Religico » healthcare

Not better or worse, just different

Craig — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 04:55:38 +0000

I know some of you won’t like this but I was thinking recently if there weren’t some advantages of more socialist countries that we tend to ignore here. From what I understand, people in Britain and France do not nearly have the standard of living we do–they have less toys and money and big cars and so forth. But at the same time, they don’t have to worry as much. They get more time off, its harder to get fired (too hard in France in my opinion) they don’t have to worry about getting sick as much because of socialized health care. In France at least, the health care is supposedly much better than here, but its bankrupting their government. Of course, we are too because of the war, bailouts and general runaway spending and we don’t even have socialized medicine. But in any case, their worries and stresses are less, they have greater individual financial security at the cost of a lower economic success.

I’m not saying its better–just different. I’m not claiming we should or could do that here in America. We have more stress and have to work harder here, but we have far more opportunity and wealth. Do you think its possible that what conservatives and liberals are fighting over is really just two different approaches to life and government, both with pros and cons? Maybe one is not entirely “better” than the other, but both involve trade-offs.

I’m not picking a fight with anyone, just more thinking out loud. Maybe my outspoken conservative friends Brady or Brett will comment. Also to be fair, liberals should keep this in mind that maybe what conservatives want is not to have the country run by greedy corporations but a different set of advantages that involves more hard work, less security but greater rewards.

Just some thoughts…

The Truth about the Obamacare plan.

Mike — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:58:58 +0000

Obama gave a speech on his healthcare program on September 8th, 2009. He repeatedly told us that the the right wing Republicans were lying to us about his proposed healthcare package and told us that his healthcare plan was nothing to worry about.

In the spirit of truth and honesty, and in my typical fashion of posting facts, rather than opinions when arguing with people about politics, please see the following list of actual comments and pages from the Obamacare bill. Once you are done, you tell me if Joe Wilson was right when he said “You Lie!” to Obama.

Page 22 of the HC Bill: Mandates that the Govt will audit books of all employers that self insure!!

Page 30 Sec 123 of HC bill – THERE WILL BE A GOVT COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benefits you get.

Page 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill: YOUR HEALTH CARE IS RATIONED!!!

Page 42 of HC Bill:The Health Choices Commissioner will choose your HC Benefits for you. You have no choice!

Page 50 Section 152 in HC bill: HC will be provided to ALL non US citizens, illegal or otherwise

Page 58 HC Bill: Govt will have real-time access to individuals finances & a National ID Healthcard will be issued!

Page 59 HC Bill lines 21-24: Govt will have direct access to you ur banks accounts for elective funds transfer.

Page 65 Sec 164: is a payoff subsidized plan for retirees and their families in Unions & community organizations: (ACORN).

Page 84 Sec 203 HC bill: Govt mandates ALL benefit packages for private HC plans in the Exchange.

Page 85 Line 7 HC Bill: Specifications for of Benefit Levels for Plans The Govt will ration your Healthcare!

Page 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill: Govt mandates linguistic appropriate services. Example – Translation: illegal aliens.

Page 95 HC Bill Lines 8-18: The Govt will use groups i.e., ACORN & Americorps to sign up individuals for Govt HC plan.

Page 85 Line 7 HC Bill: Specifications of Benefit Levels for Plans.
AARP members – your Health care WILL be rationed.

Page 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill: Medicaid Eligible Individuals will be automatically enrolled in Medicaid. No choice.

Page 124 lines 24-25 HC: No company can sue GOVT on price fixing. No “judicial review” against Govt Monopoly.

Page 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill: Doctors/ American Medical Association – The Govt will tell YOU what you can make! (salary)

Page 145 Line 15-17: An Employer MUST auto enroll employees into public option plan. NO CHOICE!

Page 126 Lines 22-25: Employers MUST pay for HC for part time employees AND their families.

Page 149 Lines 16-24: ANY Employer with payroll 401k & above who does not provide public option pays 8% tax on all payroll.

Page 150 Lines 9-13: Business’s with payroll btw 251k & 401k who doesn’t provide public option pays 2-6% tax on all payroll.

Page 167 Lines 18-23: ANY individual who doesn’t have acceptable HC according to Govt will be taxed 2.5% of income.

