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Thanks for the article on “negative thinking” written by George Purcell.
I think he hit the nail on the head describing the reason he and his wife
left the USA and now live in Costa Rica. So much time and effort is spent
by the media here to divide people on every issue (it’s ironic that we are
called the “United” States of America). It is now considered a sign of
patriotism to be negative towards anything that would benefit society
as a whole, by labeling these efforts as Socialism. This is nowhere more apparent
than the reaction at town hall meetings concerning the efforts to provide Universal
Health Care coverage. To be reasonable implies the ability to reason,
a skill that is being relentlessly destroyed in the USA, replaced by negativism.So I guess we should all just shut our mouths in the face of the biggest, jam it down your throat in the middle of the night, before you know what hit you government takeover of our time. FINAL COMMENTS DELETED BY SCOTT
When the government spends money on health care, the patient does not. The patient is then separated from the transaction in the sense that costs are no longer his concern. When the patient doesn’t care about costs, only those who want higher costs—doctors and drug companies—care. Thus, health-care reform should be based on policies that diminish the health-care wedge rather than increase it. Obama’s reform principles—a public health-insurance option, mandated minimum coverage, mandated coverage of pre-existing conditions, and required purchase of health insurance—only increase the size of the wedge and thus health-care costs. According to research performed for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a $1 trillion increase in federal government health subsidies will accelerate health-care inflation, lead to continued growth in health-care expenditures, and diminish our economic growth even further. Despite these costs, some 30 million people will remain uninsured. Implementing Obama’s reforms would literally be worse than doing nothing.
This has always been about politics and the “seeds” of change, not actual reform. It is an early start to the 2012 beauty contest called an election. Just tell people what they want to hear now. Tell them it’s about choice. But once the government is involved it’s power will continue to grow until it makes all the decisions and there are no choices. That’s how it is in Canada and that’s how it is in Britain. If Obama succeeds, that’s how it’ll be here in 10 years. The american public in general are a bunch of suckers.
Such a wealth of knowledge of how the medical system functions in other countries.
I assume you have lived in those countries, and that is how you have gained your intimate knowledge.
And the Texas Public Policy Foundation is surely non-biased facility?It is difficult to see how anyone so opposed to a single payer or private system supplemented by a goverment option is able to survive in a country like Costa Rica with their socialized medical system.
Don’t overstate the facts regarding health care in Costa Rica, sloth. While it is true that there is a public health care system, the CAJA, that does a pretty reasonable job, it is by no means true that Costa Rica has a single health care system for all its citizens. Many physicians and some hospitals operate outside the CAJA, many folks here pay cash for their medical needs, and INS has sold medical insurance to those who can afford it for many years.
David,
The CAJA is open and available to all citizens and legal residents of Costa Rica.
That there is a privat market available for those who do not chose to use the CAJA,
just makes the system similar to that practiced in most West European countries.I am glad that someone has recognized that it is not only the insurance companies that are the bad guys.
I do understand your point that the U.S. needs health care reform, from the top to the bottom. The only problem is how to do it! Lets take a look at the model that is currently being sent to the U.S. citizens. Competition with the U.S. goverment and a large number of uninsured or underinsured. At the moment we already have this in place and by my view point it is failing. I am not talking about Medicare or Medicad, I am talking about one of the largest private insurance companies that services our men and women in the armed forces, Tri-Care. I have firsthand knowledge about them because they are my health insurer. Tri-Care does cut the amount of money paid out on claims, they do work with the doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. It is incredible how much they pay because they do not except paying high costs and they negotiate them low. The problem is that in Minnesota (where I am from) clinics and health care providers are dropping Tri-care because they will not play the game of paying them over inflated costs.
Example: when my daughter was born, we were on the full active duty Tri-care where we didn’t pay any deductible or premiums. Prior to going on active duty I was on a Tri-Care that was 80/20 with premiums. Our doctor dropped us prior to my daughter’s birth because we were not going to pay the 20 percent, when we went to full coverage the doctor was not going to make enough money and stopped providing service!
Is this how the new system is going to work? Will hospitals continue to spend millions of dollars in decorating? Will doctors get paid more than 100,000 a year? Will nurses get paid more than 80,000 a year? Will the hospital maids make more than 15 dollars a hour? Will aspirin in the hospital cost more than you can by at the corner store? I believe yes it will continue, service will be dropped, the government will pay for insurance that is not used and the system will break down!
I know that here in Paraguay and in Costa Rica they don’t have the same costs that are attached to their systems. That is why doctors in these countries are not considered as gods, the people are not addictive to healthcare and if you ever go to any of the public hospitals they will not have millions of dollars of decorating. Here in the rest of the world you pay for what you get!The big question is… a year ago we were all talking about the problems with Social Security and Medicare… and how we were going to fix those problems. Ticking timebombs that they are! Have we forgotten them with all the spin about this “new” health care plan? Have the problems with these two OTHER MAJOR GOVERNMENT programs been solved that we’re now looking to create another government program with all the money we’ve freed up?
And how about the financial mess we have with the banking and insurance industries? Or the major industries (automotive and others) that the US government now have on life support using taxpayer money?
Or perhaps we should be talking about the 2 Trillion dollars Uncle Sam created to bail out the players that created this mess… that at some point will need to be paid back?
And let’s not forget the two wars and the flu that we have going on right now!
