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Sanchez callers want public health option. Do you?
October 20th, 2009, 8:05 pm · 172 Comments · posted by Dena Bunis, Washington Bureau Chief
Most of Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s constituents who participated in her telephone town hall tonight and answered the Santa Ana Democrat’s informal poll want health reform and want a public option.
Sanchez held her first telephonic town hall on health care. She’ll do another one Wednesday night, this time in Spanish.
“One of the ultimate goals we have is to provide health care to as many Americans as possible,’’ Sanchez said in explaining her support for a public option.
Sanchez’s staff said 8,500 constituents were dialed into her call and a few hundred answered her three informal survey questions.
Sanchez reported the results during the call. To the question of whether Congress should pass health reform, 43 percent said they favor reform, 37 percent opposed it and 21 percent were unsure.
On whether there should be a government-sponsored public option that would compete with private insurers, 63 percent said yes to a public option, 24 opposed it and 13 percent were unsure.
Sanchez also wanted to know how much the health care system should be changed. Of those answered 48 percent said the health care system needs lots of reform, 38 percent said some, 7 percent said no reform at all and another 7 percent were unsure.
Sanchez took 10 questions during the hour she was on the call.
Sanchez’s telephonic town hall comes as Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are working to put together the bills that are expected to be debate in each chamber this fall. President Barack Obama would like to see a bill on his desk by year’s end.
Several callers wanted to know how Congress would pay the $900 billion tab the main House bill would cost. Sanchez told them about half would come from savings from the current system and the rest by taxing people with incomes over $350,000.
Others wanted to know how the proposed reform would help people without jobs or who owned small businesses.
Sanchez explained that the health exchange envisioned in virtually all the bills would have insurance policies with varying costs, including she hopes, a lowest cost public plan that would be federally subsidized for those who cannot afford insurance.
Sanchez also told one constituents that she would fight to get such alternative care as chiropractic care covered and that so far the only people whose prescription drug costs would come down under the current plans would be those on Medicare.
Related stories: Is health reform without a public plan still reform?
Will health reform hurt seniors?
Myths, half-truths frame health care debate
Will illegal immigrants benefit from health reform?
Prediction: No public plan in health reform
172 Comments
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DENA BUNIS, Washington bureau chief, 202-628-6381 or dbunis@ocregister.com
CHRIS KNAP, Politics team leader, 714-796-2240 or cknap@ocregister.com
BRIAN JOSEPH, Sacramento correspondent, 916-449-6046 or bjoseph@ocregister.com
JENNIFER MUIR, County government reporter, 714-796-7813 or jmuir@ocregister.com
MARTIN WISCKOL, Politics reporter, 714-285-2867 or mwisckol@ocregister.com twitter.com/MartinWisckol
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The Angel game was on, why did she call me then? But, I don’t want the Gubmint near our health care…
Kevin, with THAT Angels game, you should have given her your full attention.
Sad game.
This awful game had more substance to whatever Sanchez had to say on their controlled townhall meeting!!!
Kevin, if you don’t want the gubmint near YOUR health care, fine and dandy, keep giving your health care dollars to greedy for profits middlemen that provide nothing and double your rates every 10 years.
The reason it’s called a public OPTION is that you can opt in, or not. That’s your choice. I’d rather give my health care dollars to a not for profit, gov’t run system and take my chances, rather than take my chances with a company that can drop me at any time, deny me coverage and double my rates every 10 years, while simultaneously covering less and less of my medical expenses every year.
Why can’t those of us that want such an option, have it, as long as it doesn’t cost you anything or affect your situation.
Baloney
To Bryan, where does it say that the “Public Option” will be a “not-for-profit system”? I can’t find that anywhere in any of the proposals! Seriously. I read HR 3200 forward and backward and I don’t see it. The Baucus bill is not made public fully yet so I will hold my judgment on that one, but from what I have read, the Insurance Exchange that the Democrats want to set up is NOT a non-profit entity. In fact, it is much closer to the set up of the Carbon Exchange or the mortgage “exchange” like Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac. We have to be careful here. We might pay a little less for insurance premiums under the “public option” in the beginning (because it will be subsidized by the tax-payers), but there is no guarantee that we won’t end up paying more in the long run once it became the only option. None of the Democrat’s bills had anything to do with actually reducing insurance premiums for most people. I am not kidding you.
If the tax-payer-supported “public option” insurance plan will be cheaper and accept everybody (and NOT exclude people with pre-existing diseases), then why would anybody in their right mind would go out and buy insurance now. They would just wait until they get sick first before they buy insurance. The Baucus bill said that UNinsured people would have to pay a fine of about 2 thousand dollars. But guess what, people would elect to pay that fine, because it still would be much cheaper than paying for insurance year in year out . Why would anybody want to pay into any insurance plan now, public or private, if they could just wait to get it later whenever they get sick.
It is so easy to say there should be free healthcare for everybody, and who wouldn’t want that?, but anybody with 2 working neurons would have to wonder who is going to do the work for free.
“Free” public health care doesn’t mean we don’t pay into it orthat doctors and nurses will work for free , anymore thatn it does with our “free” public education system in this country - I pay taxes for schools even though I don’t have children because only the rich can afford to pay for their childrens education. Same thing is happening with health care.
It maybe public OPTION today but it will be no options tomorrow. Health care run just like our post office and our schools.
Tha’s a slippery slope.
You don’t have to use the post office or public schools, there are private options available for both. It is worth pointing out that most of us use the post office and public schools because they are the most cost effective.
The problem with your OPTION Bryan, is it will affect me and every other TAX payer in this country. I question your belief that the goverment systm would be any better and by all acoounts the countries with a goverment run health care system are telling America to watch out for what you ask for. I guess Medicare is really doing well, along with the Post Office? Oh but wait they’re ran by non-other the goverment. I’ll keep my private insurance and my money and quit taxing me for programs most of use in this country don’t want. So yes Bryan it will cost me in every citizen in this country and it will greatly affect me as well.
Let us know when Fedex can send a letter across the country for 48 cents!
Every country is telling us to watch what we ask for? Which of those countries has a public OPTION? Or, are you refering to countries with UNIVERAL/SINGLE PAYER health programs? To the best of my knowledge, a public OPTION is unique in the industrialized world.No other country offers it. So who are you comparing this to?
who would have thought. These nuts that are crying about the public option are too stupid to understand that as you stated, it is just that an option.
“dollars to greedy for profits middlemen” thats funny, hard core leftist… but funny.
“The reason it’s called a public OPTION” thats funny, socialist…. but funny.
There are some false premises, and are the following:
1. Government is not a not for profit entity, they raise billions of dollars every year and most of that money ends up on dishonest politicians (does Blagojevich rings a bell).
2. The private sector works against greedy companies by providing competition. In order for a private company to survive, it needs to provide an affordable product, at a reasonable price with good customer service (is up to the customer to find the best option in the market, same way you do when you buy car insurance).
Now, in regards the so called Healhcare REFORM (which is actually a GOVERNMENT TAKE OVER).
Once a public OPTION gets created, most of the companies will drop their private insurances in favor of the government one. Eventually healthcare insurance companies will cease to exist due to not being to compete against an entity that has unlimited funds (828 Billions now and any future taxes). Can you imagine how many more people will LOOSE their JOBS!!!!
Currently I am very happy with my insurance, I can choose any specialist I want, don’t have to deal with LONG LINES (government offices are a clear example of this), and my family is protected against any costly healthcare issue that might happen.
Can’t imagine how awful will be if I only get to have the public option, check England, Canada and even Mexico (ISSTE, IMSS) to get an idea. (FYI I was raised in Mexico)
There are simple things that can be done to lower the cost of healthcare. We could limit fraudulent lawsuits and allow to port an insurance across states (this is a limit imposed by the government)
In summary…. the FREE MARKET is our best OPTION, NOT THE GOVERNMENT WHO IS NEVER ABLE TO DO SOMETHING SUCCESSFULLY.
