Health Care Now

[senseamp]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01....html?_r=1&ref=opinion

This should have been done before bailing out banks. I have friends who got laid off and can't afford COBRA payments, where is their bail out? We can't allow a temporary economic disaster turn into a health care disaster that is going to do permanent damage to people's health and lives.

Fortunately if you believe the whiners on the right, there is progress being made on this:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123327719403931465.html

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: nonsenseamp
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01....html?_r=1&ref=opinion

This should have been done before bailing out banks. I have friends who got laid off and can't afford COBRA payments, where is their bail out? We can't allow a temporary economic disaster turn into a health care disaster that is going to do permanent damage to people's health and lives.

Fortunately if you believe the whiners on the right, there is progress being made on this:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123327719403931465.html

then he should pay the greedy ass doctors that charge astromonical prices out of his pocket.

you make it sound like people would just start dying on the street if there was no healthcare. fucking suck it up like a man for a year.

 

[dphantom]

Originally posted by: senseamp
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01....html?_r=1&ref=opinion

This should have been done before bailing out banks. I have friends who got laid off and can't afford COBRA payments, where is their bail out? We can't allow a temporary economic disaster turn into a health care disaster that is going to do permanent damage to people's health and lives.

Fortunately if you believe the whiners on the right, there is progress being made on this:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123327719403931465.html

Tough. I make sure I have enough in savings to cover health care if I lose my job. At least for 1 year. You know how I do that? I don't buy everything I want. I buy what I need, and then save for the things I want and don't buy until I can pay for them.

The dirty little secret is everyone can do this. All anyone has to do is live within their budget and cutout all nonessentials until they can be bought outright.

You live on credit, tough cookies.

 

[Insomniator]

Hey, you know how things used to be? People would pay for THEIR OWN medical bills!!

Broken leg? 1000 bucks, too bad, no you can't have someone else pay for it.

Insurance companies and malpractice suits have driven up the prices of health care to what they are today.

 

[Skitzer]

Originally posted by: dphantom

Originally posted by: senseamp
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01....html?_r=1&ref=opinion

This should have been done before bailing out banks. I have friends who got laid off and can't afford COBRA payments, where is their bail out? We can't allow a temporary economic disaster turn into a health care disaster that is going to do permanent damage to people's health and lives.

Fortunately if you believe the whiners on the right, there is progress being made on this:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123327719403931465.html

Tough. I make sure I have enough in savings to cover health care if I lose my job. At least for 1 year. You know how I do that? I don't buy everything I want. I buy what I need, and then save for the things I want and don't buy until I can pay for them.

The dirty little secret is everyone can do this. All anyone has to do is live within their budget and cutout all nonessentials until they can be bought outright.

You live on credit, tough cookies.

This!!!

 

[Genx87]

Christ I lived without insurance for 2 years after I got out of school. Oh the humanity, if I needed medical care I paid for it!

IMO COBRA doesnt work. When I got laid off from my first employer out of school I had the opportunity to pick up their medical insurance via COBRA at 450 a month. It was nice insurance year, no deduct, no copay ect ect. But I could go to BCBS and get a 1000 deduct with a 30 dollar copay policy for 105 bucks a month. I decided at my age and health to not get insurance.

I fell into that 40 million people who dont have insurance. I know many of you wanted to save me from my own decision and force me into a govt run program. But no thanks.

 

[nixium]

Originally posted by: Skitzer

Originally posted by: dphantom

Originally posted by: senseamp
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01....html?_r=1&ref=opinion

This should have been done before bailing out banks. I have friends who got laid off and can't afford COBRA payments, where is their bail out? We can't allow a temporary economic disaster turn into a health care disaster that is going to do permanent damage to people's health and lives.

Fortunately if you believe the whiners on the right, there is progress being made on this:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123327719403931465.html

Tough. I make sure I have enough in savings to cover health care if I lose my job. At least for 1 year. You know how I do that? I don't buy everything I want. I buy what I need, and then save for the things I want and don't buy until I can pay for them.

