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US House Democrats Unveil a Health Care Plan
gollum123 sends in this piece from a political blog in the NY Times. Here is the text of the bill in question (PDF). "House Democrats on Friday answered President Obama's call for a sweeping overhaul of the health care system by putting forward [an] 852-page draft bill that would require all Americans to obtain health insurance, force employers to provide benefits or help pay for them, and create a new public insurance program to compete with private insurers — a move that Republicans will bitterly oppose. ... But the chairmen said they still did not know how much the plan would cost, even as they pledged to pay for it by cutting Medicare spending and imposing new, unspecified taxes. The three chairmen described their bill as a starting point in a weeks-long legislative endeavor that they said would dominate Congress for the summer and ultimately involve the full panorama of stakeholders in the health care industry, which accounts for about one-sixth of the nation's economy. ... House Republicans, who have had no involvement in the development of the health legislation so far, quickly denounced the Democrats' proposal as a thinly disguised plan for an eventual government takeover of the health care system. ... The House Democrats' plan is one of three distinct efforts underway on Capitol Hill to draft the health overhaul legislation. In the Senate, both the Finance Committee and the health committee have separate bills in the works, and in recent days those efforts seem to have stumbled."
I can't believe this was released in the same week where the government sponsored VA hospitals were sticking dirty anal scopes up veteran's asses and giving them hepatitis and AIDS.
I guess cleaning the ass scope isn't that fun so they decided to only do it once at the end of the day.
This is why I'll steer far clear of government run health care.
Socialism - Good on Paper, Not in Reality...
An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had failed very few students but had, once, failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said, "Ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism."
"All grades will be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade meaning, obviously, no one will receive an A." They all agreed to this. After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a C. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too, so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. To their great dismay the professor failed them all. Then he sent all of them this note: "A socialistic government will also ultimately fail - because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed."
Tell me how the US can't do better than Canada and England. No really, how could we suck badly enough to be worse than Canada at national health care?
Greed. And the bureaucracy of covering up said greed and defense of the status quo, of greed.
Where was this? You did not mention it by name. Just curious.
Government run schools suck. Baltimore is not safe, because the government cannot provide basic safety. We fight unnecessary wars. We have terrible copyright laws. Government granted cable monopolies. Etc... etc... etc... Our government is going to "fix" health care? ROTFLMAO Call me when our moronic government can get the basics right.
"I don't think it's selfish, to eat defenseless shellfish." -NOFX
Take, for example, HIV treatment. Most people probably couldn't afford the cocktail that keeps them alive. But I don't think its too terrible to throw in a couple bucks of year in taxes per person to help another guy stay alive, as long as he doesn't bitch about Republicans, in which case, I'd vote to cut him off.
Why am I not surprised to see a Republican openly proclaming that they'd vote for someone to be killed for not liking Republicans?
Besides, the whole point of insurance is about risk management. If an insurance cannot manage the risk, it cannot operate as a company. Quite frankly the thing to do would be to deregulate all the coverage provided by insurance and get rid of all the various state mandates that make it more expensive.
Yes. If insurance was about nothing more than hedging bets on property, and we were primarily concerned with the health of the insurance industry, then this would be the move to take. However, since health insurance deals with human lives, and the people most likely to have the poorest coverage are those least likely to be able to absorb the costs of health care that is uncovered, then it's not a simply matter of "letting the market sort things out." After all, the current economic downturn is showing us right now what happens to average people caught in the wake when we let the market sort out unregulated financial speculation. (i.e. Credit default swaps and reporting agencies that didn't have enough financial incentive to rate the products honestly.)
But then again, I'm talking to someone who just said that AIDS patients should be allowed to die if they don't agree with you. I'm guessing you don't have much value for human life.
"Take, for example, HIV treatment. Most people probably couldn't afford the cocktail that keeps them alive. But I don't think its too terrible to throw in a couple bucks of year in taxes per person to help another guy stay alive, as long as he doesn't bitch about Republicans, in which case, I'd vote to cut him off."
You are so right!
Those fucking Democrats want to take our hard earned money and give it to fags to keep them alive. Fucking godless socialists and communists.
Canada has a completely-free universal national healthcare system.
It is also a country where...
- You need to wait 6 months for a minor surgery that you could get in the US for under $1000 in 24 hours. Quite often these minor problems, due to delay times, develop into much more serious cases, not to mention the long patient's suffering.
- You can spend 12 hours waiting for emergency life-saving surgery for which you can die any minute while not treated. Many people do.
- You can spend 3 hours in a doctor's waiting room for a 2-minute consultation. Then you'll be told to come next week and wait another 3 hours (and have to, if you want your prescription to be covered by the healthcare plan). The doctor's don't even fucking do anything other than look at you and tell you to come agian. Doctors are paid per-patient rather than based on the services they provide, so they just try to stack up as much patients as possible, and process them as fast as possible.
- Providing private healthcare alternatives (for any of the above 3 cases, or any other case) is illegal. But many providers do it clandestine (e.g. masqerading minor surgery as a "beauty salon surgery" which is legal to operate privately). Law enforcement is very lax to prosecute such cases simply because the public is so fed up with the public wait times that they tolerate having those semi-underground clinics.
