Facts about US healthcare sysytem.

We have some of the worst healthcare in the world and are ranked 37th worldwide.

We pay the health insurance companies more than any other country in the world.

US has one of the highest infint mortality rates in the world.

Over 60% of our insurance premium goes directly to the insurance companies and into the pockets their CEO's.

If we keep going down the same road we are on the insurance companies will be taking over 40% of the GDP within the next 25 years.

Healthcare in not a privilege, like Congressman Zack Wamp stated three months ago during a live TV interview.. Healthcare is a right unless we are considered a third world country. Find a small child with cancer and tell his or her parents that healthcare is a privilege and that they can not receive treatment for the child because they do nnot have insurance or the insurance company refuses to pay because of the high cost to treat the child.

We are all paying higher insurance premiums due to businesses not being able to afford healthcare insurance for their employees. Every company that refuses or can not afford healthcare for their employees raises the cost to the people who do pay for healthcare insurance. As a small business owner I know small business want to reform health care and kick the big greedy insurance companies out of the picture. Small business want to cover their workers but can not afford the cost. Healthcare insurance companies should not take advantage of their customers by collecting multi-million dollar salaries along with bonuses with OUR money.

We are ALL paying for the uninsured already, like it or not. If someone who does not have healthcare insurance goes to the emergency room for treatment, we all pay. The money comes from higher out of pocket rates to our insurance or from the taxpayers pocket. Eighter way we all pay.

Lets lower the cost to the tax paying citizens along with the businesses owners and pass a healthcare system that works. Lets keep greedy insurance companies from charging what ever they want so they can get rich. Lets have a healthier America, one that does not pick and chooses who receives healthcare.

Let me see...what's wrong with this picture?
Health care reform left up to the two most divisive groups in existence. If this is what we have to look forward to, "Baby Boomers" better hope they don't sick, too often, or not at all.
It's not that I don't have any faith in our legislators, oh wait, yes it is!!
Thank you for your time and attention,
Woody

In a previous post, sometime back, I made a list of Natural Disasters.

I forgot to include Meteors and Insurance.

Health care reform will not happen until a couple of other related issues are addressed first.

Politicians do not care about votes. They care about contributions. Contributions carefully submitted reap all kinds of rewards for those who write those checks. And the simple fact is that the insurance lobby in this nation knows who to write those checks to, so that their status quo is preserved.

Medical providers are not thrilled with any proposition that threatens their bottom lines. As it currently stands, they are allowed to over bill everyone for their services, taking advantage of those who are insured or who can afford to pay, to dilute the losses that come with serving those who are uninsured or who cannot pay. The over billing process and any unpaid amounts allow them some nice income tax write-offs each year.

The United States health care system is the most corrupt and uncontrolled monetary shifting system in this nation. This is not to say that every provider is corrupt. They merely utilize and embrace a system that allows them to maximize profits.

Any proposal on the table that threatens to force medical providers to justify charges in every case will be met with harsh resistance. Any attempt to place controls or caps on what a provider is allowed to charge all patients will be met with the same.

And as long as politicians respond only to those who write checks, effective change will not come to pass. They are masters at racking up the votes from ignorant people despite their contradictory legislative voting records.

We all know that the health care system needs to be amended, but the people are not in any position at this time to persuade our politicians to make the changes that would be most effective. Most people in this nation are more concerned with what is on television each night than what our politicians are up to in Washington.

Our legislators health care needs are assured for life after only a few years on the job. At worst, they pay less than 3% of their income towards the cost of their health care.

"Health care issue? What health care issue?"

The Republicans is so pathetic on this issue.

In one breath, they claim that a government health care plan would be terrible. Just like everything else the government does, it would be bloated and inefficient. They go on to say, if you like dealing with the DMV and the post office... you'll LOVE government health care! In the very next sentence, however, they complain that a government option would put other insurance plans out of business.

Huh?

If the government plan is going to be so horrible, what do they have to fear? If it's going to be so inefficient, why would anyone choose it over a private plan?

Their argument makes no sense at all, and is anti-competitive (and therefore anti-free market) in nature. I say, let the marketplace decide. If the government plan ends up to be as bad as the Republican predict, it will collapse of its own weight. But, if it's good enough to lure away those who are currently covered by private insurance- then so be it.

