September 18, 2009

Commentary: Socialized medicine (and sarcasm) looms

By Randolph D. Brandt

The Federal Government is about to force the American people into a massive experiment in socialized medicine with rationed health care and unpredictable results.

And it will cost billions of dollars, all of which will be added to an already out-of-control federal deficit.

Without asking the voters, the government is about to allocate 200 million doses of swine flu vaccine based on the recommendations of a government death panel that’s already decided old people are expendable and won’t get the vaccine.

And what does this decision say about our free-market health care system? Everyone knows that the most efficient allocation of health care is delivered by our current system of private, independent insurance companies providing necessary health care to working people with benefits or to anybody else who can afford to pay for it, so long as they aren’t already sick.

So, why are we circumventing this proven system that’s given us the best health care in the world in favor of a government option that will provide freebie swine flu shots to children, young people and a lot of illegal aliens?

This epidemic started in Mexico. It should be Mexico’s problem. Everybody who wants a flu shot in America ought to be required to certify their citizenship so that any illegal aliens will be forced back across the border into Mexico to get their shots.

It’s a chance to rid our country of this growing pestilence on the body politic, literally and figuratively, one way or another.

Also, isn’t it just a little suspicious that this latest version of Obamacare puts pregnant women at the top of the list for inoculations with a vaccine that’s probably laced with themosal, boosting the odds of birth defects?

It’s just a liberal plot to increase the number of federally funded abortions, I tell you.

Now, I know Obama says flu season is close and time is short, but he lies.

There’s no reason to rush into a system of government-sponsored, socialized medicine and rationed care just because Obama declared it a legislative priority this session.

No, it’s time to scrap this plan and start all over from scratch to build a vaccination plan that truly fits the needs of the American people.

If you like your current vaccination plan, you can keep it, just the way things are now. It’s your choice, a private decision between you and your doctor. Why take chances on an unproven socialist plan for mass inoculations just because some liberal Nazis claim it’s a better for everybody?

Remember the last time the Federal Government tried to inoculate us all against swine flu in the ‘70s? Hundreds, maybe thousands of people were paralyzed with Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Next, they’ll probably try to put fluoride in the water.

No, you can’t afford to have government mess with your health care.

We should, at the very least, leave it up to each individual state to decide whether there’s a real threat of swine flu in their jurisdiction, so they can develop their own decentralized plan to deal with a nationwide epidemic. If one state blows it and the rest get infected, well, we all know the price of freedom comes high.

Besides, who’s going to pay for all these federal vaccinations? You and me, of course, with a tax increase, no doubt.

Why should you and I pay for other people’s vaccinations? We’ve worked hard. We’ve got insurance, or at least we can afford to pay $20 a pop for swine flu vaccinations for our own families.

Health care shouldn’t be rationed only for health care workers, children and pregnant women and people with chronic illness or their caretakers.

Anybody who can pay should be at the front of the line. It’s the American way.

If there are 50 million or so other people who somehow failed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and now don’t have insurance or can’t afford a swine flu shot, well, that’s their problem.

OK, OK, so our hospital emergency rooms will be filled this winter with lots of sick people who otherwise, with a little preventive care, could have avoided adding billions of dollars to our national health care bill.

So what? That’s the way the system’s always worked.

And after all, we already have the best health care system in the world, don’t we?

(Randolph Brandt is a retired newspaper editor living in Racine, Wis.)

65 comments:

  1. Tim the Shrubber9/18/2009 11:25 AM

    Boring.

    It amazes me that you cannot even acknowledge that some of the opposition concerns have some validity.

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  2. Hey Randy couldn't have said it better - leave our health care alone. Pete nad Dustin - why do you keep allowing Randy's dribble out here? He's one of the most radical liberals in town - thank God he's no longet with the JT's with his liberal commentaries - now you are giving him another platform.