NEVER? Really? What about national parks, public universities, landing on the moon, WWII, interstate highways, GI Bill, health care for vets, public schools, police and fire departments, CDC, ….
The republicans aren’t in charge anymore, stop worrying.
“The private sector works against greedy companies by providing competition. In order for a private company to survive, it needs to provide an affordable product, at a reasonable price with good customer service (is up to the customer to find the best option in the market, same way you do when you buy car insurance).”
Ha! Microsoft has a monpoly on desktop operating systems, to mention word processing and spreadsheet software, but they have been turning out shi**y products for years. The “free market” you worship does not always result in a happy ending.
And there are some things the government does very well, like protect your sorry a**.
I would also ask you where in the world you get the idea that any company has a right to commodify health care. Has it ever occurred you that some things are more important than money, or have you been too busy running Pottersville?
When health insurance is handled by companies trying to make a profit, said profits will always take precedence over patients’ health and welfare. IMO the answer is either a public option or a requirement that all insurance be provided by non-profit organizations.
I have a company and in order for us to have a PROFIT (which allows to provide a living for my family and my workers) I have to treat our CUSTOMERS with the most care!!!!!
Government on the other hand, couldn’t care less .. remember that they continue to get the funds from the tax payers no matter how bad their service is.
Haven’t you been in a government office??? Have you been at the DMV??? Social Security Offices???
Public OPTION (which is actually GOVERNMENT TAKE OVER) would be the destruction of our Health care Industry!!!!
Exactly! No other civilized nation on Earth allows it citizens to profit off their neighbor’s sickness and disease.
What’s really strange is that conservative Christains think it’s socialism, when Jesus cured people for free!
If you don’t like insurance companies do not pay them and pay the Drs yourself.
The insurance companies are NOT providers of health care.
This is what i know. I look at my health insurance bill and when I compare that to my tax bills there is NO comparison!
So, if anyone is greedy it is the government. Lastly, the government takes my money by force. If I don’t pay they WILL shoot me.
Well Said!!!! I agree completely!!
Soon, I hope. Just kidding. How can you compare your tax bill to your insurance bills? You make no sense.
I have an idea, instead of letting government run the police and fire departments, let’s have a middleman that asks youfor your credit card number and schedules an appointment for people whenever they call 911.
You’re a ridiculous individual, David. Truly.
Police and fire departments are both STATE AGENCIES, covered under the Constitution of each individual State, NOT by the Federal Government.
Regardless, there is NO LAW which states that you MUST AVAIL yourself of the services of EITHER agency.
If you’re mugged, you don’t HAVE to call the police. Strictly voluntary.
If your home catches on fire, and there is NO CONCEIVEABLE DANGER to anyone else’s property, you don’t HAVE TO call the fire department. You’re more than welcome to let YOUR PROPERTY burn to the ground.
So dip, state and local governments are structured differently than the Feds? Hardly. And good luck putting that fire out yourself. Moron.
LOL…..
Do you pay Federal Taxes for the Fire and Police Department? No.
And in case you’ve a spotty memory, there were MANY people who DID save their own homes during the Triangle Fire last year….
When the GOVERNMENT RUN Fire Department wasn’t able to “get to” their homes.
There is a HUGE difference between local Govt and the Federal Govt!!!
Like what, exactly? The money that goes to the state getshandled in thexsMe exact way as your taxes to the Feds.
If a strong public option passes, in five years it will be as popular as social security and hailed as a landmark piece of progressive legislation. The only ones who stand to lose in such a scenario are Republicans and their coroporate paymasters in the insurance industry.
I’ve done the math for social security. It is so poorly run, that if I were allowed to invest independently the same funds my ‘annuity’ during retirement would be more than 2 1/2 times what they claim they will provide.
No, many of us will not hail the socialization of this economy - at least those of us with spreadsheets and a decent understanding of economics.
The current state of affairs with crony capitalism is not good, or anywhere near where it could be with true laissez-faire; however, moving toward socialism is indeed very bad.
Joe, what planet are you from?
Joe is from Planet Earth, North America, Sourthern California where middle and working class folks have been taking it on the chin for the last eight years partly because of nimrods named Robert.
Government estimates for Medicare when first proposed back in 1966 were $3 billion per year, and the projection was for inflation-adjusted annual costs to rise to $12 billion by 1990. The actual cost in 1990 was $107 billion, and the 2009 estimate is $408 billion.
What do you think regularguy7 should we trust them again or shovel more money into the inferno of government waste?
Realist: Go right on shoveling money to the health insurance industry that drops you when you need medical care the most, raises rates three times the cost of inflation every year and uses any excuse it can find to deny a needed medical procedure. I don’t know if we can trust government but I am done watching Americans suffer because of corporate greed. You wouldn’t be defending this system if you were actually a realist as you claim. You are just another apologist for the status quo. Come up with something better or get out of the way.
As the population of over 65 people increased, the costs increased - that’s not Bush fuzzy math - that’s common sense.
The middle class is getting squeezed.
But what does the squeezing is government intrusion. As government has become more and more involved with people’s lives the gap between the rich and middle classes widens. It will widen more as government gets involved more.
There is plenty of investment money available. If health insurance is so high because of “greedy insurance” companies then Obama and his friends, or maybe even you, could easily put a business case together showing how you can form a business to provide low-cost health insurance. If you are able to place a case together then money is available by election and not force (i.e. taxes)
Also, if the health insurance is so high because of “greedy insurance” companies then pay the Drs. directly and cutout the middle man!
I’m not fan of insurance companies but there is a HUGE misunderstanding between what is a health insurance company and who are the health providers.
People need to understand basic facts first before handing over 20% of the economy to the government.
he is from earth apparently and has enough common sense to understand. Now dont you have a dog to kick or baby to beat
here, here
The only people I know who support this are the ones who have no experience with a state run system. I experienced government health care when I lived in Germany for a number of years. I say you are all wet. All the rich enough Germans went out of the count, many to the USA, to get taken care of. The average German folks were stuck with the less than stellar government system. No thanks. Do not take my word fro it, why don’t you just ask any GI what he or she thinks of their government run health care?
PS: According to the AMA Medicaire denies more claims than any insurance company does. Wait until they are the only game in town.
I have relatives in Sweden, Germany, and Canada - they love their health care system. The don’t elect nimrods who preach about how government can’t do anything, then get elected and prove it!
Hello Joe,
Let me introduce myself. DWoods are lovely, dark and deep! I have 35 years experience living in Canada… I fully support a public option.
Now you can change your opinion!
A public option will destroy all private insurance. The bill as last configured will make it illegal to purchase private insurance or renew what you have. You’ll be required to pay exorbitant “premiums” for crappy government run insurance. You’ll be required to pay for coverage you don’t want or need to subsidize others.
Health care services will be rationed as the number demanding service far outstrips the available providers and resources. Have a look at the National Health Service in the UK for a real world example of how socialist medicine is an abysmal failure. Social security is an abysmal failure as well. The entitlement obligations are barely covered by the taxes collected now and will be outstripped as the retiring baby boomers demand their due. There simply aren’t enough productive payers to cover the demand. The politicians have been spending every penny collected beyond the ongoing obligations. There is no reserve. Playing the Marxist class warfare card might play for the ignorant masses that are looking for a free lunch. It doesn’t work in the real world.
Mark: You obviously haven’t done your homework and you are simply stating an opinion. Blue Cross and other private insurance companies exist and earn profits in Canada, within the Universal/Single payer system. Look it up!
