Bloomberg: No One Has Health Care Answers

NYC Mayor Also Insists He Plans To Finish Term, Not Run For President

(AP)  Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a potential presidential candidate, said none of the White House contenders has offered a health care plan that works, and he suggested that socialized medicine "may not be all that bad."

In a meandering interview Tuesday night moderated by journalist Tom Brokaw at the Cooper Union school, Bloomberg declared that "this country's in real trouble, and somebody's got to pull it out."

While he insisted that he has no desire to be that person, he said health care is an example of an issue on which none of the candidates has the right answer and their various proposed plans "don't really work."

He singled out one element that is featured in a number of plans, including the much-hyped proposal that Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., unveiled last week: the requirement that businesses provide health insurance for employees.

"We all know there is a very large economy run off the books," said Bloomberg, who is a former CEO. "How are you going to really make sure that every company really does provide health care?"

"I don't see how these plans force a solution to the problem," he added.

Clinton's campaign did not immediately comment.

Bloomberg's City Hall predecessor, Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, has described Clinton's plan as a "march toward socialized medicine," but Bloomberg said socialized European models might be worth examining.

"I think the life expectancy is better there and they don't have to pay as much," he said. "It may not be all that bad."

He declined to offer his own health care solution.

Despite Bloomberg's apparent interest in the details and plans of the presidential candidates, he insisted he plans to finish his term, which ends in 2009.

He reasoned that being president might not be as good as being mayor of a city, where a whim can become a policy overnight.

Example: Tonight Bloomberg could issue an order to reverse the southbound traffic flow on Fifth Avenue.

"It may be a dumb idea, but tomorrow morning there'd be a cop on every corner, every sign would be changed - I mean, it would go northbound," he exclaimed. "That's pretty heady stuff. Presidents can't do that."

[rstein6]

President Bushe says "No Childrens left behind", because we got enough as it is. Says he is going to
voodo it when it reaches his desk.
. If thats not arrogance done deliberately what is?
. It is the american pysche and future programs that
. are going to suffer a miserable fate. Poverty will
. soar ...
. Realize in the 15 months left of his term, and the
billions he has made for his friends he could
care less at this point about the Iraq war or the
U.S in general.
. But log this in, he thinks he will wash his
hands of the iraq fiasco, but he will always need
protection (as well as cheney, as his other
. associates when he does leave. He will always be a
prisoner of his own making?...Stupid is as Stupid
. does.

History will record him as a complete imbecile
not to mention what the world in general will think
Guaranteed... he will not enjoy the money has made
at the cost of human lives that has suffered or his policies that he has promulgated. *********

.

[getloud1]

**** TAKE AMERICA BACK ****
**** STOP THE WAR & Corporate Corruption****

He has NEVER voted:
* to raise taxes
* for an unbalanced budget
* to raise congressional pay
* for a federal restriction on gun ownership
* to increase the power of the executive branch

He HAS voted:
* against the Iraq war
* against the inappropriately named USA PATRIOT act
* against regulating the internet
* against the Military Commissions Act

He will eliminate the IRS, Wasteful Government Spending & Stop The Iraq War Immediately!

Most importantly, he voted NO on anything in Congress that is not allowed by the Constitution.

He is the only candidate not a member of the CFR!

Shouldn''t ALL members of Congress uphold the Constitution? Aren''t they SWORN to uphold it? You can bet Paul WON''T call the Constitution "just a G**D***ed piece of paper" like George Bush is reported to have.

If you want a candidate you can TRUST due to a proven track record, visit www.ronpaul2008.com and get busy spreading the word. The Mainstream Media is Blacking Out The Truth Spoke By Ron Paul!

Join The ReVoLuTiOn In Your City Stand Up America:
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/cities/

Also checkout http://www.youtube.com search for: RON PAUL

[truthheals]

Declare aipac a hostile enemy entity!

[brianbwb-2009]

Here is a solution

1. Subsidize med school, in exchange for 4 years of service, at a reasonable pay scale, in public hospitals, with standardized prices for procedures.

Here is how to raise the money for the program.

2. Legalize marijuana, then tax it, along with the taxes on alcohol, tobacco, firearms, gambling, and the *** trade. Use the revenues ONLY for health care, make it impossible to "borrow" from it.

3. Reclaim the money "borrowed" from social security, trace it to the businesses that received it, and make future "borrowing" impossible.

