Fucking healthcare

[Jim]

Dude, the only reason they deny you health insurance is because of your unhealthy lifestyle that caused you to get sick (i.e. your own fucking fault if you believe the billions spent yearly in advert on junk food). What kind of commie are you to put your rights before the [wave flag]freedom [/wave flag] of insurance execs to decide if they want to insure you?

 

Did FW hack jb's password?

[G-spotter]

Driving for an hour takes 20 minutes off your life:

 

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Driving+shorten+life/2517346/story.html

 

and smoking a cigarette takes 5 minutes off.

 

Conclusion: driving is worse for you than smoking.

 

Save money. Ban cars.

[ivan]

 

Conclusion: driving is worse for you than smoking.

 

Save money. Ban cars.

"walking is man's best medicine"

- hippocrates

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Dude, the only reason they deny you health insurance is because of your unhealthy lifestyle that caused you to get sick (i.e. your own fucking fault if you believe the billions spent yearly in advert on junk food). What kind of commie are you to put your rights before the [wave flag]freedom [/wave flag] of insurance execs to decide if they want to insure you?

 

Did FW hack jb's password?

 

*yawn* get a life

[billcoe]

I really thought that this was one thing Hillary had close to figured out. It seems to me, that the only way to pitch it is to have a large group of experts and people who have studied this issue extensively and thoroughly, put together a package which congress would vote on like the base closures: all or nothing. Yes or no.

 

Otherwise, every special interest get a piece of this or that as it gradually gets torn to bits or have little riders added to satiate this group or that, and at the end of the day it's not even recognizable. Sadly, for this issue, health care: the process seems flawed. At the end of the day, like Bob says, the likelihood is that the taxpayer gets to pay to enrich the insurance companies and a select few joe averages still gets the shaft when he gets sick.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

interest get a piece of this or that as it gradually gets torn to bits or have little riders added to satiate this group or that, and at the end of the day it's not even recognizable. Sadly, for this issue, health care: the process seems flawed. At the end of the day, like Bob says, the likelihood is that the taxpayer gets to pay to enrich the insurance companies and a select few joe averages still gets the shaft when he gets sick.

 

start by mandating that insurance companies are non-profit

[Pete_H]

And let something other than the unfettered free market be the resolution to the problem. You are a closet libtard!

[KaskadskyjKozak]

And let something other than the unfettered free market be the resolution to the problem. You are a closet libtard!

 

Not everything should be "for profit". Duh.

 

[Pete_H]

I agree that is the #1 thing to reform. I think there's just too many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle influenced by insurance industry money.

[Jim]

interest get a piece of this or that as it gradually gets torn to bits or have little riders added to satiate this group or that, and at the end of the day it's not even recognizable. Sadly, for this issue, health care: the process seems flawed. At the end of the day, like Bob says, the likelihood is that the taxpayer gets to pay to enrich the insurance companies and a select few joe averages still gets the shaft when he gets sick.

 

start by mandating that insurance companies are non-profit

 

Couldn't agree more. There are some good models across the globe to follow where there is a private health insurance market but the profit is very constrained, prices for services are standardized, and there are subsidies for low income folks. I could go for that. Problem is that the pharma and insurance firms are standing on the neck of Congress. Or rather - they have paid Congress to stand on public's neck. With all the money flowing and the continual equating money with speech by the Supreme Five, I'm not optimistic in change anytime soon.

[JosephH]

All Illinois politicians are way in pocket of the insurance industry. This issue alone was why Hillary was my candidate and not Obama. It's the one aspect of our society that really drives jobs offshore, makes us less competitive as a nation, and heavily contributes to the perception of the US as a declining power.

[Pete_H]

One of the biggest reasons I voted for Obama over Hillary was that I thought he'd get us out of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ohhh the irony!!!

[tvashtarkatena]

Making existing, well functioning systems like Medicare available to a larger population is the model other civilized countries have used with great success. They've also banned for profit health insurance after taking the step of legally defining equal access to health care as a basic right.

 

The drug/insurance companies are certainly pushing to block health care reform, but from a voter standpoint, the Teabaggers are probably the # 1 largest voting block against health care reform today. The ignorant, paranoid, and insane are now forming a rather large political party: a uniquely American version of the zombie apocalypse. Their message? Um...yeah, they're still working on that one....

 

The good news is that the Teabaggers are pretty much 100% former GOP, so if they do form a separate party, and all signs indicate that's where they're headed (they'll soon hold their very own convention), they'll make Ralph Nader's vote splitting seem like small potatoes.

[Jim]

Atlanta – Others have pulled out of this weekend’s Tea Party Nation convention in Nashville, Tenn., but Sarah Palin is staying the course. Explaining her decision to speak at this weekend’s for-profit tea party event, Ms. Palin, the popular but often polarizing ex-vice presidential candidate, says in a USA Today column today that ”it’s important to keep faith with people who put a little bit of their faith in you.”

 

Palin writes she thought “long and hard” about the decision to headline the $349-a-plate lobster dinner after others like Rep. Michele Bachmann ® of Minnesota pulled out citing questions brought up by the House Ethics Committee over the Tea Party Nation’s for-profit status.

 

Palin is set to receive a $100,000 speaker's fee, but she writes that “any compensation for my appearance will go right back to the cause.” It’s likely to go to SarahPAC, her political action committee, which, among other things, is helping "tea party" backed Senate candidate Rand Paul in Kentucky.