While some insurance companies may opt out of providing “full” health coverage, they are not going away. They will become creative. They will offer new inventive plans like top-up insurance. Blue Cross Canada does extremely well with their top-up programs. Look up the cost of Blue Cross shares on the TSX.
Our system cannot continue under its current structure. Health insurance now costs more than a mortgage for the average American family. 17 percent of GDP and counting. Compared to less than 10 percent in countries with government supplied insurance. 30 million un-insured. Ridiculous COBRA rates. Skyrocketing premiums. Denied claims. Increasing “out of pocket” percentages. This has to be brought under control. Joe Public does not have a health system. We have given it completely away to private enterprise… It’s the insurance industry who has a health system. Hard working average Americans must pay to use it or go bankrupt to qualify for support.
We are paying far more than we should for healthcare in this country because it is a “for-profit” only system. Take excessive administration costs out of the equation. Take out profit margins. Take out marketing costs. Take out people who can but who choose not to insure themselves. Then we will have an affordable health program that serves EVERY American! Eventually every American WILL need medical attention, even if it’s for their last day on earth.
75 years ago, the world was appalled that we let 14 million die at the hands of the Nazi’s… how many of the 30 million un-insured are we letting die because they can’t afford medical attention? How many will die because they can’t afford a Mammogram? How many will die because they can’t afford a colonoscopy? How many will die because an insurance company denied them coverage because of a pre-existing condition?
This is the most generous country in the world… except when it comes to our own citizens… Shame on us!
Sounds like someone who would have surrendered at Valley Forge. You’re willing to sacrifice your freedom to have the government take care of you. Not a good thing.
Wow, what a strange comment. The Founding Fathers fought for freedom. Freedom entails choice. Public option is a choice - it increases the choices people have - meaning more freedom.
Here’s an alternative to the Public Option. Allow medical insurance companies to cross state lines. The reason the can’t do it today is due to federal government rules and regulations. More competition is a good thing, but the way the government wants to set it up currently is that they would be the only one who could go “national”. I guess there isn’t a need for a “level” playing field when you’re dealing with bureaucrats.
There is a difference between free choice and government control.
I agree with Loufca. I read some posters saying the “public option” is just that, it’s an option. That is technically false. We all have to pay for it via taxes, regardless if we use it or not, so it’s not an option. Secondly, no company can ever compete with the government, because Gov doesn’t have to show a profit. Hence, all ins companies will soon go out of business and now everybody will only be left with the gov public option…
BLM: sometimes that’s true, sometimes it’s not. Sweeping generalizations are not a reflection reality.
Social Security is BROKEN!!!! but it doesn’t have anything about progressive legislation, is basically one more government failure!!!!
And because of this, everybody LOOSES!!! except corrupt politicians who creates government programs in order to raise money for their personal causes and keep political control!!
I came from a communist country, all government run will lead to bureaucrat and then cost over run then will be more tax then we will all be poor. It is not American way. I don’t trust government at all.
Mike Nguyen
The more Government you have in your life, the less freedom you have.
Let them keep on regulating everything and no longer will you be a free thinker or a free person to choose.
The Gov. will not keep paying out for procedures just like ins. companies. Think twice and look what is behind this, read everything and you will see this is really no bargain or a way to take care of citizens.
All of the working class will be paying for this and their children, and their childrens children and who knows how many generations.
Last I checked, the “Working Class” doesn’t make $350k a year.
And with the public option, the buyers are aggregated. We will have more buying power through the National Public Option than we do with the plans offered to businesses.
Just as big companies get better rates on their health plans because of the number of employees they choose to insure, so too will the public option be able to provide more service for less cost just due to the sheer number of people who will choose to use it. The Public Option will have scale, which allow them to leverage down costs for both prescription drugs and preventative care.
The best part of the public option is you choose if you want it or not and you can add supplemental private insurance. It’s not government takeover, far from it. That would be nationalizing health care, where every hospital and clinic is owned and run by the government.
The public option is more like a Sam’s Club membership where we get better rates than most because we are buying in bulk, thereby saving money. This is a very conservative approach to health care reform, and its kind of surprising you are so against it since it uses free market mechanics to function and helps make insurance companies honest.
Hate to break it to you but they already came out and said its not 350,000 anymore infact in down to 200,000 year and dropping and we all know that the middle class pays for everything - Grow Up
Im citing the facts presented in the article that clearly state people who make over $350,000 a year will be the ones getting taxed.
Your being too rational. Try yelling people down and carrying a mis-spelled sign next time.
but you would rather there be extreme rich with extreme poor. Sure, that will work, until you run out of land to fence your self off from and the extreme poor are all that is left.
Sorry, but you make no sense
Give me an example of how - in a democracy, where we are the government - more government means less freedom. Before you resond, here’s an example: Driver’s licenses. That damn government requires me to pass a driving test and have identification to drive on public roads (not private), which means I can’t send my 10 year old down to the store in the car to buy dinner.
Your turn.
So the US is not a Republic.
It is a representaional republic. That is why George Bush ended up ebing president and not Al Gore.
I don’t know what your point is; a democracy by defintion is a republic.
Next?
No, David. The US is NOT a Democracy. It’s a Constitutional Republic. And while the differences are subtle, they’re also quite profound.
Perhaps you should become familiar with those differences.
And there’s no law which requires you to have a drivers license. You can CHOOSE not to drive. There is no “fee” or “penalty” to exercise your right to CHOOSE NOT to drive.
With MANDATORY health care, public option or not, there is NO CHOICE.
You either BUY Health Insurance, or you are FINED for exercising your RIGHT not to do so.
Since WHEN does your DUBIOUS, (at BEST), “right” to Health Insurace outweigh my ACTUAL RIGHT, as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America, to CHOOSE not to purchase Health Insurance?
IT DOESN’T!!! And THAT is the difference between a Democracy and a Constitutional Republic.
Our constitutional republic is also a demcracy, lamea$$. IF and when you finish your night school Government 101 class at the local community college (assuming you’re still not in high school), then you’ll have learned that much.
There’s no law requiring you to have a driver’s licence unles you plan to drive, true. There’s nothing complling you to go to the emergency room if you cut your leg off either (although IF emergency care arrives to aid you, and you refuse care, you must sign a waiver stating such), but I’d bet your not stupid enough (2:1 odds only) not to seek medical care. And that care, if you don’t have insurance, is paid for by taxpayers. In all states, if you drive you are REQUIRED BY LAW to have insurance. If a requirement for healt5h coverage is passed, then you still have an option not to purchase it - by killing yourself.
You’re an idiot Socialist and, like MOST of your kind, not worth talking to.
A Constitutional Republic differs from a Democracy in many ways, one of the MAIN ways being that in a full fledged Democracy, the MOB RULES, whereas in a Constitutional Republic, the INDIVIDUAL is protected by the “rule” of the MOB, by inalienable RIGHTS.
But…..
What you state is EXACTLY TRUE…..
What the Government is TRYING to ENACT is a law where the ONLY way for a citizen to “opt OUT” of their program without paying a FINANCIAL PENALTY, is to either LEAVE the Country, (as many BIG BUSINESSES have), or to kill themselves.
And this is Constitutional in WHAT way?
Ferretonov: listen crack-smoker, there can be differences between types of democracies - most that exist in reality- like the U.S. - is also a consitutional, or representative, republic. A PURE democracy on paper doesn’t work ANDD NEITHER DOES PURE CAPITALISM. Most of the democracies in the world ALSO have economies with a mixture of capitalism and socialism.
And the U.S. STARTED that trend over 100 years ago - by the late 19th century, the government gave away 131 million acres in federal land grants, at enormous cost to itself, to railroad companies to build their railroads. Four of the five transcontinental railroads were built this way. To help them, Congress authorized loans of millions of dollars to the railroads. That in turn, spawned an economic stimulus that caused the U.S. in less than 1 generation to become the world’s leading producer of steel.
