Higher Medicare copays result in more elderly hospitalized, study says
Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comSeniors wait on care, grow sicker as copays rise
Seeded on Wed Jan 27, 2010 5:35 PM EST (msnbc.com)
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Another example of how harmful that knee-jerk "solutions" really can be. Of course, if limbaugh can tell us how there is "nothing wrong" with our health care system after the millionaire staged his fake heart trouble, who are we real people to say?
Just think where the elderly would be if they had private insurance like the conservatives want??? The PRIVATE HEALTH CARE MOB would bleed these poor folks dry and then kick them to the curb once they do get sick!!! Remember when Bush tried to privatize Social Security BEFORE the market crashed??? If that would have passed where would these folks be??
God Help us and save us from the "compassionate" conservative, big business, christians in name only people who would rather let people die than to have a government program that would give everyone health care!! If we ALL were paying in, then these older folks probably wouldn't have to pay more.
The Republicans have convinced many people to vote against their own needs.
read the article, These are Managed Care Plans.. Do you know exactly what these are? I.E a private insurance company the manages the Medicare plan for its enrollees and of course PROFITS off of it!!!!!
FAct is, the insurance companies can do what ever the hell they want and the Republicans are so selfish they will do anything to trip up reform. That is un-American and traiterous and their spite is unforgivable. I hope they keep it up because they are damning themselves without anybody else having to lift a finger.
American medicine is just so ridiculously expensive and extreme that Most Americans cannot afford it..and the horrific part of that is; that the Government will Profit Out of That by fines and fee's for not being able to afford a plan..this is the whole ball of wax; a sinister way of GREED...........
jeeesus, we pay more than other industrialized nations yet have a shorter life expectancy. What is the difference? Those other countries have socialized medicine.
It was the senate democrats that made back door deals with the insurance industry. Note how their stock went up as the bill progressed. Republicans had nothing to do with it.
Can't feel to sorry for these seniors. They were the ones at all those listening sessions and standing out on the streets screaming into that cameras and at the congressmen who were trying to get these health insurance company monopolies under control. Valhalia Phil - stay away from enemas. If you take one, your skin will just slump down into your shoes, you're so misinformed and full of it. The health insurance monopoly has been alive and well for decades.
When I asked my insurance company about this they told me they were getting things in place to comply with the new health care plan from the government and it isn't even passed yet. Go figure. Do you think these new costs will go away no they won't so we can put this on the door step of this admin and say thank you very much for rise in our costs before you stupid bill is even law. I said we were going to get screwed and nobody said anything well people here it comes law or not. As always just my opinion.
You asked your insurance co about it? You didn't even read the article!!! The study was done from '01 to '06 so HCR had nothing to do w/ the increases!!! Medicare Parts C & D were, and still are, a boon for the insurance co's!!! The insurance co's get govt subsidies & increase rates every year. More drugs are placed in higher co-pays or dropped each year. The donut hole gets larger each year!!!
Seniors with fixed incomes should not have to make co-pays at all. If the govt. hadn't been stealing the money supposedly set aside for this program, they wouldn't have to think of mean and malicious ways to keep gouging the elderly.
If it's bad now for seniors just think what it would be if Obama, Reid and Pelosi gut Medicare by $500 Billion Dollars.
Selfish, greedy baby-boomers need to get off medical welfare.
Just think if someone does something to control these bastard insurance companies for once.
stspecialkstspecialk....."Selfish, greedy baby-boomers need to get off medical welfare."
So they should not get the benefits they PAID for. Then you should get free healthcare. Well I guess we can all see, who the selfish ,greedy bastard is.
chief, I will pay for myself thank you. As for paying for the benefit, I pay for my children to get public education, but I don't have kids. Are you going to give me a refund for the social service program that I paid for?
stspecialk..... No, however you have nothing against socialism where as I do. Therefore you should be happy that the government tells you where to put your money. And how to spend it.
Yes, cheif I do believe in Socialism. And so do you as soon as your house catches fire or someone steals your car, or we have to go to war,. . . . .