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  3. Is this entire post supposed to be sarcasm? I hope you MEANT for this to read as satire of the completely uninformed/hysterical/deceptive anti-reform position. And for anybody taking this seriously, consider the implications of Mr. Brandt's belief that "Anybody who can pay should be at the front of the line. It’s the American way." I've read well thought out arguments against health care reform and this doesn't come close, Mr. Brandt.

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  4. 11:44 - take a look at the heading of this article - some people.

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  5. "Pete nad Dustin - why do you keep allowing Randy's dribble out here? He's one of the most radical liberals in town -"

    anon 11:39, you've answered your own question better than anyone else could.

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  6. Looks like Randy forgot to refill his prescription.

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  7. Racine Post = J-T

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  8. I disagree with this: I think the government can and should at least afford to make access to health insurance easier and more affordable for all without pharmacutical or insurance company meddling. If it were up to me, our health care system would be a lot like Sweden's.

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  9. Jenny - Thank God it's not up to you - what naive thinking.

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  10. Just to be on the safe side, again, this is satire.

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  11. Randy, I have yet to get a flu vaccine and I don't intend to get this one. What will your all knowing benevolent government do with the likes of me?

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  12. Denis,

    In the sarcastic alternative universe of this satire, you've already been written off by the government death panel.

    In the real world, if you're old like me and lived through previous swine flu outbreaks in the '50s and '70s, you'll likely already have some immunity built up for this one, so don't worry about it too much.

    Still, I may be particularly susceptible because of a chronic illness, so I'll probably try to get one if I can.

    Good luck, stay well.

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  13. Racine Post...quickly becoming just another boring blog.

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  14. Randy, I get the satire. You are poking fun at health care reform opponents by showing the government gets it right on flu vaccines. I get it. I am just trying to extend the analogy. With health care, government plans to force people to pay for health insurance to subsidize others health care costs. With the vaccine example, presumably government would then force people to take a flu shot, for the common good of course. I am just wondering if the image of government workers strapping down and sticking needles in dissenting Americans might give you reason to pause. Are we all just pawns of the state Randy?

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  15. Denis,

    So far as I can recall, that hasn't happened with adults yet, though government can be pretty insistent that children get vaccinated for stuff to get into school, with a few exceptions.

    There have been some government interventions on behalf of children whose parents refused them medical care.

    Government can and does compel some treatments, such as active TB, and may still investigate VD contacts, though I'm not sure about that one. They'll also prosecute AIDs patients for being too careless or untruthful, I think.

    By and large, though, I believe government's upheld the medical ethic of allowing adults to refuse medical care, so long as they're not presenting an immediate danger to others.

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  16. How quickly Randy the wise forgets about 2008 flu shot shortages....

    In Randy's mythical utopia, there is unlimited money, the economy always grows, the rich pay for everything, and everyone is treated with absolute fairness...

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  17. Oh, and in the extreme, government can and will quarantine.

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  18. Real Debate,

    Treating everybody with fairness sounds pretty good.

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  19. While other western democracies were instituting government health plans for their citizens, the United States instituted a characteristically American solution to the problem – tying health benefits to employment.

    Most Americans would keep their health benefits through their job until they retired at 65 and became eligible for Medicare.

    That system worked fine, so long as health insurance was cheap enough for companies to add it as a “benefit,” and we had enough well-paying industrial jobs to maintain the backbone of the system.

    But that’s no longer the case. More and more service jobs or part-time jobs created now don’t come with benefits, and those jobs that still come with benefits are cutting them back, transferring more and more of the cost to the employee in lieu of pay increases.

    The result’s become stagnation, even regression, in the number of people with access to health care. It also means lower real wages for those lucky enough to keep their benefits through the job.

    So, basically, for millions of workers, the old deal’s off, and more and more people (upwards of 6 million or so a year) lose their benefits or simply can’t afford to pay for them anymore on an average worker’s wage.

    Many businesses can’t afford it either, for that matter.

    Thus, we can continue to see the health care system of the United States degenerate, leaving more and more working people without access to health care, or we can come up with a new, reformed system that reverses these trends.

