Ted Kennedy's vacated seat, without a scandal of some kind causing it to be vacated, held for numerous years, immediately elected to a republican on the very next term. wow.
^^ I like that they were wanting to actually do SOMETHING about the broken healthcare system, but thats about all I liked about that bill. Wrong ideas carried out the wrong way. Something has to be done, but I think that needs to start with eliminating frivolous lawsuits.. and creating an open market in the healthcare system to allow competition, resulting in lower prices. If one asprin at the hospital didn't cost $15, maybe my girlfriend could actually afford to purchase healthcare.
The Health care bill was a huge carpet ride for allot of hidden bills and laws that bordered on if were not flat out unconstitutional. What bothers me is it took getting this administration elected into office to start actually discussing health care. America used to have one of the best health care systems in the world but it has been corrupted by managed care, lawyers, big insurance, medical and drug companies and of course lobby fed politicians. If you get sick in this country and are uninsured you better go to Canada because by the time you receive the bill you will be better off dead (Unless you are an illegal alien then you're covered)! My mother who is retired survived cancer if she gets sick again she will fall under the pre-existing condition clause and will have to pay out of pocket. I am self employed and the most affordable plan that I could find has a $10,000 deductible. Hospitals charge $7 per aspirin and $19 dollars per band aid on average. When I did have insurance my doctors offices would have the receptionists evaluating medical symptoms and prioritizing calls. If there is no medical reform you will see hard working middle class Americans going to Canada for more than just affordable pharmaceuticals and that is a sad sack of shit reality. The Republicans need to step up to the plate and address this with a reasonable medical reform bill if they want my vote again. This is an opportunity for them to really shine after two terms of the Bush administrations failure to address most anything regarding the American people which in turn caused the American people desperate for change, to look to socialism for answers. This county better get it's shit together fast because our enemies are becoming the sleeping giants that we used to be. In other words consider taking any Chinese lessons lately, might come in handy soon!
health care bill is barack's iraq.. a bill too far.. he needed to work on the simple things first, fix the economy, perhaps some energy independence issues that also had some green qualities, perhaps gotten some buy in from some republicans.. built some creds... instead he decides to fix health care once and for all, focus on carbon limits instead of energy independence, and handle the economy mostly by funding road and bridge projects so that the folks shoveling the asphalt and digging the ditches could afford to buy more colt 45 malt liquor and lotto tickets.. sorta like bush decided he could bring western style american democracy to a middle eastern tribal/clan based country... a country too far.. its time for some good ole common sense government.. and addressing the economy first.. my guess is we will just see more washington blither-blather... ole teddy be spinnng in his grave though... as to americans choosing socialism.. no.. they just wanted change and fresh breath of air after bush.. and obama gave a good speech and looked promising.. what they got was a bit more than they bargained for (what got obama in was the independents swinging over, not so much dems seeking socialism). obama swept in with his radical cadre and the radical old-hippy dems like pelosi and her fellow travelers that infest parts of congress took it as a sign to try to bring a worker's paradise to america under the careful management of chairman pelosi, comrade reid and similar minded politburo members.. as to healthcare being fubared and needing fixing. yes. indeed. had a guy i worked for, a white collar manager, in his early 60s. his wife had cancer. during the dotcom meltdown, he got laid off from my company. he couldnt get another job, he held on with cobra for what.. 18 months? after that he had to sell everything he had, including his home to take care of his wife.. they need to address this issues, and those not covered. they need to limit what they are trying to do to the really bad problems. fix one problem. see how it goes, then maybe fix another.. but no. they figured they could fix everything all at once and had to do it quick. and the result is they are gonna get their figures broken as the door slams shut, and the real problems that needed fixing probably wont get fixed at all.. same as it ever was.
Actually, there's nothing wrong with managed care, and in fact is has some pretty good proven long-term society benefits. The problem comes from people misunderstanding difference between Health Insurance Plans and Managed Care Plans, and using the terms interchangably. Also the problem is made worse by Health Insurance plans that have added Managed Care features to them. Health insurance is and should be exactly that; Insurance only. In-case-of. But too many people are expecting their insurance to also pay for managed care items, like physicals. Maintenance stuff. now hang on. I'm all for placing blame where it needs to go, but if you end up in a hospital instead of a clinic, and your condition can be remedied by an apsirin, and you don't have the ability to stop at a drug store and get a bottle of asprin for $4, instead of paying for a $7 single dose, then you're part of the healthcare problem too. I don't see that as being any different than paying $$$ for tires from a dealership instead of a tire salon or ordering online. You're not 'forced' into this arrangement. Its different, however, if you're using a government subsidized plan like medicare and get billed in this way, because you're not paying the bill. Taxpayers are and they are forced into it. Canadian meds are cheap because they are subsidized by their government. Also, Canada's R&D is really tiny compared to U.S. so those costs aren't a factor for them. The true ridiculousness of Obama and the Democrats predicament is their blatantly shutting out any Republican suggestions on the health care reform bill. Republicans HAVE been offering some very good suggestions and options to improve coverage and increase competitive forces to drive prices down. But the Democrats for the laste several months haven't even listened to them, and from their perspective, they didn't HAVE to because they had that 60 vote majority to break a filibuster. So they (like all politicians) arrogantly dismissed any idea that wasn't their own. The funny thing is, if they HAD listened to even ONE Republican option and put it in the bill in a way to get ONE Republican vote, they wouldn't be in this spot now where there is suddenly a real threat that they won't pass anything they want.