Sounds like you want to live in a cabin in the woods by yourself.
stspecialk......live in a cabin in the woods by yourself.
What are you trying to bribe me? Typical liberal
I would be more than happy to pay for my own retirement, medical, fire service, etc. Just give me back the money the government stole from me, with interest, and I'll gladly go away.
what?
yeah, they should just go and die already, right?.
if these selfish, greedy baby boomers had not aborted the next generation, they would not have to worry about medicare. But they just killed the babies that would now be working and paying taxes for medicare.So go ahead and die, you didn't mind killing your babies
This set of blogs illustrates perfectly what President Obama addressed in his speech tonight. To the idiot who says that baby boomers should get off of Medicare: they have paid for this program since its inception. Just like they've deposited 15+% of their pay into Social Security for 40+ years. Medicare was torpedoed in the 1980's by Republicans who granted sweetheart no-bid deals to vendors and providers that have bankrupted the system while the vendors/providers grew filthy rich. Oh, and paying taxes to educate the children you don't have: those kids are your future pal, so you have a vested interest in their success. That's why you're a piker if you complain about spending tax dollars on education.
stspecialk how am I greedy. I paid into these plans for over 30 years so that I could have a little to live on when I could no longer work and now you are calling me a boomer greedy? You should be calling the people who actually spent the money greedy don't you think. I am of age to collect yet but when I am I am not going to get the money I paid in now am I. As always just my opinion.
Selfish, greedy baby boomers who aren't on fixed incomes and who enjoy regular annuity checks and other types of income can and should pay co-pays. Elderly on fixed incomes (who likewise paid into the system but just didn't make enough money to put themselves on easy street when they retired) should not have to make co-pays.
Restaurant staff "wait on" tables. Seniors "wait for" health care. Oink!
If Seniors relied on Republican loved health insurance companies, they would be paying abour $35,000 per year each in premiums. I know this, because my company dropped a 75 year old from insuranace because of a high 35K per year premium. He was a Republican and didn't believe in Medicare. Go figure, LOL.
Just another way for seniors to gut their children and grand-children. Medicare is medical welfare.
Yeap you're right stspecialk, except that seniors have paid into it for most of their working careers, .... so now what is your point?
We all pay into welfare programs, from food stamps to fire-trucks. That doesn't mean that you have to use it. I have no children but must pay for the public education of all children. I am not going to apply for food stamps if I can buy my own food, and a senior shouldn't get medicare if they can pay for it.
I agree with you stspecialk and I'd extend it to politicians that can pay their heathcare should...and let's face it, that would be every one of them.
But the problem is that most of the seniors in this Country are completely dependant on government programs.
People in the South and Mid West even get a supplement check because they didn't pay in enough to Social Security to live above the poverty level. Ironoically they are the same people screaming about "their tax dollars" and "no socialism".
Thanks for the comment LU. Only 1 thought. Politicians, while in office, do not pay into SSI, instead their money goes into a pension fund like all other government employees. If, for example, someone works in government and or as a politician their whole life, they would not qualify for one penny in SSI.
That's only if they have a government pension.
A person can pay in nothing or very little and will still receive the minimum Social Security check.
A good example is the man that shot up the Vegas Federal Building a couple weeks ago. He spent most of his life behind bars but at 62 he was the first one at the door wanting his "entitlement".
It turned out that he shot up the building because when he moved from Cali to Vegas his check was reduced because of the difference in the cost of living.
and you really want them to die and get out of the way, don't you?
As bad as it may seem, Medicare is PARADISE when compared with private insurance. I am 57 and about to lose my job. if it were not for Obama and the temporary Cobra subsidy, my insurance for my wife and I would be over $19,000 per year. Yes you read that right. and that's with a policy that only pays 70% after deductibles. I wish I was old enough to have Medicare.
Being over 50, but under 65 in the USA is pretty much of a death sentence if you don't have the luxury of being able to afford HIGH insurance premiums. Unfortunately, so many of the people that have health insurance through their jobs have no idea how much their company's pay. And these people will very much likely lose their health coverage if they keep relying on the Republicans.
