Health Care Debate - Pompano Beach, FL

[Anonymous]

This has nothing to do with health. It is a power struggle

[Anonymous]

Costs too much, hurts seniors, & rations care

[Anonymous]

No. It cost too much, hurts seniors, and doesn't actually reduce cost but may even raise costs to consumers.

[Anonymous]

It WILL raise the price to taxpayers; it WILL dilute the effectiveness of healthcare in general; it IS yet another entitlement program; US citizenship will NOT decide who gets it and who doesn't... We can't ignore the Hispanic vote, dontcha know...

The winners: the drug companies, the media, Congress and a few hospitals. Not to mention the Committee to Re-elect the President.

The losers: medical practices, senior citizens, American wage-earners.

Mechanized health-care means the loss of doctor-patient privacy, as well. Your health will go the way of your credit rating: public and affecting everything you do.

If this is somewhat empowering for the poor it is entirely at the expense of the nation and should be sent back to the design shop.

YES, by all means, fix the system. Get rid of fraud, duplicate tests, gouging by pharmaceutical companies. Put caps on liability suits. But DO NOT use this as an excuse to remake Amerika in some kind of utopian image.

[Mary Sanders]

Rationing of care and loss of private insurance. Our healthcare system will suffer and the standard will drop.

[Anonymous]

One way or another, there's going to be a healthcare bill. The Republicans can't afford to be against healthcare; the Democrats can't afford a domestic setback; Obama can't afford to lose his next presidential bid.

What you should REALLY be considering is where your rights to privacy are headed after this. All your government held data: IRS, Social Security, Credit Bureau, Banking, Real estate, hospital records, and now ALL medical information will go into one record accessible to whomever within the fed's labyrinth with a "need to know" badge.

THAT is scary. And make no mistake, it will be used in derivatives you haven't even imagined!

[dean]

I feel the public option is the only way to keep private (for profit) companies honest.

[Doc Ock]

dean wrote:

I feel the public option is the only way to keep private (for profit) companies honest.

The so-called public option will guarantee a shadow financial system behind health insurance supervised by the Fed but ten times as wasteful and corrupt than anything a privately run system could ever come up with.

Remember what this is for: REVENUE. And once you give healthcare to the Fed it's gone forever. Ask some simple questions:

1) could much of the waste and duplication of tests and procedures be eliminated by legistlation? YES

2) could doctors' offices and clinics be brought into the 21st century with computerized recordkeeping and honesty? YES

3) could an "assigned risk pool" of health insurance be mandated by the fed forcing private health insurers to divert a percentage of their revenues to insuring pre-existing conditions? YES

4) could some strict oversight of the drug companies bring their parade drugs down out of the sky by opening competition within the Trademark and Patent office? YES

So WHY is the MacDonalds solution ending up as the best we can do simply because Obama and friends are spending the most money promoting this in the media???

If you don't know the answer, it's okay to ask. If you don't have a clue as to what you'll be giving up by signing on to this Fool's Gold Health Care, ASK AROUND. It's not the money you'll be diverting, it's your privacy, right to choose, and freedom from the equivalent of a giant income tax.

ASK FOR ALTERNATIVES before you open your pockets, your homes and your privacy to the next generation of postal workers.

[Anonymous]

This is supposed to be a free country. Not free for all, and not free for the taking, but free in more abstract ways. The freedoms include speech (saying what you want short of inciting to riot or bringing harm on someone's character).

In case you haven't noticed, someone (I wonder who it could be) is dumping sad, pathetic stories into the media proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that next to Bubonic Plague, nothing is worse than health insurance companies. The plan is to pour enough of these tear-jerkers our way, then introduce White Knight Obama to save us.

Free speech? Whose money is buying this air time? Who is getting these stories into newspapers, magazines, onto radio and tv, and who is paying for it?

I used to live in Mexico City where there was a well-known steak restaurant beneath the city's bull ring. They served up the afternoon's losers of course. But at least they had the graciousness to wait until AFTER the bullfight.