The dirty little secret is everyone can do this. All anyone has to do is live within their budget and cutout all nonessentials until they can be bought outright.

You live on credit, tough cookies.

This!!!

I agree. Anyone who wasn't smart like us right wingers and didn't save enough cash for their medical expenses in tough economic times deserves to rot and die, even if they had accidents they couldn't avoid! Jesus will be proud of us.

 

[miketheidiot]

private insurance is inefficient and should be done away with.

 

[miketheidiot]

a significant portion of these people without insurance who get hit by big medical costs are going to end up going bankrupt and their costs will just be tacked on to everyone else's bill; regardless we are going to end up paying for it, might as well do it in the simplest format that doesn't involve claims courts, lawyers, etc to inflate the price even more.

 

[dphantom]

Originally posted by: miketheidiot
private insurance is inefficient and should be done away with.

Corollary: All private corporations should be done away with because they are inefficient. :disgust:

Thank you for the socialist position.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: miketheidiot
private insurance is inefficient and should be done away with.

And since public entities/government is inefficient it should be done away with too. Hooray anarchy! Ron Paul!!

 

[dphantom]

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: miketheidiot
private insurance is inefficient and should be done away with.

And since public entities/government is inefficient it should be done away with too. Hooray anarchy! Ron Paul!!

Ok, we've got the obligatory RP post, now lets see how long the fascist/Hitler label takes to pop up.

BTW, I agree with government being inherently inefficient.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Didn't they slip some sort of medicare (medicaid?) piece into the deocraticwindfall bill? Seems to me I read about it somewhere this morning. Something about people laid off will be able to get the gov't to give them and their family medicare. I'll have to look it up again.

UHI :thumbsdown:

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

Originally posted by: Genx87
Christ I lived without insurance for 2 years after I got out of school. Oh the humanity, if I needed medical care I paid for it!

IMO COBRA doesnt work. When I got laid off from my first employer out of school I had the opportunity to pick up their medical insurance via COBRA at 450 a month. It was nice insurance year, no deduct, no copay ect ect. But I could go to BCBS and get a 1000 deduct with a 30 dollar copay policy for 105 bucks a month. I decided at my age and health to not get insurance.

I fell into that 40 million people who dont have insurance. I know many of you wanted to save me from my own decision and force me into a govt run program. But no thanks.

Resistance is futile...YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED! We are Borg. :laugh:

 

[bamacre]

One again, government treats the symptom instead of the disease.

They all have an "answer" to the problem of high costs of health care, but have no idea why the problem exists in the first place.

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: dphantom

Originally posted by: miketheidiot
private insurance is inefficient and should be done away with.

Corollary: All private corporations should be done away with because they are inefficient. :disgust:

Thank you for the socialist position.

You mean insurance itself isn't socialist?

And I borrowed my ass off and did rather well. Leverage, baby.

You spoke earlier as if saving and then buying were some universal truth when in fact all economic truths are conditional. Saving is good when cash is king. Borrowing is good when commodities etc are rising in value faster that bank interest. Nobody can predict the future. If you got lucky and were on the right side of history, don't goat. You were just lucky.

 

[dphantom]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam

Originally posted by: dphantom

Originally posted by: miketheidiot
private insurance is inefficient and should be done away with.

Corollary: All private corporations should be done away with because they are inefficient. :disgust:

Thank you for the socialist position.

You mean insurance itself isn't socialist?

And I borrowed my ass off and did rather well. Leverage, baby.

You spoke earlier as if saving and then buying were some universal truth when in fact all economic truths are conditional. Saving is good when cash is king. Borrowing is good when commodities etc are rising in value faster that bank interest. Nobody can predict the future. If you got lucky and were on the right side of history, don't goat. You were just lucky.

