Category: Health care
Posted by Libby Spencer on Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 12:03 PMThe GOP's health care plan
According to the Wall Street Journal, it looks like the House GOP is going to unveil their own health care reform plan after all. You can read all the particulars about what it might include at the link, but more notable is what it doesn't include:
House Republican health-care bill wouldn't seek to prevent health-insurance companies from denying sick people insurance, Minority Leader John Boehner said Monday. ...
Republicans also wouldn't prevent insurers from ending policies once an individual becomes seriously ill. ...
Mr. Boehner also said Monday that the Republican plan wouldn't include tax credits for people who buy insurance individually rather than through their employer. He cited the cost of providing those credits as a reason why they wouldn't be included.
If anyone can tell me how allowing insurers to continue the same practices that are currently endangering our health and running Americans into bankruptcy is going to solve the problem, I'm all ears.
On a related note, Ezra Klein interviewed George Halvorson, CEO of Kaiser Permanente, who gave him some eye-opening graphs illustrating why our health care costs are so much higher compared to other countries. It's the cost per unit that is killing us, which seems to be a direct result of the fact that the US is the only country where the government doesn't regulate the costs. However you feel about that, you do have to wonder how Germany can deliver a CAT scan for about $300 and it costs about $1000 here for the same procedure. And why are Americans paying at least double for the exact same drugs? As Ezra points out, a discussion about pricing has been notably absent from our debates on health care reform when it should be one of the main points of discussion.
Comments
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So ignorant, so little time
ConPat...
I was making a joke...
Someone has to make light of all the trash the feds are trying to push on us...
Seriously, if I went out and bought a gun right now...
I'd probably just shoot myself...
But that would be OK with Pelosi, Reed, Obama and her ilk, as I would probably not score well in their "death equation" anyway...
So ignorant, so little time
Chris, re-read the last paragraph of that post. Collectivist societies ALWAYS have 2 classes. The political class and everyone else. This is the intent of those who advocate collectivism, to establish an "us and them" and they want to be the "us", the "more equal", while everyone else is subject to their rule... their slaves. Libby wants to be more equal. She wants to live off the skills and abilities of other people, she want's to be in the slave master class.
So ignorant, so little time
I disagree with ConPat on this one...
I think Libby likes being free...
I just think she feels everyone else should pay for the costs for her freedom...
___________
Never teach a man to fish...
When he depends on you for fish...
You're guaranteed his vote...
Because he doesn't know any better...
So ignorant, so little time
Remember the saying "Ignorance is bliss"? It describes that walking through the world, ignorant of it's troubles, leaves you unaffected buy them and free to be blissfull. This is not true, being ignorant of troubles leads to nasty suprises when they land on your head out of "no where".
Take, for example, Libby's statements about MRI costs. Her ignorance leads her to ask why other countries have lower costs than we do in the US. So, in her ignorance, she backs legislation that will reduce the cost of MRI's. Then you have our friend MT who in KNOWLEDGE rightly explains that the "cost" of MRI's are the same no matter where you go, it is the "price" that is different. His knowledge leads him to not support legislation that shifts price from one person to another person(s). At least I hope ignorance is why Libby supports legislation that shifts part of the cost of individual services to other people not receiving those services. Because if she does it in knowledge it is a different story. If she does it in knowledge it means that she supports forcing people through criminalization of "self interest behavior" to be legally responsible for the "collective". Being "legally responsible for the collective" is an ethic that is diametrically opposed to the freedom, liberty, inividual rights and everything else in the US Constitution.
I wonder, if Libby and those like her so hate being free, why do they not leave the country? It isn't that she hates being free herself, she hates YOU being free and will do what ever she can to force you to no longer be an individual free citizen but a slave to the collective. And THAT is the NASTY SUPRISE that will land on our heads if we continue to blissfully walk in ignorance through this world while people like Libby threaten our freedom.
Initial News of GOP Plan
Well, the GOP plan should start saving us money, at least in printing costs. It's about 10% the size of the 2,000 page, $1.2T democrat plan:
"House GOP pens 230-page health bill draft"
"WASHINGTON (AP) - After months spent criticizing Democrats' health overhaul plans, House Republicans have produced a draft proposal of their own. It's much shorter and focuses on bringing down costs rather than extending coverage to nearly all Americans."
"Instead, the Republican plan increases incentives for people to use health savings accounts, caps non-economic jury awards in medical malpractice cases at $250,000, provides various incentives to states with the aim of driving down premium costs and allows health insurance to be sold across state lines."
"Democrats immediately dismissed the Republican plan as insubstantial...'Ours is vastly superior and we think the American public will think that,' Hoyer (D-MD) said.
Read the whole article for your self:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9BO6PQO1&show_article=1
GOP Reform Plan
Americans pay double for drugs because we, in effect, subsidize other countries!!!!!
Take Canada for example. Their program mandated that they would only pay a certain amount for their drugs - an amount that is LESS than the cost to manufacture and develop those drugs. In order to make up the difference, WE are charged more.
GOP Reform Plan
Libby:
Now that the GOP is coming out with their own plan, are you going to retract your previous posts wherein you label them the party doing nothing because they didn't have a plan of their own? Just want to see if you're willing to admit your inaccuracy...
But I see that you've already dedicated a post to attacking the GOP plan prior to its release. This is in stark contrast to your pleas that everyone "wait and see" what the final Democrat bill looked like before passing judgment. The hypocrisy is so thick, you could cut it with a scalpel...
I think everyone agrees with Libby that reform is needed, but the wholesale approach from the Dems is a bad idea. The Dem bill is about 2,000 pages long, will cost roughly $1.2T and no one understands what the full consequences of the change will be on Americans. Not even the Dems themselves... Health care reform is not something we can simply throw good intentions at...
I am not endorsing the GOP plan, because I haven't seen it yet. But I believe that any reforms made to our health care system need to follow a prudent philosophy of being enacted incrementally, not throwing the whole system out the window to get votes...
I think you'd find that most Americans would agree with that same approach...
Source for the dollar figures:
"AP sources: House health bill totals $1.2 trillion"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091102/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_care_overhaul
The GOP's health care plan
Once again, you get it all confused. The cost is not less in Germany, the price is. Of course price is a reflection of cost, plus other things. The difference between the two nations, is, as the article points out, that the price in Germany is determined by the government irrespective of the cost of providing the service. Such action (monkeying with prices that reflect cost) has consequences: you get less health care.
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