A few disjointed concepts strung together, sorry, it's the best I can manage this time of day.
#1. "People who can't afford health insurance should choose better jobs that have health insurance"
-my wife has a friend who told this to her. This friend apparently has a health insurance package for her entire family through the husband's job paid entirely by his company. My wife disagreed strongly that the world works that way. I have to agree with my wife. My job covers me, and I pay an extra 800 per month to cover my wife and two daughters. Is the american economy going to do so well in the next few years that we can all stop worrying about health care because we are making so much $? Sheesh. There are going to be fewer and fewer of those jobs wherein one person can get an entire family covered without spending most of that paycheck on it.
#2 There is between $600 and $800 billion of waste annually in American health care. No kidding, try this:
http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/report-americans-waste-850-billion-year-healthcare
Wow, if we could stop wasting a serious chunk of that cash, it could pay for the entire health reform plan without extra $. Problem of course, is that a major chunk of the waste is the administrative overhead and paper shuffling of the health insurance industry. And without single payer on the table, guess what, all that waste continues.
#3. Let's privatize everything, even Medicare. Some Republican said that this week. Yup, just like Virginia Governor candidate suggested this summer that Virginia needs to sell off all Alcoholic Beverage Control stores to private business, and use the proceeds to build roads. Of course, next year, the money from the ABC stores will not be there to prop up the annual budget, and the liquor distributors can keep all the money themselves. Didn't the Republicans in Arizona sell their State Capitol building to someone, and promise to rent it back for several million a year?
Okay, I am getting off track there. I guess what I am saying is that those who think that private enterprise is always cheaper than government, well, they don't live in the real world. Yeah, I am sure that the health insurers want to milk twenty billion a year out of medicaid, money to which they have zero access now, that would be delightful. For them. But would it make grandma any healthier?
#4. In this crazy political mess, I have only seen one rational thing said by any Republican. That thing was, "what about the cost". In a perfect universe, we would be talking about how to give better product, without running up an unsustainable debt. Let's talk about the cost. But let's NOT muddy the water with "socialized medicine" or "death panels" or whatever. Just talk money. How can we afford it?
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Comments: 14
in it and drawing those bennies were it not for
a couple of college dropouts who took a gamble
and chased a dream.
They wanted high quality employes and from the beginning provided high quality benefits.
Fortunately this continued into the software dominance of the business.
Rant #2. We got the word yesterday that our Medicare supplemental insurance, Health Net will start charging a monthly premium beginning in Jan. They have also taken 2 of my blood pressure medications off their formulary. Both are generics and they will no longer let me have them for the $4 monthly fee. I will have to pay full price. Last year they increased all co-pays substantially. This year, they reduced some by $5. and added others. Guess what kind of insurance I won't have beginning Jan. 1, 2010. HEALTH NET.
Advantage plans are charging Medicare up to 6 times what others are and are not providing good care to their enrolees.
This is why, especially Republicans are screaming that Medicare will break us.
Without a government option, the costs charged by private insurers are going to continue to skyrocket up, up, up, care will continue to go down, down, down.
They are all profit taking now as much as they can, they know a plan will pass.
Other countries regulate the heck out of their health care spending.
Just that the net worth of the USA is 50 TRILLION dollars as of the end of 2008. We can AFFORD to use some of that the keep the nation's work force in good health. Since without the work force that 50 trillion dollars is nothing more than a high priced pile of paper.
'They' the big money doesn't care.
'They" the big money doesn't see it as necessary to hire or keep good employes anymore.
"They" big money own our legislators.
Once they have successfully stopped health care for private workers, next stop will be all the millions of city, county, state and federal employees.
It will be easy, really, would you want to pay taxes so the city clerk can have health care you can't have?
And everyone, I do not mean Doctors, nurses, technicians should be paid less.
It is the "for profit" hospitals, and insurance business that is killing us.
Also all those companies that have medical devices manufactured in China for $10 and then bill medicare $225.
etc .
We know the right nuts are busy ringing the phones and jamming the email system.
We have to do the same.
for our President
for our two U. S. Senators
for our Congressperson (U. S. Representative)