Why is the GOP- the party that so reveres the free market, unwilling to let the free market rule on this issue? Why are they afraid of giving consumers another option? Why- because they know our current system is terrible, and they know it's doomed to fail if it's ever truly challenged

A couple more issues needing resolution in addition to those you so ably state, alprova:

Elimination of illegal aliens from free medical care under Medicare/Caid/TennCare et al. Forty million immediately removed from the roles; unpaid medical services drastically reduced; costs drop abruptly.

Elimination of "Damages" awards; limit ALL civil awards to actual costs only, allowing ONLY $150/hour for substantiated lawyer fees. [That one will never happen since most politicians are lawyers. It needs done anyhow.]

Severely limit malpractice awards to probable income losses and/or reduced life expectancy only -- see "Damages Awards above. This will essentially eliminate medically unnecessary and expensive tests.

Totally ridiculous 'toon. Pure propaganda. Leni Riefenstahl would be proud.

The Dems have a packed Senate and control the House.

All they need do is ignore the Repubs and vote in whatever they want [business as usual, IOW] just as they did with the non-partisan bail-outs and "stimulus" awards. [Look how well THEY turned out.]

My favorite (feeble) argument against a government health care plan is that you don't want the government getting in between you and your physician. After all, that's not the government's role... That's the role of a private insurance company.

I don't know about you, but EVERY SINGLE health care decision I make has to go though a bloated, inefficient bureaucracy... it's called Blue Cross & Blue Shield. My insurers decide what drugs I can buy, what doctors I can see, and what procedures are covered.

I have limited health care now. Everyone covered by a private insurance company already has rationed care. As long as maximizing profits is the basis for a product or service, the motivation is to give you the least it can for the most it can get from you. Health care simply cannot be based on this equation any more.

Government health care (in some form) has been a long time coming. I really hope, this time, we do not fail to deliver.

Propaganda, rolando? Are you saying that Republicans have not made these contrary claims?

You are right about one thing- the Democrats don't have to appease the GOP. They could pass this through as a budget reconciliation with just 51 votes. It would be nice if they didn't have to. It would be nice if both parties wanted to solve this very pressing a serious problem. It would be nice it the GOP cared about the health of people instead of the wealth of a private industry.

But alas, the impossible dream.

I say, shove it down their throats with 51 votes. It's just too important not to.

I think these are some good comments, but I'll throw my two cents worth in also.

If the insurance companies and health providers would have worked to reduce waste and inefficiency, we would not have the crisis we're in now. Without an independent govt plan like Medicare to keep them honest, we will never have any reform because they have no reason to change.

A person making minimum wages does not earn enought take home pay for a family's health care insurance, as of today. Without reform it will only get worse.

Health care reform is vital for any economic recovery. Those who are fortunate enough to have employer paid insurance need to wake up because you're just a heartbeat away from either losing part or all of this benefit.

Notice that both of rolando's solution involve taking things away.

First, he wants to deny health care to illegal immigrants. Denying health care to anyone is barbaric and runs contrary to the instincts of basic human decency. Now, I'm not saying that rolando is not a decent human. I'm just saying that this proposal lacks the compassion expected from one.

Secondly, rolando proposes to limit our access to civil justice. The malpractice issue is a red herring at best. Multimillion dollar malpractice suits are very rare. To put limits on either the damages we can pursue or the means by which most of us would need to retain a lawyer, will only limit the number of people who will be denied their much deserved day in court.

Of course, I meant- it will only limit the number of people who will GET their much deserved day in court.

Note to self: Read first, then click 'post comment'.

Bennett continues to attract the same old "Usual Suspects" with their "Mountains of Misinformation". Boring!

Rolando's comment about limiting service to other human beings makes me glad he is not in medical services. (Or the medical services bureaucracy.)

Politician's will get one healthcare program and we will get another. They should be forced to abide by the same program they pass for us without any exceptions.

Take a look at the VA Healthcare System and see what we will be getting. Didn't they just expose thousands of people to HIV because they failed to properly sterilize endoscopy equipment? This really makes me enthusiastic about our Government being in the healthcare business.

What will we do with the new Blue Cross building? Maybe it could be a homeless campus for the Blue Cross and Cigna employees.

The issue here is currently the high cost of medical care/insurance.

Cleansing the rolls of those who pay nothing toward Medicare/Caid/TennCare et al, and yet make free Emergency Rooms their doctor of choice, drive up those costs.