Crack smoker? LOL…..
Listen, David….
What OUR PRESIDENT is advocating is PURE DEMOCRACY….
The rule of the MOB, HIS MOB, with NO protection for the INDIVIDUAL.
He is attempting to MANDATE the purchase of Health Insurance. To make it MANDATORY to purchase something, with NO WAY TO OPT OUT other than to leave the Country, or DIE.
And that is against our Constitution. That is WHY this Nation is structured as a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC.
To PROTECT the Individual FROM the rule of the Mob. Obama is attempting to CIRCUMVENT that protection when to do so would be a CLEAR violation of our Constitutional Rights.
Period.
the goverments involved either way there is no way around it…health for profit is horrible wrong! and we should think more highly of ourselves and believe we deserve to be taken care of equaly with the highest quality for all…Whats wrong with that?
If YOU need to be “taken care of” then GO SIGN UP FOR WELFARE.
YOU should think more highly of YOURSELF than to think you’re not capable of anything MORE than being “taken care of” for your entire life!
I, personally, do not NEED the Government to “take care of” ME. And I do not WANT the intrusions and conditions they PLACE on their “help”.
NO THANK YOU. I’ll take care of MYSELF, thankyouverymuch!
You don’t need the government to “take care of” you. Really?
So are you going to stop Terrorists yourself, MacGyver?
If the bank you have your money in folds, are you going to reject the FDIC’s replacement of your money?
If your house catches on fire….
If a flood ruins your business…
Do you determine the safety of the food you eat yourself?
If someone wrongs you, do you hold your own court session and receive a fair chance for justice?
Once again, genius…..
The Government is EMPOWERED by the Constitution of the United States to raise and maintain an Army and a Navy. That is not only their RIGHT, but their RESPONSIBILITY.
It is NOT their responsibility to determine HOW or WHEN or on WHAT I spend my money.
What makes you think I have my money in an AMERICAN BANK, or any bank, at ALL? There’s no Law which states that I MUST, nor any PENALTY enforced if I CHOOSE to keep it elsewhere.
If my house catches on fire, or a flood ruins my business…..the INSURANCE COMPANY I CHOOSE to pay will cover it. If I CHOOSE not to pay for insurance, then that’s on ME! There’s NO LAW which requires that I be protected from either homelessness OR financial ruin? Where do you come up with this stuff?
LOL……Are you telling me that I’m not allowed to grow my own food? That I must, by Federal Mandate, purchase food ONLY “approved” by the FDA? WHO is smoking crack here, again?
And if someone wrongs me, I can CHOOSE to avail myself of the JUSTICE SYSTEM set in place by the STATE, (not the FEDERAL), government, as is my RIGHT, as guaranteed under the Constitution.
The Constitution ALSO guarantees me the RIGHT TO REFUSE to avail myself of these services, at NO COST TO ME.
Get it?
David,
Ferret is on the right wing crazy train. He doesn’t care that our country has 30 million people without insurance and millions more who are under-insured. He’s one of the OC elite who has everything he wants.
30 MILLION! 20 MILLION! Or 10 million… who will all need heath care at some point in their life… and they will get it from US! WE will eventually pay for that care. But, he doesn’t see that. He’s too busy counting his money and cursing anyone who wants to take it to improve the society he lives in.
Joe I thought the Republican paymasters were Big Oil? Or was that only when you needed to demonize them? Losers always hate successful people. The only way to become a BIG Corporation is to become a successful corporation and sell what people want. There is no other way.
**Health insurance companies do not seem to be selling people what they want, which is coverage they can count on, at a price that is fair. And why should they? They have the citizens over a barrel. There is little to no competition in pricing, they can drop subscribers at will, they can rescind policies on the flimsiest of excuses. It’s past time for reform.
The government is the root cause for rising health care costs. The ill administered Medicare program pays doctors, hospitals and drug companies less money than it costs to provide the goods and services. The service providers are forced to cover this underpayment by charging those with insurance a higher price to compensate for the underpayment from Medicare. The “public” option forces everyone onto a form of Medicare. The government intends to continue the underpayment behavior as an example of “saving money”. Health care providers will respond by shutting the doors. You can’t go on forever when you are losing money.
The trial lawyers are also a big problem. They own Congress. They won’t permit tort reform. Medical malpractice premiums are a large part of your medical service bills. Somebody has to pay those premiums or the doctors can’t practice medicine. All the extra tests ordered by doctors are done to immunize them from the possibility of a law suit. As a consumer you are bearing the burden of trial lawyers, medical malpractice premiums and government underpayment of Medicare. Look carefully. The root cause is government meddling. This “reform” will make the current situation look like a picnic.
Wrong. However, before Medicare, half our nation’s senior citizens did not have any health care coverage at all. Now 99 percent of them do. Medicare passed in 1965, after one of the largest Congressional battles in history — fueled, of course, by the insurance industry.
And after a single generation, where EVERYONE PAID IN…..
It’s FAILING. INSOLVENT. UNSUSTAINABLE.
It’s expected to run out of money by 2017.
As is Social Security. It’ll just take a few years MORE, (by 2023) for THAT program to fail as miserably, and then all the money that’s been taken from all of us, for our entire working lives, will have gone for….
WHAT, exactly?
Ferretonov: It’s not failing - and it won’t.
David…..
Read the Report just issued by the Trustees of BOTH Accounts, issued on May 12th. Some excerpts:
“After 2010 overall expenditures are projected to exceed aggregate revenues to an increasing extent as a result of the projected large financial imbalance in the HI trust fund.”
“By comparison, growth in SMI Part B and Part D premiums and general fund transfers is expected to continue to outpace GDP growth and HI payroll tax growth in the future.”
“In 2009, total income to the HI trust fund is estimated to fall short of expenditures by more than $20 billion….”
“Redemption of trust fund assets will be needed to pay expenditures in full and on time, but, without change, HI trust fund assets are projected to be exhausted in 2017.”
These excerpts are from the Report itself. READ IT. It’s ONLY 245 pages, for the love of God! What part of INSOLVENT and UNSUSTAINABLE are you NOT understanding? And it’s only been in place for ONE DANGED GENERATION!
READ THE REPORT, quit sticking your head in the sand!
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/ReportsTrustFunds/downloads/tr2009.pdf
This is not “reform” greylox. It’s a government take-over.
The largest Power Grab in the history of our great Nation.
Keep cheering for your “low cost” health insurance, while you burden your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren with the cost of YOUR sense of entitlement.
You probably wouldn’t even be communicating your thoughts here if it wasn’t for government “intrusion” into the economy; In the 1960s, the government created ARPANET, which was used and developed by the Defense Department, public universities and other research organizations. In 1985, the National Science Foundation created various supercomputing centers around the country, linking the five largest together to start the modern Internet we know today.
LOL….
The earliest version of the internet was first used to send “email” between UCLA, (a State University), and Stanford University, (a PRIVATE University).
The technology which led to the “world wide web” was developed by a BRITISH computer scientist, and further refined by a collaboration with Robert Cailliau, a BELGIAN informatics engineer, while BOTH were working at CERN in Geneva, SWITZERLAND.
I don’t care who invented it - In the 1960s, the government created ARPANET, which was used and developed by the Defense Department, public universities and other research organizations. In 1985, the National Science Foundation created various supercomputing centers around the country, linking the five largest together to start the modern Internet we know today.
If the government didn’t do it, it wouldn’t be anything more than a toy in some lab.
LOL!
Yeah! Of course! Rather like if the Government didn’t “do it” there’d be no Automobiles, and no airplanes, either!
Are you KIDDING ME?
By the way……cutting and pasting information doesn’t lead to an understanding of how the technology came to BE!