Page 170 Lines 1-3 HC Bill: Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from individual taxes. (Americans will pay)

Page 195 HC Bill: Officers & employees of HC Admin (GOVT) will have access to ALL Americans finances /personal records.

Page 203 Line 14-15 HC: “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax” Yes, it says that!

Page 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill: Govt will reduce physician services for Medicaid Seniors, low income and poor are affected.

Page 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill: Doctors, doesn’t matter what specialty you have, you’ll all be paid the same!

Page 253 Line 10-18: Govt sets value of Doctor’s time, proffession, judgment etc. Literally value of humans.

Page 265 Sec 1131: Govt mandates & controls productivity for private HC industries.

Page 268 Sec 1141: Federal Govt regulates rental & purchase of power driven wheelchairs.

Page 272 SEC. 1145: TREATMENT OF CERTAIN CANCER HOSPITALS – Cancer patients – welcome to rationing!

Page 280 Sec 1151: The Govt will penalize hospitals for whatever Govt deems preventable re-admissions.

Page 298 Lines 9-11: Doctors, treat a patient during initial admission that results in a re-admission -Govt will penalize you.

Page 317 L 13-20: PROHIBITION on ownership/investmen t. Govt tells Doctors what/how much they can own!

Page 317-318 lines 21-25, 1-3: PROHIBITION on expansion- Govt is mandating hospitals cannot expand.

Page 321 2-13: Hospitals have opportunity to apply for exception BUT community input is required. Can u say ACORN?!!

Page 335 L 16-25 Pg 336-339: Govt mandates establishment of outcome based measures.. HC the way they want. Rationing.

Page 341 Lines 3-9: Govt has authority to disqualify Medicare Advance Plans, HMOs, etc. Forcing people into Govt plan.

Page 354 Sec 1177: Govt will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs people! Unbelievable!

Page 379 Sec 1191: Govt creates more bureaucracy – Tele-health Advisory Comittee. Can you say HC by phone?

Page 425 Lines 4-12: Govt mandates Advance Care Planning Consult. Think Senior Citizens end of life patients.

Page 425 Lines 17-19: Govt will instruct & consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney. Mandatory!

Page 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3: Govt provides approved list of end of life resources, guiding you in death. (assisted suicide)

Page 427 Lines 15-24: Govt mandates program for orders for end of life.
The Govt has a say in how your life ends.

Page 429 Lines 1-9: An “advanced care planning consultant” will be used frequently as patients health deteriorates.

Page 429 Lines 10-12: “advanced care consultation” may include an ORDER for end of life plans. AN ORDER from GOVT!

Page 429 Lines 13-25: The govt will specify which Doctors can write an end of life order.

Page 430 Lines 11-15: The Govt will decide what level of treatment you will have at end of life!

Page 469: Community Based Home Medical Services Non profit organizations. Hello, ACORN Medical Services here!!?

Page 472 Lines 14-17: PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORIGINATION. 1 monthly payment 2 a community-based organization. Like ACORN?

Page 489 Sec 1308: The Govt will cover Marriage & Family therapy. Which means they will insert Govt into your marriage.

Page 494-498: Govt will cover Mental Health Services including defining, creating, rationing those services.

Sounds like Obama has some explaining to do.

Something got lost on the way to socialism…

Craig — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:59:13 +0000

One of Facebook’s many survey’s declared me to be almost directly in the middle of the politically spectrum. I’m almost directly in the middle with a slight tilt towards the left. As someone who practices Zen Buddhism, I feel this is almost exactly where I should be. After all, the Buddha taught “the middle way”–not too much of one extreme or the other, but carefully balanced.

So I find that there is a lot that I agree with conservatism and a lot I disagree with. I think right now with conservatives on the defensive, liberals and moderates alike need to listen to their concerns. We cannot assume that liberal ideas and ideology is just automatically correct and without fault just because they hold political sway for the moment. The political pendulum will eventually swing back the other way and liberals will want the same courtesy from their neighbors and representatives alike.