No one forced those 40-odd million illegal aliens to come here and live off us, the citizens and non-citizen nationals. It was THEIR choice. Why come here? Duh! Because everything is free for them here.

We can no longer afford it. Exactly who do you think will pay for Dear Leader's health care plan? The illegals? In a pig's eye. Who will get an inordinate share of the free care? Forty million blood-sucking illegals and their get, that's who. Frankly, I am sick of paying the slackers' way through life.

We are no longer the world's suger-daddy.

Granted the VA has had it's problems in the past, but considering the quantity and severity of it's patients it has done a very good job. The staff is professional, caring and dedicated.

As for insurance companies, they are not going anywhere. Sure they may have to learn to operate without a blank check, but that's what makes companies excel. Except for the fat salaries and bonuses at the top, most of their dedicated employees will continue to earn a living while providing a valuable service.

Toonfan:
As to the Dems wanting the Repubs to buy into their healthcare bill of goods, I think we both know the real reason they want bi-partisan support -- the same reason they wanted it for the bailouts. It has nothing to do with the peoples' healthcare. It is merely to have someone to point a finger at and blame for the mess, just as they always do.

Well, it didn't happen then and it won't now. The Dems want this baby, they can vote it in. They can even claim ownership later if they got the guts...which is doubtful.

The Dems can't even get support from their own side of the aisle. See http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/...

[I notice even you seem to admit that the Dems can only get 51 of their 59 votes to go for Dear Leader's carnival barker's pitch. I can't wait to hear, "But wait! There's more!" and maybe "It slices, it dices, it's Obom-O-Matic!" during his WH healthcare infomercial.]

You make very good points as usual, EaTn.

Reducing the outrageous costs of medical care and insurance is of primary importance. One doesn't do that through taxation and bureaucratic mismanagement; the latter brought us the housing mess.

I agree again, EaTn; the VA has been good to me for the last 25-30 years.

I seldom use them other than keeping my registration current; I have other insurance and prefer to let those more in need have my priority.

Rolando nailed the real problem with health care in this country. Affordability. Prices are high because it's assumed (rightly) that uncovered people won't pay. You don't have to require that everyone have health coverage to take care of that problem. Because the key word here is HEALTH. I've had a health care policy that has served me well, but the fact is, I almost never get sick because I don't smoke, rarely drink, and I exercise regularly. The majority of health care cost in this country come from a minority of people, whose sicknesses are usually preventable. So why not give people incentives to take care of themselves? If the government is really concerned about the health of its citizens, you'd think that they'd go in that direction, a direction that would bring cost down almost immediately. Less visits to the doctor lowers demand for both drugs and working personnel. At that point competition can be introduced into this sector again, and that tends to lower pricing.

As I've said before about this issue, Government run health care is a huge power grab for the democratic party. It creates dependency, and subsequently, guarantees votes for them well into the future. You liberals can keep fooling yourself about this issue, but the rose colored glasses for Barack Obama are coming off of the average person, and what they see isn't make them happy.

una61 writes: "Bennett continues to attract the same old "Usual Suspects" with their "Mountains of Misinformation". Boring!"

Well, I invite you to climb our 'mountains of misinformation' if you dare, una61. Instead, you only seem capable of scaling your own 'molehill of malice'.

Now, THAT'S boring.

As someone who has always had insurance, either through a private policy or through companies I've worked for, I can safely say it is all too expensive and doesn't cover enough. Sure, you can get antibiotics or some cough syrup for under $20, but what about real health concerns? Health care costs should not be a major cause of bankruptcy in our country.

I'll never forget going to the EMERGENCY room for a deep cut and not having stopped by the ATM or having my check book on me. Five hours later I was asked "So you don't have $300 to put down?" Didn't figure I needed a separate savings account for medical costs when I was paying for insurance...you know, what you pay into for health emergencies and care?

Of course, their credit card machine was down, so they needed cash. I simply said "This was an emergency." I signed my papers and walked out with debt in order to not bleed to death. Should have picked up some fishing line and stitched up myself rather than dealing with that crap. It's scary when you see a chunk of your pay disappear into what you thought would allot for emergencies but ends up going somewhere else (all I can discern). Wonder how much four stitches would have cost someone without insurance?

Do people get brownie-points here for voting "Yes" or something?

Maybe the "Usual Suspects" here have a private club, ya think?

Rolando, Could you see all these "freeloaders" dropping their jobs, and offering them to you?