    So, government can take it over and provide health insurance itself, much as it does with retired workers through Medicare, or it can pass measures that cut the cost of medical care, require less-expensive health insurance for people and businesses, and/or ask people, firms, drug companies, hospitals and insurance companies to pony up more of their profits to fix the system, while guaranteeing everybody at least minimal access to health insurance.

    Otherwise, many more sick people and working people of modest means will continue to lose their health care as time goes on.

    There’s no question that’s the trend. It’s happening right now. The only question is what we want to do about it.

    A few of the measures in Congress address some of these basic issues, at least to some degree.

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  20. Randolph - way to long - your opinions are not that important.

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  21. Anonymous coward,

    You really don't have an intelligent thought do you?

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  22. Well, like it or not, that's the problem in slightly more than a nutshell.

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  23. Once again Randolph Brandt is 100% correct and the rest of us are wrong. It must be wonderful to be that intellegent. Maybe he shoudl be president.
    The man is so sure of himself that he will not even suffer to think about anyone else's concerns, issues or questions.
    Apparently is attitude is "America Shut up - I'm smarter than you and so I know what you should and must do".

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  24. Yes, let's let the government run out healt care. The same government that gave us the Postal Service and the Internal revenue Service. Boy I really want more of their fairness, efficiency and compassion.

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  25. Rees Roberts9/18/2009 5:10 PM

    Anonymous said...

    "Randolph - way to long - your opinions are not that important."

    And considering the source being Anonymous I don't consider your opinion relevant.

    All the Anonymous recreants are out again today.

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  26. "Once again Randolph Brandt is 100% correct and the rest of us are wrong. It must be wonderful to be that intelligent." - Anon

    No, Anon, just a guy who's losing his health insurance. Like they say, nothing focuses the mind like a hanging.

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  27. Now that E-Verify is becoming a nationwide verification application to extract 20 million plus illegal immigrants from businesses. It is now growing in aggressive performance for placing true US workers in the job line and outing illegal labor. This operation should now extend to certainly more purposeful uses? That means not just federal contractors but everybody who draws a pay check? Should a health care reform pass all obstacles in the House and Senate chambers, it could have an invaluable function of checking people who are not only applicants for jobs, but health care reform registry. Illegal immigrants are already getting free emergency hospital care and--WE--pay for it. In the future it should be considered to vet a person’s nationality status, when applying for a mortgage? The United States banking system, financial institution were all but swept away on a deluge of corruption that has very sinister undertones in an organization called ACORN.


    The Association of Community Organizations for Reform now is under state and federal investigations at this very moment. Other involved institution impacted both Freddie Mac/Freddie Mae and a scheme incorporating underhand minority lending practices. But you might not have heard any of this, from the liberal media about the massive illegal alien mortgage accusations. The whole debacle was the involvement in a corrupt enabling banking industry and ethnic lobbyists, using unethical methods, along with Bush administration to guarantee loans for low income and people that could not possibly afford mortgages. Didn't Wall Street, the government regulators learn anything from the Savings and loan crisis in the 1980’s?

    GOOGLE—Michelle Malkin, she has her own blog and also Google illegal immigrants—mortgages—home loans. Find out about the shady deals which had a massive impact on the 2009 real estate crash. In Addition read how we as citizens and legal residents can demand permanent E-VERIFY. Tell the politicians in Washington at 202-224-3121 It’s about time they worked for the USworking man/woman, instead of paying-off favors to the wealthy business lobbyists? NUMBERSUSA & JUDICIAL WATCH has more answers about corrupt lawmakers and the issues that effects us all. HELP AMERICA SURVIVE. BETTER START COUNTING YOUR PENNIES, BECAUSE IF THE DEM'S PASS ANOTHER AMNESTY--WILL HAVE MILLIONS OF MORE DESTITUTE ILLEGAL ALIENS AND FAMILIES TO SUPPORT!. THE BUSINESSES THAT HIRE THEM WILL NOT!

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  28. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  29. Hey Jenny,
    Take a check on the population of the U.S. and a check on the population of Sweden. That's right, sweetie, ain't gonna work here. Too many people.