I understand and sympathize with the need to provide healthcare for those that can't afford it. But I do not see why people that do afford it should suffer greatly diminished healthcare (up to and including fatalities) for the sake of those that cannot afford it. Charity at gunpoint is called extortion.
You are so right!
It wasn't that the guy was gay that made me suggest not paying taxes for his healthcare, it was that he was a Democrat with a disease that happens to be terminal.
But here's the flipside. What if we sponsored a plan to provide taxpayer funded abortion clinics but only opened them in areas that were heavily Democratic. The idea would be that you would try and get Democrats to abort themselves out of existence, but you could always sell it as providing a service for the needy or something like that. How could any Democrat argue that this would be a sort of a genocide, when they say that abortion is not killing at all?
This is my sig.
1. Socialized medicine is bad
2. Canada has socialized medicine
Therefore, Canada has bad medicine.
QED
It's not that difficult to grasp.
Not that anyone really cares what you have to say since you're Canadian.
Riiiight. That's why so many Canadians cross the border for health care, because the system is so perfect there. More people die from treatable cancers in Canada and England than in the US because of all the BS people have to go through for "free" health care.
But guess what else? Canada has 3.9% more Whites, 2.2 times more Asians, and 3.3 times more Natives. US has 6.1 times more Blacks. All per capita. See below for further information..
Let me guess: Canada has less crime, too.
As someone who knows many doctors, I will tell you flat out that if that figure includes malpractice insurance it's either a flat out lie, or product of ridiculously bad methodology.
FanFictionRecs.net
I know this will be an INCREDIBLY unpopular thing to say, but the parent has a valid point. Blacks in America are incredibly unhealthy. The reasons for this can be argued, but the fact remains. I don't doubt that they drag down our nation's life expectancy.
Texas now spends more than any other state...
Do you think it may have something to do with treating all the FUCKING ILLEGAL ALIENS?
There will be waste and corruption no matter what, but leaving private companies involved will double waste, corruption and cost at the bare minimum.
Seriously? Compared to the US government? Surely you jest.
I love how the same people that laugh at government waste ($500 hammers, anyone?) can seriously think government-run healthcare would be anything but a complete disaster with respect to finances and efficiency.
Fuck-you, stupid racist white assholes. With the racism whites shove down the throat of blacks, you only deserved a black president to tax you to death.
Cute, but 33,000,000 Canadians could easily live without your wife (minus the postman and pool boy).
How selfish of you to demand that they keep her alive! I doubt she's even economically viable.
Assholes like you make me wish Alberta has gone with the USA.
But I bet she could live without you!
How is this geek centric news?
It's not. It's a liberal-Democrat talking-points story backing up a liberal-Democrat political play being made to further-burden the US economy as part of a planned and concerted effort to collapse the US economy so that the resulting chaos and power-vacuum allows the socialist frameworks being put in place (Acorn, Americorp, etc) to essentially rebuild the US as a socialist country after the collapse.
Being that Slashdot leans heavily-left due to the low average age of posters and submitters, combined with being largely American with little experience living through actual histories of socialist-style societies/governments and their failures & collapses, it's perfectly understandable that a topic that is purely political and on the socialist agenda with extremely-little actual "geek/nerd" content would make the editorial cut to be a posted report.
Reminds me of this quote: "If a man is not a socialist in his youth, he has no heart. If he is not a conservative by the time he is 30 he has no head" -- Georges Clemenceau, Former French Prime Minister and one-time radical.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
And I am a 3 year old duck who has learned to type. My post has as much credibility as yours. ACs unite!
Only about 90% of Canadians express satisfaction with their system!
That is a good example of sample bias; The ones who it killed were not included in the survey.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
Republican Leaders, you are not welcome and you are a joke in every sense of the word. Want proof? Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Syk09MSsc
I'm tired of the games, the lies, the deceptions. People's lives are on the line and the republicans and some democrats have the fucking nerve to play politics as usual and treat us as if we're their little children they distract with lies and misdirection.
FUCK OFF REPUBLICAN LEADERS... You're a joke. These are serious times and we need SERIOUS PEOPLE WITH SERIOUS SOLUTIONS.
Enough really is enough.
Personally, I would rather have Single Payer Universal Healthcare but the democrats lack the balls to stand up for whats right. Call em up and call them out.
Its time to chip away the fat from washington one liar at a fucking time.
my wife was canadian took 5 weeks to get her gal-bladder out and we couldnt pick who we seen
funny part was ride to hospital we went past 8 closed hospitals and where sent from one due to they had no
ultrasound tech to one in lethbridge and then she waited in a bed
when they do the surgery they call out doctors name then they get sick person wheel them into a room with numbers on the floor
and then doctor and who ever is there to help him all wait in this circle room with numbers to a o.r opens up
not once did we see same doctor i was up there for 2 years working only person we seen 2x times was surgeon he was the same
funny crap in usa would take what 1 day prob go home same day
i call b.s to your claim
u take what they got and thats it i asked if i could just pay the 5k and get it done they gasped lol
Didn't say the U.S. did not benefit from the things you mentioned, but how much of socialized medicine worldwide is possible because of FOR PROFIT companies that make money in the U.S.?
If everybody has socialized medicine, other than for altruistic reasons what will be the motivation for companies to do research? Will the government give these companies blank checks to do research?