I think the most valid gripe that my conservative friends have with the current administration is spending. The focus at the white house seems to be “save the economy at all costs.” I believe debt in general is a very bad thing and its something that I personally struggle with financially. We have spent billions of dollars of money we don’t have and our government is up to their ears in debt to foreign investors. This cannot be good. I realize the logic behind the bailouts was to help the economy and prevent layoffs. I indeed hope that the auto-bailouts turn out to be a good investment and save jobs. However the extra accumulated debt makes our country vulnerable to foreign interests and risk of government collapse. We can’t keep doing this forever. Bill Clinton, generally considered the liberals favorite, was actually quite conservative on this issue as he fought for and realized a balanced budget during his term. We have completely undone his work. Our government is also a partner in the auto-industry, something that I find makes me a little queasy. Regulation is one thing. Outright ownership and manipulation of non-government companies is something else entirely.

I am almost sick to death of the debate on healthcare and hesitate to bring it up. I think most agree that healthcare needs to be reformed and that the largest insurance companies (Cigna, UHC, etc.) currently have a monopoly on the industry. I have heard too many horror stories of coverage being dropped or claims being denied when something major happens. I personally know families that cannot get their children on any kind of government program such as CHIPS or Medicaid. If you visit even an extreme conservative’s website such as Ann Coulter, even they will admit there are problems.

What I feel is happening with this issue through fault on both sides is that more venom is spouted by our politicians than substance. I’m sorry but a “public option” is not communism or socialism. Go talk to my brother who took a 6 month tour of Europe or do the same and then you’ll know what true socialism is, with both its warts and benefits. There are both. Liberals who think that socialized healthcare is some sort of utopia are just as deluded as conservatives who believe it to be the greatest evil since Stalin. Nor do I buy into the “slippery slope” argument in any form. I think a public option is already a good compromise and one of the reasons I voted for Obama. However now even this possibility is slowly being killed and Obama is allowing it to the point that I no longer know where he stands. Compromise is great. A compromise of a compromise of a compromise seems a bit too watered down for even this old moderate.

What i would like to see is to see the public option revived. It will doubtless be imperfect but should be a lowest common denominator for Americans that cannot get a better form of health insurance. In fact, while I think it should be available to anyone, there should be some built in costs or limitations that make it desirable for Americans to get on a private insurance plan if available. At the same time, we should take some conservative advice and reduce some regulation on the health insurance companies that are supposedly stifling competition and enforcing the current monopolies. I wish I knew more of the details of these regulations but frankly i don’t. However anything that stops competition is a bad thing in my book. This could be a good “two-pronged” approach that perhaps gives something to both sides and forces the insurance companies to start behaving.

I doubt this will happen though. I firmly believe that the big insurance companies like things just the way they are. They neither want a public option that will lose them customers nor removal of any regulation that will allow some new upstart company to challenge their racket. I suspect that their lobbyists are fighting on both fronts.

Meanwhile, remember the environment? Remember all this talk of global warming? Remember the carbon reduction and renewable energy and new “green” jobs and investment in new technology? Yeah, neither do I. I could normally criticize the republicans for their silence but its been so long since either side talked about it that I wonder if even Al Gore is still alive. Before the election, republicans of the non Palin variety seemed to be slowly coming around and admitting there were problems and proposing conservative approaches to solving the environmental issues. What do we have now? Not a peep from either side. With all the focus on healthcare and the economy, what i consider the 800 pound gorilla of issues has been completely lost in the fray. Here is another opportunity to take multiple approaches to solving the environmental crisis, both with increased regulation and government investment, and conservative friendly tax incentives to encourage corporations to reduce energy use and pollution. It doesn’t seem like either is getting done. For those who doubt that global warming is an issue, there are plenty of other problems to solve–Pollinator decline (we need pollination to continue in order to…you know…grow our food), ocean life is going extinct from over fishing and pollution, landfills are growing with our useless electronic junk, and we’re eventually going to run out of oil and gas, just to name a few. Pick something and lets try to solve it. No takers?

No one should die.

Mike — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:09:24 +0000

No one should die:

1) Because they are already old, and it’s cheaper to hand out pain pills.
2) Because they were waiting in line to be seen by an overworked physician.
3) Because the smart Medical students, rerouted their college careers to bec…ome lawyers.
4) Because Nancy Pelosi used up all the Botox.

If you agree, set THIS as your Facebook status.