WE, the American people, are paying for an expensive and sophisticated smear campaign to convince US that THEY were right all along, according to polls. Oh, and we're paying for the polls, too. How convenient.

[dean]

So am I the only one that doesn't understand why a hospital bed in miami costs 800 dollars a day and the same bed in paris or berlin costs less than 100 dollars. A gall bladder surgery that costs 20,000 dollars in chicago and the same surgery in rome or madrid costing 3,500 dollars. The nursing home in atlanta costing 3000 dollars a month and the same in brussels less than 700 dollars a month. THAT IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR PRESENT SYSTEM. Life expectancy in europe is longer than anywhere in the U.S. so don't give me the old story that americans have the best health care system in the world. That is just not true.

[Anonymous]

Without the subsidy of insurance, the circle collapses in on itself and floats back down to self-sustainable levels. But since there is no alternative to this bloat it just gets fatter. Substituting government run insurance for private changes nothing in the equation. The hospitals, drug companies and labs still gouge. BECAUSE THEY CAN.

I listened to some panel of women debating banking fees especially overdrafts and credit cards, as they danced around the answer of WHY the banks charge $40 for a $1 overdraft. BECAUSE THEY CAN.

It sounds stupid and simplistic but look at a hospital bill and you'll need a CPA to get through it. Fee structures depend on the presence of insurance capital to maintain the balloon. If you go into a doctor's office and suggest that the fees be adjusted because you are paying cash, they look at you like deer staring at headlights.

"Well I'm sorry sir, that's what the charge is. Don't you have INSURANCE?"

[betty]

we need a change, i have ins with a high deductible, i can't see a dr unless i pay upfront until the ded is paid

[jose]

betty wrote:

we need a change, i have ins with a high deductible, i can't see a dr unless i pay upfront until the ded is paid

I am sure there are millions of americans in the same situation as you , betty. THE ONES CRYING THE LOUDEST AGAINST REFORM ARE THOSE WITH GREAT INSURANCE PAID BY THEIR COMPANIES. I understand, no one wants to pay more for insurance than they have to, but I also feel these same ones, if they lost their jobs tomorrow would have a completely different view. The well paid people working in the health care industry have to understand there are many people out there with poor or no insurance making a lot less than they are,but still need some decent protection aganst sickness that ends up causing them financial disaster.

[Anonymous]

betty wrote:

we need a change, i have ins with a high deductible, i can't see a dr unless i pay upfront until the ded is paid

When did "I NEED A CHANGE" become "WE NEED A CHANGE"???

When did your stated inability or unwillingness to pay a deductible or even pay for the visit become MY responsibility? Do you ask your neighbors to fill up your car's gas tank? Do you ask your kids' teachers to buy them sneakers or school clothes?

The national cry "We need a change!" is more like "Feed me!" I'll grant you that health care is a flatulent, overblown animal that never asks for less, only more, But put the glove on the hand, not the foot. INSURANCE made it that way.

You have no God-given right to free healthcare and you certainly are stretching the envelope of reason when YOU demand that I pay for it out of my income taxes.

You'll get it, in the end, because that's politics. But that sirloin steak you are being promised is going to be a foot-long hot dog made from anything that walks, crawls or ever took a breath.

[jose]

Recordo wrote:

<quoted text>When did "I NEED A CHANGE" become "WE NEED A CHANGE"???
When did your stated inability or unwillingness to pay a deductible or even pay for the visit become MY responsibility? Do you ask your neighbors to fill up your car's gas tank? Do you ask your kids' teachers to buy them sneakers or school clothes?
The national cry "We need a change!" is more like "Feed me!" I'll grant you that health care is a flatulent, overblown animal that never asks for less, only more, But put the glove on the hand, not the foot. INSURANCE made it that way.
You have no God-given right to free healthcare and you certainly are stretching the envelope of reason when YOU demand that I pay for it out of my income taxes.
You'll get it, in the end, because that's politics. But that sirloin steak you are being promised is going to be a foot-long hot dog made from anything that walks, crawls or ever took a breath.

Does Betty not pay income taxes too. Maybe she doesn't want to pay for some of the things you enjoy paid for by her tax dollars. Just saying, it works both ways.

