Home of the Brave?

[grzegorz]

Watching the current Health Care Debate turn into kindergarten style fear mongering by none other than Sarah Palin do other Americans wonder what ever happened to the home of the brave?

As more Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we’re saying not just no, but hell no!

The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Health care by definition involves life and death decisions. Human rights and human dignity must be at the center of any health care discussion.

Rep. Michele Bachmann highlighted the Orwellian thinking of the president’s health care advisor, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of the White House chief of staff, in a floor speech to the House of Representatives. I commend her for being a voice for the most precious members of our society, our children and our seniors.

We must step up and engage in this most crucial debate. Nationalizing our health care system is a point of no return for government interference in the lives of its citizens. If we go down this path, there will be no turning back. Ronald Reagan once wrote, “Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.” Let’s stop and think and make our voices heard before it’s too late.

- Sarah Palin

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=113851103434

When I hear these kinds of comments I have to wonder if we should change our national anthem to the "home of the afraid." There's so much fear in Americans I'm surprised anyone actually leaves their homes. What the hell happened?

[cerebus]

I've always seen my health care as being my own responsibility, like the peasants in the Middle Ages. You learn how to keep yourself strong & healthy, then you proceed to do so. Never count on anyone else to take care of you when you're injured or ill, chances are it won't happen...

[grzegorz]

I hear you but this thread isn't really about health care as much as just the fear people have. Whether it's Iraqi kids throwing rocks, North Korea nuking Hawaii, socialized medicine, Sikhs getting on an airplane, it just seems like our whole society reacts only to fear.

But if you do want to talk about health care, we can too.

I'll say one thing if we did have a public option more people can participate in fighting competitions.

I'm serious though. I went to one judo club where you couldn't even participate in class unless you had insurance.

[klonk]

I'm not brave enough to let the government into my hospital room. Why? I've seen the inside of a VA hospital. I know the drill.

Medicare is broke all the time. Medicaid is a scandal. Brought you by the same efficient idiots who brought you the Post Office and the Bureau of Mines.

Yep. I guess there are some things I'm just not gutsy enough to handle.

[qiphlow]

the reason why govt funded healthcare will not work it that the govt will be funding the insurance companies instead of hospitals and clinics. the insurance companies will, of course, continue to do whatever they can to keep the premiums while not paying out. if the money was actually going to hospitals, then i think we could have a pretty kick ass system.

[Kurt Robbins]

Palin = bag of crap

[grzegorz]

I'm not brave enough to let the government into my hospital room. Why? I've seen the inside of a VA hospital. I know the drill.

Medicare is broke all the time. Medicaid is a scandal. Brought you by the same efficient idiots who brought you the Post Office and the Bureau of Mines.

Yep. I guess there are some things I'm just not gutsy enough to handle.

That's nothing, you should try dealing with the bitches down at Kaiser!

[klonk]

Everyone agrees the system needs fixing. I would submit, for my part, that bureaucratic overhead, excess regulation and red tape are key problems. They exceed in cost the boondoggle settlements of ambulance chasing lawyers, but I think those should be curbed too.

When I was a boy (a very long time ago) doctors charged on a sliding scale depending on which side of town you lived on. Fees were generally out of pocket. Somehow a poor man's child was always cheaper to deliver than a millionaire's. Mystery of nature, I suppose.

Then government got involved. Everything had to be overseen and approved and vetted three ways from Sunday. Simultaneously, lawyers decided to eat doctors for a living. There were no more house calls when the lawyers started saying, "This patient should have been in a hospital! Scandal! Malpractice!"

When every man stabs his neighbor in the back, when everyone screams and tells lies, you get just the system you would expect. Now you want government even more firmly in charge of it. You have forsaken the frying pan, good luck in the fire.

[klonk]

Just as an intellectual exercise, what other occupations could medical professionals pursue, if they decide it is no longer worth their time on earth to heal the whining, and accept pay from the mincing?

[bigphatwong]

The problem isn't excessive regulation. The problem is that for 50 million Americans, dealing with the insurance companies while seriously ill is like swimming with sharks when you have a bleeding leg wound. And if you happen to have a pre-existing condition? Lots o' luck pal...you must to be too "weak, lazy and stupid" to survive (to paraphrase one loudmouth neocon windbag who used to post here)

In that vein I'd argue that the problem is insufficient regulation and unchecked greed. And I'm not talking about the doctors, but the self-serving profiteers who screw over tens of millions of people in their hour of need. So yes, by all means, regulate the fuck out of them. As far as I'm concerned make it so they can't blow a fart in a teepee without signing a waiver. I'll take "government bureaucracy" over insurance company bureaucracy any day.

[klonk]

What you are not looking at: The insurance companies are following rule books written by government regulation and the fear of being sued. Actually, it is not a highly profitable business to be in. Your costs are high because their costs are high.

[bigphatwong]

What you are not looking at: The insurance companies are following rule books written by government regulation and the fear of being sued. Actually, it is not a highly profitable business to be in. Your costs are high because their costs are high.

Not true... in NY for example they collect over $3 billion annually in malpractice insurance alone. And that's just from the doctors. Still a heap more than any settlements they end up paying out.

I'd say they are doing just fine.

[klonk]

I'd say you are dreaming. Or eating Pablum from the DNC. If you mistrust industry statistics, and say they are all liars rolling in dough, look instead at market forces. You could set up the Fat Wong insurance trust, you will pay out big fees, and only take in small payments. Good luck with that. Tell me how it works out, and all. Lots o' bloomin' luck.

If there were a cheap way to do it, in today's environment of threat and hassle and over regulation, you would constantly have a little green lizard popping up with a Cockney accent to say, "Hoy, yu cuud be savin on your health insurance with Gecko!

[bigphatwong]

Hey, the RNC pablum was too expensive. And it came with an obligatory donation to the Reverend Moon!

[Steve James]

First of all, there's nothing the gov't can do to stop someone with money from getting the absolutely best medical care possible. It's the people who already cannot afford health care and need it now. It's not a RNC/DNC issue except to the extent that it's made an ideological issue (Red vs. Blue). Cancer doesn't work along party lines.