ACTUALLY, for ONCE you may be right! Without several governments spending money on the development of airplanes for warfare in the early 20th century, there might not be commercial airplanes today. Up until very recently,defense contractors like Boeing and McDonnell Douglas developed their commercial aircraft directly out of they DoD contract work. Bet you didn’t know you were that correct!
Hmmm, there’s another way: monopolize a critical industry. Yet another way is to defraud people. Being profitable does equate what’s best for society.
The more big business you have, the more likely you’ll see the AIG scenario.
Let people keep on ignoring the fact that big business does what suits them.
They will not keep paying out for your insurance premiums if they can’t be competitive with the rest of the world. And for the premiums they DO pay, they will get tax deductions (cost of doing business) so that you each get to contribute a bigger chunk
Think twice and look what is behind this, read everything and you will see our current health care is really no bargain or a way to take care of citizens.
Thousands of people die because they have no employee benefits and cannot afford insurance for themselves and their children, and their children.
The US is far behind European countries and Canada in having a solid health care program.
If the GOP are afraid of socialism, they can feel free to use their own socialistic freeways and socialistic fire departments and socialist public schools, and other services set up for the public good.
Government run healthcare is NOTHING more than a transfer of wealth scheme designed to keep Democrats in power. Debating the “merits” of a Government run system just misses the point.
This isnt government run health care we’re talking about.
Its not like if we have the Public Option that all of a sudden the National Guard is going to march into every hospital in the country and repossess it.
The public option is basically the government starting a non-profit health insurance company where all the fees it takes in are spent providing care. Administrative fees will be significantly smaller, there are no executives to get multimillion dollar bonuses each year, and all the money collected will be put back into the system. There are no shareholders to appease. The doctors still get paid fair wages, the drug companies still make money from the fruits of their R&D, and best of all, every American will be able to walk into an emergency room or their own primary care physician without worrying about going medically bankrupt or how they are going to afford paying for it.
A public option disguised as a non profit is anything but a low cost option. If the government has a dollar in the system it writes ALL the rules and will pile on the admin costs. Have you ever seen a government program that lowered costs? How does it get paid for? New taxes on medical device companies and pharma. Those costs get folded right back into the cost of health care and thus raise the cost to everyone.
If you would like two simple examples of a government run business look at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
A third example is the US Postal Service, scheduled to lose billions this year alone.
The Democratic Party (and most Republicans) would not exist without the power to confiscate wealth from one group and use it to buy votes for their constituents in the myriad of forms popular today. How long will it take for the American people to catch on? We are already $10 TRILLION in debt.
LOL, “non profit” government run health care……EVERYTHING the government does is non profit!!! I’m still laughing at that one, not only do they not make a profit they have no idea what a budget is or how to operate within it. Please.
This isn’t about health care, its all about government taking control of a major part of your life.
They arent taking over any part of your life. Its an OPTION, it means YOU CHOOSE to use it or not.
There will be tax dollars that go into the system and unless you make more than $350,000 a year you wont have to worry about the taxes. The fees it collects are also going to be fed back into it.
This isnt a transfer of wealth. This is providing a service for all americans under the age of 65 to get affordable health insurance and care if they so choose. You wont be forced to use the public option (but if it passes, youll probably want to opt in) its entirely voluntary.
And yes, the public option will be paying out more, because it wont discriminate against pre-existing conditions or deny coverage because it might affect the bottom line of the organization. It’s primary function will be to facilitate healthcare for those people who are covered for it without regard to wall street, investors or executives. It removes the for-profit motive to deny coverage and gives people who have no options for private coverage the opportunity to see a doctor without having to lose their homes and going bankrupt or pass on debt to their children if they have a terminal illness.
I’m firmly aware we are in debt. We spent $2 trillion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and will continue to fund those wars into the future because after 8 years we still havent clearly “won”. We gave a $2.3 trillion tax cut to the rich that we are still paying for till 2012 and we gave multi-trillion dollar bailouts to banks who gamed taxpayers and homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages and derivatives contracts. Those landmines are blowing up all over the place still. That $10 trillion we’re in debt was run up over the last 8 years.
Healthcare shouldnt be a for-profit business. It contradicts the Hippocratic Oath. The motivation for healthcare providers and insurance companies should be to provide care, not to deny it for profit. As an American, you should want your doctor to treat you because he cares bout your well being, not your net worth.
Mark wrote: “Have you ever seen a government program that lowered costs?”
Answer: Yes!
It’s called the post office. Today I had the OPTION of sending a letter to the east coast. USPS price: 48 Cents - Fedex price: 24 Dollars… I would say that is a pretty significantly lower cost. Wouldn’t you?
Health care is a right to life for everyone, not just for the few.
A public option just gives people a choice of not being forced to stay with a health insurance company even though they feel they should not. It still leaves rooms for insurance companies to make profits, especially with 50 million more people.
Ultimately, a universal health care system would eliminate the for-profit insurance companies, thus making the money well spent. It would allow the majority of the legal residents and American citizens the freedom to put aside the fear of losing the so-called health care insurance every time they must change jobs.
In the current system, with an employer taking part in employees’ health insurance costs, it gives the company the influence over the health care issues of its employees - regardless whatever the law says about the confidentiality of the employees.
We ‘mericans mus be reall smart to avoid all uve those peeple getting heth care like theys do in dem other countries. Wese must be saving tons o’ money by not caring for all dem peeple who arn’t part o the workin class. JMHO
JohnG,
Excellent post.
I agree that illegal aliens should not get American paid-for health benefits.
Obama is hurting our country. Anti freedom, anti constitution. Our president is fighting wars with fox. Looks like he has thin skin and can’t defend himself. Nothing wrong with asking question the last time I checked.
He still hasn’t made a decision on afganistan.
The only “war” declared was done so by Fox News. Bill O’Reilly can interview the man anytime he likes because he treated him with respect. But, O’Reilly hasn’t asked for an interview. Fox News is not a person or a citizen. It doesn’t have the right to insist that the President speak to it. Perhaps if they tried to really be “fair and balanced”, they would get better treatment from the man. Personally, I’d tell Fox News to take a flying eff too.
Socialism is great until the other guy runs out of money. In the last fiscal year the federal government debt has grown by a factor of three. We must keep paying on it and some folks want to add another TRILLION to it! The federal debt is owned by us, wake up, you are in hock for generations.
All we really need is insurance reform. It is not hard and will not cost the federal government a penny.
“The federal debt is owned by us, wake up, you are in hock for generations.” - Mark
Yes, I agree. It’s amazing what Bush, Cheney, and Rove were able to do in just 8 short years. Here’s hoping the President can turn that around. But, I think he’ll need more than 10 months to do it.
“Sanchez’s staff said 8,500 constituents were dialed into her call and a few hundred answered her three informal survey questions.”
Here’s a good poll.
Why doesn’t Dena tell us something about how these constituents were chosen and what the wordings of the questions were? Then the Register readers could better assess what all this means.
1) Because she doesn’t know and didn’t bother to find out?
2) Because she doesn’t know the difference?
3) Because her idea of journalism isn’t about objectivity.
Folks, we’re bankrupt. When will the American people realize that our fiscal situation is so bad that we won’t even be able to pay for Medicare and Social Security in the coming years, let alone health care. We are headed for national bankruptcy and the consequences will affect us all.
thank you mr roberst………….a voice of reason and understanding
when will people realize, broke is broke
I agree. The beauty of our current privatized system is its low cost. Getting the government involved will only make healthcare expensive.
LOL, that was funny…wait, you were joking, right?
Why is healthcare 16% of US GDP and 10% in neighboring single-payer Canada? Private insurance companies’ administrative costs and the costs they impose on medical service providers!
@mroberts: Who ever told you Government was a business that must be profitable… LIED.
