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New York, 3:57 AM
Fri Nov 27
11 posts in the last 24 hours
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09/03/09
sorry, charlotte moment.
09/03/09
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08/28/09
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08/27/09
John McCain hates the disabled!
08/27/09
I'm sure another commenter probably pointed this out but I wanted to chime in too. I have long despised this jerk, Coburn.
08/27/09
08/27/09
I don't want my neighbors ringing my bell asking me for money for their brain surgeries and hip replacements and whatnot.
I'll happily pay taxes not to be bothered by that shit.
08/27/09
08/27/09
Democracy does not mean that the government takes care of every human need. It means that people are able to choose the officials who run their government. If this democracy elects to have universal healthcare, then we will have it. However, not everyone is so keen on purchasing new programs when we can't pay for the ones already in place.
08/27/09
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08/27/09
So every other country other than America is socialist? Is Singapore a socialist country?
They have universal health coverage that isn't tied to employment, requires personal responsibility (in the form of savings) and uses private practices to actually provide care.
[en.wikipedia.org]
They would be denounced as communists by your typical mouth-breathing Town Haller.
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08/27/09
Oh, and good for you, working so hard for that money so mama and baby can get their monthly checkups. But you know what? Not every American life is that cut and dry and sealed up all pretty in a bow, with the nuclear family and such.
Am I a socialist? What do you think douche? I was born and raised in America. I'm a fucking American. I also want affordable fucking healthcare.
08/27/09
Boy howdy, you're really sucking on the dick of rationality here, mofo.
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08/27/09
Maybe they're just taxpayers that don't want this BS.
08/28/09
08/27/09
However, he is not receiving insurance coverage for eating and drinking assistance, although he received some coverage earlier when he was in some sort of facility. As a FYI... Medicare only covers 100 days of this type of treatment too.
08/27/09
08/28/09
I'm just pointing out, badly apparently, that current gov't solutions to health care would cover this man's condition similarly.
08/27/09
The 'health care' debate has very little to do with actually taking care of people's health at this point. It's about the limits of government, and Obama simply wanting to establish a massive new entitlement by any means necessary in order to facilitate the need for radically higher taxes in perpetuity and make the federal government front-and-center in the daily life of every citizen. Why else has he not, you know, actually released any detailed plan for health care yet? Seems like that would be the number one thing to do right now... but he hasn't because the plan itself is secondary to simply putting the federal government in control of everything.
I wish he would just come out and say that. At least then we'd be able to respect his intellectual honesty. Instead he's disingenuously talking about 'competition' and other free market buzzwords that have nothing whatsoever to do with what he actually wants. This is what pisses people off more than anything else... and the funny thing is, if he actually had a good, detailed plan that he and his people were able to talk about specifically, then he probably would have been able to pass it by now considering all the goodwill he had to start with. But he doesn't have a plan, and he insists on treating everyone in the country like they're children and he's their elementary school principal who just knows best for them. Sorry, but that's just not good enough.
08/27/09
Also, no one in the Prez's administration is talking about taking away any of your private insurance. Rather, they're simply going to add another option for those of us who are without insurance. Additionally, private insurance companies ration and deny or delay service on a regular basis; you don't need to see the federal government stepping in to realize these occurances.
Also, most of us in favor of a public option do not think that it is a right. Rather, we simply believe that it is a privilege a place as fantastic as the U.S. should afford its citizens.
I'm sure you mean well, but quite frankly, all of your reasons against supporting the government's involvement are DOA.
08/27/09
And if the Republican talking points included anything rooted in reality rather than just the automatic dismissal of anything other than the current system as Socialism and a way to kill the elderly, then this process could have been easier.
Believe it or not, there is already a government-run health-care system in this country... It's the one that we provide to our armed forces and their families. Why don't we strip them of those benefits and let them be cast off into the private system. After all, we don't want our military infested with some pinko health care system, right?
08/27/09
And if universal healthcare is a socialist evil, why doesn't that keep us from having allies who subscribe to that program?
08/27/09
Also, fuck you, you ignorant moron.
08/27/09
Isn't that what the HR 3200 bill is? I'm not being rhetorical, it's just that I thought that huge document was the detailed plan.
08/27/09
The UK healthcare system does fine, by the way, and I have had care on both sides of the Atlantic. And how would you know, anyway? Are you generating your own figures, in an altruistic, responsible manner, so deep is your dedication to the needs of our people?
And you think O should come out and admit to your deepest, and through lack of real, quantifiable knowledge no-doubt paranoid ideas? What if he can't, because you're a whack-job, a subtle, educated whack-job, but nonetheless someone who can stand in a country that has done a wildly better job of creating and maintaining a functional democracy, but can't do better in this other regard?
Really - we've done everything else better, but we have to stick with a for-profit model on what is the most necessary basic quality of our civilization?
Get all self-righteous, and then get out of my good, honest, decent, caring, Christian country.
08/27/09
08/27/09
08/27/09
to have a president that attempts in good faith to get all parties in Congress on board in the creating of a bill is a good thing. the problem is that there are many in the GOP (and even Democrats, yes) who like the status quo, mainly due to insurance profits paying their campaign bills.
also-- do you know what the word "option" means? a public option means there would be one program, if you chose it, that would be provided by the government. it would compete with the private sector that already exists. there would be no takeover.
you might believe Obama is treating you like a child because you obviously have a child-like understanding of the entire policy issues at hand. he makes daily attempts to speak like an adult on a very complex topic. just be honest-- you just don't like his answers.