    And you wanna know why? Cuz most people here DON'T support abortion (contrary to what the leftist media says). Sweden has aborted half their population out of existence.

    But hey - Obama wants to include abortion in Obama care, so maybe there's hope, right?

    "It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish." Mother Teresa

    P.S. Anyone who actually believes Obama saying abortion won't be included - oh, I've got some swamp land in Florida to sell you. (No, I've got a gravel pit on West and Washigton to sell you.)

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  30. It's always so enjoyable when the "open-minded" ones show their true feelings....

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  31. Brittanicus,

    Just what I want - a cradle-to-grave tracking system to keep tabs on all Americans, so every time I get on a bus or go to the grocery store some Gestapo agent asks, "Papers, papers... "

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  32. Don't look now, Randy, but they already have it: That GPS in your cellphone is always on, and there's a basement office in the White House that's always listening in...

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  33. Pete,

    Not to be paranoid or anything, but that's why I don't use a cell phone.

    You know, the right and left could find some middle ground on privacy issues, and probably a lot more.

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  34. Can everyone go to www.mercola.com and www.naturalnews.com and www.newswithviews.com www.healthfreedomusa.org and see what is going on here in the State of Wisconsin on what the Wisconsin Dietician Association whats to do to all of us .. the want to take our choice away go to www.wihfc.com and get some good information on this swine flu BS ...the advertisments on TV Radio Newspapers etc... are just telling us the basic information about washing our hands sneeze in your sleeves .. Ha .. go to those web sites and find out how to boost your Immune System and protect your self and BE AWARE OF WHATS GOING ON OUT THERE also check out documentary movies on you tube .. Food Inc,Fresh,King Corn,Killer at Large .. there are many more .. WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!

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  35. Randy, please, please step down from your pedestal of wealth and share it with those of us in the hood. We're dying every single day here, Randy, really, really dying while you do nothing but amass more and more money in your golden palace. Please stop talking about helping us poor folk and please actually do it. Please! Your empty words do not bind our wounds nor feed our hungry children. Your money would, but you never share with us what you tell everyone else to share with us.

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  36. Doesn't Sweden pay out like 60% of their paychecks to taxes due primarily to the high cost of healthcare?

    Stop confusing the issue with abortion, you don't need to throw that in the mix. You are just muddying up the argument, it's strong enough without tossing abortion into it.

    The reality is, most Americans would not put up with the healthcare system that European/British people are accustomed to, the expectations are higher for most of us.

    There are many things that would change along with this new proposed healthcare system, much of it negative. Brits do not get to choose their doctors, they also get put on long waiting lists for operations. The quality of the hospitals are not the same as ours. I could go on and on, and I speak with experience.

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  37. Looks like Pete and Randy are up late at night with nothing much to do. Maybe they should get together and play their old Peter, Paul and Mary LP's.

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  38. ... How many ears must one man have
    Before he can hear people cry?
    How many deaths will it take till he knows
    That too many people have died ...

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  39. Anon, 4:37,

    How come life expectancy' so much greater in Sweden? They're like, No. 8 in the world, while we're 35?

    I'm not suggesting we necessarily adopt a Swedish system, but I don't know that we should badmouth it either, since it appears to be working so much better than ours, at least in terms of keeping people alive longer.

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  40. ... Indeed, virtually all the western democracies, including England, have greater life expectancies that we do.

    I'm starting to wonder whether we really do have the best health care system in the world.

    Seems more average for the world, even significantly below average, if we discount the developing nations.

    Oh, I think I know what it is. We probably have the best health care system in the world for people with health insurance.

    The rest, well, they can just go scratch.

    Sure brings down the overall average, though.

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  41. ... and No. 33 in the world for infant mortality. That's a lot of dead children.

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  42. ... our cancer survival rate's pretty good, but not as good as, say, Sweden's.

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  43. ... We're No. 13 in heart attack deaths, behind both England and Sweden.

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  44. Randolph, can't you get you ideas together into one response before posting them, or do you just like to see your name repeated over and over on the screen?

