what do y'al think? health care Is it fixable? deficit? would it lead to massive tax increase? Compensation to physicians? Are we going in right direction? etc.....
My confidence has not wavered once since the campaign. I'm as optimistic about this administration as I was when I was at the ballot box. I knew off rip that it wasn't gonna be easy and I knew that Obama was gonna have to work 3 times as hard as any other president because of his obvious "year-round tan". Health care is fixable, it's just not as easy to occur as most would anticipate. That doesn't mean however that it will never happen and we're all doomed no matter what. The more I see how he handles himself the less I'm worried about him.:smt023
Great website to get the straight facts on health care reform and other important issues, no rhetoric or spin from either side allowed. Good stuff. www.politifact.com
I'd like to know your take on this GZ. Unfortunately I don't know enough about the American health care system to comment but what I do know makes me grateful for my Canadian system!
Athena, I do not know the details of Obama's care very well to comment on it. I have watched his speech and read some of his plan. I am in the process of trying to get the whole picture: cost, deficit, coverage for illegals?, who is paying for it, one payer system, compensation, etc.... I want to educate myself very well on this matter before I open my stupid mouth. I have witnessed heated discussions among health care providers, patients, and town hall attendees. This issue is going to change America one way or the other. It is going to be interesting to say the least. My suggestion for you is to read his speech and read unbiased websites regarding his plan.
Ok, as a Canadian I have limited knowledge of the inner workings of the American health care system. So I pulled this info off of medscape a while ago and posted it for discussion on another forum.... Here is a brief comparison of Canadian and American systems. I will include some ideas from Dr. Jock Murray who has recently submitted this compare/contrast to Medscape (+ or - are the goods or not so goods): Canada +national system +noncompetition +cost controls +macromanagement +residency training only in university programs -inadequate research support (that's for sure!) -global cuts with little planning -poor planning for physician/nurse numbers (massive shortage) -waiting, waiting and waiting some more for SOME NOT ALLservices USA +opportunities for the individual +innovation and creativity +research support +benefits for risk takers +expertise in specialty care -45 million uninsured & 45 million underinsured -no coherent system -expensive, complex admin -excessive controls on physicians -expensive specialty care (where is specialty care not expensive??) -excessive malpractice
My thoughts are that he will pass a lovely health care tea cozy. It will be pretty and have one or two provisions that make life ever so slightly better for some Americans, but no major change will have been made. Without the public option, it's all window dressing. This is a loss Obama gave up, which he could have fought for, that would have drastically improved the lives of all Americans by lowering health care costs for all. It is a loss that didn't come from the right, or from republicans, but from corrupt Democrats. It's shameful. The public option wasn't a single payer system, but it was a hell of an improvement. Instead, we will get a system with no public option, where we are required to buy health insurance "like car insurance" -- even tho you can opt out of driving, but not opt out of breathing -- and a slice of the middle class may end up in a situation where affordable health insurance is not available to them yet they are required to pay a fine for not having it. I am very, very disappointed. As soon as Obama got into office, he started shoving different issues to the side, because we were supposed to focus on health care. What we will get will make Obama look good, because he will be the first president to get anything like this passed. But it won't be what he promised, and it won't make much of a difference. In this economy, the average American needs a lot more help than this. But it doesn't appear that anyone really cares about that. And it appears maybe Barack was just another politician after all. I say this as someone who literally convinced a dozen different individual people to vote for Obama, who campaigned for him, who was yelling "Obama for President" back when he was still running for senate. But unless he's a magical jedi ninja from the future with unheard of knowledge of things to come, we're not going to get much out of this health care bill.
Respectfully disagree here CBQ, the public option is not the only way to lower health care costs. The public option could potentially be one way to accomplish that goal, and Obama has said he still believes it to be an important part of whatever bill is presented, however let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Lowering costs, covering the un-insured and fixing the current wildly expensive system are the goals we need to keep in sight. There is always more than one way to get the job done, that is what a skilled politician always keeps in mind. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...ell/some-private-health-insurance-can-surviv/
I've just heard about a study published in the Journal of Public Health that suggests 45 000 Americans die every year as a result of having no health insurance. This study included 9000 participants who were followed over several years and other factors were ruled out as contributers. The health care system must be fixed unless that seems like an acceptable number of preventable deaths per year to their fellow Americans. Obviously there is a lot of wealth invested in the status quo, but as one author puts it, health is not a commodity.
I think universal healthcare for all Americans is coming for sure, but not in this health care bill. I believe they're going to use a strategy that has worked in the past with Social Security and Medicare. Increment the policy over time due to charges of socialism and communism. I believe this was the mistake Clinton made back in 1993-- trying to push through everything at once. When FDR introduced Social Security it only covered a small segment of society. It did not cover agricultural workers or the disabled, and kicked in at 65, above the average life expectancy at the time. Harry Truman first asked for a national health insurance plan, but the same "socialism" scare tactics forced him to back off and focus on insuring Social Security beneficiaries only. This program--Medicare/Medicaid--was supported by JFK and signed unto law under Lyndon Johnson. Since then both programs were systematically expanded to include more and more people. I believe they'll do the same with whatever they pass this fall. They'll start with a framework and simply include more folks over time until everyone is covered.
It never ceases to amaze me how 2 words - socialism and communism seems to scare Americans. And indeed to destroy one - communism, we created a worse problem ie radical islam. Europe has Governments containing communist and socialist political parties, and indeed right wing. Dont understand the problem ..... but then Im not a multi national business person ! :? :?
I am really hoping he succeeds for selfish reasons. I would love to be able to retire early or switch jobs. I am one of those who is literally uninsurable. NPR did a nice segment on it, you can listen to part of it here... http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112892744