Question to loyal Repubs: How come when Bush was in office, none of you ever tried to reform healthcare?
Answer: Republicans are owned by insurance companies and many Americans are just too naive to know any better.
You mentioned a $19,000 policy. The 'cadillac plans' that Congress wants to tax would cost a minimum of $26,000 per year. Only the rich have such policies.
Not sure what your point is. My point is that private insurance is too expensive. In this country, if you dare to take a drug (like Lipitor), there isn't an insurance company that will touch you, unless it's through your job.
So if you are ever out of work, enjoy the death sentence
Tim, I am agreeing with you. I was just making a point about how some people don't want the 'cadillac plans' taxed even though they truely are 'cadillac'.
I can afford it, why should I be obligated and coerced into a system that I do not need?
Then don't buy your own, and don't take if you don't need, and we will all be happy. Just don't come begging for help when you get sick. Remember that Republican mantra of personel responsibility? Sounds like you need to practice it.
"The 'cadillac plans' that Congress wants to tax would cost a minimum of $26,000 per year. Only the rich have such policies"
That is for a family of 4, not an individual. Only the unions have such policies.
I think it's time for our society to make some judgement calls to set a path going forward. Many amazing new treatments and drugs for seniors are available now that simply weren't around 20 years ago. The are very expensive and in some cases treat issues that aren't really health problems, but are normal, natural age-related problems.
At what point do we stop spending a huge amount of money to treat old age? Do we treat it all? If a new drug comes out that magically extends the average life span of those over 80 by 5 years, are we morally obligated as a society to provide it, at any cost, to those who can benefit?
I've worked in old folks homes.
I have no desire to live forever.
So if old age related issues aren't covered, would you cover obesity related problems. Obesity is a recent issue.
The obesity epidemic should be paid for with a user/sugar tax.
Was it ever a thought?
Obesity, as far as I'm concerned, is being electively sick. There are exceptions, and those aren't the problem. It's the millions, who are told by their doctors, year after year, to lose the weight, and don't - for whatever reason.
If you are recently obese, then fine, some of my money can go to helping you lose weight. But if you have been overweight for years or even decades, then I feel you waive your right to other folks' health care dollars when you have a problem related to your weight.
It's basic personal reposnsibility. If we promise to always take care of everyone, all the time, regardless of choices, we are in big trouble.
AND, the same goes for smokers, who've been told to stop for years on end, and haven't. Don't ask for my help when you get sick without first doing all you can to help yourself!
Obesity tax,smokers tax,drinkers tax yes and tax stupidy,that won't work Dimocrats don't pay TAXES!!!!
So know if we have obesity to old as conditions that don't deserve medicare coverage, what about those people who electively injure themselves doing something athletic or risky. Runners, skiers, football, soccer, motorcycles, bicycles, etc...aren't these elective, too?
Collecting revenue is how government keeps from going into debt.
We're only asking people to pay for their problems and poor choices themselves.
Remember when cable TV was part of your city government and only cost $5.95 and you got all the channels. Well that's kind of like insurance will be if we don't get the public option.
No.
When was that 1968?
Medicare is being used by the Baby-boomers as another way to take from their children and grand-children. Don't get me wrong, if you have worked your whole life and can't afford insurance as a senior we should be there. If, however, you can afford to pay for your own insurance then you are using the system.
Medicare is a form of welfare.
Unfortunately people don't view Medicare and Social Security as welfare insurance, they view it as their personal endowment
And there is an adverse but direct correlation between the less people pay into the system and the more they scream that they "deserve it"
LU, I have found the opposite. I see the rich being the one's screaming, "I paid into it so I should get it."
uv, are you saying that there should have been twice as many babies born in the last 40 years??? The problem with SS is that people who don't need it are taking advantage of a welfare program.
Medicaid is a form of welfare!!!!
It's a form of social insurance.
And just like insurance you have to pay because there are too many cases of people not being able to take care of themselves in their old age.
