dagblog - Comments for "Read, weep"

"You know it all..." ??? I

OldenGoldenDecoy — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:06:38 +0000

In reply to Read, weep

"You know it all..." ???

I see pot meeting kettle there CT ...

Seriously. Your babbling BS gets you nowhere.

Your false front of high mindedness is a scam.

You remind me of an infomercial.

Selling nothing but hot air.

A flim-flam . . .

~OGD~

Well this post's 24 hours is

Emma Zahn — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:45:17 +0000

In reply to Read, weep

Well this post's 24 hours is almost up.

Thanks all for a lively discussion.

So how do those of us who are

Emma Zahn — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:44:09 +0000

In reply to Read, weep

So how do those of us who are scared out of our pajamas by the word "socialism" recapture the word, and remove the demon. That's a very tough thing to do. I don't think it helps to give up the word to the enemy. The left does that all the time. The right demonizes "liberal" we transform ourselves into "progressives" or we steal "populist" without realizing that word carries some baggage we might prefer not to carry around.

This paragraph deserves its own blog post.

I've toyed with the idea of doing one myself but keep putting it off because I know mine would likely generate more heat than light. It makes me so angry that there is hardly any economic left left and I have not been able yet to filter the anger out.

Hope you will give it a go.

We're not going to have a

Purple State — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:24:46 +0000

In reply to Read, weep

We're not going to have a system that decides what doctors should make here. it's not realistic.

We make choices. We suffer the consequences.

We're not going to have a

Rick — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:31:24 +0000

In reply to Read, weep

We're not going to have a system that decides what doctors should make here. it's not realistic.

Medicare is not broke, because we don't pay enough taxes. It's broke, because it was a poorly designed program from the beginning. The same can be said for Social Security. I'm sure you're aware that Congress has been using that money as general revenue for decades. That's called embezzlement in the private sector.

Hopefully, this answers your question (why not here?) The government has failed to manage both of these programs responsibly. We can only expect more of the same, if they are put in charge of health care. They're going to have to fix what is already broken first.

I personally like

Purple State — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:09:38 +0000

In reply to Read, weep

I personally like high-deductible plans and HSAs because I'm wealthy enough to afford them. But they don't do much to reduce the underlying cost of health care. Paying for many of my (substantial) medical costs out of pocket, I've been amazed at the lower prices here in Canada. Why is it that a test that costs $320 here in Canada is $1800 in the US?

Again, for public healthcare

Purple State — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:03:10 +0000

In reply to Read, weep

Again, for public healthcare to work, you need to do more than simply add a new payment system to the underlying expensive mess. You need to regulate the provisioning of health care. Public systems do require public control. The reason Medicare is running a deficit is:

We don't pay enough taxes to fund it

We continue to let the cost of care be determined by an out-of-control private healthcare system

We need Medicare like Canada's not like the US's. In other words, we don't just need a government payer, we also need to "publicize" the whole healthcare delivery system so we can control costs better.

The problem here is that I'm

Purple State — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:58:24 +0000

In reply to Read, weep

The problem here is that I'm bringing a calculator to this debate, and the rest of you are bringing hopes and aspirations of what you would like to see -- regardless of reality.

Actually, you're not. The analysis you'd need to do to make your point is far too complex for this site. Creating a fully public health system would completely change the dynamics of the current system, so your mathematical model would have to be a very sophisticated one. You can't simply look at current Medicare costs and say we can't afford it. To make public healthcare work, you'd be changing a lot more than the payment approach--you'd also be regulating the provisioning of care more like other countries do. This doesn't mean "death panels"--it just means more centralized planning and allocation of resources to limit duplication and unnecessary cost.

While none of us has a complete mathematical model to point to here to prove our points--we can all observe the indisputable empirical evidence that other nations--in fact the majority of the advanced industrialized nations--have made a public healthcare system work. This does raise a very basic question: if it can work everywhere else, why not here?

Funny. I was thinking about

Bwakfat — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:47:23 +0000

In reply to Read, weep

Funny. I was thinking about Pavlov and his dogs for some odd reason.

I'm afraid Bluebell this is

Purple State — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:47:20 +0000

In reply to Read, weep

I'm afraid Bluebell this is the new paradigm in the US. We've gone from "can do" to "can't do." There was a time when Americans believed in their country and thought their democratically-elected government was something to be proud of. Now, thanks to 30 years of Republican preaching about the American democracy being satan and the capitalists and corporations Jesus, the American people sit defeated, impotent, and angry as their golden idol fails to bring rain.