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Under Obama Healthcare Scheme, Big Government Rations Care for Sick Patients

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Is Sally Pipes related to Richard Pipes? Richard Pipes, if you will remember, was the Neocon ideologue who lied us into Iraq. Sally, astonishingly tries to defend the private health insurance industry, whose business plan turns on making profits only by denying care. Of course like her namesake, she can only do this by blinding herself and of course, trying to blind us to the only system that can work even reasonably well, government health insurance or Medicare for everyone. Healthcare is such a crucial part of human life, it takes a very corrupted person to produce a report such as the one above.

charles zeller of TX 2:38PM May 29, 2009

I would bet Matthew of Ohio is very young, very healthy, or perhaps even wealthy.
I like the comments and comon sense written above him from jpinsatx. There needs to be laws set where it goes off someone's income providing a real safety net. Private medical insurers can charge whatever they want now, drop whoever they want, or deny whoever they want.
Only a real fool would think the U.S. system is just and fair. It is not, many wealthy seniors love how they can collect all the extra money they really don't need. Then at the same time younger, very disabled citizens fight to get what they paid into the system, and are most of time denied medical coverage they need. Many go bankrupt even waiting. The seniors are double and triple dipping, then acting sarcastic about thinking they are entitled but no one else should be.
Even someone as wealthy as Bob Hope was still collected his social security check, yet they say they are running out of money. Start stopping these checks to these really wealthy people, there is a start. Make them pay for their own medical care, don't mooch off of medicare and break their system.

Leta of GA 9:40AM May 26, 2009

Yo RL,
Thanks for the "Fat Boy" Limbaugh redux. An original thought from you might be nice.
If you think that any of the Repucican reps. or GOP talking heads are any better at doing what's right for America you're a MORON simply (very simply) repeating what you hear on "Right WingNut" radio.
Like I always say, "Get the facts, get a clue"

M Dore of CO 1:25PM May 14, 2009

Hmmm...
Health Care for All Uninsured Americans is Simple!
1) Merge Medicare with Medicade into a single "Income Based" system.
2) Allow insurance companies to offer "Medigap" coverage to all participants.
As for Funding...
1) Changing from an "Emergency Treatment" to a "Preventative Care" system will save local communities billions, maybe even trillions of taypayer dollars!
2) Small business will be able to compete globally and hire additional taxpaying employees!
3) Wealthy seniors will pay their fair share!

jpinsatx of TX 10:18AM May 14, 2009

I have a stunning new idea. Just like we pay for our food, our clothes, our houses, and everything else in life... how about we pay for our medical needs. Then maybe people will start to take better care of their bodies because they don't have unlimited insurance (or free government aid) to back them up. Then the prices of medical care would dramatically drop to reasonable charges. Pay for your own medical costs? You mean I have to actually be responsible for my own needs?

Matthew of OH 8:49AM May 14, 2009

With Barrak, Chillary ,Schumer, Feinstein, Boxer and the rest of the left wingers in the dome.We the little folk are really being scrwed. I expect Chillary to make a speed run to her old law firm to use its heavy duty shredder and plop our constitution in it, and pen their (her) own version of Utopia.

R.L.Creamer - in deep doodoo now! of MI 2:51PM May 13, 2009

I remember the old days too - doctor house calls, reasonable costs, paying the same person who provided the services...Those days are gone.
Now we have a huge infrastucture of hundreds of hospitals, medical offices, xrays, imaging systems, testing labs, diagnostic equipment, specialists, and pharmacies that are duplicated in every small town. You see a number of nurses and practicioners and assistants, then occasionally a doctor. None of these folks do their own billing - so some office in Tulsa handles the invoicing and collections for the local doctor in Asheville, NC.
But it is not the government that has crippled the system - it is the "medical establishment" that is more profit-driven than it is service and affordability driven. Doctors and hospitals never used to advertise or have marketing campaigns with slick grapgics, etc. Pill companies never used to advertise prducts with smiling folks running through fields and winking couples in matching bathtubs. It is all big business.
The part of the system that works well IS the government part - Medicare does well for seniors, the VA is a value for military families, and ask the folks in Congress if they like their plan - they would say OK. So - think less about your natural mistrust of the government, and ask why you mistrust them - Is it because your politicians have promoted this? Do you think they may be getting paid to keep the medical establishment fat and happy?
We can't go back to the days when we were kids - but we can try to understand what got us here. Not the government medical systems. It has been the private insurers and networks of highly profitable hospitals that are in it solely for profit.
Until the system benefits wellness and patient results, you and I will not be satisfied with our healthcare system. I for one favor a single pay system - having used it before - I was very satisfied.
Try not to listen to the voices who want to scare you into keeping a broken system. You also need to participate in the solution. Read. Research. Learn about other systems from them, not third hand from politicians. The better informed you and everyone else are, the more likely our choices will be bette ones for our future.

Dorfy of SC 10:28AM May 13, 2009

Big money interests in insurance and pharmaceuticals and the rest of the infrastructure are petrified that their gravy train will end.
Our health care system is rated 10th and worse compared to other nations with single-payer systems. Special interests here would have you think that services would be lower quality with a single-payer system. Not so. I have lived in a country that had isthis and experienced it first hand.
Basic services are covered for everyone. If you want something fancier, you can opt to pay supplemental insurance (like seniors here now do) and you can get a private room, etc. I didn't wait any longer than here, and had any procedures I needed.
The money we pay now would simply go to the system to pay for coverage - so the funding would not be so different than now - it just would not have to go through employers.
Employers now are buried under a ridiculous burden just so the insurance companies can get their pound of flesh. Employee insurance is not portable, so losing a job means losing healthcare. Right now people stay in jobs they hate because they have to work for someone who offers health insurance. And coverage is so different based on the size of the employer.....
The Canadian system is great, no matter how hard special interests here try to spin it. I know many people there, and all praise their system - preventive healthcare, reasonable price, available everywhere, NEVER a large payment, and comparable treatment. True - they wait sometimes for elective surgery, but that is usually based on a choice about the importance of the surgery. We wait here too. I waited four months for mine....and it cost me thousands of dollars out of pocket WITH a 90% coverage insurance plan.
Medicare works for seniors, VA works for veterans and military, federal employees have a great plan. Why not take one of these models - tweak it and provide it to everyone?
The greatest efficiencies come from economies of scale, and the lack advertising expense on top of it all. Why do we advertise medications that must be physician prescribed?
I wish everyone had to live in Europe for a year - just to see how they do this, (and public transportation too...)

Dorfy of SC 10:08AM May 13, 2009

A very long time ago I was raised on a farm. We had a "Country Doctor" that would come to the house when we had "Mumps.Chicken Pox, or what ever, and the going rate for his services was $2 for a visit. If you could not pay with cash he would take a chicken, some vegies from the garden, or some fruit my mother had canned. Everyone was happy and the bill was paid in full. Now with the government getting into the health care act and what they are planning for us, it reminds me of a story when I was a kid. You remember the one about "Ali Baba and the forty thieves", only this time they will take all the chickens, all the vegies, all the canned fruit, and yes, even the chicken house. And there are a whole lot more thieves now in Washington and the rest of the country. The folks in Washington want to control everything, even our lives. Folks, this country is going to he$$ and our government could care less.

woodenfrog of NJ 10:08AM May 13, 2009