I borrow for a mortgage. I might borrow when I buy a new yacht. I pay cash for cars and other large ticket items. I do think overleverage is a major reason we have had these bubbles over the last 20 years. In general, your statement is correct. It is to the extreme either way that can cause problems.

A straight cash or worse yet hard currency only economy would have its problems just as we see with a highly leveraged/over borrowed economy.

 

[alchemize]

Originally posted by: miketheidiot
private insurance is inefficient and should be done away with.

And how exactly is public insurance efficient?

 

[Moonbeam]

It seems to me that the cheapest way to solve the health care problem is for government to teach medicine for free to anybody who wants to work in government run hospitals.

Anybody who wants to go to private doctors can go. Anybody who wants medical insurance can get it.

But anybody who wants low cost medicine can go to the US Medical Corp. and get it at cost, or work there to pay for it.

Naturally, over time, private health-care would either go out of business or costs would come down tremendously with the competition.

Medicine, after all, should be left in the hands of people who want to help the sick, not people who want to get rich.

You will always get better care from people who really care than folk who see you for a dollar, no?

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
Didn't they slip some sort of medicare (medicaid?) piece into the deocraticwindfall bill? Seems to me I read about it somewhere this morning. Something about people laid off will be able to get the gov't to give them and their family medicare. I'll have to look it up again.

UHI :thumbsdown:

83 billion worth.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: bamacre
One again, government treats the symptom instead of the disease.

They all have an "answer" to the problem of high costs of health care, but have no idea why the problem exists in the first place.

Considering something like 80-85% of all medical costs are incurred within the last 2 years of ones life. The problem is death. We need to spend more money in figuring out how to beat death and our health care costs will drop significantly.

 

[alchemize]

Originally posted by: Genx87

Originally posted by: bamacre
One again, government treats the symptom instead of the disease.

They all have an "answer" to the problem of high costs of health care, but have no idea why the problem exists in the first place.

Considering something like 80-85% of all medical costs are incurred within the last 2 years of ones life. The problem is death. We need to spend more money in figuring out how to beat death and our health care costs will drop significantly.

It's not that high, but that's one very large factor in our costs.

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

Originally posted by: Genx87

Originally posted by: bamacre
One again, government treats the symptom instead of the disease.

They all have an "answer" to the problem of high costs of health care, but have no idea why the problem exists in the first place.

Considering something like 80-85% of all medical costs are incurred within the last 2 years of ones life. The problem is death. We need to spend more money in figuring out how to beat death and our health care costs will drop significantly.

The "solution" is coming...we just aren't quite ready for it. At the current rate of moral depravity...I expect euthanasia to be commonly accepted and practiced in 20 years and eventually mandated by government. But I don't think we're quite that "enlightened" yet.

 

[Moonbeam]

A Zen Master gathered all his diciples and said, "What is this?" and died.

 

[AreaCode7O7]

Originally posted by: senseamp
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01....html?_r=1&ref=opinion

This should have been done before bailing out banks. I have friends who got laid off and can't afford COBRA payments, where is their bail out? We can't allow a temporary economic disaster turn into a health care disaster that is going to do permanent damage to people's health and lives.

Fortunately if you believe the whiners on the right, there is progress being made on this:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123327719403931465.html

Your friend can go work for McDonalds or Safeway 32 hours a week, get health care and have a small paycheck to take home to boot. It is ALWAYS possible to get health care for yourself unless you are flat out bedridden. It is not the government's problem that your friend is unwilling to work a low-paying blue collar job to provide one of the essentials in his life while he looks for better work.

I have a medical condition that requires nearly $50k in treatment every year to allow me to keep walking and using my hands. It is not the government's job to provide that for me; it's my responsibility to do whatever I need to do to have premium health care. Now the UK, on the other hand, who provides health care to their citizens, recently decided that if you don't show immediate improvement on my treatment (which is unusual) then you don't get a second shot at it. Yeah, give me privatized health care ANY DAY over somebody making a decision like that for me.