Posted on 05/06/2009 3:09:16 AM PDT by Scanian
It would be naïve to think that we are not going to see Obama and his Democratic majorities impose a form of National Health Care (NHC) as early in this term as he can. We will most likely see this just prior to the 2010 Congressional elections in an effort to keep his majorities by "buying" the votes of non-tax-paying citizens but before the system collapses under the price tag of whichever format he chooses.
Current Government Participation
To understand fully the implications of the information to follow, one has to appreciate the role the federal and state governments currently play in the delivery of healthcare to Americans. It can be summed up with an analogy: Government is the organized crime of healthcare.
Some will consider that statement unfair, but it is easily supported with financial data throughout the country. Medicare is a massive program that was begun by Lyndon Johnson in the mid 1960's, but which succeeding administrations, Republican and Democratic alike, have expanded to broaden coverage from hospital and physician coverage entitlements to even include pharmaceutical needs. Currently, Medicare represents approximately 17% of all federal spending.
The program is funded by a payroll and self-employment tax of 2.9% withheld from all employed Americans under FICA. Medicare has additional premiums for eligibility which are stratified from $100 per month up to $310 per month for high earners. Additional deductibles are imposed for various forms of care.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
They’re going to work on it as soon as possible, before they get thrown out of office!
We are helpless to stop this. The few of us left who are actually paying taxes to support this mess will just give up if we cannot leave the country all together.
Business and industry will surely leave, after the Obamunists recently decided to double tax multinational Corporations and added 800 new IRS agents to audit them.
Watch that brand new giant SUCKING SOUND as Corporations and industry scrambles to leave and shuts down all their American factories and operations.
Would it were so...but in general business does not wish to be burdened with health care and will be only to happy to turn it over to the government. This is a self inflicted wound...with poorly written and poorly enforced trade agreements-not to mention tax benefits for offshoring companies, millions of good jobs with benefits have been lost-sent overseas. Business must cut cost to the bone in order to compete globally (why is this such a good thing?). As for small business, many can’t even afford to insure themselves much less their employees. The unemployed and the underemployed do not have access to health care...thus not only will Americans support national health, they will demand it.
The greedy HMO’s and private insurance companies have played a role in this also. People are already experiencing rationing of health care in their private and employee based insurance;Personally, I have to fight for everything these days...automatic turn down and then an appeals process.Also, simple pre-existing conditions such as high blood pressure often mean people can not buy private health insurance policies-due to affordability issues and because the insurance companies will not write such a policy at any cost. What if you have had a serious illness?
Also, many workers being laid off are in their mid to late 40’s and 50’s-too young for medicare and to old for affordable health insurance purchased on an individual basis...it’s a giant mess. How’s that free trade working out for you and our country? Not to well in my estimation. I have long warned on this forum that free trade would lead to socialism because of the destruction of American jobs...national health is only the first program...others will follow-sadly.
Free Trade is the antithesis of Socialism, troll.
Nationalized medicine is socialistic medicine.
Industries protected by tariffs or bailouts are socialized industries.
If you ‘help out’ a business that can’t compete, if you allow Government to choose winners and losers in the marketplace, you just put a tax on everyone who buys the sort of products that business produces.
As I have been here for many years, your insults mean nothing to me...properly written and enforced trade agreements and tax policies that favored creating jobs here would have stopped socialized medicine cold as the fact that people had better jobs and more were insured during the 90’s stopped Hillarycare cold...say what you will, there is none so blind as a free trader...which is anything but free or fair...enjoy national health, you and others like you earned it; you can not eliminate good jobs and replace them with nothing and not expect exactly the sort of repercussions we are experiencing-the election of Obama and socialism...as for me, I did not support the policies that brought us to this points...too bad I have to suffer with the rest of you short sighted fools.
Great article. Here’s one example of what the ballooning costs of such a system would be. In Ohio spending on Medicaid is 40% of the state’s budget. It is projected to be 75% of the state’s budget by 2020. Once these “free health care” programs are in place there is no way to limit their cost except by rationing services.
You can open your arms and embrace this garbage all you like, or demagogue the greatest health care system in the World for socialist selective health care rationing like they have in Kanada and Britain.