You wouldn't touch the jobs they are doing with a 20 ft. pole, even with better pay!

hcjn84, I had my experience with the system, too. I'd broken my ankle badly, slipping in the mud. No insurance!

I begged to be transported 100 miles to the VA. The transporters wouldn't do it and brought me to a local hospital. They kept me for 5 days, after operating and sent me home where there was no one to take care of me. I was not able to wear an ambulatory cast.

Neighboring vacationers brought me to a VA Hospital where I was treated for many months under secondary care, and then placed in the Domicilliary for several months.

Then the bills came in. Transportation, Emergency Room Dr.
surgeon, hospital stay, transport home,etc. No assistance, no family even close or able to come or to help, and about $6,000, in bills, plus an embarassing visit to court when the Electric Co sued for payment because the Postal Service, and/or VA had delayed some months in forwarding my mail.

It was years before my credit was re-established trying to clear the record, after I had paid the $50 or $60.00 as soon as I could when I found out it was overdue.

Even now, I would not have enough to cover any stay at a community or privatge hospital for several days, much less operations,or treatments. Bless the VA in spite of some of how I was handled in some areas. I would lose my little house and I would immediately be thrown on the mercy of who knows what agency determined that I was a throw-away item.

Illegals, seasonal workers, and today the racist organization La Raza [The Race], have been making those claims since I was a kid in Los Angeles 65 years ago, Clara. They were untrue then and they are untrue now.

The only reason they had or have jobs -- or are here at all -- is because they lived 4 kids, Mom, Pop, Granma and Granpa in one-room tarpaper shacks provided by the employers or one family per bedroom in multi-room houses when they could get them. They worked literally for pennies a day and it wasn't because no one would take the jobs but that no one but nomadic workers and illegals could or would live like that. Americans have -- or had -- a sense of self-worth and pride in those days. The syndicate fruit growers exploited the Mexicans, of course...and now it is worth your life to eat their produce.

I watched the illegals work throughout the lettuce fields, the fruit and nut orchards [no pun intended] and get forever bypassed at the strawberry fields in favor of the Asians who did 10 times the work and were steady employees to boot.

They weren't all illegal in our town, but with few exceptions their 4th generation American kids couldn't speak English without a heavy Latino accent so they may as well have been. What a thing to burden your kids with.

I worked over 40 years for what I have and supported my country for every one of them, so kindly knock off the holier-than-thou pretense of knowing what I would or would not do...I find it irritating.

Rolando

Your sardonic approach combined with a determination to add a political slant wherever possible diminish whatever merit your comments may have.I like to hear your viewpoint,but your packaging is off-puting.

Most of the posters here are more interested ideas than ideology.

Rolando,

I'm glad there's a lot of previews and such before I get back to you. If I ever try again! The best I can do is mark your comments, mostly, not useful.

Try as you like, Clara, it is your dime. I will continue reading your posts...and I don't "vote"; it is too much like one-upmanship for me -- seeing who gets the most gold stars or something.

Just don't presume to know something you don't about me and we will be fine. Regardless, my comments hold true.

Please, nucanuck...this IS a political 'toon thread, after all. Of course I will add a political slant to my replies.

I make no secret of the fact I deplore socialism in the classic sense; I was part of the force keeping the wolf from that door. A small cog, perhaps, but there just the same.

I cannot play Dear Leader's role and stand by silent while Rome burns -- and our industry, financial base, health care, and economy are nationalized -- and Iranian freedom fighters die. [BTW, we did that to Hungary in '56, much to our shame. It didn't work; it took Reagan to reverse it some thirty years or so later.]

This man in the WH is building an empire where the federal government is king and has overarching power over every aspect of our lives. And the blind, unthinking sheeple buy into it.

Sigh. Enuf ranting for now...got a more mundane task -- cutting the grass...and loading more ammo.

:=]

Rolando-

To those who claim that illegals do the jobs that Americans don't want to do, you wrote, "They were untrue then and they are untrue now."

But then you state, "no one but nomadic workers and illegals could or would live like that. Americans have -- or had -- a sense of self-worth and pride in those days."

The contradiction seems glaring.

You go on to exalt the Asians for being more industrious than the Mexican immigrants (and steady employees to boot), you criticize the Mexican for either not learning to speak english, or speaking it with a heavy Latino accent.

