what's sought is a 56% increase but the company is negotiating with the state government to settle for now for "only" a 40+ per cent increase.
You' re letting the government do the negotiating on your behalf, how unconservative!!! Don't you believe in the free market and your ability to negotiate face to face with insurance company and get a better deal than those know nothing government bureaucrats?
pjmcg
· 5 months ago
Hilarious! Eroding the quality of US heath care to the levels of Canada. Hahahahaha. Try ELEVATING the level of health care in the US to the level of Canada, or just elevating us past Costa Rica. The US presently ranks 37th among industrialized nations for quality of care right between Costa Rica and Slovenia and well below Canada at 30th. And while Canada spends only 52 percent per capita on health care of what we do here in the US - they cover ALL Canadian citizens - have SHORTER average wait times for elective surgeries than here in the US (and no wait times for emergency surgery) and have better overall health as a population. There are another 29 countries that do even better. Passing health care legislation that can move us toward a model like any of the other modern industrialized countries will not result in a "ping pong" hand switching of congress, it will result in a generation of dominance for the Democratic Party.
GeorgeSorwell
· 5 months ago
Is it really a good idea to spend money in June 2009 on an election being held in November 2010?
Comments about Canada when it comes to the health care debate generally ignorance on the issue. Is that really where you want to go, Jazz?
DaGoat
· 5 months ago
Nice analysis, Jazz. The best hope for the GOP is that the Democrats are usually just as bad if not worse. The Democrats will overreach,screw something up and leave an opening. I agree the full impact of any health plan will not be felt for years and isn't likely to affect the 2010 elections much, although probably a new tax on health benefits would work in the GOP's favor.
DLS
· 5 months ago
Voting for the energy bill alone should cost Dems their offices, but not all voters are up to stuff necessarily.
* * *
"Then, of course, when such folly slowly begins to erode the quality of American health care"
This will take time, though. The Dems are rushing this health care proposal probably to exploit those who have yet to object to the fiscal misconduct by the Dems in Congress, or before many of them realize it, which they apparently haven't yet, or simply don't care (stereotypical Dim voters).
When there _is_ later dissatisfaction (gee, public care is not magic forever-bliss like the smiling people told us) there will be talk of a "private option" out of or away from the public system under this or that circumstance (to choose one's provider, a right that will all but certainly vanish in the public system sooner or later, or to avoid waiting excessively for public care, which is predictable already), and this "private option" will be attacked savagely by defenders of the public system.
Eventually people who should already know will discover that government _will_ be an intermediary, and substantially interventionist (or interfering).
Right now, in addition to concern about the nonsense the Dems are doing now (while avoiding the crucial cost issue deliberately), the public does support expanded public care, but is concerned about paying for it (and support for it drops when the cost issue is brought to light -- out of deliberate Dem darkness).
DLS
· 5 months ago
"The best hope for the GOP is that the Democrats are usually just as bad if not worse. The Democrats will overreach,screw something up and leave an opening."
They already are worsh, and already are overreaching and all the rest, rushing to do it, in fact.
But it'll take more of the same for sufficient numbers of others to recognize and respond to it.
I am 62 years old and self employed. My Blue Shield health insurance premiums for my wife and myself are $900 a month And that's for a plan with an $8000 deductible. If you like the American Health care system you are either 1. Young and healthy with low premiums 2. On a taxpayer subsidized plan (medicare, public employee, military, state or federal government, Medicaid) 3. On a employee plan subsidized with tax free benefits
If you are like me....older and self employed and paying all your own insurance premiums you are screwed!!!
DLS
· 5 months ago
I'm younger than you are, but I pay for my own insurance, too, and have a decades-long pre-existing condition, which makes it difficult to get insurance or (in the past) it has come with riders that contain various exclusions (for anything conceivably related to my condition, naturally). I'm doing okay currently at $320 a month for an individual plan, though it's going to go up sometime soon -- what's sought is a 56% increase but the company is negotiating with the state government to settle for now for "only" a 40+ per cent increase. (This same company was in the news for bonuses and other substantial payments to executives recently.)
I've been aware for years with problems with the existing system, but I am not so naive or childish (nor have I lacked the intelligence to know) that if we go from private to public health care (the desire here in the USA among advocates, though they cannot or will not admit or correctly express it, is to extend health care to more people, ideally everyone, provided or paid for and controlled by the federal government) we will exchange one set of problems for another, and there will still be interference by a middleman, so you who need to do it should discard your naivete and lack of realism and understand that before voting for us to "go forward" accordingly.
ThurmanHart
· 5 months ago
I think they will have a hard time making any progress against Teague. He owns an oil servicing company, so when he speaks about energy, his voice carries some authority. But I'm willing to see Republicans throw their money away trying to convince people that he doesn't know anything about a buisiness that made him a millionaire.
All Comments
You' re letting the government do the negotiating on your behalf, how unconservative!!! Don't you believe in the free market and your ability to negotiate face to face with insurance company and get a better deal than those know nothing government bureaucrats?
By the way, here's an article debunking some commonly-held myths about the Canadian health care system.
And here's the sequel to that article.
* * *
"Then, of course, when such folly slowly begins to erode the quality of American health care"
This will take time, though. The Dems are rushing this health care proposal probably to exploit those who have yet to object to the fiscal misconduct by the Dems in Congress, or before many of them realize it, which they apparently haven't yet, or simply don't care (stereotypical Dim voters).
When there _is_ later dissatisfaction (gee, public care is not magic forever-bliss like the smiling people told us) there will be talk of a "private option" out of or away from the public system under this or that circumstance (to choose one's provider, a right that will all but certainly vanish in the public system sooner or later, or to avoid waiting excessively for public care, which is predictable already), and this "private option" will be attacked savagely by defenders of the public system.
Eventually people who should already know will discover that government _will_ be an intermediary, and substantially interventionist (or interfering).
Right now, in addition to concern about the nonsense the Dems are doing now (while avoiding the crucial cost issue deliberately), the public does support expanded public care, but is concerned about paying for it (and support for it drops when the cost issue is brought to light -- out of deliberate Dem darkness).
They already are worsh, and already are overreaching and all the rest, rushing to do it, in fact.
But it'll take more of the same for sufficient numbers of others to recognize and respond to it.
My Blue Shield health insurance premiums for my wife and myself are $900 a month
And that's for a plan with an $8000 deductible.
If you like the American Health care system you are either
1. Young and healthy with low premiums
2. On a taxpayer subsidized plan (medicare, public employee, military, state or federal government, Medicaid)
3. On a employee plan subsidized with tax free benefits
If you are like me....older and self employed and paying all your own insurance premiums you are screwed!!!
I've been aware for years with problems with the existing system, but I am not so naive or childish (nor have I lacked the intelligence to know) that if we go from private to public health care (the desire here in the USA among advocates, though they cannot or will not admit or correctly express it, is to extend health care to more people, ideally everyone, provided or paid for and controlled by the federal government) we will exchange one set of problems for another, and there will still be interference by a middleman, so you who need to do it should discard your naivete and lack of realism and understand that before voting for us to "go forward" accordingly.