liability insurance has demonstrated that such laws accelerate the cost of such insurance. Enforcement increases the cost of administration to taxpayers and is ineffective.

The writer is retired president of the Government Employees Insurance Company, or Geico.

Link to complete story:http://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/24/opinion/l-mandatory-auto-insurance-really-raises-rates-413590.html

Thank you for understanding the limited powers of our constitution. Please continue to teach them with clarity. Great post.

You’re kidding right? This bill is being rammed through without true consideration. If it such a good plan, then why isn’t Congress and the President rushing to enroll? I don’t think President Obama cares about the American public as much as cares about his own agenda.

that graph is from the year 2000, that trust fund does not exist it is simply IOUs from other branches of government. The trust fund did exist till 83 when they changed the law and decided the government could borrow and spend the money as long as they pay it back later which they have not done yet., during the late 90’s the last of the trust fund was emptied to pay down the deficit, are government does not consider money it owes its self part of the deficit.

FYI:
1. God doesn’t have any “fellow man”.
2. God said He who doesn’t work – doesn’t eat.
3. He said if there is a person “TRULY in need” – help them.

I’d be the first to help the needy – NOT the lazy.
The Facist dems continue to include skewed numbers which include the illegals, the young who typically don’t buy insurance anyway (invulnerable mentality), and those who prefer not to have health insurance due to religious beliefs, or those like myself, who choose alternative natural medicine.

Is there a health care problem in the US? Absolutely!
Should we force insurance coverage on every living soul in America? Absolutely NOT.

OH, and yes, I’m a God fearing Christian.

Who are these people who don’t have access to health care?
Besides hospital emergency care each state has a low income health care program that will cover an entire family if need be or just the children. Depending on the situation it can be free or adjusted for your income. I’m sure the States would like to give this cost up to the Federal Government but this net is already out there for people to use. Nobody is talking about the options that already exist therefore why the need for National coverage. Who is going to gain from this “change”, I can guarantee that it is not “we the people” but big business as usual.

I’m guessing you are a product of the American public school system and have never learned anything about economics. Single payer means there is one provider who pays: the federal govt. The taxpayers fund the federal govt. I don’t want to pay for YOUR health care!

I’m perfectly fine with a nearly negligible tax on soft drinks. – why aren’t you? Big deal.

America has created more technical advances in the last 200 years the the rest of the world had accomplished in 10,000 years. You have to wonder how that happened, it happened because people were able to own what they created and profit from the fruits of their labor, It it is hoad to be motivated to create something when you will gain nothing from your efforts and anything you create can be taken away from you by the king at any time.

Right or wrong Most people are motivated by what they can get for them self. If their was no private medical research and no profits to be made the best and brightest would follow the investment money into some other type or research were money could be made.

At its start, in 1966, Medicare cost $3 billion. The House Ways and Means Committee estimated that Medicare would cost only about $ 12 billion by 1990 (a figure that included an allowance for inflation). This was a supposedly “conservative” estimate. But in 1990 Medicare actually cost $107 billion.
Estimates on the conservative side for National Health care are 1.6 trillion…multiply by 10 and you get a much closer estimate of its cost in 10 years

You already have it, it’s called the ER. Evidence suggests (per the CBO- Congress’ own accounting agency) that this bill will do NOTHING to control costs, only make them worse. No one disputes, especially conservatives, that we need reform, however THIS BILL is a simple power grab by the executive branch to increase their power over we the people, and erase any liberties we have left. Once they have our lives in their hands, they can function with impunity. If you want to be a slave to government, go ahead, but leave my freedoms alone.

Not everything you see on “House, M.D.” is real life.

If you can’t afford a diagnostic test, NO hospital will give it to you if you have ZERO money. They may be willing to negotiate from their normal rates, but unless you need an emergency X-ray to save your life from a gun-shot wound, theres no way you’re getting a free procedure.

If you can’t afford medicine, YOU CANT GET IT. Sorry. There are a heck of a lot of old people that choose to buy food over buying medicine, and even more young people (especially college age)

You said it best, “You are making stuff up”. You really are. Go talk to real life people.

I am totally against the healthcareless bill. This will not only cost more jobs by taxing small and medium size businesses but will levy fines on anyone who does not want to sign on to this obsurd idea. This mandating healthcare with a threat of $1000 penalty should be unconstitutional. What gives Obama the right to tell me that I have to have insurance or a public option? This is only a prelude to future loss of liberty and freedom.

Who developed the vaccine? It was a for profit company. Wyeth was making dryvax 50 years before the WHO had anything to do with it. Again the government had nothing to do with the cure.

Based on the information you were given you came to a logical conclusion, but sadly the people that gave the information were lying in order to manipulate you, as can be seen by our prior discussion. If I had been told that only the government had ever cured a disease
and that diseases or no longer cured just treated and that most medical research funding came from the government and that the medical industry is in a conspiracy to keep people sick I would have the same opinion you had. You can not come to a correct conclusion without the correct supporting facts. Many types of cancer have been cured in the last 20-30 years, but in reality almost no viral disease has ever been cured, polio was not cured it was eradicated no one that had polio ever recovered or was cured, same for the AIDS.

This is a very bad deal comrade.

Without the profit motive we would not have a cure for polio.

You hae to look at this in more depth. When the lines get long- such as Massachusetts 49.6 day wait for a primary care visit, MORE PEOPLE WILL GO TO ER, rather than wait. Also, those who don’t will incur much higher costs when many of their illnesses have had complications before they see a doctor at all. I have many years of clinical and managed care experience, and I guarantee you it will happen. You can’t buy the simplistic garbage being spouted about costs. Reality is reality and the administration’s garbage is not reality.

I hope all people on Medicaid understand that the coverage they have now, will also only get worse as a result of this bill.

You can also get the same private insurance. whether he fought in an “illegal war” is purely your opinion. Even if he did fight in iraq or afganistan he still deserves to be taken care of by the system, same as all vetrans. I think they deserve it more than the leetches we got in our government sucking the nation’s wealth dry, serving nothing more than thier own self intrests. The vetrans of this country deserve to have everything they need as they gave everything to protect the rights and freedoms of all, wherever they may have fought. oh and another thing, the fact that it is a volunteer army makes everyone who joins and serves in times of conflict even more deserving in my opinion. I’m also wondering wether you want health care reform or free health care? because what they are offering now is not heathcare reform. It is a government takeover pure and simple.

Hmm, like the doctor we called on a holiday morning when our infant was sick? It took leaving a message and waiting a few minutes, but we had our answers within the hour.
When both of us got sick suddenly, we were able to get an appointment to be seen within two hours of making the call. It wasn’t with our regular doctor, but his office made all the arrangements for us, including having our records and insurance paperwork waiting for us at the other doctor’s office.
Doctors who believe in the free market also believe in customer service.

false, March or dimes paid for its distribution, and the The University of Pittsburgh was a private collage until 1966 they did not recieve government funding until then, (the vaccine was discovered in 52) Funding for the research came from The Mellon family those greedy business people that owned or ran the following companies; Mellon Bank, Gulf Oil, Alcoa, Koppers, Westinghouse, H.J. Heinz, Newsweek, U.S. Steel and General Motors.

In other works the government didn’t do crap to cure polio is was greedy people.

When will these people listen to those that they are making decisions for. I am not saying that health care doesn’t need to be fixed but why is a rushed solution throwing more money at the problem seem to be the new government policy on everything. Why don’t these people that are supposed to be representing us include their health care in this same system if it is so good and on that note their retirement as well. Until they have similar challenges that we do regarding these issues they solutions they come up with will only hurt our country and us in the end.

Until they start using some common sense nothing will every change.