Health care for everyone is a wonderful idea… but perhaps before we take on another problem… and another bill… we should fix some of the other problems we have going on in the US right now?
You make excellent points, imx, but my guess is that they come from someone who has pretty well taken care of his or her own health care financing needs. In any given week, enough Americans who have (well, had) health insurance in some form lose that coverage to fill Michigan Stadium — a million Americans every ten weeks, more or less.
It’s a tempting argument to say that we should go slowly. I agree that the other matters you enumerate (and more) must be addressed. But the problem is that some things simply won’t wait. If you’re the guy with no means to pay for health care and a newly diagnosed malignancy, you don’t need care if and when Congress and the President get around to it, after all those other problems are addressed. You need that care now — today. And in ten weeks a million more of your fellow Americans will be in your boat.
There’s an old saying, “You can’t live for tomorrow if you don’t live today.” I think it’s appropos of this situation.
Well said David… and you’re right on target… I have taken care of my health insurance needs… as well as my retirement needs so Social Security really isn’t even part of my financial plan… but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about those that ARE relying on it. My point is… Government has a number of other “plans” out there that were created with the best of intentions… and are now a mess in need of repair. Let’s see about addressing those problems before we have a “new” plan thrust on us without the thinking this out. I don’t see anything wrong with going slowly with something this important.
Well, imx, I take your point, but I have little confidence that Congress actually WILL address those problems and in the meantime people are dying and (worse) suffering needlessly. You may remember the Bush-Gore debates of the 2000 election cycle in which they both pledged to put the Social Security funds in a “lockbox” (their shared term) and never touch the money except for Social Security purposes. And where did that go?
You may remember Ronald Reagan and the Republican congresses’ (reflect upon 1994’s Contract with (on) America”) zeal for a balanced budget amendment. Which president was it who vetoed that legislation?
And what of all the talk about constitutional amendments against flag burning and abortion? How many state legislatures have ratified those so far?
I could go on and on . . .
In the meantime, there really does appear to be enough support in Congress and the Administration to do something about health care which is, arguably, an equally important matter. Certainly the availability of health care is a more pressing concern to most folks than Social Security funding twenty years hence. Hell! If I can’t get my medical needs met today, what do I care about Social Security in 2030?
Social Security could be in the red as early as next year.
We americans have to stop drinking our water! The healthcare meetings and debates are looking more like the circus has come to town. The U.S. currently already has nationalized health care in the form of medicare, medicade and the Veterans Administration health care system. As a disabled veteran, and a patient within the Veterans Administration health care system, the system leaves much to be desired. For example, long primary care appointment waits, incompetent non-US doctors at VA hospitals, out-dated medical equipment, indifferent VA hospital support staff, etc. The U.S. is the only industralized nation without universal health care for its citizens, due in large part to greed and corruption. The U.S. has exhibited distain, disregard and disrespect towards its disabled veterans, from Vietnam to the present. Can anyone with more than two brain cells, actually believe the U.S. government really cares about health care for the general U.S. public. Myself and hundreds of thousands of U.S. disabled veterans are currently waiting two to four years, or more; for the VA (government) to process our claims. Many veterans die before the VA (government) even processes their claims. Health care in American, is and always will be about profit!
Don’t kid yourself, One of my best friends is dieing in front of my eyes as we speak, and he doesn’t have a pot to p*** in. He is getting state of the art treatment for free. Not to mention two surgeries on brain tumors. TWO. I bet you a frosty that wont be the case with Obama Care. We don’t need this drastic, undefined, ram it in your pie hole in the middle of the night, before anyone knows what happened piece of socialistic legislation. We need tort reform and a little regulation on the pharmaceutical and insurance companies. Then we tweak that a some after a little while. Until it works better. The system may be flawed, but it isn’t completely broke.
grb1063… The Social Security and Medicare mess seem to have slipped everyone’s mind recently with the rushed push to create another government health care program destined for disaster!!! But they are two ticking time bombs that have the potential to pull the US under! Since the US government has been using the SS trust fund as a piggy bank to fund it’s operation… stuffing the fund with IOUs there really isn’t a “fund” at all… just IOUs… much like a ponzi scheme… and when the contributions are over taken by distributions the poop hits the fan…. much like Bernie Madoff found out! It’s a double whammy… Uncle Sam looses a source of free money…. and at the same time has to come up with the cash to pay off those IOUs… not a pretty picture!
And what are we taking about at the moment in Washington????…. CREATING ANOTHER PROGRAM WE CAN’T FUND, THAT WE DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW IT WILL SERVE THE PUBLIC OR WORK! It’s like trying to start shooting a major Hollywood motion picture with a $500 billion budget… and all we have is a 10 page outline with no script!!! We all have the best of intentions… some nice ideas… but can we really believe it’s going to work out???
Besides these issues and the others I’ve pointed out… income tax revenues (Personal and Business) are WAY down…. as are SS and Medicare tax collections! If we couldn’t pull this off in the best of economic times what make ANYONE think NOW is the time to pull this off without it dragging this whole country down?
I truly have to believe the folks in Washington are completely out of their minds… and the further they push this agenda and ignore these problems… the smarter they make George W look… who would have ever guessed that when they voted for “change”…. that this would be where we ended up!
Edited on Aug 17, 2009 20:23
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