4. Reclaim the money given to the "war profiteers", with interest, at the prime lending rate.

5. Strictly enforce environmental regulations, and apply all fines collected from violators.

6. End financial "aid" programs to countries that don''t need it, (like Israel) or who fail to ensure the programs, for which the money was granted, are implemented (like many African countries, Indonesia, and others), and apply that money to health care.

7. Reduce the military budget to the level that we can protect our own borders and territorial waters, then apply the difference to health care and education.

There you go, only new "sin" taxes, no other, and we have health care

[pwrslm]

Answers?

There are no answers at inteliorg. It doesnt even touch the truth.

[DrColes]

We will never have affordable health care until we fix the problems. We need to fix the health care issue but we cannot fix it unless we know how it is broken. For the answer, please see http://www.InteliOrg.com/

[getloud1]

RESTORE OUR LIBERTY, FREEDOMS & AMERICA! DESTROY CORRUPT POLITICANS & CORPORATIONS GET ACTIVE IN YOUR CITY TODAY, TAKE ACTION! JOIN THE REVOLUTION: http://ronpaul.meetup.com/cities/ He Will Eliminate the IRS! And Stop The War In Iraq Immediatley! Restore And Protect America From Illegal Immigration! http://www.ronpaul2008.com/issues

[pwrslm]

The lack of socialized medical care has dropped the USA to 42nd place worldwide in life expectancy, and its dropping (down 33 places in 20 years).

When we hear about disadvantages of government run health care, it usually comes from the insurance industry in one form or another (via politicians backed by the industry). We really dont get to chose though, and we dont hear much about the good parts of socialized health care. Its left in the hands of politicians who quit working "for the people" and took a job for billion dollar companies and industries.

Obviously, socialized medical care is working just fine for alot of countries, while insurance also is a "HUGE" vehicle for profits for capitalism.

We just have to weigh the pro/con of the issue to find that the disadvantages of socialized health care are far outstripped by its benefits.

[pwrslm]

It gets to a point that the 2 trillion dollars (in 2005, anticipated to be 4 trillion by 2015) americans pay to the health insurance industry is not for the health of Americans, but for the profits of private insurance companies.

The administrative costs attributed to these private insurace companies is 31%, not counting profits.

31% of 2 trillion dollars? Thats alot of cash to type policies. Over 620 billion dollars goes to non health care related activities. This is the window where we see CEO''s that are made millionionares, every year, and retirement packages for those who are bright enough to fleece this kind of cash from honest, hard working americans, tipping the scale of outrageous.

[pwrslm]

Health insurance is the problem, not the solution. If the government or a charity established a non profit health insurance plan that would guarantee acceptance of all Americans without any pre existing conditions, they would solve the problem.

If americans, as a group, woke up and realized that the 60 billion dollars in profits taken by the private insurance industy for health insurance could fund a big portion of America''s insurance costs, it would not be hard to get thier participation in a non profit health insurance company.

If commercial health insurance companies can not compete, then they really dont need the business. Americans are spending more money per capita than any nation in the world for health care, and they are not getting it because greedy heath insurance companies.

[likeitis5050]

Healthcare for everyone should be a given. No one should be turned away because they don''t have health insurance, but currently the only ones boldly going where Americans can''t are illegal immigrants who fill emergency rooms for everything from nose bleeds to ingrown toenails. Everyone is yelling about the veto Bush has promised on the SCHIP $35 billion proposal from the Democrats which would absolutely open the way for even more illegals to hop on the free-to-me health care wagon, especially under their proposal to only require a social security number that would not have to be verified as authentic to the child...the idea of an illegal stealing identity to get free government assistance is not something they give a c..rap about anyway. So what if taxes get raised somewhere to pay for their program that is only slated to last 5 years (because this problem will magically not be an issue by then...in their words), they''ll just vote themselves a salary increase to compensate taxes increases.

But as soon as socialized healthcare comes up people go nuts. Can''t have it both ways, folks. But we can make sure what ever healthcare that is provided for Americans only goes TO Americans or legal immigrants AND is an expense that is passed on to EVERYONE and not just the working middle class.

[antoniof123]

Michael Bloomberg oh my god what are you saying are you returning to the Democrats once again. Remember Hillary and her original heath care proposal the Republicans did everything under the sun to kill it and stop America from help its citizens as a whole but why should we look at it now because you said so.

I am sick of these type of people opening there mouths and repeating something that they helped to shoot down. Please you are just another one of the come a longs in my now.