Here's a 'retro' one to send to all your friends...
...MORE Taxes...???...
...MORE Taxes...???...
OPM: The Liberals' 'Solution' to every societal problem. (...Other People's Money!!! )
Posted on 06/20/2007 10:16:47 PM PDT by goldstategop
I'm going to make a little prediction.
In a few days, Michael Moore's latest mockumentary, "Sicko," will release nationally.
It is an indictment of health care in the U.S. and a paean to systems in worker paradises like Cuba.
But given the notoriety and box-office success of some of Michael Moore's other agitprop fare, I predict it will be rapidly followed by the introduction of major federal legislation that will, in effect, attempt to nationalize and socialize medicine in the U.S.
In my own meager effort to pre-empt this well-orchestrated plot, I would like to bust a few of the myths that are already being spread about health care in America.
(Column continues below)
The big scare figure bandied about by the Moore-style alarmists is that an estimated 25 million to 35 million people in this country have had no health insurance for a year or longer.
Keep in mind that is just about 10 percent of the population. So, another way to look at this equation is to say 90 percent of the population has made responsible choices with budgets to make health insurance a priority. Considering that at any given moment about 5 percent of the population workforce is unemployed, is it really shocking that 10 percent is without health insurance?
Furthermore, I know some of those people – perhaps as many as 1 or 2 percent – are very wealthy. They don't bother with health insurance. They simply pay their doctor bills as needed. So now we are talking about 8 or 9 percent of the population without insurance.
Does that mean they don't get health care?
No, it does not. In America, no one – insured or not – is turned away from emergency care.
Now let's reintroduce another hot topic into the equation – illegal aliens. We are told there are 12 million in the country at any given moment. I strongly suspect that figure is too low by half. But let's use the figure the amnesty advocates themselves use – 12 million. If we subtract just that number from the total of uninsured, we're back down to the unemployment level of about 5 percent.
Keep in mind with an unemployment figure at 5 percent, very few people are chronically unemployed. Economists would explain that this figure largely represents transitions from one job to another. About 5 percent of the public is between jobs – meaning they recently left one and are seeking, and likely to find, another.
Again, is it surprising that the percentage of uninsured would roughly correlate with the number of unemployed? It is neither shocking nor a crisis.
Another claim of those who would trade your freedom for their empowerment is that health-care costs are out of control. They explain the current system is inefficient and involves enormous administrative costs.
For once, the alarmists are actually right – to a point.
The system is broken. Administrative costs are too high. And this is a direct result of the inroads the health-care socialists have already made with programs like Medicaid and Medicare. Even private insurance programs result in radically higher costs for medical care because patients themselves are not paying the piper. Patients choose to have procedures and tests – necessary or unnecessary – they might not have if they had to pay the bill themselves.
But understand this: Further socializing the system, making it less accountable to the consumer and spreading the costs around will only send health-care fees through the roof.
This may sound cold and cruel, but it is nevertheless true: Health-care insurance is affordable for every single working family in America today. It's simply a matter of priorities.
Let me put it to you this way. Does the average American family spend more money on food or health-care insurance? The answer, of course, is food. Now, why is it that food costs are not skyrocketing like health-care costs? The answer is because food producers and retailers have to answer directly to the consumer. Health-care providers do not.
If you really want to bring down the cost of health care, insurance programs would provide only for catastrophic illnesses and injuries. Routine doctor visits and hospital treatments would be paid directly by consumers. Government would be taken out of the equation altogether.
The more you spread the pain, the more pain there will be.
That's why the real Sicko is the one who promotes government control of health care.
Additionally, the high salaries tend to attract the “best and brightest”. If you take away the financial incentive for medical professionals (which offsets the *years* of costly training), you’ll end up with a shortage of healthcare workers and, at the same time, a surplus of people lining up for “free” healthcare.Not necessarily true. In Japan they have a Doctors and Stewardess dating club because both professions are considered the "top" of the social ladder for men and women respectively. Doctor's wives in Japan don't seem to be lacking in prada goods either.
At 8:00 prompt, was called. Taken to the back, weighed and measured, handed cup, and shown the bathroom.
Returned the cup... told to have a seat while tests were run. Around 8:30 (no later) shown into a room. Doctor - the actual Doctor - comes in, has tests results, goes over them. Gives me three prescriptions.
Nurse takes prescription tells me to go pay. Prescriptions will be filled and waiting.
Present my ticket. Bill is brought up. Total amount $28.00 US dollars. Paid and as I left the area, nurse reappered with the three prescriptions.
In and out under an hour.
I have a 10:00 appointment with American doctor, I am not even shown into the little waiting room until 11:00.
The true 500 pound gorillas are lawyers!
The true cost of medical care is inflated thousand of times by all the lawsuits, doctors insurance, and test done to prevent lawsuits.
Also, the high sugar, low fiber, low vitamin and mineral diet that most of us are on, don’t help the problem.
the 10,000 pound gorilla are all the illegals using the US hospital emergency rooms as out patient clinics!!!!
no insurnace/no pay ....free care no matter what!!!!
of course, if they are refused...your answer with the lawyers/lawsuits kick right in!!!
wow...how christian of you. A real culture of life you’re displaying there.
Which is one of the major reasons we're now dealing with these issues...
Watch yo ass - to use an American saying. I read that some US Senators want to see a free Health and Welfare service for all, from cradle to grave.
I have worked for 25 years, and pay 2 types of tax at the end of each month; income tax and Class 2 National Insurance contributions (the second one finances public healthcare here).
I also voluntarily pay £40 ($80) a month to PPP private health insurance, my Mrs pays the same amount. Neither of us have been unemployed for more than a few weeks in a quarter of a century. Now, do we get a rebate on our NI contributions ? Do we f**k !
Meanwhile some scumbag finishes a 5 year sentence in Lindholme, gets free housing (rent paid), is exempt from all local and national taxes, and recieves about £120 ($240) a week. He may father 2 or 3 sprogs with different women, who in turn will get public housing, weekly money, and free healthcare.
IN 16 or 17 years time those sprogs will have offsring of their own and you will see 3 generations who have never had to earn a penny. Meanwhile my taxes go up and up and up, as I went to College and learned a skill. But of course I forgot people like me come last, even our Conservative Party says they’ll leave this system as it is.
If I was 15 years younger I would emigrate.
Yes, we have the top doctors, best research, finest hospitals and equipment, etc, etc. At issue is ACCESS to care. But the leftie idiots twist those stats around until it looks like Cuba and other dungeon countries deliver better care.
Got that right. Opening between Pixar's "Ratatoulle" and "Live Free or Die Hard", "Sicko" Box Office for that weekend is going to make Moore very ill! Can't wait for him to be ignored!
The result would eliminate a huge bureaucracy engaged in price controlling by Medicaid and Medicare. Individuals could shop for medical care like the do for many things on the Internet (not in place when Friedman proposed this). Individuals would have more control.
In the 'olden days' (like pre LBJ) there were things called 'Charity Hospitals' where the poor went. But now there's no need for them when the gubmint is picking up the tab at the Mayo Clinic for sore throats and hangovers.
End Medicaid and Charity Hospitals will re-appear.
Thanks for the ping!
bookmark
Very funny Seadog! I have the actual gif that walks across the page and does that - but I’m not going to post it, lol!
You’re welcome, certainly!
Put me on your “list”! Thanks Seadog.
Ahh, that’s excellent Seadog! Thanks for pinging.
.
LOL!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.