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  45. First, I am so concerned about the socialistic direction this current administration is taking us in that I can not trust getting a swine flu shot from them. In this day of GPS and nanotechnology, I don't know what the hell they've put in that serum and I want no part of it. They are pushing it TOO HARD and using unwarranted scare tactics to convince people to get it, especially after the newspaper articles claiming that this strain of swine flu has not mutated and is not as threatening as was first believed. And for all you fools that will say I’m just paranoid, well, the old saying still runs true: just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you. And from the way the Obama gang has been acting, they’re out to get us all.

    Sweden? Here’s how good the health care is in Sweden. A recent news article covered a family with a young child needing eye surgery. There was a window of 2 months to have the surgery or the child would be blind for life. The waiting list in Sweden for that child was 8 months to get the treatment. So, the family came to America, got a doctor, the child had the operation within 2 weeks and the parents paid for it out of their own pocket. And yes, Swedes do pay taxes of over 50% of their income. And then they get national health insurance of that quality. By the way, the father of that child made the comment, “Where will we be able to go for treatment if the U.S. implements socialized medicine?” because he knows from first hand experience what is going to happen. In a recent poll over 45% of the physicians polled said that if we move to socialized health care that they would either retire or quit. The government will in effect be creating a shortage of doctors.

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  46. Stop emasculating the culture that you supposedly champion by encouraging dependency upon social welfare programs. You and yours propagate the slave mentality in order to keep yourselves at the top of the loyal opposition heap. The more poor and oppressed that you can addict to welfare, the more your power grows. Those of us in the hood who know that education, skills and self-sufficiency are the paths to empowerment deeply resent your efforts to keep us crippled and in our place so that you can continue to benefit from the discrimination and hatred. Stop murdering us with your sick enabling behavior.

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  47. The Human Service Dept is the Massuh, and the inner city's "leaders" crack the whip. Slaves to the state.

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  48. I don't want vaccines. I don't trust vaccines. I am scared that the pharmaceutical companies will have some sort of sweet deal to force mandatory vaccination on us. They have already tried in several cases to do this. Most recently they wanted to hoist the genital wart vaccine onto to all our teen and preteen girls. How do we know it is safe? They are completely unethical with the studies and results. The long term studies are not done. This is about profits and the cost of our health.

    Pharmaceutical prices is a huge problem. They make incredible profits on medications and have been busted many times for influencing the public and Drs. criminally.

    Lets have health care but leave the forced health care and GREEDY pharmaceutical bullies out.

    Your sarcasm using vaccines as a subject was lost on me.

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  49. I agree. The time of enslavement to "entitlements" is over. Those in our communities that are living on handouts generally do it out of laziness. If they would wake up to the fact that education is the real answer to their problem and get out and become productive members of society, there would be a lot more revenue and social programs available to those who REALLY need them; those who have legitimate mental and physical handicaps or other challenges that limit their capacity to fend for themselves. Those who truly need assistance are crippled by those who fraudulently take handouts because they "can."

    And whoever said that health care was a "right"? I see nothing of that in the Constitution or Bill of Rights. I agree that everyone should have access to basic, stabilizing health care, but it is also something that should be earned by being a productive member of society. Many homeless people live the way they do by choice. Why should my tax dollars have to pay for free health care for those who choose that way of life?

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  50. My father became a quadriplegic as the result of an accident after my sister and I were born. He cannot use his hands or legs. I remember him each year stressed out about proving his disability so he could continue to have benefits.

    We are very lax on the controls these days of who gets a handout.

    I watched both ACORN videos and was horrified by those workers who made a mockery of our system and bragged about being able to fraud it. They saw nothing wrong with illegal immigrant child prostitutes generating a hidden income and also getting a handout as dependents. That is just one of the outpoints in that video.

    You mock us and criticize us for being opposed to health care. I don't take the decision lightly. I have been in the shoes of those needing help.

