Health insurance is a basic economic issue for all Americans, not just the 30 million people without coverage.
Republican efforts to turn repeal of the Affordable Care Act into political theater exemplify the party's detachment from ordinary lives in troubled times.
Easy assumptions about access to affordable care disappeared along with jobs in the recession. Medical problems have no respect for employment or party status. The most frugal family budgets are vulnerable.
Republicans, with their repeal vote in the House of Representatives and Wednesday's charade in the Senate, truly reveal how much they do not get it. They rant about Obamacare as they willfully distort the fiscal impacts, and fail to offer a single idea of their own. Random speeches do not count. Where is their star-spangled legislation to provide relief for anxious families?
Since when did it happen that because a family is experiencing anxiety, we're all supposed to kick in and salve the wound?
Let me educate Mr. Dickie to Valentine's Axiom (my name/my axiom). The further removed the payor gets from actually cutting the check, the higher the inflation rate for services rendered.
If you need any examples just look at higher education. More money for student loans, Pell Grants etc. education inflation is double the CPI.
I'm old enough to remember when health insurance was called "hospitalization" because nothing was covered until you were on a gurney in the emergency room. Then some bright insurance executive came up with a great idea. Let's pool together all of our policy holders, negotiate terms for everything and that will slow down the costs of inflation. We'll call it an HMO and save all kinds of money for policy holders.
How did that work out?
Years ago, I went to the pharmacy to get a $14 antibiotic and the clerk insisted on my insurance card. After I told him I had no script coverage, he told me " you know that will be a lot cheaper if you have the coverage". I then challenged him to tell me how's it's so much cheaper for me to pay an extra $40.00 a month when I've paid $14.00 for the entire year for one script.
How did people become so stupid to this reality?
A couple of months ago, I was approached by a laser eye center employee who told me they could do the laser surgery on both eyes for $800.00. I'm old enough to remember when people were paying $5,000 to have that done and yet the technology is better and the price has dropped.
Why?
I'd bet a lot of money if the government got involved, the prices wouldn't have decreased at all.
Same with cosmetic surgery, where boob jobs were only had by the rich and famous. Now with the swipe of a credit card you can practically get one in a drive through window.
I continue to believe that the day when people start actually cutting the checks for their own healthcare, prices for services will drop dramatically. I only have my opinion and thousands of years of human history to back me up.
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3 comments:
Yes and that idiot uses the same old tired cliche that the republicans have offered no ideas of their own. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. Conservatives are consistent in their proposals that puts medical decisions in the patients' hands. Patient decision-making is to democrats like the cross is to Dracula. That's why they don't recognize the idea.
Also, libs say that giving decision-making power to the consumer means that people with no resources get kicked to the street. Every republican healthcare proposal I've ever seen has subsidies for those with less means. But let the consumer decide which provider gets the subsidy.
Liberals say we need stong regulation. Well competition is the best regulator. Intead of destroying all competition with universal health care, how about the goverment put mechanisms in place that ensure able numbers of providers and insurance companies are in the marketplace to offer cometing services.
And one more thing. I've just about had it with those fuckwad libs telling me that I support free market medical solutions to the peril of the poor. Again I say bullshit. Free market competition will help those on the bottom rung as much as anyone. It is the moral thing to do. So fuck all you monopoly health care, chronie capitalist, liberal pigs.
For what it's worth. Look at what regulation did for the mortgage business.
There is a general misconception about conservatism out there. We have allowed people to assume that conservatives form government to help the rich capitalist and step on the little guy. No. That's cronie capitalism which is more a function of left leang philosophy.
We are for competition. We are against government involvement in helping or hurting a company. We are for competition and distribution of power wider groups. We break monopolies.
Libs are for the opposite: bailouts, monopolies, and high government involvement. Starting a business in such environments is characterized by government connections, and high cost of entry. This leads to a lucky few that get very rich. George Soros types.
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