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Nicholas Kristoff said that "this time we won't be frightened" by the right wing and insurance companies. I'm afraid he might have been an optimist - a pollyanna even. The health care proposed by Obama, already backed off universal coverage, is in danger already. "Universal health care" isn't even on the table, and never was. How sad!
Mr Kristol would rather have a man whose billion dollar salary is dependent upon the profit his company makes declining benefits to the people rather than have decisions made by a government bureaucrat who has no skin in the game. Frankly I believe that even Bill would rather have a nameless bureaucrat make a decision about weather he gets a life saving procedure over the guy who's paycheck is derived by saving his company money to pay dividends.
This guy lies like we breathe; only Fox "News" would take him seriously.
The TRUTH is that we already have healthcare rationing by the insurance companies!! Since none of these commentators mentioned that fact, I have to assume they are all paid by the healthcare industry to lobby against any healthcare reform in America.
Well, or all of them have such good benefits/insurance packages, associated with their six and seven figure entertainment business salaries, that they really just don't know, that out here in the real world, doctors lie to us patients about what treatments are available, or lie to us about what's wrong with us, often, just to help out the insurance companies, the HMOs, in their goal of "healthcare rationing.
In parts of the country, poor people just suffer. Poor people aren't even allowed to have a bottle of codeine and a crutch, for a stomped knee (to draw one example from personal experience), in, for instance, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I found that shocking: the two black guys who lived next door to me, "drug dealers" who stepped in to do the social duty the professional doctors refused to perform, and sell me the painkillers I needed, they weren't shocked at all.
They will say anything to keeep the federal ear-marks lining the health care industries pockets...
Unfortunately for Williams Kristol was 100% correct which Williams admitted to later in the segment. However, I find it funny that they left that HP chose to leave that part of the segment out of their video replay.
???!
My thoughts as well. WTH is wrong with your logic? Fell off the band wagan agian did you?
Strange that I watched it and missed what you are referring to also. Or could you be mistaken????
' Unfortunately for Williams Kristol was 100% correct ....'
The only thing Kristol is ever 100% correct about is that he is ALWAYS WRONG.
The issue isn't whether or not health care might be rationed under a new system, but that it is ridiculous to try to pretend that it isn't now. PLUS, under the current system, the minute you are discoovered to have a major medical problem, the insurance companies get to work to figure out a way to get you off their books. AND you are stuck with your current employer if you want to have any chance of coverage for the rest of your life.
What a great system! Uggh
The truth is every Industrialized country except for the United States looks after their citizens with free health care and all these countries rank ahead of America world wide on health care.
The Republicans and the health insurance industry keeps perpetuating lies about these country's health care plans to scare Americans as they realize fear is the greatest tool in their arsenal.
America is the only country in the Industrialized world where people die because they either don't have health care insurance or they are denied a health care claim by the insurers. This fact alone should be scaring people not the lies the Republicans keep ramming down the public's throats.
AND, none these country's have the population rising up in revolt over their health care! hhuuuuummm
Not true! The populations of Germany, France, Japan, Tawian, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, England, Canada, Spain, all of whom have versions of universal healthcare are very well satisfied with their systems.
Of course there are glitches and screw ups. In this country it's estimated that 100,000 people are injured or killed do to medical mixups, incompetentce and gaffes.
All of us who believe that healthcare MUST be affordable and accessible for all can't let comments like this one from little chuckie stand. Fight their lies and misstatements with facts and truth.
Kristol has never been correct about anything. Ever. He is a true hate, anger, and fear republican.
Do you think he's like that, because he rebelled against his communist father.
No... the reason, is more like, $$$$$$$$$$
KRISTOL HATES THE MIDDLE CLASS. His greatest fear is that they are provided with healthcare. Once they get healthcare they'll stop being scared - and the GOP will lose their power over them.
Kristol is the biggest t00l out there.
The guy is nearly certifiable with a tenuous grasp on reality.
Not only is Kristol a middle class Warfare advocate, but he also is a shrill for the Private sector. For the love of god Obama better pout up the idea of publicly funded elections. I bet the people who come out of the US in that kind of race with real debates on real issues, and not hard line corprations controlling their every move we could get some of this crap done.
But anything other then the current system is a good step at this point.
here here
No! Not just anything will do. Only single payer will cover everyone and actually will save money. The Civil Rights Movement realized that incrementalism means never. When we have a right that is being denied us -- the human right to health care -- we must fight for it in a clear way. No deals with the villains who want to suck profits out of the medical process while letting tens of millions of people suffer physically, financially, and emotionally.
Only the U.S. among the industrialized countries throws its people to the wolves. Only here do people work multiple jobs to pay medical bills. Only here do the hypocrites claim they are all for "family values" while making sure that families have little time to enjoy one another. Only here are corporations allowed to block life-granting operations because it is not economically beneficial to shareholders. "Let the sick die and their families grieve! The insurance company must make profits! No liver for you! No heart for you! No chemotherapy for you!" How can any moral person think that it is all right to make bargains with humanoids like these? Fight for the correct way of doing things:
Single Payer = Medicare for All = Money Saved = Universal High Quality Health Care
http://www
I have lived in countries with universal care. It is better from the points of view of fairness, efficiency and effectiveness. My own health care passes for good in this country. That is relative. But my concerns stem from the increasing loss of American international competitiveness.
U.S. health care costs about 16% of GDP while other developed nations do better at about 10%. That extra 6% is a pure drag on the real economy. Frankly, the country needs to rejuvenate manufacturing and tech or it will cease being a major power. Not immediately, of course. It will take a bit of time to piss away what the previous generation left us and there will be attempts at improvement which, if not enough, will buy some time.