    I don't want vaccinations either. I don't know why prescription drugs are so outrageous. I don't want to be forced into decisions on health care that I don't agree with. I don't want to in any way pay for abortions.

    I like natural remedies and prevention. I have a right to my opinion and to be able to express it. I don't call you names or mock you for yours. Those are the tactics of bullies.

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  51. OOOOooooooooo, I am sooooo afraid of swine flew. Oooooooooo

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  52. Pharmaceutical companies don't make much money on vaccines, so they're reluctant to make them, except at the behest of government. There are only a handful of firms in the whole world that still do it.

    And they need special guarantees against liability.

    They make much, much more money on new designer drugs and biologics, which people without health insurance can't afford.

    That's one of the reasons health-care costs are out of control. Preventative medicine takes a back seat to expensive treatments for manifest illnesses, many of which could be headed off early if we had a more sensible system for everyone.

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  53. The notion that health care reform is some kind of handout is hogwash.

    Handouts are what we have now. People who don't have health insurance get some care regardless, though it's not too good, and the rest of us pay for it with extra dollars added to our own medical bills.

    The very, very poor who are on welfare get Medicaid already, but that isn't really affected by proposals currently before Congress.

    Health care reform under consideration now requires that everybody who works has to pay something for health insurance, instead of going to the emergency room for free, where they can't be refused treatment, whether they pay or not.

    Under health care reform, more people will be required to pay their own way.

    Get it?

    It collects insurance premiums from people who are uninsured now, so those of us who currently pay for our own insurance aren't carrying the load for a bunch of people who don't pay anything.

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  54. I don't see how the middle an lower classes can be charged anything more. Do you think they are just sitting on piles of money that you and the government can spend wiser than they can?

    Reform needs to start with the system and educating the general populace on getting healthy again.

    The system is all too quick to perform surgeries because they bring in more money. Drs. do not ask about lifestyle or diet. They write unnecessary prescriptions because of the incentives of pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical companies should not even be allowed to advertise to the general public medications which are needed with a Rx. Ask your Dr about..... Next commercial is one about did you or your loved ones get seriously injured or die as a result of using this drug. They have all that money for advertising but refuse to just sell it at a reasonable cost. That is unethical. They were just busted trying to hoist off birth control for acne control. Why are they spending billions on trying to push this health care through? That is not reassuring to me.

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  55. Anon, 4:49,

    Health care reform under consideration now is designed specifically to help people like your father.

    Regardless of his disability status, he would be eligible for some kind of health insurance.

    He couldn't be canceled because of his disability, and he couldn't lose his health insurance regardless of his status.

    The point is that everyone would be guaranteed the opportunity to have insurance; indeed, everyone would have it.

    As a disabled person, I know the angst your father felt.

    It's hell to face the possibility of losing your insurance just when you need it the most, knowing that replacement insurance would be unobtainable at any price.

    That's why health insurance reform is so important, and why we should stop listening to the nay-sayers and provide this sensible relief for people now.

    And remember, the idea isn't to give away more freebies. It's to require more people to pay for insurance rather than giving away more care for free.

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  56. Randy, I'm grateful for your posts. I'm lucky enough to still be working long hours, but that also means that I don't have a lot of time to read the details of so many issues.

    What I have been wondering is this - how does this health care reform plan expect us to be able to afford health insurance when many of us can't even afford rent or house payments? Is it just a sliding scale system or what?

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  57. Anon, 7:03

    Let’s get past the right-wing propaganda and talk facts.

    Middle and lower class people who pay for the health insurance now will pay less, not more, under health care reform, because insurance companies have already committed to reduce charges by billions of dollars if the reform passes.

    Reform certainly has to start with a system of education for healthier choices and preventative care.

    That’s why this one does.

    Those provisions are specifically included in the health care reform bills, including tracking more data to prove that many of those surgeries really are unnecessary and shouldn’t be performed.

    People who oppose health care reform are actually encouraging a system that permits that kind of waste and continued harm to thousands, perhaps millions of patients.

