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OBAMA CARE...So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause.
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. This is a statement of our most basic individual rights. Over the centuries our human rights have been abused and eroded but always one could still say (...most of the time, in this country...) one could mind their own business and be left totally alone to live their life with no interference from anyone. But with this new health care bill, soon everyone will have to pay a fee to the government, or insurance company, for being alive.
...our last tiny bit of absolute liberty will be erased.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ian on -
Oh, that government - They've bled us white, the bastards. They've taken everything we had, not just from us, from our fathers and from our fathers' fathers' fathers' fathers. And what have they ever given us in return?
Apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order... what have the government done for us?
Seriously Ralph, the most important parts of this bill stops the insurance companies gouging individual insurance buyers and ripping off people who get sick by ending their coverage. This isn't anything to do with socialism, it is protection of individuals from big businesses that are willing to sacrifice 'small' people in order to reap greater profits.
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Permalink Reply by Jason Spicer on -
Oh, yeah, Reg. Remember how it used to smell?
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Permalink Reply by mojo5501 on -
Ian: Was part of your "discussion" from a Monty Python skit...Romans...what have they ever done for us? (With a panel of Jews complaining about Roman government/civilization). I just saw the skit on YouTube awhile back...funny stuff.
I agree that "corporate medicine" isn't a good business model. The "for-profit" hospitals just get better and better at hiking up costs and the hospital CEO's & shareholders LOVE it. Patients, on the other hand, have to resort to desperate measures, often waiting too long to seek care because of the cost or lack of sufficient insurance coverage.
Not to mention the patient-doctor trust is broken. We're left asking ourselves if our physicians are recommending treatments because they get "kickbacks" from pharmaceutical reps or because the pill in the bottle really works. Do we need invasive surgery or do hospitals need to fill beds to make their profits. "More heads in the beds" may be a good business model to go by, but how many of those "heads" are there unnecessarily? With all the Medicare fraud and price-gauging going on, what entity is available to regulate and keep hospitals and their CEO's honest? It seems to be an "anything goes" mentality when it comes to pricing.
The American consumer shopping around in the health care market is ending up paying more out-of-pocket than any industrialized nation AND not being any more healthy! Cost controls have to take place. And we need more choices--which is what health care insurance reform will address and supply to us. It is necessary to curtail spiraling costs. And all the corruption and fraud needs to be addressed seriously...as the white collar crime it is.
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Permalink Reply by Jason Spicer on
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mojo5501, if you haven't seen Monty Python's Life of Brian, you really need to rush out and do so. It's sort of a foundational document for atheists. Plus, it's hilarious and really well done.
I think that the government having greater involvement in health care generally should shine a light on corporate waste and mismanagement. I know that goverment can waste money, but it always amazes me that people think the private sector is immune to mismaganement and fraud.
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Permalink Reply by mojo5501 on
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Yes, I am a Monty Python fan...I've seen 'em all. I agree that Life of Brian is fantastic and it was probably one of the many things that influenced/changed my way of thinking about the life of Jesus as a teenager. I also loved that whole skit in The Meaning of Life about big Catholic families v Protestant families, with the song "Every Sperm is Sacred".
When conservatives applaud the free market system and apply the same rules of capitalism to health care, hospitals, doctor's fees, insurance companies, and pharmaceuticals, this is the point we have to ask ourselves the question: Is our health a commodity? Who benefits from the existing way of doing things?
Private hospitals headed by business managers with stockholders to please are under pressure to make money...as all good capitalists are. But hospitals aren't supermarkets or banks or car dealerships. It takes a different kind of management style for hospitals to excel and provide the best possible services.
We all end up in the health care system one way or another... wasteful practices only end up costing us more over time. And insurance premiums are skyrocketing, with more and more employers feeling the strain of covering their employees. A more efficient system is being planned...with financial oversight and boards of physicians (not shareholders) to keep costs under control. I think if people took the time and effort to look beyond all the scare tactics, they'd see a lot to like in what's being created.
I remember watching some of the town hall meetings before the presidential elections and people would stand up and denounce health care reform on the basis of "government intervention": "Keep your hands off my Health care". One woman was so concerned about abortion being provided free by the government that she almost started to cry.
It's such an emotional issue for people...even though we all win when everybody is covered by quality, affordable health care. Some people are in such a frenzy about socialized medicine that they don't even take the time to understand that our reforms in the health care insurance industry provide MORE CHOICES not less choices. Regulation is GOOD for the consumer (us). We will have more protection from price hikes and substandard care.
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Permalink Reply by moJoe on -
Not really, you still have the option to not have health insurance and die, just like before.