 

[Pete_H]

I'm sure a lot of men who consider themselves part of the teabagger party would like to put "a little bit of their faith into" Sarah Palin.

[prole]

Teabagger Party, Tea Party Party, Tea Party, Tea Bag Party, WTF? I'm sure internet chatrooms are aflame.

Edited February 4, 2010 by prole

[olyclimber]

Who would win if Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann did an Ultimate Cage Fight? They both seem like cornered raccoons at times, I would pay to see this. $100.

[billcoe]

All Illinois politicians are way in pocket of the insurance industry. This issue alone was why Hillary was my candidate and not Obama. It's the one aspect of our society that really drives jobs offshore, makes us less competitive as a nation, and heavily contributes to the perception of the US as a declining power.

 

It's interesting to hear your various takes on Ill. politics as they come up here or there. I guess most of us would be suspicious of anyone named Richard Daley, but give everyone else for Il a chance. I think if we could always chose the smartest candidate who has the most integrity we would be doing well. Sometimes it's not apparent at all what we are getting. Bill Clinton was smart as hell, but there were plenty of instances where his integrity was down the ladder. People voted for him anyway. I think in many folks own minds they questioned Hillarys integrity and that may have cost her the election. Barak came off as her intellectual equal (or more) yet much better in the integrity category in many folks eyes.

 

Maybe not eh?

[ivan]

if the tiger woods thang blew up b4 obama, obama wouldn't have happened?

[j_b]

Dude, the only reason they deny you health insurance is because of your unhealthy lifestyle that caused you to get sick (i.e. your own fucking fault if you believe the billions spent yearly in advert on junk food). What kind of commie are you to put your rights before the [wave flag]freedom [/wave flag] of insurance execs to decide if they want to insure you?

 

Did FW hack jb's password?

 

Dude, you aren't even wealthy. So, STFU, commie.

[JosephH]

All Illinois politicians are way in pocket of the insurance industry. This issue alone was why Hillary was my candidate and not Obama. It's the one aspect of our society that really drives jobs offshore, makes us less competitive as a nation, and heavily contributes to the perception of the US as a declining power.

 

It's interesting to hear your various takes on Ill. politics as they come up here or there. I guess most of us would be suspicious of anyone named Richard Daley, but give everyone else for Il a chance. I think if we could always chose the smartest candidate who has the most integrity we would be doing well. Sometimes it's not apparent at all what we are getting. Bill Clinton was smart as hell, but there were plenty of instances where his integrity was down the ladder. People voted for him anyway. I think in many folks own minds they questioned Hillarys integrity and that may have cost her the election. Barak came off as her intellectual equal (or more) yet much better in the integrity category in many folks eyes.

 

Maybe not eh?

In a nutshell, Chicago is Illinois politics and it's still a large patronage machine. The younger Mayor Daly has cleaned up some of the glaringly embarassing and overtly nasty aspects of that machine as he is more sophisticated than his father. And he physically cleaned up and redeveloped the place in a way almost no other large city in the US has managed. But everything there is a 'deal', and while they've become adept at planning, the leadership is not visionary. The city is too 'gritty' and mechanistic to make visionary leaps or entertain revolutions. From my perspective, in order to lead a divided contry you need to be capable of the 'deal', but you have to have the interpersonal skills and charisma of a Clinton, and the audacity, vision, and media-savvy of a Teddy Roosevelt. Without forceful, visionary leadership, the democrats will always be a party of the scared and ineffective.

 

Relative to the insurance industry, it has always had a strong presence in Chicago and always been a powerful influence in politics there. No Chicago politician would make any really overt moves against them and even Obama's tepid attempts at reform are unlikely to succeed exactly because they are tepid and he leaves them so open to backroom dealing.

[Fairweather]

I wager you 47 tons of jet fuel that Chicago is going to host the Olympic games.

[glassgowkiss]

interest get a piece of this or that as it gradually gets torn to bits or have little riders added to satiate this group or that, and at the end of the day it's not even recognizable. Sadly, for this issue, health care: the process seems flawed. At the end of the day, like Bob says, the likelihood is that the taxpayer gets to pay to enrich the insurance companies and a select few joe averages still gets the shaft when he gets sick.

 

start by mandating that insurance companies are non-profit

If you check both Regence and Premiera of Washington and Alaska already are. So your solution is already there and it's obvious it doesn't work.

[ivan]

I wager you 47 tons of jet fuel that Chicago is going to host the Olympic games.

i betcha $700 billion that we'll find WMD in iraq too

[tvashtarkatena]

interest get a piece of this or that as it gradually gets torn to bits or have little riders added to satiate this group or that, and at the end of the day it's not even recognizable. Sadly, for this issue, health care: the process seems flawed. At the end of the day, like Bob says, the likelihood is that the taxpayer gets to pay to enrich the insurance companies and a select few joe averages still gets the shaft when he gets sick.

 

start by mandating that insurance companies are non-profit

If you check both Regence and Premiera of Washington and Alaska already are. So your solution is already there and it's obvious it doesn't work.

 

??? If you compare the rise in cost and value of care/v/cost for various organizations, you'll find a wide variance. Don't know about these two orgs, but Kaiser Permanente, another non-profit, scores highly by these measures. You seem to be saying that the system sucks in aggregate, therefore there are no good parts to it. That isn't true of any long term system I know of. Doesn't make a lick of sense to me.