Try understanding government economics instead of just corporate bookeeping. The government IS NOT a business. It does not need to operate in the black to be sustainable. It doesn’t need to ask people for their business to survive.
In one generation, the baby boom will be gone. The cost of the largest birth rate in our history will be past. It is a short term problem.
What do you expect from Sanchez’ constituency.
Oh come on, do you really believe this woman? After having the illegal votes to get her into office (remember her friend Nativo,) I have a hard time believing anything this woman says. Let her do a Town Hall and let’s see who shows up.
That’s the reason she didn’t DO a Town Hall.
She CHOSE which “respondents” to call for her little “poll”.
How is that a “poll”. Sounds more like an informal get together to me.
We have yet to hear her response to the month long trip she took around the world on the taxpayers dime???? Other members of Congress were doing face-to-face townhall meetings and now she decided to do it by phone.
She didn’t do a townhall because the gun-carrying, mis-spelled sign-waving, 40-fluid-ounces-between-the-ears conservatives would show up and not let anyone speak.
LOL….
You keep telling yourself that, David.
Meanwhile, that very same group will continue to WORK to support themselves, rather that wait for the Government to come in and play NANNY.
When has the government run anything efficiently? This is just another example of Gov’t trying to expand. It is just going to be more Gov’t employees being on the payroll and more taxes on everybody. They say they will only tax people making over $ 350K per year. First of all, everybody will get taxed for this healthcare reform, plus it is not fair for the people making over $ 350 per yr. People should only get what they can pay for. Let’s forget that the service is not healthcare, but autos. If I can’t afford a BMW, I am not going to force someone else to buy it for me. That is what this universal healthcare system is about. Docs are not paid fair wages under medicare already, if you cut it more there are going to be many Docs leaving the profession.
The current US healthcare system, once you factor out a few variables such as our high auto accident rate plus the fact that we americans kill each other with guns, rates above Europe and Canada. We Amercians just can’t save everybody from our high incidence of auto accidents and murders via guns. Otherwise, ours is the best - why change this?
RC, you are wrong. The automotive accident rate in the US is not higher than Canada’s. They are within two percentage points. The US does not have to serve healthcare to a population the only size of California, spread over the 2nd largest territory in the world. And… there are more guns per capita in Canada than in America… Try some real statistics next time.
it is an option when a person like myself that does not have a full time job and may need care I would like to be able to have an option to buy into.
Excellent, Sharona. Then you should have that option.
But, as I stated above, YOUR dubious “right” to HAVE that “option” does NOT outweigh my GUARANTEED RIGHT to CHOOSE not to purchase Health Insurance.
Period.
“Guaranteed right”? How so? Please quote in the Constitution were it states that.
For starters?
Tenth Amendment, which states that any Power not granted by the Constitution to the Federal Government, nor prohibited by the Constitution to the States, shall be reserved to each individual State, and to the People.
As the Federal Government has no Power to force me to buy health insurance, that power reverts to the State. As the State of California lists no such law, that “power” reverts to ME.
Fine - then the health insurance companies cannot engage in business in more than 1 state, since the federal government has power over interstate commerce. Let’s see how that goes down with them.
BTW: it says “…OR to the people” - so if 75% of Americans want it, then it can be done.
The Interstate Commerce clause is a straw man argument.
Pay attention. Insurance companies are ALREADY prohibited from selling insurance across State lines.
And the Interstate Commerce clause exists in order to REGULATE existing commerce, not to LEGISLATE NEW commerce, and certainly gives the Government NO POWER to MANDATE that ANY citizen purchase ANYTHING against their will, with no way to opt out.
To the State OR to the People…..
And the Constitution PROHIBITS the “mob”, be they 51%, 55% or 75% from violating the Constitutional Rights of ANY Individual, be they 49%, 45%, 25% OR ONE PERSON!
First of all…there is NOT half-a-trillion dollars of “waste” to pay for all of this. That is a HUGE lie. Just say you’re going to raise taxes to pay for it, and be done with it…
…and second of all…this is only the first step in the eventual takeover of healthcare by the government. And what federal government services program can you point to as being efficient? The Post Office? Medicare? The VA?
HA!!!
SURE SANCHEZ! Everything will be FREE…the streets are paved with gold and their is Kool-Aid in all the fountains!
Promise the moon and deliver FREE health care for all!…but you see SOMEONE is going to have to pay for it…BUT NO MATTER…promise them anything and they’ll VOTE for you right?
Seriously, ask one person,
1: If I made the Govt. buy you a car would you take it? …or how about
2: if I made the Govt. put a freeze on rent increases would you take it?
Why of course they would and they DID…it’s NUMBER 2 and it’s called Rent Control, and guess who got voted in BACK into office?
Which one of Sanchez’s “Constituents” are going to say NO to something FREE?
Let’s look at why the public can’t win on health care reform.
As soon as government got involved in health care (i.e., Medicare), costs spiraled upward into the stratosphere. Yet health insurance costs are soaring no apparent reason other than greed.
The reality is that we are pawns of big business (health insurance industry), big government, or some combination of both, and on somebody else’s chess board.
And what, exactly, has Loretta Sanchez accomplished in her years in office, besides occasionally getting her name in the papers? Are the people of California, and her district, better off than before she was elected? I doubt it.
As I see it, there are two possibilities. One is that voters keep returning her to office because they don’t seem to know any better. The second is that someday, when we take off the politically correct, rose-colored glasses, we will realize that illegal aliens have been voting in our elections all along. Only by then it will be too late.
How else can you explain all the posturing and kowtowing to the Latino vote on issues that should be of no concern to anyone in this country legally?
If the public option being put out there by Democrats is so horrible then what is the rethuglican plan? Rep, Alan Grayson gave us their plan “DIE QUICKLY IF YOU GET SICK” sounds like a real good plan to rethuglicans but not the majority of the country. If there is a lying rethuglican plan then where i it? Oh thats right, they want tax cuts and subsidies for the insurance companies, tax the middle class and give it to the companies that are profiting to the tune of 10’s of billions of dollars a year, some plan.
Dear Victim…
You must stop using Keith Olberman and msDNC as your only news source. It really shows.
I for one do not believe that she conduced a telephone town hall meeting. I best guess is that the calls were generated by the democratic machine and then real calls were screened out because they did not conform with the right to gov’t option. This way she has the cover she needs to vote as a Blue Dog Democrat and tell anyone who listens that she is doing what her district want her to do. This contrived version of a town hall meeting is laughable but predictable for this woman. Have you noticed that one again she has gone AWOL from the public view? She does this when she is asked by Pelosi to do something that most of us here in OC does not agree with. Consider who will be calling in her Democratic Machine generated town hall meeting. You might as well have ACORN IN CHARGE!
By keeping out bussed in thugs that are not her constituents is wrong how? By allowing her to get the real picture and not a rethuglican contrived load of B.S. thats how. Your comment that most of us here in OC does not agree with is a laugh too, OC is kinda like those small slivers of red that is left back eat like west Virginia and Kentucky so when the OC Register puts something in print it is irrelevant because unless it is along the lines of the rethuglicans wish of seeing our country fail for their political gain it wont be reported on.
If US does not have the health care reform, in another 5 years,
the country will collapse under the health care cost as it rises
at least 10% every year
So, choose your own slow death if you do not support the
public option and let health insurance company execs receive
the fat salaries and perks
It’s your choice
James -
Absolutely crazy. There is a 0.00% chance the country will colapse under health care costs, which by the way, have slowed their rate of growth since the Clinton administration (the last time government made a serious attempt to fool with health care) and become more in-line with broader inflation measures.
The public option will do two things:
1) Drive up health care costs. Compared to government, insurance companies are relatively lean on overhead meaning any service recieved via “public option” will have a significant markup to cover the administrative aspects of such system (nevermind that tax payers are on the hook when the operation doesn’t break even).
