Obama Less Likely To Get Healthcare Reform
Which is good, because more of them will come
Reader Comments
HEALTHCARE WAS THE FIRST HIT
HEALTHCARE WAS THE FIRST HIT THEN GASOLINE AND NOW OUR SAVING!
OHIO RETIRED POLICE AND FIREFIGHTERS HAVE WATCHED THEIR HEALTH INSURANCE GO FROM $300 A YEAR TO $8,055. IN 2008. WHILE OUT OF POCKET COST HAS MORE THAN TRIPLED IN THOSE SEVEN YEARS. ALL THE WHILE THEY AND THEIR CITIES TOGETHER HAVE PAID IN THE MOST OF ANY OHIO RETIREMENT FUND FOR THEIR PENSIONS, EXCEPT FOR ONE AND RECEIVE THE WORST IN HEALTHCARE BENEFITS.
OVER THOSE SEVEN YEARS, THE OP&F PENSION FUND HAS INCREASED THE MONTHLY MEMBER CONTRIBUTION FROM $25.00 TO MORE THAN $710.00 MONTHLY. 19% OF MY 2008 GROSS PENSION WAS SPENT ON HEALTH CARE PREMIUMS. WHILE A TOTAL OF 28% OF MY GROSS PENSION WAS SPENT ON HEALTH CARE IN 2008! 2009'S INCREASE IS ANOTHER $40. PER MONTH FOR PREMIUMS. SOMEONE MUST STOP THIS MADNESS!
WHEN I RETIRED MY WIFE AND I HOPE TO TRAVEL A LITTLE AND ENJOY OUR RETIREMENT. BUT, ALL WE DO NOW IS WORRY WERE WILL WE GET HIT NEXT! WE WORKED HARD TO PAY OFF OUR HOUSE AND SAVE A LITTLE FOR WHAT? TO WATCH ALL WE HAVE HAD TAKEN AWAY OVER THE LAST 8 YEARS. WE CAN’T HELP THE ECONOMY BECAUSE INSURANCE AND THE ECONOMY ARE KILLING US!
Senator Wyden of Oregon
I believe that this Senator has a lot of the right ideas regarding healthcare reform. The main key being that health care and insurance are the responsibility of the individulas - not the government and our employers. The more responsibilty we put on ourselves to get healthy and stay their the higher likelihood that is to happen. Personal responsibilty for the lifestyle choices you make is not only fair but is practiced by almost all other "insurances" - life insurance, malpractice insurance, etc. The higher risk you are the higher premium you pay BUT there are also incentives (like having all your policies with one company, or a clean driving record, or being a part of a wellness program) that can reduce the premiums. I do not know what his lobbying or other experiences have been but combining some of his ideas with the idea of a National Insurance pool would be a great plan that puts personal responsibiity where it belongs
one correction...
I am speaking from experience as a consumer advocate in Tennessee working for a non profit--the only state-wide agency working to improve the health care in TN: Phil Bredesen is NOT a good choice for Sec. of HHS!!!
During Bredesen's campaign for Governor, he promised that he could manage the state's Medicaid program--TennCare and that cuts were not necessary. After he became Governor, he systematically cut eligibility for close to 300,000 adults between 2005 and 2008. For adults left on the program, year after year, he has cut benefits, and protections.
Over the last 3 years of cuts, he has shifted costs to families, forced many into bankruptcy (some have died), shifted care to county and local government, hospitals, or people who have insurance. He worked to reduce government regulations and protections and is a master at spin
Although Bredesen talks a good game and is a smart politician, he has shown time and again that the only thing he is truly concerned with is balancing the state budget. If in balancing the budget, the sickest, poorest, and most vulnerable Tennesseans lose their health care, he quickly blames enrollees rather than his management.
Uninsured numbers have increased under Bredesen’s watch. When he became governor, about 1 in 8 Tennesseans were uninsured. Into his second term, about 1 in 6 are uninsured. TN also ranks #1 in personal bankruptcies, half of which are related to medical debt.
Bredesen’s ideas for coverage aren’t working. He has devised a set of health care products, cleverly called Cover Tennessee. Trouble is the programs cover few Tennesseans.
Cover TN a programfor low-wage workers of small businesses is entering its third year and to date is “covering” less than 18,000 of Tennessee’s nearly one million uninsured. Bredesen likes to say of the program: "something is better than nothing". Apparently, sensible Tennesseans disagree, understanding this pretend, limited, insurance offers little in way of health and financial security compared to its costs.
In 2007, Advocates had to push the governor to add dental and vision benefits to CoverKids (SCHIP), like every other state has. But, to date, the state has not made good on its promise. And, more than 50,000 kids who are eligible for the program are still not enrolled.