This is a scare-tactic, slanted article. Seniors damned well know that nationalized healthcare will result in rationing due to an influx of "patients" into the system.
I reject the neo-Marxists, and "I hope he fails."
You are the minority. To want your president to fail means you want your country to fail. Way to be un-American.
Medicare is nationalized healthcare.
The only Senior I've ever met that refused a government check was my Father and he's been dead for 15 years.
LU, good for him. Where did honesty and dignity go?
I know many millionaires who still collect medicare and SS, how embarrassing that must/should be for them.
maybe if he took some help he would still be here
stspecialk....."To want your president to fail means you want your country to fail."
Is someone in love? Hate to tell you this but if our president died tomorrow, he would be replaced that day by the vice pres. and guess what ,our country would go on. So really he isn't all that.
cheif, unless you are not a citizen, he is your president too.
No, I always back my country and my President.
No one wants the president to fail. IT is his policies we want to fail.How ever his faithful followers can't see that .
Edd, handgunner wrote, "I hope he fails"
I hope socialism and liberalism fails, so that would include Obama.
I back my president to, as far back from him as i can get.
another MSNBC propaganda article. Yes we need reform but not the type of reform that these pinheads are trying so hard to shove down our throats.
Says you, another proud member of the 'I got mine, screw you" crowd.
Rappers, now there is a fine example of liberalism. Maybe that is where they get their news.
It keeps the folks down on the liberal project plantations they built for them.
What would be the cost to seniors if they take over a half trillion from Medicare? Congress (at least the party in power in Congress) is talking about cutting that amount from Medicare. Of course, the Republicans are no better, they suggest nothing better than we have with a few on the side reforms. Now is the time for everyone to come together and start working in the middle and not from each side of the spectrum for their own special interests.
Agreed. However, if only the people who need it used the program, there would be no financial issue. It is the rich using the welfare system yet again for their own gain.
There is also a lot of fraud and over medication in Social Security which could be cleaned up with a simple computer program.
Like that is ever going to happen. The hate mongers aren't about to promote healthcare when they have corporate America and the insurance industry backing their greed.
Yep, the finest healthcare in the world....if you can pay for it. Neo-con healthcare, it's what FOX, Limbaugh, Hannity and the rest of those fat rear ends want you to have!
Instead of 'too big to fail' we should change it to 'too rich to die'
Hell is waiting for them and there is nothing they can do about that.
Of course it the Republicans fault, and the solution is to raise taxes, any good liberal will tell you.
Rudy - A democratic poll, out today, shows Fox to be the most trusted NEWS SOURCE, read it and weep. This little site was in the 20 and CNN in the 30% and FOX was 64%. So, you being a smart liberal, are in a very small minority.
Your ignorance is about as shinny as your leader butt.
sts,You made an earlier statement that is not true, you said: "Politicians, while in office, do not pay into SSI, instead their money goes into a pension fund like all other government employees" I do not know about federal employees but as a state employee it is mandatory that I pay into SSI and well as being mandatory that I pay into the state pension fund. Maybe you were referring only to federal employees?.. Between the two mandatory funds I paid into last year it was well over $6K .. will I be able to get back what I have paid in? who knows, just depends on how long I live. Not complaining because I am paying into two systems just want to set you straight..
Bob, that sounds like a Faux news poll.
bigdog, not sure where you live. All government pensioned employees are exempt from SSI. If for some reason you are paying into both, then you have your pension and should never need SS. You are paying in to help others, just like I pay for public education even though I have no children.
stspecialk - You just proved my point, you don't have a clue about the mood of the nation or what middle working America is thinking. The poll was PPP - left wing poll, you can look it up for yourself if you are smart enough? I would put up a link but you don't want the truth, you want a feel good liberal state of mind and be fed Bull&hit and grown like a mushroom.
Obama is the best chairman the GOP has ever had.
Bob, if you weren't so insulting someone might take you seriously.
Post the link, if you have it....
I did in fact look it up. There are many issues you left out. Like how 37% of the population does not trust fox. In addition, 74% of republicans trust fox (1 network) while the rest get their news from more than one source. 62% of Democrats view NBC as the most trustworthy.
