Posted on 10/28/2009 7:38:04 AM PDT by Loyal Buckeye
For an editorial promoting fiscal responsibility, The Dispatch overlooked one of the best ways to lower health costs: a public option that competes with private insurers to lower costs and keep the industry honest ("Honest accounting," Oct. 19).
The newspaper called the public option "the way for a government takeover of health care," but I ask: A takeover from whom?
The two insurance companies that control more than 50 percent of Ohio's health-insurance market?
The insurance companies across the nation that deny care based on gender or pre-existing conditions?
The insurers that place arbitrary limits on how much medical care Ohioans can receive each year or throughout their lifetimes, even if it defies the recommendations of doctors?
Insurers speak out of both sides of their mouths. They claim the government can't do anything efficiently but then argue that a public option would be so efficient that it would run them out of business.
A public plan is in no way a government takeover of health care but rather an additional insurance option that would spur price competition in the private insurance market.
Our nation's Medicare program, the original "public option," spends less than 4 percent of its yearly budget on administrative costs, compared with private insurers that have overhead costs as high as 30 percent.
Competition leads to lower premiums; misleading rhetoric leads us nowhere. Ohioans deserve better.
Government rationed healthcare will lead to rationing, no matter what nanny peloser’s pea sized brain thinks it should be called.
How dumb are people.
BTW, this is a letter to the editor which appeared in today’s Dispatch. I have written a response that I hope makes it into the printed edition of the Dispatch.
We have lurkers.
Who the heck do they think will be subsidizing this Public Option besides Tax payers....Does the Gov have a money tree we don’t know about??
The stupidity of Sherrod Brown is one of the reasons I moved to S. Utah.
When in state office, he was corrupt. In the U.S. Senate, he’s simply an ass.
Medicare Part B was $3 a month when it started....equating to 3 hrs work. It is now $96 a month. How many of us make $32 an hour??
The two insurance companies that control more than 50 percent of Ohio's health-insurance market?
And who's fault is this? The same government that wants to take over health care currently disallows people in any state from buying insurance that is sold outside of the state. The same government also imposes coverage minimums that drive up prices for everyone
The insurance companies across the nation that deny care based on gender or pre-existing conditions?
How? Even if insurance companies deny payment for a service, there is nothing stopping a person from incurring debt to pay for their own care. Oh wait a minute, these people think health care should be "free." While I personally cannot stand most insurance companies, the only times they seem to be in a denying mood is when it comes to experimental treatments which offer no guarantee of success for a patient. I am sure if someone asked a health insurer to cover the cost of medicinal meditation to treat a broken leg, that too would be denied.
The insurers that place arbitrary limits on how much medical care Ohioans can receive each year or throughout their lifetimes, even if it defies the recommendations of doctors?
Ahhh... again with the fallacy that a health insurer actually can deny you care.
Insurers speak out of both sides of their mouths. They claim the government can't do anything efficiently but then argue that a public option would be so efficient that it would run them out of business.
Perhaps this fool should look at what happened with state-run health systems like Dirigo in Maine and TENNCare in Tennessee. As soon as these taxpayer funded options became available many employers dropped their own privately paid for health plans and dumped their employees into these plans. Seems quite a valid complaint to me.
A public plan is in no way a government takeover of health care but rather an additional insurance option that would spur price competition in the private insurance market.
Ahh, the demonstrative lack of business sense. Perhaps we should look at the example of the US Postal Service competing with UPS and FedEx. The former has a huge advantage in that it is granted a government monopoly for a particular service, and it enjoys being exempt from taxes and regulations to which the latter are subject. The USPS still loses money, and if it had to play on the same field as FedEx or UPS, it would have gone under a long time ago.
Our nation's Medicare program, the original "public option," spends less than 4 percent of its yearly budget on administrative costs, compared with private insurers that have overhead costs as high as 30 percent.
LOL. Medicare. The same insurer that denies more claims than any other. Classic.
In the spirit of debate, I will offer my own alternative health plan. Mine consists of just two things... taxpayer financed one-way first class plane tickets to the country of choice for all people who want to experience the joys of socialized medicine... and a shredder for their passports.
insurance companies employ at least 50,000 people in Columbus.
Talk about ****ing where you eat!
But She-rod would say he will get them ‘green jobs’ just like those who have lost their jobs in manufacturing.
Competition leads to lower premiums; misleading rhetoric leads us nowhere. Ohioans deserve better than U.S. SEN. SHERROD BROWN.
Point by point I could refute and disprove Brown's cherry picked complaints by simply including the facts and stats he OMITTED, but why bother, he's a Rat.
We already have a real life example of the the public option in practice. Consider primary and secondary education. We have public schools competing with private schools. It is irrefutable that the private schools provide a superior education at a lower cost per student. In many cases, dramatically. Yet more students are in public schools than private. The cost continue to spiral upward. The government continually grabs more and more control. The public schools have a forced curriculum that large segments of the public oppose.
The government owns and controls the public schools and also have the power to make the rules. So they make rules that make it more difficult and costly for the private schools to compete.
Look at education and you can see the future of health care with a public (government)option.
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