2) Rob the old and the unborn. Read the legislation. This thing is funded from medicare cuts (translation: old people die) and adding structural debt to future generations (translation: pass the buck to the next generation).
Now as counter intuitive as it sounds, the answer is actually less insurance in the mix. The idea is you don’t insure your car for routine maintenance, why do the same with your doctor? From a P&L standpoint, on a routine visit, you’re not only paying for the doctor visit, but also the adminstrative overhead and profit margin for the insurance company. Nevermind you wouldn’t drop $200 to see a doctor for 10 minutes so I imagine costs would get driven down there as well. We could even start seeing customer service like home visits… ah the old days.
“Public Option”? Call it what it is. Banks are now given taxpayer monies to extend the inevitable with their current leadership. General Motors is now Government Motors. Why can’t the insurance companies do buisness across state lines? Why can’t we “fix” the current system first? What (and with all due respect) does our President know about government run societies? What really are his priorities? I for one do not like to be financially beholden to other countries…China?
The statelines thing is in the bills.
YES Public option all the way—- it will save trillions in the long run!
If the goverment would open up the borders to the insurance company and give them free range to work accross state lines, it would allow for them to compete and give us more options as well. The left wing goverment has allowed the borders to be open for illegal’s to have free range to our health care, schools, jobs and for the most part increase in major crimes. They want to give away more. If the goverment would stop the free hand outs to the 20 million illegals, remove them from our schools, health care and jobs how much money would we save? Lets start taking care of the real problems in this country and quit pointing fingers in the wrong direction.
Yes, open up the state borders. That way big corps can buy up the little corps after they intentionally undercut them and have taken away their premium customers who cost the least to maintain. I’d love nothing more than to be covered by insurance rules from an outside state where I can’t vote for change.
Is figures, when a congresswoman is supposedly responisible for the lowest income & lots of minorities, they would what government health care to begin with. Why should they work for it when our governement will give it to you for free??? They say welfare, food stamps, wic are for legal citizens only, bs. I know for a fact they throw it out there for the illegals too…. So will it be true for healthcare.
We have plenty of socialist programs,what is so wrong with that? We have social security,medicare and the like so what would be so bad about a public option?
The very programs you cited are bankrupt, badly run, and over budget by gazillions-does touting failed govt programs as an excuse to start newer, bigger govt program sound at all logical?
And BOTH are going bankrupt, mensarino. Insolvent. BOTH programs are UNSUSTAINABLE.
Try not to be dense. This program will fail, as nearly every other example of government run health insurance, world wide, is failing:
Canada, the UK, France, Australia. Those who have “successful” government run health insurance are amongst the most expensive countries to live in, and the tax burden on the ENTIRE citizenry is astronomical.
Not to mention the fact that you can pretty much GUARANTEE that the government has given us a ‘pie-in-the-sky”, rainbows and unicorns estimate of what this will cost.
As they ALWAYS to.
The cost will double, TRIPLE, QUADRUPLE, just as the cost for ALL GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS ALWAYS DOES.
This will be a MASSIVE albatross for the American people for GENERATIONS to come, right up until the program FAILS, (JUST as it’s doing in Canada, the UK and France….where THEIR governments are stating that THEY need to go back to a more “privatized” system in order to BECOME sustainable).
People in those countries have a higher standard of living.
People in those Countries appear to be VERY happy with their WELFARE. Just as most kids are always happy when mommy and daddy provide for them.
If you want to remain a child for life, depending on someone ELSE to “take care” of you, then I don’t know what to say.
Sooner or later, you’re going to HAVE TO either grow up, or continue to be an UNMITIGATED BURDEN on your parents. (Or the Government … by way of your FELLOW TAX PAYERS…..in this instance).
Rather than listening to what the PEOPLE are saying about how “wonderful” their GOVERNMENT RUN health insurance programs are…..
Why don’t you listen to what their GOVERNMENTS are saying about their INABILITY TO SUSTAIN THE PROGRAMS!
Also might want to take a look at the GDP of the Countries with “National” Health Insurance. Nearly across the board, they have the highest percentage of taxes as GDP.
Oh Ferrett, do you need another splash of cold Canadian water to snap you out of your delusions, again?
You are a great bookeeper but, a lousy economist!
Upper tier Canadian tax rate: 40 percent with health coverage.
Upper tier American tax rate: 30 percent without health coverage.
Is your health insurance only 10 percent of your NET income?
This was a phony bullcrap scam and everyone with half a brain knows it. Sanchez scammed her way into this district by changing her last name and with support from other carpetbaggers who thought that Bob Dornan was too conservative. Tell Sanchez to have a real town hall meeting with real people from her district and see what happens. She will never do it. Easier to screen out the real calls and put up the canned operatives with the talking points acting like they live in the area…. Come on people, don’t be so foolish as to believe this garbage. The Register might be shilling for Sanchez but don’t you!
When others were holding townhall meetings…Sanchez was in the Caribbean snorkling on the taxpayers dime.
Say ‘yes’ to democratic socialism! The government is there to ‘govern’ people’s lives, not ignore them.
How can anyone believe these stories? With the Obama administration directing the media, I don’t believe any story. Back when Bush was in office all these people would have been questioning these stories, but now they just drink the koolaid and accept whatever King Obama says.
Hey, Sanchez, run your polls in an American neighborhood and see what results you get. Your people in welfare neighborhoods are looking for more freebees from America
You mean to tell me that all of the illegal aliens living in her district want subsidized government insurance? … I’m utterly shocked….
I am looking forward to participate in the next Phony over the phone Town Hall meeting (which will be in Spanish tonight)
I guess that I will have to lie to pass the phone screener, hopefully everybody will be able to listen to facts!!!
No I do not want public health care option. This is not the answer and many of us are furious.Many of us I believe it will destroy our wonderful health care system as we know it.
A better option is to help those who need help and not destroy the entire system. That is irresponsible.
Push poll?
How many of the “constituents” pressed 1 for English?
I agree with Tom P. His statements accurately reflect the need to have public health care options available to the public. We need the public option to force competition in the monopolistic health care industry.
Americans should not be forced into bankruptcy if they become sick.
Give the middle class choice with the public option.
Just don’t tell me I HAVE to buy medical insurance!
I can’t afford medical insurance. Period. And I’m sure there are [literally] 50 million others who are in the same boat. Just because a new law is passed that says I HAVE to buy a company’s product (health insurance), doesn’t mean a money tree sprouts up in my back yard.
The rich insurance companies get what they want - mandated customers (everybody) - while the poor people of the nation, who can NOT afford medical insurance, are forced further into poverty, under the pretense of slightly lowering the cost of health care coverage for the people who CAN afford it already.
This is how the Dems’ “take from the rich and give to the poor” plans REALLY work.
It sure is sad that all the poor and uneducated people who vote for Dems, with the hope of positive change, are so easily duped. And if ANYBODY thinks your health care insurance costs are going to go DOWN if any of this stuff passes, you need to seek therapy.
Every state in the nation that has passed mandatory auto insurance laws claimed the same thing, yet auto insurance costs have not gone down anywhere. Why? Because it’s a blatant lie. And the politicians go along with it because it provides them with a new source of revenue as well - fining people for non compliance (which pushes the poor even further into poverty).
I’ll tell you what would really fix health care industry costs. A massive coordinated boycot of health insurance. A revolt! Everybody in the nation cancels there medical insurance for a week. Maybe a month. As long as it takes. The entire establishment would teeter on the brink of collapse. The government wouldn’t be too happy about that of course, but hey, it worked for the banks, and the auto industry. Sometimes it takes big, bold moves to get your way. Why can’t “The People” get their way for a change?!
Si Nyugen mentioned that the Finance Committee bill isn’t available yet for people to read.