From the article, "Now people trust Fox the most precisely because of its lack of neutrality."
Bob your percentages add up to over 100....
64 + 20 + 30 > 100
Millions more don't watch FOX at all, so now what? And most young people could care less about the FOX noise. SO who in heck cares what some dumb polls says about the dumbest people on earth?
Is this what we can expect from government and big business? Apparently so which means all this crapola about health care is just that.......crapola.
The health care reform debate was just a "wild hair" to give the public a little hope for a reform that is badly needed by anyone who does not have a silver spoon in their mouth.
This is good reason to send Republicans and others of their ilk packing.
Sinclair - Maybe you don't read or watch the real news but as of this week, the Mayo Clinic in AZ, will no longer accept Medicare. I am sure, many more to come. A perfect example of what government programs can do.
No, bob. That is a perfect example of yet another business putting profits and greed ahead of true needs.
stspecialk...."perfect example of yet another business putting profits and greed ahead of true"
They run a business and want to make a prophet ? It is why we all work ,to make a profit. wow what a concept!
Thank you stspecialk.
I have read the news and watched what has happened to medical care and I wonder what people who have access to medical care would do if they had none.
Health care reform has been stifled too many times for the sake of greed and big business and an insincere Congress.
stspecialk= by the way, why don't you use your real name, ashame of you posts?
Explain this to me, before Scott Brown was elected my insurance stock was soaring because of Obamacare. The day after they election, the crashed, why? Your not smart enough to figure it out, that why you are a poor lemming liberal wanting to be a victum.
bob, again with the name calling????
I can explain it, you picked a bad stock. Anyone investing in health care right now is a fool.
As for my name, it is a screen name, duhhhhh. Ask your grandkids they will explain it slowly for you.
Come on folks, what do we expect...free healthcare. It starts early in life, you must be prepared for your own expenses and not expect hanouts from society. Handouts from society equals Socialism, nobody in the United States want Socialism. No person or corporation (since they are now equal to individuals and have all of the same rights) wants or should accept money from the US Government. We do not work or want to work for the betterment of our society, we are rugged individual in the great country. You rise and fall based on your own efforts and should not expect help from the US Government because that is Socialism. If you can't afford to pay your own co-pay it's because you did not plan properly in your life. If you can't afford the medicine or treatment that you need to extend your life, it is your own fault not anyone elses. After all if a corporation is about to fail it can't expect any help from the US Government, why should you.
WTF, there are many of us who want Socialism for the USA.
Have you ever heard about all boats rising with the tide? As a country our GDP can only benefit from healthy citizens. Your selfishness will be your undoing.
Another great example of "I got mine, screw you"
stspecialk....."many of us who want Socialism for the USA."
Hey how about the fast way ? Pack your sh*t and move to a socialist country.
stspecialk = 19% per cent identify themselves as liberals - 43% identify themselves as conservatives.
You need to look into imigration policies for Cuba, that is a great example of socialism.
bob, you have no idea what you are saying. Cuba is Communist, not Socialist. If you don't even know the difference between the 2, I can't help you.
stspecialk the word is sarcasm. After the last Supreme Court decision concerning the rights of corporations I think I am giving up any hope for this country. The people in this stream of thought also leave me with little hope. Go to any forum and see what people are saying. It is beyond hope. The future of this country is bleak.
Most people don't want free medical, they just want fair prices and not the gouging that is going on(has been for years).
I live most of the year in Costa Rica(my wife is Costa Rican and my son was born there). My son's birth cost $2100($900 to the hospital and $1200 to the doctor). That was for a private hospital with a huge private room(almost a suite with a 32" LCD screen tv and extra bed for me). It also included a private doctor who was trained in the US. We stayed 36 hours, and got a free baby photo shoot thrown in the hospital package.
I would have paid between $10-$15K here in the US for the same thing. Talk about overpriced.
