mheister's Comments (330)

“You married him!”

“More on McCarren-Ferguson here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarran–Ferguson_Act

Repealing this act will not in and of itself solve the problem. Other significant barriers to entry exist in this industry. Start-up costs are huge. In the current economy, most companies are much more risk-averse than they would be otherwise.

Most important, simply removing exemptions from anti-trust laws does not magically make health care available to the nearly 50 million Americans who have no health care insurance.

My guess - if we had the data, and cross-referenced Food Stamp rolls with a list of the uninsured, you'd see pretty clearly that the overwhelming majority of the uninsured also are struggling to simply put food on the table.

Medicare processes claims with only 3% overhead. The private health insurance industry takes upward to 30% overhead.

The true conservative - the person who would make the rational decision to deliver a necessary service in the most cost-efficient manner possible - would look at this and say, duh! Just use the Medicare system.

Those who style themselves defenders of the "free market" and demonize government - but are really just corporatists worshipping at the shrines of Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan - ignore the most cost-effective solution in favor of a much more expensive approach simply to satisfy their fetish for a particular ideology.”

“Well it's not really a "free" market if it's regulated, now is it?

Better instead to start with a goal grounded in a moral principle - health care is a human right, therefore as a society we will act to provide that human right to all regardless of income or social status.

Now, the question becomes, what's the most efficient way to deliver universal health care?

The two major approaches to this are the private health insurance market, or a government-run system. The former involves 20-30% overhead. Medicare runs at 3% overhead, is a popular program and while it can use some fine-tuning, is quite efficient.

The competition under a Medicare-for-All system is not between various insurance providers, it's amongst care providers appealing to medical-care consumers for their Medicare business. The individual medical-care consumer has a choice of doctors & hospitals. This type of competition rests not so much on price but on quality of care.

To those who would argue that a lot of doctors don't take Medicare, my answer is they will if it's the only game in town, and they'll use their professional organizations to make their argument for improved compensation schedules, malpractice reform, student loan forgiveness in exchange for setting up practices in high-need areas, so on.”

“With any luck, the mandate will be replaced with Medicare-for-All Single Payer.”

“I was about to make the same point.

To the example of food at the grocery store, prices are affected by government farm subsidies, which behind-closed-doors socialists like Michele Bachmann happily collect.

Also, the government does provide food to people who can't afford quality food. It's called Food Stamps, and a rather significant - and rising, because of the Great Recession - percentage of America's schoolchildren depend on this program so heavily that without it, they'd go hungry. Period.”

“The issue should have been framed in terms of the total health care cost to individuals and families, whether the money goes to the government or private insurers, then ask, now what's the most cost-efficient way of doing this?

Answer in the US is to use the popular single payer program already in place - Medicare - and expand it to all Americans.

Kill the Senate bill and go single payer.”

“If there's a Green, a Democratic Socialist, or a P&F candidate in your district.....”

“I'm pretty sure Boy George, or at least Darth Vader, was just as cynical.

What bothers me is I wanted add the prior administration was more cynical, but after Rahm Emanuel's recent comments combined with Obama talking about what great reform the Senate bill is, I couldn't write that.”

“What about Geithner?”

“Ron Paul's racial insensitivity is stunning.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/24/ron-paul-american-civil-w_n_78165.html”

“Um - once you get past the winking and the youbetchyas and the folksiness and her GILFiness and get down to what Sarah from Alaska actually offers by way of policy prescriptions, she nothing more to offer than boilerplate Milton Friedman - cut taxes & let the free market sort it out.

Problem is, the free market sorted out the taxpayers last year. Or didn't you notice the biggest sacking of a national treasury in the history of humanity?”

“It's a pocketbook issue. When folks have to start cutting big checks for this, it's gonna put 'em in a surly mood.”

“You're right.

Fanned.”

“IMHO HuffPo commenters did a better job coming up with faux titles for Tiger's porn movie.

In fact, someone had already said, Behind the Green Jacket.

Funniest from this round: Bob Leonard's I'm Dreaming of a White Mistress”

“Maybe she made up her mind and realized she agreed with Arianna.”

“I also see you've adopted Texas spellings. "perminate"”

“Ha!

Well-played.”

“"Texas, which produces the most wind power of any state, has enjoyed a 16 percent increase."

Counting politicians???”

“HuffPo is like crack for politics junkies, with the extra added bonus of being able to update your Facebook AND Twitter with a click.

Word to myself.”

“My nine-iron's aching for your hole-in-one.”

“Somehow the US transitioned all seniors into Medicare in less than twelve months after passage of the legislation, and that was a whole new system raised from scratch.

You're seriously trying to tell me that the US can't expand that system to pay for everyone and transition doctors & hospitals who already know how to handle Medicare paperwork without a pilot program???

Seriously???”

“Why do we need a demonstration project? We have two working systems in the US - Medicare, which is single-payer, and the VA, which is directly government-run.

What we lack is the political will to drive a stake through the heart of the soulless vampires over at Aetna and WellPoint.”

“Newsom dropped out of the 2010 governor's race. This piece is about the US Senate in 2012. Plenty of time for Gavin and Antonio and a whole slew of politicians and would-be politicians to marshal their forces for the seat - IF Feinstein chooses not to run.”

“Look up William Bradley's HuffPo piece on how Jerry Brown cleared the field. He doesn't think Feinstein's likely to run for governor for two reasons - she's got a plum perch as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and a run for governor would mean allowing more light to be shed on her husband's financial dealings.

Also, consider the gaggle of politicians Bradley cites. There's no shortage of available Democrats. I'd peg Gavin Newsom as a likely - and formidable - candidate.”

“Honestly, I wonder if the folks posting here actually saw the same movie I walked out on.

I left after about 25 minutes. I was, according to my friend who stayed, the seventh person to make that decision.

BTW before anyone judges me harshly for not giving the film a chance, I did. I was ready to go out and buy a bushel of rotten tomatoes five minutes in, but held my place to give it a chance.

Thankfully, that's only 25 minutes of my life I won't get back. Well, plus driving to and from the theater and getting their early - unlike the cad who interrupted us three minutes in because his dainty young neck didn't want to take a seat in the first three rows.

And really, the folks who did stay and enjoyed this movie should be glad I departed. I don't know that they would have appreciated my question during the Q & A.”