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    Member Member jabarto's Avatar
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    Default Re: The U.S. Health Care Debate

    Quote Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh View Post
    Tricare works well, though it does help to minimize costs when well over half of your client base is under the age of 40 and a large minority of the recipients are required to pass physical fitness tests periodically or risk losing their jobs.

    Medicare has a raft of problems and is NOT noted for its efficiency. It is noted for encouraging a number of the better physicians to forgoe working with medicare patients at all. Even adjusted for inflation, Medicare is so grossly over the costs predicted for the program at its outset as to be laughable.

    My fear is not that the government can't handle UHC, but that it will do so according to its own glorious standards.
    Quote Originally Posted by A guy on another forum
    this morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US department of energy.
    I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility.
    After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the national weather service of the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the national aeronautics and space administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US department of agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the food and drug administration.

    At the appropriate time as regulated by the US congress and kept accurate by the national institute of standards and technology and the US naval observatory, I get into my national highway traffic safety administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the environmental protection agency, using legal tender issed by the federal reserve bank. On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US postal service and drop the kids off at the public school.

    After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the department of labor and the occupational safety and health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to ny house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it's valuables thanks to the local police department.

    I then log on to the internet which was developed by the defense advanced research projects administration and post on freerepublic.com and fox news forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right
    Okay so you're probably not a freeper but you get my point.

    Quote Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh View Post
    No, the preamble to the Constitution states that WE THE PEOPLE are establishing this Constitution to "provide" for the common defense and "insure" domestic tranquility, but only to "promote" the general welfare. Government was meant to encourage that welfare, and to establish conditions that would allow everyone the chance to better themselves. It was never meant to underwrite the whole thing. Our founders would likely to have deemed such a notion preposterous.
    Perhaps. I don't know.

    Quote Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh View Post
    I think you'd be surprised at the quality of coverage provided if the health insurers were allowed to craft their own policies and provide the insurance needed by the individual themselves. Instead, there are more mandates and "must includes" than you can comfortably list. All such must be paid for and it is impossible in many places for insurance companies to establish substandard ratings and underwrite risk fairly.

    I do thank you for your clear expression of a sentiment that I believe DOES underly a segment of the support for UHC in the United States -- a loathing for corporate capitalism. Whether intended or not (and mostly I think it is) the 'public option' will eat private insurance alive. It is impossible to out-compete an entity that can lose money endlessly without ending up bankrupt.
    Now wait a second. You just said that the government would do a poor job of running a UHC system. Why, if that's the case, would the insurance companies go under? If the government doesn't manage healthcare well, no one will drop their private coverage.

    Oh, and I don't think most people want to eliminate the private option. The politicians sure don't.

    Quote Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh View Post
    A foolish opinion, held by thousands, is still foolish.

    Still, since many of them can vote, we will very likely see UHC in my lifetime and I will have to learn to cope with life in a Socialist Democracy.
    It's only been a generation since McCarthyism and Reagan's subsequent efforts to plunder this country ended. I would be very surprised if UHC happened in my lifetime (and I'm probably younger than you).

    Then again, I do think UHC is an inevitability. There wil come a point when the populace has been screwed over badly enough for long enough that something will have to change.

    Quote Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh View Post
    Franklin's quip about liberty and safety falls on deaf ears.
    What liberty is being given up in the name of security here?

    Quote Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh View Post
    I breathe, therefore you are required to feed me, clothe me, entertain me, and keep me healthy to the maximum extent possible. My existence trumps all! Is that not what government is for?
    Hmmmmm yes why would the government want a happy, healthy workforce? I wonder...
    Last edited by jabarto; 09-11-2009 at 10:59.

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