Agree or Disagree?

[Newman]

Originally Posted by Jermyn Davidson

A government-run health insurance option is needed "to discipline insurance companies. If they can't compete, it's probably their fault. Many private insurers spend too much time thinking about profits instead of helping people."

Do you agree with these statements?

RIDICULOUS! If they can't compete it's because the government initially will appear to be a better deal (but it will be unsustainable). Meanwhile the competition will have been destroyed and Americans will be left with NO CHOICE and NO COMPETITION.

NO choice and no competition will result in medical professionals being forced to do whatever the GOVERNMENT tells them. Expensive innovation and risky new things are out. Patient driven care is history. RATIONED HEALTH CARE is the unavoidable end result.

BOTTOM LINE- IF the new plan is going to be so great, WHY IS CONGRESS GOING TO EXEMPT ITSLEF FROM WHATEVER IT CREATES?

[Jaxon]

The government will make the rules for the game they are the biggest player in.....They will make the rules for their competitors.......It won't be long until the government is the only one playing the game........Competing with the government and the government tells you how to play their game.......you see what's wrong with the picture??????

[Jaxon]

Oh.....and your biggest competitor is also your boss....the gov't tells you what you can do how much you will get paid for doing it.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Jermyn Davidson

do you think that insurance companies are more concerned with profits than helping people?

yes
they are in business to make money
when they stop making money they will no longer be in business
that's the capitalist system

[Sam]

Ted Kennedy explained how a government universal health program will cost us nothing.

If you work, your employer will pay for it.
If you don't work, the government will pay for it.

How can anyone resist that logic?

[jaxfam6]

Originally Posted by Newman

RIDICULOUS! If they can't compete it's because the government initially will appear to be a better deal (but it will be unsustainable). Meanwhile the competition will have been destroyed and Americans will be left with NO CHOICE and NO COMPETITION.

NO choice and no competition will result in medical professionals being forced to do whatever the GOVERNMENT tells them. Expensive innovation and risky new things are out. Patient driven care is history. RATIONED HEALTH CARE is the unavoidable end result.

BOTTOM LINE- IF the new plan is going to be so great, WHY IS CONGRESS GOING TO EXEMPT ITSLEF FROM WHATEVER IT CREATES?

AMEN

[jaxfam6]

Originally Posted by Sam

Ted Kennedy explained how a government universal health program will cost us nothing.

If you work, your employer will pay for it.
If you don't work, the government will pay for it.

How can anyone resist that logic?

yeah and those of us working will pay higher taxes and larger premiums so that the government can afford to supply this coverage for those who don't work. one more way for the government to make sure the poor get poorer and they get richer.

[Jermyn Davidson]

Some of the posts here have made me think.

Ultimately, however, something must be done about the healthcare crisis in America.



The next time I hear about a 13 year old girl in Ca denied a life-saving operation that doctors are perfectly capable of performing, I may just cry. There's not much more than that I can do!

It was the ultimate insult for the insurance company to even have a change of heart about their decision-- just hours before her death!

Us "middle class", and below wage earners simply do not have many, if any, options at all. If it wasn't for God using the VA (a govt sponsored healthcare system) I may already be dead! I am not exaggerating.




Ultimately, that is why there must be some option available for the millions of Americans who's employers (yeah those awesome well-intentioned and benevolent companies) don't offer their employees ANY realistic health insurance options.

Something must be done for the families and individuals who simply can not afford the options currently available to them now.


If the government won't do it, who will?

It is very clear that the insurance companies will not.
My loyalty to business is only as strong as their loyalty to my country and fellow countrymen.

I don't know of ANY health insurance companies I'd call loyal.
The same case can be made for many American companies, who have made great gain and continue to strive for great gain at the expense of ethics.



If it is not the government's role to look out for her citizens, who's role is it?
We pay the government with our tax dollars-- why shouldn't the government be an option for folks?


I hope you guys can respond to this, point by point.

[Light]

Originally Posted by Jermyn Davidson

do you think that insurance companies are more concerned with profits than helping people?

Proof is in the puddin. Profit is all that matters.

[Newman]

Originally Posted by Jermyn Davidson

Some of the posts here have made me think.

Ultimately, however, something must be done about the healthcare crisis in America.

The next time I hear about a 13 year old girl in Ca denied a life-saving operation that doctors are perfectly capable of performing, I may just cry. There's not much more than that I can do!

It was the ultimate insult for the insurance company to even have a change of heart about their decision-- just hours before her death!

We have a saying in court. Hard cases make bad law. It is awful the pain and suffering this family went through but it ultimately wasn't about the insurance company.

Natilie was diagnosed with Leukemia when she was 13. She needed a liver transplant at the age of 17. She also had a lung infection.

It appears from some reports; that the liver transplant might have increased her life expectancy 6 months.

Let's face reality. IF the doctors thought it so important that she have this procedure, why didn't they do it? Who was more heartless; the insurance company who would not agree to pay because they did not believe it was a viable plan to sustain her life (it was experimental) or the doctors who believed it was but wouldn't operate anyway?

The even greater truth here is that the insurance company who holds people's funds so that there is money available to cover most contingencies has to ration health care at the extreme ends so that it can cover the bases for most of its subscribers.

The bad news is that once Government gets involved; health care will be rationed even more than it is now. One may only get a hip replacement if they have X amount of years remaining, or cataract surgery if both eyes are bad; or open heart surgery if they are young but not so young as to be a lost cause. Finally, experimental surgery will only be available if one is related to a politician in power.

Utopia doesn't exist. Free markets have served America well despite not being perfect. Perfection is an illusion that can't be had. Congress knows it and that is why they don't want any part of it.