Comments on: Obama: "Time To Deliver" On Health Care

In Weekly Address President Urges Action To Lower Costs, Improve Quality And Coverage, Protect Consumer Choice

[incog-nito]

The health insurance industry can help itself and the public by doing these things:

1) Let people buy insurance outside of work at GROUP rates (vs. exorbitant individual rates), similar to employment-based health insurance.

2) Outline in detail what they will and will not cover. No surprises and/or hidden changes.

3) Premium adjustments should be done almost once a year (right now they can raise your individual policy premiums anytime).

4) Rates should be the same regardless of pre-existing conditions (again, group rate).

5) Do not deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

6) Do not raise premiums for people who come down with a major illness (again, group rate), effectively making it so expensive as to be the same as denial of coverage. People who are sick should not lose coverage just when they need it most.

These are reasonable requests. But they probably won't agree anyway, looking at past history. So it's time for a national health insurance plan to give people more freedom and more choice.

[cmc1227]

In the United States there are 31 states that receive more money from the Federal Government than they contribute in tax dollars.

Of those 21 are majority REPUBLICAN states.

So much for the staunch, individualist hard working repub. More like the lazy shiffless on the dole repub.
Posted by johndevinejr

Just curious as to where you found this data. Does is actually break it down by politcal party or is this something you derived on your own?

[rerunz]

POOR MITCH MCCONNELL . . . NO GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE FOR HIM. . . BUT WAIT. . . HE'S ALREADY ON A GOVERNMENT PAID HEALTH CARE PROGRAM AS A GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE! Is it that he wants us to pay for HIS healthcare?

[babooph]

Not much chance of health care -the insurance lobby has the massive bribe $ flowing-too good a rip off to let get away .

[johndevinejr]

42% of working Americans pay no taxes......

Now, we will also give that group of voters health care.

Posted by donbl1


In the United States there are 31 states that receive more money from the Federal Government than they contribute in tax dollars.

Of those 21 are majority REPUBLICAN states.

So much for the staunch, individualist hard working repub. More like the lazy shiffless on the dole repub.

[cydygitt1]

42% of working Americans pay no taxes......

Now, we will also give that group of voters health care.

Posted by donbl1
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Hate to tell you donny, but if they don't pay taxes, they're more than likely living below the poverty level, and already get Medicaid just like the retirees get Medicare.

I'm not sure you could prove your 42%, but I can also tell you that America already has about 50% of our nation's health care as government-run, and after the 80 million baby boomers retire over the next 2 decades, we'll have moved far more into the socialized medicine category even if the republican'ts block any needed health care reform!

[donbl1]

42% of working Americans pay no taxes......

Now, we will also give that group of voters health care.

Pretty soon, we will give them prozac or cocaine to get them through their tough lives.

[erasmus111]

Yes it is time for government run healthcare. Then they will be able to control every single aspect of our lives. Government is so much wiser than we the sheeple.
Posted by randomlybanned at 1:30 PM : Jun 6, 2009

Your government can control you, only if you ALLOW them to control you. Your government is supposed to work for YOU. If it isn't, then that's YOUR fault. If you have the RIGHT government, then you have nothing to worry about. There's something wrong when you allow a nitwit to sit in office for 8 years and do nothing about it. If Bush was in office here (actually that would never have happened), he would have been out on his ass for some of the stuff he's done.

[erasmus111]

He said the room was filthy and there were dirty clothes under the bed, but that they had spent a fortune on a very nice entrance and foyer with a waterfall and nice ambience.

Posted by cydygitt1 at 12:48 PM : Jun 6, 2009

Ok, now this just horrifies me. If I saw that, I would be screaming bloody murder. The whole world would hear me. : ) I would be taking pictures, sending them to the news media, gathering everyone I could and protesting outside the hospital.

As far as the entrances to the hospitals go, here, they are very plain. Nothing fancy. They have nice colors and seating, but that's it.

[erb0087]

Wow! Can you imagine the service we'll get. Like mailing a letter through the United States Post Office. For less than 50 cents being able to mail a letter from coast to coast almost 3200 miles!
Posted by rightaboutit at 1:39 PM : Jun 6, 2009
=============================

You're right about that.

It's been over 50 years since a letter or package of mine failed to arrive at the correct destination in a timely manner.

I don't know why righties engage in kneejerk bashing of the postal service.

The Pentagon should be that efficient and cost effective.

[skyk-2009]

Private insurers are adamantly opposed, fearing they would be driven out of business, as are most Republicans.

As usual the Republican's care NONE about anyone but Big Business. If it doesn't help Private Insurers then they aren't going to go for it. It's time to push these clowns to the curb along with their fat cat friends. If they can't compete with a Government plan, after all they spent three decades telling us that Private Business was better, then they should go out of business.

[cydygitt1]

We need a true single-payer system in this country, but unlike Medicare, it has to done right. If it's done via insurance contractors, with all the control given to powerful hospitals and integrated systems, we will continue to have a disaster, perhaps worse than the one we have now, with the same disconnect in the marketplace that we have now between purchasers and users of health care and all of the upside-down incentives and rewards that have so perverted our current system.

We have to copy the very best of successful systems elsewhere. We have to make sure that physicians who have invested their careers and risked their own finances in developing practices are not destroyed.

But we need tremendous political will to attain that goal.