    Alas, health care reform doesn’t ban advertising prescriptions, but it will track whether those drugs actually work, and provide a government database on their effectiveness instead of having to take the word of pharmaceutical companies that make their money by keeping less-than-proven therapies on the market, while building demand through advertising. At least there will be a truthful check on their claims.

    Interestingly, drug companies, like insurance companies, have also committed to cutting their prices by billions of dollars over the next decade if health reform passes. That’s they’re part of the deal. It’ll mean even more for senior citizens, whose out of pocket drug prices will be cut fully in half under the reform plan.

    Now, why would insurance and drug companies agree to such a thing? Well, it’ll probably turn out to be in their best interest because everyone will be insured under health care reform, so they’ll have many, many more customers once the system’s reformed, people who otherwise are simply priced out of the market right now or don't pay anything for emergency room care (We all pay for that now).

    The idea’s simple, really. More people pay for their health care, instead of going without or getting it free, so everybody winds up paying a little less.

    The more people who pay some, the less you have to pay more.

    Don’t listen to the ideologues, who don’t, or won’t, try to understand what this is really all about.

    It’s health care cost relief for those of us who are squeezed in the middle right now, those making enough so they can’t get welfare and Medicaid, but not rich enough to keep paying a thousand dollars a month for health insurance.

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  58. Anon 7:15,

    Yes, there is a sliding scale.

    Everyone must buy insurance, but if you don't make enough money to pay the full cost, the government will help you pay for it.

    If you don't have any insurance now, the aim is to provide you an option that will provide at least a modicum of health care at price you can afford.

    That price isn't zero, unless you already qualify for welfare and Medicare.

    But you're working, so that's probably not you.

    You'll have to pay something - everyone will. But the idea is to bring costs down to the point where you'll at least be able to afford it, and you won't be turned down because of a pre-existing medical condition.

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  59. Anon 4:16 said, 'And whoever said that health care was a "right"? I see nothing of that in the Constitution or Bill of Rights.'

    Actually, it's not difficult to see the right to health care in the Constitution, and certainly from the Declaration of Independence.

    "... to promote the general welfare," opens our Constitution.

    The right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," is the cornerstone of the Declaration of Independence.

    What's more basic that the right to life? What's a greater denial of liberty than death? How is there a right to the pursuit of happiness when you're sick and can't get care?

    Yet, thousands, probably millions, defer essential medical treatment or effective management of chronic illnesses because they lack health insurance.

    And many of them die because of it.

    The current system doesn't sound much like the right to life to me ... nor promoting the general welfare.

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  60. Randolf,

    My father no longer has a problem at all getting health care. That was back 20 years. Now the controls are very lax. He has very good government provided health care. He was given 3 years to live at 20 years old he is now in late 60s.

    I worry that the insurance companies have agreed to provide service cheaper. I know what that means. I already get that sort of service now. I walk in and they have a nurse weigh me and take my blood pressure, Dr. does little more except try to convince me to take an anti-depressant and birth control. Mind you they don't have any sort of questionnaire to base these recommendations on. What should that cost? I'd say nothing. He is already paid well by the pharmaceutical companies. We are all just bonuses to him.

    I bet that they are counting on mandatory and guaranteed business through control of the general public. They have already tried it several times. Illinois has passed several sweet deal laws for mandatory health related testing and unnecessary procedures. Obama is from Illinois. Maybe he just wants the same for the same good ol boys but on a larger basis this time.

    My little sister was left permanently harmed by Illinois mental health. They drugged her at 5 years old with every non approved psychotropic drug in adult dosages for several years before we got the appeals court to stop them. What they did was criminal, I researched the drugs and she was having the worst of adverse reactions. They would just switch to another drug. Mind you it was found that she never even needed medication. They gave her the worst of haldol, thorizine, etc. They never even took her to MD for Rx or maintenance care. This is what I am scared of taking place for all of us. They are exerting control in families to have mandatory mental health screening, which goes hand in hand with mandatory psychotropics. Parents are given money incentives to label children. The children are never the same. The drugs are not approved for children. None of them have safety studies long term.