AccessTN, the state’s new high-risk pool has enrolled less than 5,000 people because it remains too expensive for most Tennesseans.
Bredesen plays a shell game. The thousands of very sick people who were cut from TennCare did not go away . The medically fragile uninsured had to turn to already financially burdened local government, free clinics and hospitals to get some care. Bredesen simply balanced the state’s ledger page by shifting the costs to families, local governments, hospitals, and county jails. The data that explains this comes Tennessee’s own Comptroller’s office, http://www.thcc2.org/index_folder/financing_healthcare_07.pdf
you were wrong on Bredesen. he will hurt america.
Universal healthcare
Dorfy, the difference is what the govt. provides to them is insurance, not universal healthcare. Universal healthcare is what Tom of NH describes. Daschle talks about cost-benefit analysis. Over 75? Maybe it's not worth getting a hip replacement insurance might have paid for. Over 80? No expensive cancer treatment for you. These are what you might see. Do some research and give some stats instead of just spitting out the rhetoric you hear from the liberals. Find articles and blogs. Canadians complain and say how they are going to get on a plane for Chicago because they are tired of waiting on a list. Remember Clinton's heart attack and bypass? They said if he had been in Canada, he could have died waiting for the procedure. Need a colonoscopy because of bleeding? Oops, you have to wait on the list like everyone else, even the person who is going for a routine screening. You think you are going to get everything paid for - wrong. You probably saw the commercials during the campaign and other times where the widow talks about her husband dying from cancer because insurance wouldn't pay for a treatment. Well, guess what - the govt. will do the same cost-benefit analysis as insurance would, and if it is not worth it (i.e., no proven success), govt. is not going to pay for. Or, if he is too far along, govt.'s view will be that the guidelines say he is going to die anyway; we just keep him comfortable. You are really disillusioned about what this would mean.
Another question: when did it become bad to make money and profits? If you had a business would you want to make money? Do you own stocks or investments or a retirement account? Do you understand how it grows? The stocks which comprise your IRA or 401(k) increase in value. And how does that happen? Companies do well and make money. We used to be a country where even if we did not make a lot, we looked up to those who could and knew that if we wanted to try, we might be able to do the same. Now, Obama and the liberals have created class warfare and it's a sin. Funny thing is, your Obama and the liberals are just as bad.
Did you know Pelosi had a winery (or her husband did) who employed cheap immigrant labor and they paid no taxes? (I seem to remember hearing that story.) I saw Obama's tax returns during the campaign. He was so cheap; he barely gave 5% of his income. Even when he made a fortune on his stupid books, he still was Scrooge. He wants to spread MY money around but not his own. His for the common man, but has a $400+ lunch from room service? John Kerry doesn't want me to have a tax cut because I can't be trusted with spending my own money. What does he do with his? And my favorite: entertainers. Do you watch MTV Cribs and praise the movie star or uneducated rapper who can rhyme for their McMansions and multiple cars? Do you resent having to pay $10 for a movie ticket to pay for that?
Please read, research and start thinking for yourself.
Free Healthcare Isn't
Dorfy of SC maintains that the US is the only western nation to not have universal healthcare, and then goes on to praise how they are all supposedly superior to the US in health statistics. For the sake of argument let's say that's true (it's not), what about the statistics that aren't mentioned: months-long waiting lines for emergency treatment, refusal of treatment to the elderly, declining availability of deteriorating services, more money spent while service declines. These are facts (look then up). Join the reality-based world.
The bottom line is, the US military subsidizes the government run healthcare of the rest of the west. Most of Europe has no military to speak of. Britain has been cutting it's military to drop more pounds into the sink-hole known as NHS. We have to protect ourselves, and our "allies" know that it's in our own interest for us to protect them too. They count on that. The current system is far from ideal and needs to be fixed, but to "change" to socialized healthcare is to replace the parts that are good with more of what is bad. Dumb and dumber.
We have to Get it Done
This is the only country in the western world (developed countries) that does NOT have universal healthcare.
All of those nations have longer life expectancy, lower infant mortality rates, very few financial ruinations due to expensive surgeries, lower medication costs, more efficient data retrieval and storage, and less healthcare burder on employers.
Propaganda would have you think this was at the expense of modern facilities, good response times, and quality care, Not so. I wait longer for healthcare here than I did in Germany. My friends in France get house calls - no questions asked.
So who is benefitting from our current arrangement? Not you and me. Try the doctors, Pharma and all the happy medical establishment.
If government covered healthcare is OK for senior citizens, OK for military families, OK for government employees - why isn't it OK for the rest of us?
If Congress and the big medical money can't come up with a plan - they should give up their own medical insurance, and see how a quarter of Americans deal with the current lack of coverage.