[cydygitt1]

Absolutely right, lets start with surgery to remove the parasitic profits garnered by those slimy corporations who profit on the misery of others. Lets stop the fear mongering over "socialized" medicine, designed to keep the insurance companies and the HMO's at the feeding trough of public suffering, and get to work on a system that provides basic health care for all citizens, using programs similar to Canada and England and France's programs, but using their experiences to mold an even better model of honest health care.

Posted by nofoolling
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Exactly! We need a hybrid 'single-payer' system with the best parts of those country's health care systems that deliver the most efficient and best health care in the world, so that our $2.5 Trillion spent on health care doesn't include profits for middlemen that are not providers!

[randomlybanned]

Yes it is time for government run healthcare. Then they will be able to control every single aspect of our lives. Government is so much wiser than we the sheeple.

[cydygitt1]

It's well past time for our congresscritters (as Baucus found out) to start listening to WE THE PEOPLE for once, since we are their constituents, and they work for us -- not BIG PHARMA and BIG INSURANCE lobbyists!
Posted by cydygitt1
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I totally agree with you but as I stated in my very first comment, is that Obama is now feeling pressured by time from campaign promises. He should implement a fully functional Single Payer program that will appease both sides even if it takes ten years to become fully functional. Better to have this than a half azzed system that the Reps may shoot down later on.
Posted by cmc1227
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Yes, I agree that a fully-functional 'single-payer' system is what we need over any type of 'hybid' plan or just more of the same for-profit system putting the patient dead last.

We're already spending $2.5 Trillion or 18% of GDP now on health care, with estimates of doubling that to 35% of GDP before all the baby boomers have retired on Medicare. That's ludicrous, and definitely unsustainable no matter what mcconnel says or does, although I'll bet we have his full attention as well as his lobbyist buddies.

Despite this being a huge pressing problem for the fiscal viability of America, the republican'ts have NO SOLUTIONS to our health care debacle, and can only offer attacks and the word 'NO.'

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Private insurers are adamantly opposed, fearing they would be driven out of business, as are most Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell delivered speeches on the Senate floor almost every day this past week railing against the concept, and reiterated the point in an interview with radio reporters Friday.

"The key to a bipartisan bill is to not have a government plan in the bill, no matter what it's called," the Kentucky Republican said. "When I say no government plan, I mean no government plan. Not something described some other way, not something that gets us to the same place by indirection. No government plan."
----------------

[nofoolling]

"Fixing what's wrong with our health care system is no longer a luxury we hope to achieve - it's a necessity we cannot postpone any longer," the president said.

Absolutely right, lets start with surgery to remove the parasitic profits garnered by those slimy corporations who profit on the misery of others. Lets stop the fear mongering over "socialized" medicine, designed to keep the insurance companies and the HMO's at the feeding trough of public suffering, and get to work on a system that provides basic health care for all citizens, using programs similar to Canada and England and France's programs, but using their experiences to mold an even better model of honest health care.

Watch the movie by Michael Moore "Sicko" if you want to get a real clue about the American health care system of greed and indifference.

Watch the movie by Michael Moore "Sicko" if you want to get a real clue about the American health care system of greed and indifference.

[mutnauq4842]

Our current for-profit health care debacle kills over 100,000 Americans every year due to nothing but hospital MISTAKES. No wonder we're 37th in the world in health care!
Posted by cydygitt1 at 12:48 PM : Jun 6, 2009

No we are not 37th because of mistakes-We are 37th because there is little profit in primary care medicine. It is easier to get money from a patient after years of unhealthy living-essentially your money or your life.

Our politically correct society won't allow criticism of unhealthy lifestyle-So the medical community gladly plays along charging an exorbitant "sin tax" in the form of medical fees and services. Funny how people don't believe in diet, exercise, immunization or God until the issue of mortality is staring them in the face. Snicker

[JoetheDumbass]

60% of bankruptcy's in the US fault un-paid medical bills. We do not want Government insurance for our lousy health care. We want Universal health care, and a complete overhaul of our system.

[cmc1227]

I think the main problem was the speed at which President Obama wanted health care reform, and by keeping 'single-payer' away from the table, it 'might' have been quicker to pass something, but more than likely something that was still unsustainable and unaffordable -- putting more money down the existing rat hole.

Now, with mitch mcconnel's daily rants in front of the senate, it appears that this will truly be a huge partisan fight with ANY type of government involvement in our health care reform, so why not at least make 'single-payer' part of the discussion, since 59% of the physicians and the majority of Americans want some sort of 'single-payer' system.

It's well past time for our congresscritters (as Baucus found out) to start listening to WE THE PEOPLE for once, since we are their constituents, and they work for us -- not BIG PHARMA and BIG INSURANCE lobbyists!
Posted by cydygitt1

I totally agree with you but as I stated in my very first comment, is that Obama is now feeling pressured by time from campaign promises. He should implement a fully functional Single Payer program that will appease both sides even if it takes ten years to become fully functional. Better to have this than a half azzed system that the Reps may shoot down later on.

[mutnauq4842]

RIDE THAT WAVE MAN, SURFS UP DUDE! GREAT POST!
Posted by BENNINGSSCHOOLFORBOYS at 11:47 AM : Jun 6, 2009

School for Boys? Interesting ID Python.