1 Remember, you too are getting older. 2 Most of us on medicare worked our butts off to give YOUR generation a nice upbringing. 3 Each generation supports, at least in part, the former. Oink? I was born during the war, spent fifty years in manufacturing, retired, re-invested my savings, which were considerable, and lost it all when the bottom dropped out. Oink? Seniors aren't willingly "gutting" anyone. A retiree of my aquaintance had her home sold out from under her by her son, she foolishly trusted him with power of atty, now she's penniless. That's "gutted" YOUR generation is the one that's piggish. You've had everything handed to you. Maybe it's time most of you actually had to work for something.
I have had nothing handed to me. If you lost your money in the stock market, tough-titties. You made a bad choice.
What good is a 'nice upbrining' if we can't breath the air, or eat the fish, or get a loan from a bank, or collect SSI if we need it. You are leaving us with crap that we have to fix. Thanks so much (sarcastic)!!!
Yes poor liberal, you bought it hook, line and sinker. Have you see the news and polls on Global Warming, oh if forgot, now called climate change since there has been no warming?
Bob Marshall, quit trolling for Faux News.
Kitty,
You can talk your head off and "they" don't know how to listen. I'm collecting Medicare benefits and pay for additional coverage. Todays "people" don't even know how to think for themselves or take care of themselves. Americans have done this to themselves and should not blame any person or party. But they will because they don't know any better.
Jean = Why, it is the most watch cable network in the entire WORLD. It has just won the most trusted by the PPP. You need to look that up and see they are a liberal news watch group.
Some of us want news, not Matthews and Rachel Madcow's. You hand in there, liberals are loser and you are a perfect example.
Bob, please see my post 11.9 re. the ppp poll. The reason Faux news has such high ratings is b/c you sit there with it on all day. Did you know that according to Fox news themselves they only have 5 hours of news on a day, the rest is considered entertainment.
Bob Marshall,
Dio, uccidere per favore il male in questo paese, per la gloria!
stspecialk = The liberal medial is all entertainment and no News. Mostly kiss butt Obama stuff. You made that number up, if not, quote your source. Maybe you can't tell the difference between opinion programs and news? Like Matthews, Rachel Madcow and Obermann are not news.
Jean; Baso me culo en el centro.
bob, you can look up my facts, just like you made me look up yours.
The mainstream media never claimed to be full time news, or unbiased. You seem to think that your precious Faux News is both.
According to Media Matters they are and they are NO.1 in every category.
Why don't Obama give them an interview, why is he afraid of them.
If you can show me one mis-statement or bogus number I have posted, go for it.
Bob, 11.3 (your numbers don't add up)
Bob Marshall,
This tranlates to: Base myself I ass in the Center.
Bob, what pearls of wisdom are you trying to impart?
You are so funny!!!
Ho-Hum....the so called "death panels" have emerged regardless of the outcome of Healthcare reform. Those panels may historically be referred to as "NO".
This is just the first step, but clarity is arriving.
If everyone paid equally in the pot, we could all have affordable health care.
Problem is that the Healthcare Corporations and Big Pharma know that if that would happen, then their big profits would shrink.
All of Congress needs to look in the mirror and ask themselves, who am I supporting? Who do I represent in this country. Big business, or my elderly constituents back home. Washington you have the power to get this done, but the powerful lobbies have been in your pocket too long.
Honestly, the time has come in our country that something must be done now. I pay social security and medicare tax, and I doubt that I will ever get to use it.
This is the crisis they told us about decades ago.
We must act now.
Jean, first I hope you do well enough in life not to need medicare or SSI. If you are under 40 you will never see a penny of SS.
Whatever happens, God has me covered. No worries.
Jean - You need to be cover, like Ted Kennedy, time for your dirt nap.
God helps those who help themselves.
Newsvine, now why are you allowing this type of abuse. I am very offended at Bob's remark.
I think Bob is threatening me.
Bob, with God's help, our house is paid for, no debt, and considerable savings. So Bob, we did follow God's advice. However, if one of us gets sick with cancer, we would loose everything.
Jean - You are in life where you chose to be. I pay $1986.00 per month for insurance for me and my wife.