08/27/09
Wanna try cutting Medicare and see what happens?
Oh, and if Britain's NHS is so terrible, then why do 9/10 patient rate their NHS treatment as "good" or "excellent," and the trends are actually IMPROVING. ( [www.inthenews.co.uk] )? Just wondering...
08/27/09
08/27/09
Yes, every health care system rations but only the U.S. rations based on one's ability to pay. And even if you are willing and able to pay, try getting your private health insurance company to reverse itself once it has either denied your treatment or terminated your insurance for whatever reason they can pull out of their asses. Talk about a death panel! I just spent a month fighting with BCBS for a $300 follow-up mammogram ordered by my doctor because he saw spots on the first mammogram that some insurance pinhead in his infinite wisdom has deemed "not medically necessary." If they're going to fight me on $300, then I wonder how willing they'll be to fund further treatment if there were something actually wrong.
And we do have government-funded health care for oldsters, veterans and government workers. You know what? They like it. They're happy with it.
The debate IS about taking care of people's health. At least, that's the debate Obama is trying to have, if it weren't for the birthers, the deathers, the screamers, the whiners, the Larouchies, the Paultards and whoever else feels compelled to screech about how the country is going socialist. You want to argue that caring for the sick and poor is not the job of government? We're the only industrialized country that makes health care a for-profit industry. THAT is fucked up, not health care reform.
08/27/09
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08/27/09
National defense? Sure. Interstate highways? Very unique situation, but yes. Almost everything else is best left up to state and local governments and private industry. Period.
08/27/09
I just want to point out that you wrote this on the theory that someone reading it -- anyone -- would believe you could possibly know this for a fact.
I am willing to believe that all those industrialized-country health-care systems could have flaws that merit serious consideration. But here on Gawker, your hysterical bluster about them just looks hilarious, and makes you look desperate and gullible. Where do you usually post? FreeRepublic.com?
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08/27/09
I also recognize that, of the three Republican presidents from Reagan onwards, two of them left us with historical deficits. The one Democratic president left us with a balanced budget. The Repubs have absolutely no standing to discuss fiscal responsibility, as they wouldn't recognize it if it hit them in the head with a 2x4.
08/27/09
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08/28/09
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08/28/09
Actually, that's the entire purpose of insurance. And remember, with the bargaining power of the US government, treatment , care gets cheaper even before one starts making those decisions. And it's been said a hundred times, but WE ALREADY RATION CARE, baseed on ability to pay and prior health history. And if socialized carre is so bad, then why is it that 9/10 NHS patients rate their treatment as "good" or "excellent," and the trends are actually IMPROVING. ( [www.inthenews.co.uk] )
Ain't that funny?
08/28/09
08/28/09
08/28/09
Oh, and Canada? 86% of Canadians rate the quality of their health care system as "high." Do you think the same could be said in a poll of all Americans? ( [www.youtube.com] )
08/28/09
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08/28/09
But since you asked the question, CNN asked that question in a poll from July 31-Aug 3, 2009. [i.cdn.turner.com] or this link: [74.125.93.132]
If you look on page 5, 83% of Americans are satisfied with their health care. Not quite as high as Canada, but pretty damn close. On page 4, 40% felt that the proposed plans would not help their family, but maybe some other family; and 20% felt it would not help a soul.
Let me reiterate, I strongly believe reform is necessary. These plans just stink. They need to start from scratch. Do over.
08/28/09
08/28/09
08/28/09
Most Americans like the care they are receiving as the poll proves. What they don't like is the cost to provide the care we receive - thus the lower number of happy campers for health insurance. To your point, I think most Americans feel that a basis of coverage makes sense for America if we can afford it. But that is a big IF.
I could rally behind a plan that provided several key points: 1. Make insurance mandatory at some sort of bankruptcy protection level 2. Provide financial assistance to those who cannot afford it 3. Insurance companies would have to find a way to cover pre-ex conditions and not exclude them 4. Increase the number of primary care providers (we have a dramatic shortage of them now) 5. Tort reform
08/28/09
I really do not understand why some people are so fond of private insurance -- as far as I can tell, it's a failed system. And what do the insurers want to do for us in exchange for a mandate that would sharply increase their markets AND subsidize their premiums? Why, provide less coverage, naturally. [www.latimes.com]
And if America can't afford it, perhaps we should ask Canada how they do, since they seem to do it just fine.
08/28/09
I just think the proposed legislation sucks. It really doesn't fix the problem. Government sponsored plan or not, it doesn't cover all the uninsured nor does it make insurance mandatory.
I could care less how my health care is paid for.. bottom line, one way or another I will pay for it. What I don't want to do is sacrifice the quality of care I currently enjoy for a slight decrease in cost. What I'd like is for everyone to at least have bankruptcy protection in case of medical bills. I don't think the proposed legislation will do either of these things.
08/27/09
Ugh. And the rest of the audience applauded when he said that, too. I bet none of them took up a collection, though.
I don't get what these high ranking anti-government Republican Senators think the government is for if not to solve problems of its citizens. And if they really hate the system, why have they joined it?
08/27/09
08/27/09
What Coburn fails to realize, and this is scary, is that the Government is comprised of our neighbors. That the money the Government spends comes directly from our neighbors. That we as individuals may not be able to help directly, and by paying taxes that are then distributed to health care professionals that can help directly, we, as neighbors, are truly doing our best to help.
08/27/09