Either way, you get protectionism and Collective Socialism, which seems to suit you well. As for me, I am still a dedicated free American and I will fight this to the bitter end.
Wrong...I resent those that have brought us to this point...you are the true socialist in that your policies have lead us down this very dangerous road...what did you think would happen as millions of good paying jobs were lost in the free trade fiasco? two words...Obama and socialism...you can call those who call you on this- all the nasty names you want...the blame lies with your fabulous free trade policies. Socialism brought to you directly by free trade and global policies which have destroyed millions of jobs-permanently I fear.
As for tossing out moderates like Spector...since there are not enough conservatives to win national elections or in some cases statewide elections...how exactly does this benefit the GOP...you think you will have any power to implement policy as a regional party? As a conservative I would like to see more conservatives elected (never like Spector)...however, as a realist, I know that will not happen in the Northeast or the Northwest and increasingly in the Mid West...thus our path to power has to include some moderates...no other way to win.
Totally agree. In my discussions with the free trade crowd, I hear a tone of contempt for their fellow Americans - let them eat cake sort of thing.
That concept is hardly good for the long term prospects of capitalism.
Medicare won't reimburse hospitals anymore if a patient acquires MRSA while a patient (won't pay for the cost of treating the MRSA). All our patients now get swabbed when they are admitted, swabbed again if their stay is at least 7 days and every 7 days after that and when they are discharged.
They also won't reimburse any more the cost of treatment for any falls the patient might have while under the hospital's care. So if a little old Alzheimer lady decides to get out of bed and gets dizzy, falls and breaks her arm, the hospital has to absorb the cost. We've got these little alarms attached to them that will go off if they attempt to leave their bed. Have 3 or 4 of these kinds of patients on a unit and you can only imagine the stress it can cause especially if a nurse is trying to treat and access 6-7 patients, pass meds and then having to dash out the door to try to catch them before they fall and break a leg or a hip.
Totally agree. In my discussions with the free trade crowd, I hear a tone of contempt for their fellow Americans - let them eat cake sort of thing.
That concept is hardly good for the long term prospects of capitalism.
They are too stupid to understand they will eat cake as well...hopefully at that point there will be a realization of what they have wrought on this country.
Indeed!
Demand all you want. You'll be lucky to find a nurse practicioner or physician assistant. Maybe a foreign doctor will see you.
Arab Liberals on the 'Terrorist Doctors' Plot in the U.K.
Survey: 60% Of Primary Care Physicians Would Choose Another Field
No we are not.
The physicians and the insurance agencies are working at grassroots level to stop this, or so I heard on Michael Medved today.
The Senior Lobby will not go quietly into the night. Giving people tax credits to buy their own insurance is one strategy; there are others that have been looked at.
There are options to solve the health care cost problem if competitiveness is made a goal.
In addition, younger doctors of both sexes want a life and will not work 60+ hours per week.
Nurse practioners and Physician Assistants could make up the slack, but there are shortages of medical professors to teach them.
So we import doctors with which we can hardly communicate.
The answer: we need to convert some of our public universities to medical training centers, and reduce the number of classrooms for student taking ethnic and gender study majors.
The public interest is not being served when taxpayers fund universities, but fail to train students in essential professions.
Actually, my sister in law is disabled and has medicare; she has no trouble seeing the doctor unlike me who must fight the HMO for every dollar. Medicare now pays more than most private insurers which is why many hospitals are on the brink of bankruptcy. For example, my husband had a virus three years ago; it got into his heart and caused moderate cardiac failure;he is fine now thankfully, but he spent about a week in the hospital...the bill was about $25000. I spoke to a hospital lawyer because we moved without paying a $250.00 copay (didn’t know we had one). I was complaining and she asked me ‘do you know how much your insurance company paid us?” She told me the figure-shocking-the amount was $15oo.oo for a week’s stay in cardiac care...Ah you miss the point for all of that, I do not believe in national health care...however, it is inevitable because of trade and global policies that have lead to massive job losses...of course it’s a perfect storm with the financial sector bankrupting the country at the same time...I don’t want it; you don’t want it, but it will come. The GOP needs to come up with an alternative or we are cooked. What did free traders think would happen if millions of good paying jobs with benefits went away?
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