But you see, I knew someday I would be older and wanting to retire so I prepared.
Jean, don't worry. Tyler will take him off of posting soon enough.
JEAN-Insurance profit in 2008 ran between 2-3 per cent, that is a very poor return on investment. Why don't you do some research and you will see that you have been lead down the garden path and there is a reason they told you to bring the Vaseline.
Liberalism died a week ago Tuesday, it will be buried in November.
Bob Marshall, quit trolling for the neoconservatives. Quit using disgusting metaphors like Vaseline, much like Limbaugh who says to bend over.
Get thee behind me Satan.
Thanks Bob,
People continue to blame corporations. They have no intelligence about business. Why is that?? Maybe they only know what they are told and don't do their own research.
Jean - If your IQ reaches your waist size, sell. You are a typical lemming, you only know what you think, not the facts. Your posts are a testament to ignorance of the left.
bob= troll
Jean-721732....."Get thee behind me Satan."
Well I guess we all understand about Jean now?
Jean = Jean es una idiota.
Ah good one Bob. At least you have a sense of humor.
Jean - Satan is behind you, he is speaking at the moment on the FOX NEW CHANNEL - fair and balanced.
Good night Bob.
I am going to make some pop corn and wait for the State of the Union to begin. This should be good. Wonder if anyone neocons will shout out "you lie."
lol
Bob--2-3% represents how much in dollars....100s of billions? How much money do they need (greed!)? Remember--all those obscene bonuses and salaries are not counted as profits. Looking at percentages of profits only hides the reality of how much in $$ the insurance companies really rake in! They profit on the misery of the sick and injured.
Show me your sources, insurance companies are cooperations run by elected board, the boards set the bonuses and it is none of the governments business.
It is call capitalism, it has given more to more than any system on earth. Dispute that????
Hey Obama is sounding like a Republican in his speech, all the things he was against this time last year. To little to late.
the way i look at it is that insurance company's are getting scared because of the health care the dems are trying to get, just like the credit card companies, jack up the rates and make their money now, my friends deductible went from 1000 a year to 2500, why, because they are making their money now before he screws them like credit card company's. open your eye's. everytime he opens his mouth it is costing the people more money. do you think mass. voted in a republican in because their healthcare is any good. after all those years with the dem. and all they keep doing is ticking it up the elderly's ass
"like he screws them like the credit card companies"?????
I think you have things backwards there.
Bob Marshall, nothing to do with liberalism. Everything to do with helping to keep the country from going broke. Oh, unless you like only 2 percent of the United States to be comfortably insured.
You neocons sank the middle class decades ago.
Jean,
Are you for real?? When do you actually understand??
Jean= You lemmings has speed ed the process. The "light skinned Negro" has spent more in one year than Bush spent in 8 and there is nothing to show for it??
I see your terminlogy follows right along with the talking points.
bob= racist troll
stspecialk - that is not racist according to your own liberal leader, or did you see the news?
you are probably a paid liberal poster, nobody can be that dumb on their own.
You need to be watching your leader, he is about to dig himself a deeper hole.
Recording it to watch with my wife.
stspecialk - Male or Female? Get naked so you will have something to watch.
A country is only as successful as its middle class is. If the middle class is struggling due to corporate fraud and abuse, and cannot even provide decently for healthcare needs, then we as the US are already looking at third world status. All brought to you by the greediest amongst us.
Thanks Rudy, you make a great point.
Jean and Rudy= The middle class are the tea baggers, called Nazis by your liberal leaders.
yeah the ones who pay the taxes to support all you second class citizens.
Um.. No. I saw where teabaggers were going to banquets and paying $500 a plate. What regular middle class citizen would waste money in such a way? Furthermore, the teabaggers apparently have the extreme luxury of traveling about on busses all over the country. Most middle class citizens I know, don't have that kind of time, because they have to work! When I see the teabaggers in video, they are among the fattest people I have ever seen, and not simply obese, but cartoon OBESE! These are not people who work for a living! And when they shout people down and carry arms to their events...I can only say if they are likened to the hateful rants of nazis, they have only themselves to blame.