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Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on -
I thought there was some requirement that people have health insurance, kind of like car insurance?
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Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on -
By 2014 the Republican-proposed you-have-to-buy-health-insurance rule kicks in.
A whole lot of us are hoping that by then, an affordable public option is introduced.
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Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on
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Well, hopefully by 2014 my income will have risen above its current level of $0.
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Permalink Reply by mojo5501 on
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For a great reference, check out the website: Politifact
It's got 2 articles about health care reform that I found very helpful:
"Top 5 Lies" about Health Care Reform
"Top 10 Facts to Know About Health Care Reform"
I think I remember reading about some sort of penalty for people that "opt out". It was a certain amount of money to pay. And there are exceptions for people in economic distress...I don't think anybody's going to be left to die in the hospital parking lot!
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Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on
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Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness.
Ralph, 45,000 people in this country die each year as a direct result of not having the money to give to the private, for-profit companies that are the gateway to the even harder to afford medical care in this country. And/or because those for-profit companies happily took their premiums, then dropped them when they needed to cash in. Explain to me the "Life" part of that. Please. I'd love to know how a for-profit company deciding whether you live or die is "free" and "American." How it ties in to Life and Liberty.
Pursuit of Happiness - Working at a ski resort last year, a woman told me "If you don't have health insurance you shouldn't be allowed to ski." As I speak I'm recovering from a knee surgery which I could only afford by quitting work and becoming poor enough for Medicaid. Had I not, it would have worsened to the point of permanent damage. Never again to ski, play basketball, pursue a desired job as a backcountry Park Ranger. All because I'm not one of the richest few percent who can afford real insurance or out-of-pocket medical care. Explain to me Ralph how that ties in to "Pursuit of Happiness."
Over the centuries our human rights have been abused and eroded but always one could still say (...most of the time, in this country...) one could mind their own business and be left totally alone to live their life with no interference from anyone.
How? By ending slavery? By giving Women and Blacks the right to vote? By nipping the Conservative eugenics programs of the early 20th century in the bud and allowing the poor, the disadvantaged, the people-we-don't-like to live like any other American?
Or are you speaking of the freedom of the butcher to feed you ecoli-ridden human remains, or the drug company to sell you a pill that doesn't do what it's advertised to do? How about the freedom of your commercial airline pilot to down a fifth of Jack right before the flight? The freedom of your building contractor to cut corners so that your home comes smashing down on top of you and your family? Then there's the freedom of Hospitals to price-gouge for medical care such that only the rich can afford to live. If you go to aloan sharkinsurance company, you might be better able to afford the doctor's prices, but you might also be robbed blind. Are these the freedoms you speak of? Because yes, those freedoms have been largely squashed by government regulation. That last one, thanks to...
with this new health care bill, soon everyone will have to pay a fee to the government, or insurance company, for being alive.
What fee Ralph? Are you talking about the mandate to carry insurance that will kick in 4 years from now? A rule put in place by Republicans? Because if that's the definition of loss-of-liberty, we lost it when Auto insurance became mandatory.
Or are you talking about taxes? Because unless you make over $200,000/year, are on the most expensive private insurance plans out there, or get Botox, you will not pay any more or different taxes for this bill than you do right now.
And whether you do or not, I'm sorry but taxes, in and of themselves, do not equal loss of liberty. You live in this country. You benefit from this country's social services, whether it's the DOT, FDA, FAA, NTSB, Postal service, Police, Fire, Public School or Public Library, or the Medicare and Social Security checks you will get when you're 65, you are benefiting from Socialist Services in America. Are you saying Ralph that you should be allowed to benefit but should not have to contribute?
And besides taxes, which are already a fact of life and therefore nothing new, how exactly does this bill interfere with your freedom Ralph? By allowing a 23 year old to stay on their parent's insurance? By making it illegal for your insurance company to take your premiums then drop you when you get sick? By preventing price gouging in stating that 85% of what your insurance company takes from you has to go towards actual medical care? Perhaps your loss of freedom comes in the form of the expanded Medicare services you will get when you retire and become a deadbeat, lazy, slacker, non-contributor to society?
I really want to know Ralph. Where in your sick fantasy world does a 10% tax on Botox override the right to life of those 45,000 Americans?
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Permalink Reply by JayBarti on -
I should like to add how many people go broke in the USA as well trying to stay alive, and ending up with huge hospital and treatment bills.
Speaking from my socialist perch up here in Soviet Canuckistan public health care just makes sense.
There are a few things every healthy nation should have. Health, Education and Social safety nets are a part of that equation. I see it as leveling the playing field by giving every citizen equal access to the basics of life.
Much like you we have a contingent of right wingers who don't realize what they have, and want to give up.
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