Obama's Healthcare Reform on Hold

Here's a few facts for you. 85% of Americans would prefer the government to insurance companies. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/health/policy/21poll.html

ABC also reported that by a 2:1 margin people would prefer a universal healthcare system. http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/US/healthcare031020_poll.html

CNN "Quick Vote" poll that asked," Do you believe healthcare is a fundamental American right whether people can pay for it or not?".

The results:

Yes - 79%

No - 21%

A new poll by a nonpartisan, D.C.-based research group finds truly overwhelming support for the public option. The kicker: The poll was bankrolled partly by previous opponents of health care reform, including one of the nation’s best-known insurance companies.

The poll — which was just released by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a D.C. policy think tank — finds that a majority (53%) strongly back the availability of a public plan, while another 30% “somewhat” support it. That’s a total of 83% in favor of a public plan — a staggeringly large majority.

My favorite site: Very detailed slides based on very specific questions. Check it out: POLL: http://healthreform.kff.org/

Albert Einstein once stated that "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

2nd Favorite quote from Nobel winning economist Joseph Stiglitz he pointed out the following" Today only the deluded would argue that markets are self-correcting or that we can rely on the self-interested behavior of market participants to guarantee that everything works honestly and properly”

3rd quote is just from someone who can state things far more succintly that I can "Michael Kazin, "At its core, populism in the United States remains what it has always been: a protest by ordinary people who want the system to live up to its stated ideals—fair and honest treatment in the marketplace and a government tilted in favor of the unwealthy masses. The best way for big men, and big women, to respond to such protests is to try to do what is moral, as well as popular—and treat Americans as partners in the grand enterprise of governance."

If history has taught us anything, it should be that anytime you have a culture of those who have and those who have not have led to revolt. You can't refute history.

Kaybeth of TN 4:29PM August 12, 2009

Recent study concluded that 62.1 percent of the bankruptcies were medically related because the individuals either had more than $5,000 (or 10 percent of their pretax income) in medical bills, mortgaged their home to pay for medical bills, or lost significant income due to an illness. On average, medically bankrupt families had $17,943 in out-of-pocket expenses, including $26,971 for those who lacked insurance and $17,749 who had insurance at some point.

Overall, three-quarters of the people with a medically-related bankruptcy had health insurance, they say.

"That was actually the predominant problem in patients in our study -- 78 percent of them had health insurance, but many of them were bankrupted anyway because there were gaps in their coverage like co-payments and deductibles and uncovered services," says Woolhandler. "Other people had private insurance but got so sick that they lost their job and lost their insurance." Health.com: Where the money goes -- A breast cancer donation guide

Dr. David Himmelstein, the lead author of the study and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, commented: "Our findings are frightening. Unless you're Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy. For middle-class Americans, health insurance offers little protection. Most of us have policies with so many loopholes, co-payments and deductibles that illness can put you in the poorhouse. And even the best job-based health insurance often vanishes when prolonged illness causes job loss - precisely when families need it most. Private health insurance is a defective product, akin to an umbrella that melts in the rain

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/05/bankruptcy.medical.bills/

Kaybeth of TN 3:59PM August 12, 2009

This Healthcare bill is at least in part just a tool to help Obama provide free healthcare to illegal aliens in order to open the avenue to amnesty for all illegals next year (his very next order of business). By having free healthcare to illegal aliens in place he negates any argument that legitimizing all the illegals will overburden our healtcare system. The democrats are counting on the added votes 15 million new citizens will bring to their side of the aisle. READ THE HEALTHCARE BILL:

PG 50 Section 152 in HC bill - HC will be provided to ALL non US citizens, illegal or otherwise

TomW of WA 11:49AM August 12, 2009

The government can't run anything. Never can, never will. Obama said it himself, UPS and FEDEX are doing fine. It's the Postal Service that's in trouble. Hello, the Postal Service is a government entity. You just proved my point, Mr. President.

This is just one of multitude of examples of ONGOING GOVERNMENT FAILURES in trying to run any kind of business. The president and the congress do not understand business, capitalism, or the private sector and have NO business being involved in any of it.

Every private sector entity the government gets involved in turns into a debacle and ends up costing tax payers billions of dollars in overruns and wasteful spending.

Just look at the financial bailouts. Our hard earned money was just 'given away' without requiring an accounting of where it went or what it was used for. "Total governmental fiscal irresponsibility." The companies and institutions that took the tax payer money and ran, are still in financial trouble and are looking for more tax payer money. DO NOT give it to them. Let the markets determine the fate of these financially irresponsible, poorly managed companies. Bankruptcy may help them learn their lesson much better than a bail out. NO company is too big to fail.

Remember, if you give a man a fish, he'll come back for more. If you teach a man to fish, he can feed his family.

Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Chuck Schumer, and a host of others in Congress are responsible for the banking catastrophe we have just gone through, namely Fanny Mae, Freddie Mac, and the sub prime mortgage debacle. They caused it, they certainly cannot fix it. Congress creates problems and have the audacity to act like it's someone else's fault. Then they try to fix what they caused, and we end up with a worse mess than if they had done nothing at all. And it just keeps costing us more and more money. Stop creating problems and stop trying to fix what you created.

If all this govennment, the president and Congress, has time to do is tinker with the lives of American citizens and our Capitalistic society, then THEY ALL need to find a different day job. It just goes to show that their is not a lick of common sense, business sense, or fiscal sense in Washington DC.

We need government representatives who are in touch with their constituency, are fiscally responsible with the hard earned dollars of the American tax payer, and who possess common sense when dealing with governmental problems.

Stay out of health care, stay out of the car business, stay out of the financial sector, stay out of the private sector altogether. Capitalism and the markets work just fine when left alone. It's only when the government gets involved that things begin to fall apart.

Another thing: Lost jobs = Lost tax revenues. Wake up government! You are jeapodizing you own jobs.

Do only what you are supposed to do, preserve, protect, and defend the constitution. Don't spend my money on your mistakes!

Donald Dale of NY 8:33AM August 12, 2009