Home > Opinion > Peter Roff > Obama’s Healthcare Plan’s Support Shrinks as its Price Grows

Obama’s Healthcare Plan’s Support Shrinks as its Price Grows

Reader Comments
Back to blog

When better than 20% of the population has NO health care and another 20% of the population is underinsured, the system is not working.
Somebody needs to fix it.

BillInStl of MO 2:20PM July 21, 2009

The whole problem with our health system is like every other industry problem in America....it's all about greed!! Everyone wants to make and more and no one wants to have less!! When someone in this country becomes a doctor they expect to make huge money..this is not the case in other countries.....CEO's expect to make huge money....Everyone wants money, money, money.....so what happens?....is it merely survival of the fittest....forget all the people who are on the low end of the pay scale, as long as I am making the big bucks? What happened to our country of brotherly love? When are we going to realize that to make anything work we have to work collectively not individually? I have had huge amounts of taxes taken out of my check...this is my contribution to my fellow American. If my tax burden helps one hopeless person have hope...then I am all for it....sure people take advantage of the system..but don't the CEO's take advantage of their status? I have been in healthcare for 20+ years and it's all about business today...your doctor is there for the cash for the most part..it's no longer about the love of medicine or saving lives...if there wasn't as much prestige and money associated with being a doctor you would probably have better healthcare, because those who really loved it would be treating you...not those who are looking for the biggest profit...think about it people...capitalism and competition has destroyed all of us and made us all greedy individuals....At what point does your desire for more and more profits end?

Nadine of OH 1:28PM July 21, 2009

Who does Obama think he is? Forcing government run healthcare down our throats, telling us that have insurance already that we will foot the bill for the degenerates that WON'T, (not Can't) get insurance, making abortion 100% covered, neglecting the health of the elderly because they have already lived enough and should just die at home because there are more important younger people that need to live in America. GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE SIR AND JOIN THE REAL WORLD!
Here is a thought, if the cost of healthcare is so unbearable, lets take all of the Congressmen and Congresswomen in our government today and make them pay taxes on their incomes that we, the only taxpayers, have to shell out. The first resoulution that any of the new Congress members vote on is a pay increase for themselves.
Something needs to be done about this person that other Americans voted for. I myself am praying that God intervenes in his own way and sets him straight. Personal opinion: taking prayer out of schools is where this junk got started.

Chris of AL 12:49PM July 21, 2009

Look into it, it gets much worse...........
Employers will be FORCED.
You will HAVE TO.
Doctors will HAVE NO CHOICE...........
Dictator Obama must be stopped guys, and quick.

Bobby of AK 12:00PM July 21, 2009

What a bunch of putzes the nay sayers here are ! Only using one liners and empty rhetoric. For this topic family income should have to be listed. Mine 150K. All 4 persons in my family work. My daughter who just graduated from college and is taking more classes will not be covered unless she takes three classes this fall. She works part time. How is this a good system ? A public system need not take away what you currently have. Just make another choice available to those who can't get affordable insurance through work or school. Eliminate existing condition BS and other means for companies to deny coverage. Everybody should have to have insurance or pay a fee to not have it. This will bring down cost for everybody. Quit making up lies and talking socialism and other BS. Healthcare consumes 16 percent of GNP, more than any other country. This needs to be fixed to help make our country more competitive. Why do think Walmart is in favor of health care reform ? Thanks.

Falmouth of VA 11:16AM July 21, 2009

If we keep our heads in the sand (or up our bumb), Obama will most assuredly hang socialized medicine regulated by bureaucratic incompetence around our necks while fleecing our wallets to make us all equal - as was tried for 70 years in Russia and is in effect in much of Western Europe & Canada today.
Almost 80% of Americans are satisfied with their current health program.
Why not work on something to satisfy the other 20% and make available subsidized insurance for the truly poor?
The part that ain't broke, don't need fixin!

DerAlte of VA 9:48AM July 21, 2009

Funny how are the comments are from Democrats. Why don't you go out and get a job instead of blaming everything on the Republicans!

John of OH 9:38AM July 21, 2009

Depending on how you ask the question, 70-90% of Americans want real health care reform, not Republican tweaking at the edges. In every poll, President Obama and the Democrats are widely viewed as being the preferred instrument of change. Seventy-two percent of Americans want a public option of some sort.
Whining, delaying, and nay-saying are all that Roff and the rest of the GOP have left on just about every issue, including this one.
Republican solutions? (The sound of chirping crickets.)
Well, except for Chuck Grassley. When a constituent asked Senator Grassley why the constituent couldn't have the same sort of insurance options that Grassley had, Grassley's solution was to tell the constituent that, if he wanted good insurance, he should get a federal job. With forty-seven million Americans without health care coverage, that means that Chuck Grassley thinks we should create 10-20 million federal jobs to solve the health care problem. Smooth, Chuck.
Whining, delaying, and nay-saying. After eight years of being 100% wrong about everything, the GOP doesn't have much else to work with.
The Republicans don't want to fix the health care system and they have said so. Senator Jim DeMint has encouraged his Republican cohorts to stand in the way of any progress, so that the lack of health care reform would be President Obama's "Waterloo" (I believe that if the Republicans are successful at blocking something that a vast majority of Americans want, it would be their own Waterloo).
We need to stop pretending that the Republicans are anything but an impediment.
It's time for President Obama to get off his 'consensus' kick and get this done.

jimatmadison of WI 8:42AM July 21, 2009

i've just read the pro's and con's of the health care plan and i beleive that if everyone would read the plan instead of listening to fox or c.n.n then they would support it. i am a 32 y/o HEALTHCARE worker in a hospital i can't afford the insurance (they won't cover me any way i smoke)everyone is up in arms about this because they listen to their "groups" and no one is looking for themselves. please stop and think about your neighbor instead of yourself.if he got cancer would he die or would he live? i cant afford the doctor visit let alone the cancer drugs!if you make 350,000 a year dont you think you could afford to help out the person that takes care of your grandmother and keeps her clean so you can rest at night? remember money does not make the world go 'round.kindness does...just a thought

chris herrington , Certified Nursing Assistant of WV 8:08AM July 21, 2009

A section within the current bill notes that a portion of taxpayer dollars will go to funding abortion...which will make pro-lifers even less likely to want this bill passed. Regardless of what my own views are on that subject, I will fight hard against the government making that decision for me. Further, another section in the bill notes that vaccinations for both adults and children will become mandatory. The bill as it's currently written will allow state officials to go into private homes to make sure that everyone complies. If that goes into effect, I wonder how many of us will be greeting our local vaccination-nazis at the door with a shotgun.

Cate of CO 1:25AM July 21, 2009