So, when you call "La Raza" racist (a completely false, but very popular right-wing talking point in the wake of the Sonia Sotomayer nomination), it does kind of come off as the pot calling the kettle black.

I don't doubt for a minute that you're a hard worker, rolando, or that you supported your country for every single one of your working years. But likewise, I don't doubt that every single illegal Mexican immigrant is just as hard working and just as conscientious.

They're not here to get free health care. They're here to earn whatever money they can to support their families, often sending much of what they earn back to extended family members in Mexico. The only taxes they avoid are those that would expose their illegal status, and most of that is encouraged, and to the benefit of their employer. They do pay sales taxes for whatever items they may purchase living here, so they are supporting this country (although, probably not to the level that they'd like).

I just don't understand the vitriol that the immigration issue seems to evoke. In tough economic times, people will search for someone to blame, to find someone who's stealing the available jobs. Unfortunately, it's like the union strikers throwing tomatoes, or worse, at the replacement workers who cross the picket line. Those replacement workers are not the enemy. They're just working stiffs trying to make a living, just like the striking union workers. The only difference between them is desperation. The replacement workers are desperate enough for work that they'll brave crossing a picket line to earn a few dollars.

Immigrant workers are no different, just more desperate. The situation is not their fault of of their doing, yet they bear the brunt of the anger and resentment. All the hatred seems to be directed at the pawns in this chess game, instead of at those who control the pieces- management.

Thank you, Toonfan. You said it for me!

I only wish I were more articulate and quick of mind.

It's been a long time since I read "The Grapes of Wrath."

This was an account of a hard-working, desparate, white, farming family driven from their land during the dust storms and depression. They ended in California.

It was a fictional account, but it had to be based on factual material. Plus, we saw newsreels and read newspapers back then, believe it or not.

To make Healthcare affordable why not enact Tort Reform and cut out about three levels of bureaucracy?
Besides, if gov't healthcare is passed the first thing companies are going to do is drop healthcare for all their employees. Then we will be forced onto the gov't plans. Politicians realize this. Welfare, government healthcare, control of GM, financial institutions=soft tyranny.

Everybody seems to have a story, horror or otherwise, about the current health system. Does anyone here actually have experience working in a medical practice? I don't mean as a doctor but in a role dealing the financial and administrative side of the medical "industry" at the working level?

Clara and OllieH,

You got it. Those against health care for all suffer from lack of exposure, and cannot grasp the fact that there are only a certain number of paychecks or benefits that separate them from being in the group that does not have healthcare. Let us imagine for a moment, that you work, are laid off, and cannot find another job.

How many weeks will pass before all of your savings, assests that can be covered to liquid or cash are depleted and now you are them? I assure you it is a matter of about one year or less.

For those that think the medical care issue is about the have nots, get a clue. We are all have nots given enough time without regular income.

Illness or injury can render you unemployed and anytime, and you will work only as long as God willing and the creek don't rise."

Where to start...

OK, I hate insurance companies as much as the next person. They make money by finding ways NOT to pay claims. We all know this to be true. However, the answer to our health care problems is not the creation of another bloated governmental bureaucracy that will decide who gets health care and when they get it. Government health care would result in a rationing regime run by bureaucrats that would have to allocate scarce capital to those they deemed most worthy of receiving health care. The people most likely to receive top notch care would be the people the government thinks they stand to milk the most out of. The elderly would suffer greatly under this regime. We all know Democrats care little for innocent life and are prone to eugenics in the first place, so if I'm an elderly person, I am wanting to avoid government healthcare like the plague.

It is such a ridiculous canard to state that "We have some of the worst healthcare in the world..." Are you kidding me? Where would you prefer to be sick - in America or overseas somewhere? Also, if we are indeed 37th in the world (dubious assertion at best) then we are in the top fifth of all the nations in the world. Not bad.

Also, I love it when some liberal throws out infant mortality stats as though they really care. If the Libs gave a rat's toe about infants they wouldn't be so quick to defend late term abortion.

My suggestion would be that we somehow find a way to crack down on insurance companies and make them pay what they contractually owe the people who have been paying premiums diligently; and that the insurance companies pay the doctors here in the best country in the world the fees they deserve for the world class care they provide us.

You libs are a bunch of America hating ingrates. Get over it. You are so lucky to live in this great country. Lets not ruin it by dumbing it down to the lowest common denominator. If you want socialized medicine, I can think of several countries to which you might consider relocating.

Thanks