The most efficient health care system is single payer with one administrative operation and standard rules. Anyone who thinks a system that requires doctors, final consumers, and businesses to deal with somewhere near 1,300 health insurance plans and a mass of legalese is nuts.
Bottom line. We spend 16% while others spend 10%. If private health insurance firms are so great, why have they let this happen? If they are so great, they should be able to present a comprehensive plan that will bring the U.S. universal health care equal to that in other developed countries at the same or a lower percentage of GDP.
The ball should be in the private industry court.
Great post
"U.S. health care costs about 16% of GDP while other developed nations do better at about 10%"
This is a HARD FACT. Look it up, cons.
All we're doing with our current health care system is sustaining an unnecessary and not so harmless leech.
Vary true! This reform one way or another is going to free up the US from the corprate wims of the Privite sector. Thats the real fear here from the GOP, and other hard line Replublicans. They fear change, and they can't deal with it so they lash out at the simple idea of it.
Major Props need to be given to that man who told the truth that this was fear mongering.
Great post!
Download the Bill Moyers interview with Wendell Potter, a former insurance company insider, and there will be no doubt as to who is telling the truth here. One of these men watched it and Billy-boy wasn't one of them.
The fundamental flaw in the republican argument is that choice is necessarily and always good. Ask any behavioral economists and you will know that some choices are good, but too many choices lead to less then optimal decision-making and misery due to constraints in our cognitive load. I wonder how the Fox News pundits will respond to Bill Moyers' recent interview with former CEO of Cigna health insurance calling them out on the exact same scare tactics that Bill Kristol used.
Bill Moyer's shows should be mandatory viewing for all citizens, cable pundits
and MSM writers.
If you compare apples with apples, and look at the total overhead between a government insurance program like Medicare, and a private insurance program covering thousands of people, the difference is small.
3% for Medicare, an average of 7% for private insurers. So that caps the maximum possible profiteering at 4%. Big freakin deal.
And yet, all you hear from the libs is that you need a public option to "keep them honest". Whatever. There is more than 4% wasted in Medicare through fr.au.d and abuse, so at the end of the day it's probably MORE costly than these private plans.
do you have sources for that private figure that you could share?
Because that is the same figure that I ALWAYS hear for medicare, but for private insurers I hear figures between 18 and 23%?
http://voi
"Among employer-based plans, the largest firms had the lowest costs. Plans covering companies with at least 1,000 employees had a mere 7 percent in administrative costs."
Sounds like the usual palaver from the right wing. I am a retired RN and the advantage of a universal health care program is that people can get to a doctor while their illness is in its early stage. Just the cost of treating advanced cancer is astounding. Let alone the cost emotionally on the patient and the patient's family. Early screening and intervention in almost every illness is the way to reduce health care costs. To say nothing of the sad situation in a family that is confronted with well advanced problems from any untreated illness. Besides waiting till it is so acute is not at all cost effective. While 3% seems small, given the cumulative cost of health care, it is not a small amount. But in the end, the biggest argument for universal health care with a strong prevention component is that it is going to save lives and allow people many more productive years.
So if I get enough government health care, I can live forever, since they will catch all my diseases early on and cure me?
Golly gee, that's great.
Don't forget the profit. It's not the admin costs. Private companies are very good at keeping those in check. It's the profit. Private plans exist to earn profits. There is no profit factor in a public plan. Medicare does not have to "turn a profit" but every private plan does. That is where the big difference lies.
Sorry, but that figure INCLUDES the profits.
It's almost negligible, to be frank. Certainly contrary to the hyperventilating so many politicians are doing over it.
get a better handle on your facts.
worse yet... you know the facts your stated are not true. its three percent for govt run meidcare and over twenty percent for private care. and who is really rationing your private care is wall street... some analyst with a hedge fund.
THAT is the truth.
the one thing i have come to rely on the right wing for the past twenty years is... they will lie, even if they don't have to. they can't help themselves. the republicans have become the part of liars.
People will invest a lot of money in protecting their own profits. As evidenced by the amount of "counter-advocacy" you will find on any HP thread concerned with the issue.
I would agree with you if you would pick up the diference between what my mother's medicare costs were and what my costs with a private insurer have been over the last 3 months. I have been on disability and my mother has passed away after major surgery and 5 days in intensive care. My private insurance is the best plan offered by a company that employees over 300,000, and is generally considered 'top shelf' in the private industry.
My mother's cost = $0. My cost for copays and above 'limits' care = $3167. Furthermove, my mother's costs would have risen as would her pain and suffering if she had to be medically 'pre-qualified' like I do. I have a wide and deep family history of colon cancer and have had pre-cancer polyups removed. My insurance company no longer pays for annual screenings and also requires a pre-screening doctor's visit. My previous GI doc will not have me as a patient because of that provision (based on his insurance) so I have had to wait 6 weeks for a prescreening and will have to wait another 6 weeks for a colonoscopy (if granted).
Tell me more about how wonderful and cheap our medical coverage is. I would also like to have a 'big freaken deal' pay raise of between the 4% and 24% your refenerced article poses.
As usual, the right-wing talking heads speak without interruption but they would not allow Juan Williams to complete a sentence. It seems that people have accepted this as the protocol of discourse between conservatives and progressives.
FAUX NEWS: FAIRLY UNBALANCED
NEWS TO BE ABUSED!
Bill Kristol = always wrong.
That's right. Bill Kristol and the rest of the neocons. Not just often wrong. ALWAYS wrong. The fact they still get to be on TV giving advice is HILARIOUS, if not simply tragic. It is like taking advice about nutrition from the company that makes Twinkies.
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First Posted: 07-12-09 06:09 PM | Updated: 08-12-09 05:12 AM