    You say that everyone will pay unless they cannot afford it. Well that scares me. Because there are those who rip off our government and will fraud the system before they will honestly pay their way. They figure out how many kids to have, free child care and well all you have to do is watch the ACORN videos if you don't think these sorts of people exist.

    I don't trust it. I also don't need it. I buy my health care at molbecks, diet and exercise. My family is very rarely out ill. Sure there is the chance we could have major accident. When they come up with an insurance plan where that is all I pay for then fine.

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  61. Anon, 8:14,

    If I ever heard a better family story in support of the health care reform, your’s is it.

    You had a father who was disabled who at least now gets government care because there are no other “private options” open to him.

    That’s just the kind of right to health care for sick people that opponents of health care reform object to.

    If they had their way, your father would get nothing.

    When opponents of health care reform need a handy whipping post, they cite “wasteful” Medicare, the very program that’s probably keeping your father alive.

    You’re father was lucky to live. I know, I’ve been there.

    Imagine being lucky enough to live, but not lucky enough to keep any kind of health insurance.

    Disabled people often face that peculiar Catch-22 in the current system. They’re disabled, so they’re not eligible to buy private health insurance because of “pre-existing” conditions, yet they’re not eligible for Medicare for at least two years. So, they’re on their own.

    I’m in that category right now, and losing my health insurance as a result.

    But you don’t have to be completely disabled to fall into that Catch-22. Some people, for example, have asthma, and they can get by pretty well. But they can’t get health insurance, or at least health insurance that covers asthma, because they have a “pre-existing” condition. Or perhaps, like me, they’ve had cancer. No insurance for them.

    Under health care reform, at least, insurance companies would have to cover disabled people and people with pre-existing conditions.

    It ought to pass for that reason alone. Too many people like your father get left out otherwise.

    I can’t say I’m familiar with Illinois health care system, but it’s clear someone in your family received inappropriate care with unproven drugs.

    Health care reform calls for a computerized database to track effective treatments so doctors would have a true information base upon which to base their decisions.

    If a particular treatment protocol doesn’t work, they likely wouldn’t use it. Or you could look yourself and question it.

    Right now, that’s mostly based on guesswork or how conscientious a particular doctor is to keep up on sporadic trade literature, trade literature that’s heavily influenced by “studies” sponsored and paid for by the very same pharmaceutical companies that market the drugs.

    There’s a lot of mistrust in government over all this, but I, for one, would trust a government database tracking effective treatments and outcomes over paid-for, sponsored trade magazine articles and TV ads heavily influenced by drug companies that make their money by making sure those “studies” go their way.

    There comes a time to hold the people we elect responsible to create a better system to serve our needs and the needs of our families.

    This is that time.

    You’ve been burned because they’ve fallen down on the job thus far, by refusing to reform the health care system.

    The administration and many in Congress are stepping up to do that job now.

    Let’s insist they do it, rather than give counsel to our fears and let the nay-sayers kill it once again.

    Then, disabled people will lose. Families whose children have received inappropriate care will lose.

    The only people who will win are those with a stake in the system as it stands.

    That’s not a choice. That’s surrender to a poor system.

    As a practical matter, for you, if you’re not overly concerned about anything less than a catastrophic illness or accident, you actually can buy an insurance policy for those needs. They have very high deductibles, don’t cover much routine stuff or medicines, but will pay if you get smashed in a car crash or get cancer.

    That’s providing you don’t have any pre-existing conditions that would disqualify you.

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  62. Randy enough already - no one is going to read all that drivel. Plus, give someone a chance to respond. You keep responding to your own posts. Better yet don't respond anymore. You have nothing of value to say.

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  63. " A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have"
    Thomas Jefferson

    Just a reminder to be careful of what you ask for!

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  64. Right wing propaganda?
    Why is it when anyone states somes in disagreement with something the democrats say it's labeled 'propaganda'?????

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  65. Try googling "vitamin d antibiotic."


    Then do some research on it.


    Learning about health is a lot safer than taking flu shots.

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