[Anonymous]

jose wrote:

<quoted text> Does Betty not pay income taxes too. Maybe she doesn't want to pay for some of the things you enjoy paid for by her tax dollars. Just saying, it works both ways.

Betty's income taxes support Medicare which she gets automatically at age 65 and Medicaid which is administered as a welfare program by the states.

I'm suggesting that Betty is going to pay a whole lot more to supply non-taxpayers with inferior healthcare and that she won't have a choice. If Betty's income taxes and mine as well were going to finance a healthcare system that she and I could subscribe to or not as we saw fit, that would be Healthcare I could agree to.

But this is not a choice. This bill decides, for you and without your consent, exactly what your healthcare will be and how it's going to be administered. And since it's really an entitlement program crafted for the poor, it's going to be pretty shabby.

I pay my income taxes and understand that financial aid to countries I consider enemies is part of the deal. Being an American citizen does not entitle me to a line item veto on what is done with my taxes.

If I want to send a letter I can use the US Post Office or FedX or UPS or DHL. If I want to pay a debt, I can use US dollars or Krugerands, or Yen or anything else.

But to have to use a doctor that ObamaCare specifies and accept this service like it or not is a little over the top. And since I smell a rotten political fish at the bottom of the barrel, I'm using my First Amendment right to say so.

[jose]

Recordo wrote:

<quoted text>Betty's income taxes support Medicare which she gets automatically at age 65 and Medicaid which is administered as a welfare program by the states.
I'm suggesting that Betty is going to pay a whole lot more to supply non-taxpayers with inferior healthcare and that she won't have a choice. If Betty's income taxes and mine as well were going to finance a healthcare system that she and I could subscribe to or not as we saw fit, that would be Healthcare I could agree to.
But this is not a choice. This bill decides, for you and without your consent, exactly what your healthcare will be and how it's going to be administered. And since it's really an entitlement program crafted for the poor, it's going to be pretty shabby.
I pay my income taxes and understand that financial aid to countries I consider enemies is part of the deal. Being an American citizen does not entitle me to a line item veto on what is done with my taxes.
If I want to send a letter I can use the US Post Office or FedX or UPS or DHL. If I want to pay a debt, I can use US dollars or Krugerands, or Yen or anything else.
But to have to use a doctor that ObamaCare specifies and accept this service like it or not is a little over the top. And since I smell a rotten political fish at the bottom of the barrel, I'm using my First Amendment right to say so.

I believe you will always have an option to see a doctor of your choice in america. I too can use the government system in ecuador if I want, but have the option to use private insurance to go to a private hospital where care is always of higher quality. That of course costs more, but is worth it to me. I can see your problem there too,as a by-pass surgery is 5 times the price in the U.S. as in Ecuador.

[Anonymous]

If you flat out refuse to support this plan the world won't come to a grinding halt, the poles won't melt, the pope won't die and walking catfish won't appear on Biscayne Blvd.

The sponsors will have to go back and rewrite it AS THEY SHOULD. Because they way it is now, we'll be paying for it till we all speak Chinese.

Healthcare DOES need fixing. The Fed does NOT need yet another revenue stream to justify its existence. Americans do NOT need a downgraded, automated system that benefits only the poor who vote for Obama and have learned to stand in line.

Make them do it RIGHT, don't agree to the price before you drive the car.

[Nick]

God help us with the Government involved in health care

[Doc Ock]

Nick wrote:

God help us with the Government involved in health care

No pal, God helps those who help themselves. That doesn't mean the fat people at the dinner table banging their knives and forks until the surplus cheese is served. That means us taxpayers who really have something to lose if healthcare is nationalized for votes.

You WON'T have a choice. You'll be able to go to your own doctor but YOU will have to pay him out of YOUR pocket while your paycheck shows a giant enlarged FICA tumor.

It's a scam that the drug companies love, the doctors hate, and the politicians will use like a Glade plug-in, to make the room smell fresh even with cadavers on the floor.

YOU have a choice right now but writing about how awful it is while Congress stays on autopilot won't do a thing.