Obama is speaking so he is lying. He should have got a Nobel for lying. Nancy just had a big "O". Braney Frank just kissed his boyfriend.
The grim reaper, FOX NEWS, is watching and they will be the only network to point out the bogus numbers and lies. Like all liberals he make them up as he goes.
When you have no defense, try name calling.
bob, you are the only one on the thread calling names.
Check this weeks' Newsweek for a reporting of promises made and kept by Obama. http://photo.newsweek.com/2010/1/is-obama-keeping-his-promises.html
recording it to watch w/ my wife.
All of us who are gainfully employed and insured are paying for those who are not regardless of whether we are liberal or conservative. It would be in everyone's best interest to have healthcare be accesible to everyone. So it truly is an all or nothing proposition. Let people who can't afford healthcare languish and die so that they are not a drain on our pockets or attempt to keep people healthy so that they are less likely to be hospitalized and are not a drain on our pockets.
I think Medicare, Medicaid, and healthcare for all federal workers including congress should be consolidated into one government run healthcare program. Just like private HMOs they should negotiate with healthcare providers and drug companies to determine reimbursement rates for their customers.
If they can run it cheaper and more efficiently than private HMOs , they could add state and local government workers because they could provide the same services at lower cost.
If the government run program is cheaper and more cost effective than private HMOs then it can be offered to the general public at lower rates than the private HMOs.
Private HMOs keep over twenty two percent of all premiums paid in as administrative costs (including lavish executive perks and investor profits). It would not be much of a stretch to think the government could run it at less cost. They should be given that opportunity to try.
If government run healthcare can't be efficiently run it will fail well before it incorporates one sixth of our economy.
Sadly even if the government plan is cheaper, it won't save as much as tort reform reducing lawsuits which siphon off billions of dollars a year in frivilous lawsuits.
Other savings can be realized by stop protecting drug manufactures by allowing them to charge more for drugs made in the US than what can be charged by manufacturing them in another country.
Savings are out there, we just need to approach them in a non-partisan way (translation: it ain't gonna happen!). Oh well....
stspecialk - You are wrong. Bob is not the only one calling people names. Count me in. After reading your posts it is obvious that you are one dumb bastard.
I am on Medicare, my husband has a private Aetna spinoff-the only one offered at his place of work. His plan pays a better co-pay than medicare, but there are major drawbacks, they deny every single claim the first and sometime the second time for one excuse after another. (Stall technique). We both pay for our own prescriptions. If you shop aorund and you do not have health insurance that covers prescriptions, you can get into the groups of several pharmacies, so that we have a $10. co-pay for a 90 day supply on GEQ's DAW's are a bit cheaper as well. The difference with my Medicare and his Aetna knock-off is that Medicare pays, his private does not. We know that we have decent billing as it is thorugh a major university and I also have a medical (and coding) background, so I know they are right on what they are charging for and have the correct codes to bill. It's true that we've had to hold back on getting routine appointments and tests, no money to do it for either of us. So it is not just the Medicare, it is everyone who does not have a thousand a month for private health insurance. Yet I am not at all for what the current package of Obamacare is reported to include. People think it will be grand and glorious but will soon find out it will be unaffordable and really not what they thought they would get. I think that the states already have medicaid, and then there's medicare. Rather than make a new structure, revitalize the state run and Medicare programs already in place. I've paid into Social Security and Medicare since it began, and no I don't need to run to the doctor for things that I can do myself perfectly well. But healthcare bankrupts. Certainly if we'd made millions over the years, we could stack away several hundred grand for a 5 day hospital stay and aftercare. But we were the type who were college educated but made together nothing near $100,000 a year. They don't income slide the cost of medical care, unless you're a parent of minors, then you can get into some state run agency. At least I was a nurse, so most of our care, physical therapy and rehabilitation from anything has been done by me. I guess more people need to go into training so that they can help care for themselves through diet, nutrition, exercise, meditation and a good laugh now and again.