OBAMACARE !

With something so massive as the health care system of the United States why not make sure you are doing it right? The annectdotal, cherry picked stories used to hype the urgency are disproportionate to the majority of the population that receives excellent health care.

Wikipedia: ... Current estimates put U.S. health care spending at approximately 15.2% of GDP

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Mark de LA says

MR 2009-07-21 08:55:15 12283

seth 2009-07-21 08:48:46 12283

source: MR in item above
... the majority of the population that receives excellent health care.

The problem is not that some (i dispute it is the majority) receive excellent health care. The problem is that is costs too much. In this country we pay more per person than any other country in the world, yet that is not reflected in our health statistics. The real problem is that too many people cannot afford the excessive price of this alleged excellent health care.

-snip- rwg static omitted by editor.

If you dig into the Wikipedia article on US Health Care you find that we are doing quite well as a country. Spending is not necessarily an indicator of doing well else-wise our public school systems would be outstanding. The WHO has it's own axe to grind. If you look at infant mortality (a usual metric of health in a country) you should also look at abortion which is it's primary cause. Lack of respect for human lives in the womb spills over into infant care. Outside of current hype, as you look at the people in your own family & neighborhood how many people are currently unhealthy? How many of those who are unhealthy are causing their own problems? (drinking, over-eating, cavorting with prostitutes, using recreational drugs, etc...?) - How many can't get care at the emergency room of hospitals? How many have no access to free clinics? Like the unemployment rate of say 10% do you realise that also means that 90% of the country is employed. Is the glass half-full or half-empty when you view the situation without the hype? My 12267 wants to make health care independent of economics & money entirely beginning with taxing any of it first! No politics on that item, though.

Mark de LA says

Bill Kristol provides the following in The Blog from the Weekly Standard

Source: ...

Kristol: Shut Up, Obama Explained

"The time for talk is through." -- President Obama, talking to liberal bloggers on a conference call Monday night.

The Democratic bills in the House and Senate are a thousand pages long. They're still changing as committees try to mark them up, or as they mark up other versions of health insurance legislation. There's huge uncertainty about how lots of provisions in the bills and under consideration would work--OMB Director Orzsag and HHS Secretary Sibelius couldn't answer straightforward questions on Fox News Sunday and Meet the Press. Nothing goes into effect in any case until 2013--except the tax provisions, which would begin in 2011. Yet President Obama wants everyone to stop debating and deliberating, and act now--because he and he alone has decided "now is the time to go ahead and act."

Congress should assert itself, stand up for the deliberative and democratic process, and defy this presumptuous presidential dictate.

The time to debate is now. There's plenty of time to act later.

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Kudos for sanity! Bill

Mark de LA says

Don't you just love insurance salesmen?

Mark de LA says

Let's see Obama himself is not familiar by his own admission with a key provision of the health care bill (sec. 102) - see the video here. Congress is continuing to mutate it and not everyone knows what is in it or has even read it - yet Obama wants it signed quickly before people figure out what's happening. With all that hope & change, Yoda speaks to the Obami!

Mark de LA says

..& now look at some of the people who are going to get fucked with Obamacare in the WSJ -

young people
small business
HSA holders
Medicare Advantage holders

Mark de LA says

The following shows what Obamacare is trying to insure, WHY?

Mark de LA says

Here is Krauthammer's take on Obamacare detailing that his signature issue is really about him & not the urge to make health care better (I paraphrase).

Source: ...

This is not about politics? Then why is it, to take but the most egregious example, that in this grand health-care debate we hear not a word about one of the worst sources of waste in American medicine: the insane cost and arbitrary rewards of our malpractice system?

When a neurosurgeon pays $200,000 a year for malpractice insurance before he even turns on the light in his office or hires his first nurse, who do you think pays? Patients, in higher doctor fees to cover the insurance.

And with jackpot justice that awards one claimant zillions while others get nothing -- and one-third of everything goes to the lawyers -- where do you think that money comes from? The insurance companies, which then pass it on to you in higher premiums.

But the greatest waste is the hidden cost of defensive medicine: tests and procedures that doctors order for no good reason other than to protect themselves from lawsuits. Every doctor knows, as I did when I practiced years ago, how much unnecessary medical cost is incurred with an eye not on medicine but on the law.

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Seth says

MR 2009-07-25 08:50:06 12283

Here are 7 top myths about US health care as provided by RealClearPolitics here.

Myth #1 Health Care Costs are Soaring

I read the website's justification for the first alleged myth and i was totally unconvinced by their cherry picked concerns. If you want substantive dialogue on these, then agree to some ground rules of conduct designed to keep the discussion on target, otherwise i have no motive to comment further.

Mark de LA says

seth 2009-07-26 12:41:10 12283

MR 2009-07-25 08:50:06 12283

Here are 7 top myths about US health care as provided by RealC RCP learPolitics here.

Myth #1 Health Care Costs are Soaring

source: ... You cannot judge the "cost" of something by simply what you spend. You must also judge what you get. I'm reasonably certain the cost of 1950's level health care has dropped in real terms over the last 60 years

... iow, today's healthcare is more valuable than 1950's healthcare - you have to measure the cost over a period of time. The kind of healthcare you & I got at home as we grew up is pretty cheap, even today! You can't compare a model-T with a 2010 T-bird. Your attempt to put restrictions on the discussion to fit your own devices is not noble. Just argue your point or shut up. Obama & you seem to like one sided discussions so there are at least 2 peas in that pod, but not me.

Mark de LA says

Here is a clue to Congressional politics & what's wrong with Congress:

Source: ...

“I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill,’” said Conyers.

“What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?”

... there's video in the source. Which brings to mind the questions: what good are their votes? &... do we really have a representative democracy?
The answers are no good at all & we now have taxation without representation which goes back to the beginning of our history.

Hence the teaparty movement is now outnumbering Moveon.org & Acorn counter-protests.

Join UP!

OBAMACARE !

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Kristol: Shut Up, Obama Explained

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