well, its not quite that abstract, i'm afraid. Lately, they legislate from the thinking of "lets pass as many of the most extreme things we possibly can, because once it is passed its completely unlikely they'll ever overturn it." And they are right. Once most legislation is passed by the executive, it is EXTREMELY rare for it to ever be repealed historically. Liberals & Progressives have been doing this for 60 years. Republicans got started doing in in the 2nd term of Regan about 20 years ago, and neither have looked back until lately when the Republicans were ejected, and now when Kennedy's seat in Mass was taken. To the 'politicians' this is truly scary new territory. After tonight, now the Democrats also realise they no longer know what to say that will keep them in office. (the Republicans are still recovering from this realisation at the last election and haven't found a way yet.)
lemme tell you bout drug costs.. sheese.. to begin i dont really think health insurance companies are to blame so much. i think that once third parties, you employer in part, took over drug companies and national health care providers who LOVE to build huge new expensive hospital wings knew they could charge out the ying yang for medical stuff.. i used to be a pharmacist. i grew up in a family drugstore. i started working as a stock boy when i was 14. i still remember the cost of some drugs. other day i was in a pharmacy talking to a pharmacist. got to talking over med cost. he shows me this stuff i used to price at 12 bucks a bottle back in the 70s. now its 300$ for the same pint of cough medicine.. it does not cost them that much more to produce it.. but you insurance will absorb the price with your co-pay so there you go... then he shows me two bottles side by side. made by the same company, the same pills. one is generic one is brand name BOTH MADE BY THE SAME COMPANY. one is like 10 cents a pill .. and one is like 5 bucks a pill. course the drug companies LOVE to have the docs write the brand name script.. you go to the emergency room with a broken arm. they gonna bill you maybe 5 to 10k. if you dont have insurace and are a nube, they are going to send the debt collectors after your ass. if you have insurance, they probably gonna settle up for 1000 bucks more or less. you go to the doc. doc is scared of malpractice... which costs him 200,000 a year (some docs pay this much depends on type of practic). so he gives you every medical test in the books so he cant be held responsible for missing something.. now those tests are expensive. but if you have insurance you never even see the costs.. your company's plan pays for it. the lab knows they can charge a premium. whatareyougonnado? insurance companies are stuck in the middle. they can make boo-coo dollars. but i'll give you an example of how they get their clock cleaned.. guy goes in writes a policy for a 50 employee group. percentage profit is fairly small. one of the employee's wives has a premature baby. needs to stay in intensive care for a month. cost.. 200,000 or more dollars. that whole policy becomes a loss. if you work for a company of any size i bet your plan changes once a year. why? because the insurance company lost money last year, the cost of the care they pay for went up 15 percent and they have to raise costs to have a chance to make money.. and you prolly have to make a bigger copay this year too.. who knows what the answer(s) are. but you gotta start somewhere. and they should start with one problem ... say no pre-existing condition.. fix that, and move to the next issue. not try to implement a soviet style system that will cost billions and do it all at once... finally one of the problems is everyone wants to live forever, and take care of all the medical problems.. but no one wants to pay the cost.. 50 years ago, you got seriously ill, doc came out to your house (made housecalls by cracky!) took your temp, perhaps did a diagnosis, gave you a script. if the treatment worked it was ok. if what you had was real bad.. you got worse and/or died.. nowadays they have treatment costs millions.. heart-lung, liver transplants, drugs that cost 1000s for 1 pill. medical technology has outstripped our ability to pay for it... guess we needs a nice big global die-off.
"guess we needs a nice big global die-off" Dont worry our Gov't is workin on it:eek3: no- pre existing and public option but oh well its not gonna happen at all now cause the Dems dont have a back bone. This guy ran as an independent but he straight rep. Really? and BOTH parties are on some baby esq bull crap if a dem NO if a rep NO deals under the table for everyone YES! YES!YES! why I like the Independents. It would be so simple to just take the good stuff from all sides find a happy medium and get back to good ol USA type parameters!
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-18-2010/mass-backwards A funny bit by John Stewart that really puts the Democrat's ineptitude in perspective. I really wish a solid 3rd party would form... I can't stand Democrats or Republicans. Maybe then we could actually have meaningful discussion in the Senate/House because each party would HAVE to make concessions. Its only wishful thinking though