Here's To Your Health

[jblaque.livejournal.com]

Comments

[dwer.livejournal.com]

that last one in a nutshell.

[muffledlaugh.livejournal.com]

ouch, that last one....

[tantra-cat.livejournal.com]

#2...Yet I bet a high number of people who oppose the public option describe themselves as "Christian"...

[blueduck37.livejournal.com]

Universal health-care = affordable and good economics (http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_treatment/archive/2009/07/01/exclusive-the-real-help-bill-and-it-s-much-better.aspx).

[jblaque.livejournal.com]

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/yes-we-can/

[theomni.livejournal.com]

On the first one, as much as I dislike universal healthcare, I certainly think it would have been a better place to dump than money than into the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

[jlc20thmaine.livejournal.com]

Yes, because medicare, medicaid and the VA medical system are such shining examples of government run health care.

[jblaque.livejournal.com]

I can only speak from personal family experience. To wit:

- My father has VA coverage and it takes very good care of him (including complete coverage for his open heart surgery). He has a great GP (and specialists whenever he needs them), including comprehensive preventative care, prescription coverage, etc.

- My grandmothers (ages 92 and 102) are both covered by Medicare, and have also been treated very, very well. I take both of them to their physician's appointments, and have never witnessed anything but top-notch care. Nor have either one of them ever complained about the coverage.

Which government-run health care program are you and/or your family having problems with, hm? More importantly, what do you have against the government offering "the rest of us" (40+ million) Americans an affordable, single-payer option? You're not afraid that private insurance companies will be driven out of business... are you?

Don't ask me why, but I picture you as both the guy feeding his dogs and the guy holding the paper. What does Hannity call them? Oh yes... "Great Americans."

Get back to me when you ultimately lose your coverage and/or your provider screws you on a claim, OK?

[jlc20thmaine.livejournal.com]

Medicare screwed me and my wife out of $65,000 in coverage. Care to send me a check for that amount?

[blueduck37.livejournal.com]

Several points:

1. On a related note, we always hear from conservatives that those citizens in places like Canada or UK who have full-on gov't health-care hate it (and we'll get some anecdote to 'prove' this)... so how come NONE of these countries have ever called for repealing this system, even with conservative leaders (ie. Thatcher) in charge?

The answer? Because for its occasional flaws-- no system is perfect-- it works well and is comparatively cheap and efficient.

None of these places would ever trade their system for ours. Go ask them, they'll tell you.

2. The above is true for people in the medicare, medicaid, and VA systems here. Go do a survey of people on medicare and ask them if they'd rather leave that system and have to deal with private insurance. I don't think you'd care for the results.

3. And in the end, we're not even talking about a full-on, single-payer system.... all that has been proposed by Democrats is a public option plan. You think your private insurance provider is neat-o? Good for you, keep it? Me (and 3/4s of Americans)? We want a choice in this matter. That's all. If a public plan sucks and is inferior to private insurance, it will die in that marketplace of competition conservatives are always boasting about. But methinks many conservatives realize the outcome might go the other way...

[jblaque.livejournal.com]

But, but... the standard of care here in the U.S. is the best in the wor...

Oh, wait...

"The U.S. ranks 37th - just below Costa Rica - in world health care ratings... (Source: WHO)"

http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html

OK, but still, government-run health care is fraught with waste and inefficien...

Oh wait...

"Medicare operates with 3% overhead, non-profit insurance 16% overhead, and private (for-profit) insurance 26% overhead. (Source: Journal of American Medicine)"

http://www.healthpaconline.net/health-care-statistics-in-the-united-states.htm

[jlc20thmaine.livejournal.com]

Wrong on all counts. Wasn't it just a few short months ago that liberals were screaming about the lack of medical coverage for veterans and the deplorable conditinos of the VA hospitals? Why now are they holding these same institutions as examples of how wonderful government run coverage can be?

Why liberals constantly ignore the numerous examples of the problems of government run, single payer systems? Why do the Brits and Canadians now have private insurance and clinics that provide better care than the "free" public clinics? It's not the occasional flaws, but rather the massive problems that you refuse to acknowledge.

Why don't you go survey doctors to see if they would rather deal with private insurance companies or government insurance that doesn't cover costs, and takes months to pay claims, and doesn't cover much of what private insurance will cover.

[mylaptopisevil.livejournal.com]

Because our current free market medical system is a shining example of non government run health care?

[ellie-kay.livejournal.com]

according to the constitution, war is one of the only things the federal government SHOULD be paying for. i also don't see where, in the constitution, we have the right to free health care or where the government has the right to have power over our health care.

[mylaptopisevil.livejournal.com]

i also don't see where, in the constitution, we have the right to free health care

You need to read up on that crazy preamble:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

[muffledlaugh.livejournal.com]

indeed. and it would seem the support for the 'right to life' is only covered up until birth, but after that we're on our own.

[jlc20thmaine.livejournal.com]

With respect to the two words “general welfare,” I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators. If the words obtained so readily a place in the “Articles of Confederation,” and received so little notice in their admission into the present Constitution, and retained for so long a time a silent place in both, the fairest explanation is, that the words, in the alternative of meaning nothing or meaning everything, had the former meaning taken for granted. — James Madison

[ellie-kay.livejournal.com]

giving out free healthcare is not the same as promoting the general welfare.

[jblaque.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the old "OMG our Constitution is sacred!" claptrap...

Fortunately for us, Article 5 of the Constitution, makes clear provisions for Amendment by various means. Here is just a sampling of what was not in the Constitution when Article 5 was written:

- The 13th Amendment, which prohibits slavery, was ratified in 1865.

- The 14th Amendment, which guarantees the rights of citizens and other persons, was ratified in 1866.

- The 15th Amendment, which ensures the right of black men to vote, was proposed on February 26, 1869.

- The 17th Amendment, which required Senators be elected by the people, was ratified in 1913.

- The 19th Amendment, which ensures women the right to vote, was ratified in 1920.

- The 22nd Amendment, which sets the presidential two-term limit, was ratified in 1951.

- The 23rd Amendment, which grants Washington D.C. electoral votes, was ratified in 1961.

- The 24th Amendment, which ensures the vote cannot be taken away for failing to pay a poll tax, was ratified in 1964.

- The 26th Amendment, which ensures the vote to all citizens over the age of 18, was ratified 1971.

I'll assume that you stand in direct opposition to all of these Amendments, in that they were not included in the original document.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

I don't know, are firefighters and FEMA in the Constitution?

[blueduck37.livejournal.com]

Well then let's end all federal programs and spending other than war(s).

Now there's a helluva platform the New GOP!

[drivebyluna.livejournal.com]

The art in the first one kinda reminds me of the Oblongs.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Those sure are cute dogs of war!

[themeshuggener.livejournal.com]

Does the guy in the suit work for Goldman Sachs?