Actually it is.. Here is the link to the Senate Finance Committee page where you can read the bill..http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/legislation.htm
Also, someone else mentioned that I didn’t say what the questions were that Congresswoman Sanchez asked during her call or how the constituents were chosen.
The questions were straight forward. Did people favor reform? how much reform they believe was needed and did they support a public option. Who answered was totally up to people on the call. They were all asked to press their phone keypads to answer.
Hope this helps
LOL at Title I, Subtitle I, (page 87):
MANDATORY Government “home visitations” for new parents and MANDATORY Government “home visitations” for “early childhood” in order to:
“measure improvement in maternal and child health, childhood injury prevention, school readiness, juvenile delinquency, family economic factors, and coordination with community resources. Grantees who did not demonstrate improvement in AT LEAST four of the five benchmarks at the end of the third year of funding would receive EXPERT TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.”
What the H#LL does THAT mean?
So now the Government will FORCE new parents, and parents of young children, to SUBMIT to MANDATORY HOME INSPECTIONS to determine that they are “fit” parents, by GOVERNMENT STANDARDS?
And this is conducive to a FREE society in WHAT WAY?
You are lost, aren’t you? It is already the law that people who accept government aid, such as Aid to Dependent Children, be visted by social workers to access, among other thing, if they EVEN HAVE CHILDREN OR ARE JUST SCAMMING THE SYSTEM. Of course, you want government to fail and the entire U.S. to become something out of ‘The Road Warrior’, don’t you?
If a person CHOOSES to avail themselves of a GOVERNMENT program, then they SHOULD have to abide by it’s Terms and Conditions for enrollment. If those Terms and Conditions include annual indoctrination visits, so be it. They’ve CHOSEN to live off the Government teat.
If the Government MANDATES that we enroll in such a program, by FEDERAL LAW, then that’s a bit DIFFERENT.
And YES, I DO want BIG GOVERNMENT to FAIL. MISERABLY. I’ve gotten my wish for the entirety of my life. As have YOU.
When Big Government SUCCEEDS, we have a SOCIALIST Nation.
I want the US to go BACK to what it was INTENDED to be….what it USED to be! A Government of the People, by the People, and FOR the People, rather than a bunch of CHILDREN living under mommy and daddy’s roof, and accepting whatever THEY feel is “good for us”, as what we’ll GET, whether WE like it, or not!
If you want to be Peter Pan, and never grow up, depending instead on someone ELSE to take care of you, go AHEAD! Go sign up for welfare, WIC, Food Stamps, MediCal, the whole works!
I don’t NEED “help” from the Government to take care of personal business.
And I don’t WANT it, either.
You’re A LOON.
And YOU are an entitled child, like most Liberals, who refuses to cut the apron strings and GROW UP.
I understand that YOU are UPSET after SEEING your WONDERFUL CONSERVATIVE values proven to FAIL in the marketplace DURING CHIMPY’S “MENSTRUATION”.
If McCAIN were elected YOU’D PROBABLY be on UNEMPLOYMENT (if you even work FOR a LIVING).
You SHOULD join SARAH palin’s HUSBAND’S group and TRY TO succeed from THE UNITED STATES since you hate it so MUCH.
bWhAhAhAhAhAhA.
You do need help from the government - specifically, a state hospital.
LOL….
You think I’m a REPUBLICAN? AHAHAHAHA!!! A CONSERVATIVE!!!!
That is RICH!
Here’s a clue, Sparky…..
There are a FEW of us in this Country who recognize that there is ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE between the two “Parties”. They’re BOTH lying, thieving, corrupt, power hungry SCUMBAG POLITICIANS!
AHAHAHAAH!!!
You actually believe that there’s DIFFERENCE between the Democrats and the Republicans?
AHAHAHAHA!!!!
You’re even more naive than I thought!
You keep right on believing that “your” Party is any better than “their” Party.
What a joke!
Only 262 pages? There’s LOTS of “stuff” missing. And you can BET that “stuff” is “stuff” they do NOT WANT us to see.
I can’t WAIT to read through THIS piece of Socialist tripe!
What nonsense! Public Option, Mandatory insurance…Get the insurance companies out of our pockets. Why should we be paying millions of dollars to insurance companies so they can deny coverage, deny medicine, deny payments of health care and we have to be responsible for what they deny? Why should we be paying increased rates so they can give their CEO’s million dollar bonuses and thousands of dollars hourly pay? (They don’t deserve them) What’s wrong with a system similar to Canada, France, England, where the insurance companies don’t have a foothold? Go ahead and scream “Socialism” What a bunch of idiots! Don’t you realize that our schools, libraries, police force, fire departments, military, and other programs are of a socialist nature? The Insurance companies are all just private enterprises which suck us dry. Wake up America!
Art:
We SHOULDN’T be paying for insurance. We don’t NEED MORE insurance. We need LESS INSURANCE.
If people would use medical insurance for it’s INTENDED purpose, we wouldn’t be IN this mess.
People use medical insurance as COST INSULATION, for every bump, bruise, scrape and sniffle.
PAY YOUR DOCTOR for check ups, stitches, coughs, and minor incidents, and save the INSURANCE for MAJOR health issues.
If people woudl stop using their insurance to go get VIAGRA, and VICODEN for their danged headaches, and other GARBAGE that they either DON’T NEED, or should be paying for THEMSELVES…..
Our Premiums wouldn’t be so high, and we woudln’t be IN this mess.
Adding MORE insurance, for MORE people, by MANDATING it….
Will just make the problem WORSE,
Which is what the Government does anyway. Par for the course.
Do YOU really THINK putting every OTHER word IN caps MAKES your STATEMENTS true OR accurate? (that QUESTION mark WAS in CAPS too)
LOL…
Do YOU think that cutting and pasting information, spouting Marxist propaganda, and marginalizing a VAST portion of the voting populace of Nation, ostensibly holding THEIR Rights to be somehow “less important” than YOURS, makes you enlightened?
As Margaret Thatcher once stated:
“The problem with Socialism is that eventually, you run out of other peoples money.”
When THAT happens, what THEN? WHAT?
When there’s nothing left BUT the Government, and the Government doesn’t have any more of OTHER peoples money…..
THEN what?
aH, you get all your ‘TALKING POINTS” from Rush and that other nutjob GLENN beck DON’T you?
MARGARET THATCHER, yeah, I probably heard that quote long before you got it from Hannitty. Argument from Authority - meaningless.
BTW: did she end socialism in Britian?
Didn’t think so.
Conservatives actually never acomplish anything. They yell and lie, but in the end, they offer no constructive ideas and they never implement anything - even when they control the White House, The Congress, and the Supreme Court.
You want America to be like it was WHEN, exactly? When children worked 16 hour days? When people would buy a can of food and die by the thousands from food posioning?
America has always had a government that worked well for the American people (except for the Hoover, Reagan, Bush, & Chimpy years)
Successes such as: the Erie Canal, the Louisiana Purchase, the California purchase,
Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway Program (oops, I guess Fox News will now refer to him as a Democrat!)
Funding the telephone Infrastructure system, the railroads, establishing worker rights.
You conservatives then bad mouth our country becuase you hate our great society and the wonderful freedoms, equalities, and oppotunities that have been ever expanded, making our lives better.
Ungrateful wrenches, all of you.
AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Wait! Wait! Not fair! I’m not done laughing at your LAST post yet!
Margret Thatcher didn’t end socialism in Britain… She didn’t even end Universal Healthcare - she INCREASED its funding. She didn’t allow private clinics to open. She didn’t allow private hospitals to be built. She, like so many other Conservatives saw the benefits of universal care. She saw that businesses perfomed better without the burden of being a health administration company for employees. Ending socialized medical in the UK, Canada, or anywhere in Europe would be political suicide.. because it works!