Kennedy, Health Care Leaders, Shape new policy

OOOH, that's why Ted gave his support to Pres. Obama instead of Hillary... It was about who's idea universal insurance was, and about a deal that Obama would have Joe Biden, his insurance comrad, as VP... Oh and Hillary is perfect as Sec. of State for sure.

see for yourself. in nixon's own words.

You are really funny. Duh...find an excuse to bring up something from the last century? Can you reach any further?

Aw just say the truth. What you really mean is that the system is just great for you as it is? And really, Kennedy, is not polarizing on this issue, but the right wing wants him to be that way because the system as it is at the present is just great for them. They are literally making many KILLINGS with people paying for insurance and having tests denied by prissy little MBAs who make decisions for doctors.

But you were funny....Try going back to the 1800s next time.

Well OK, I will. In 1865 an American Republican President was shot in the head by an actor(in fact, it was an anarchist type like Sean Penn or Alec Baldwin). There was very little profit motive for medicine back then and there were no health insurance companies. Our President died, Research and development paid for by the money-grubbing private sector has us at a point where an injury like that now is survivable.

Fire protection was a volunteer association of folks willing to douse your fire if you had a seal on your door that meant you had paid your dues. No fire insurance though.There were no cars so no property/casualty insurance industry existed. Only 20 or so life insurance companies were around and all of them were in big trouble due to the Civil War. A world without insurance is a world where no one has anything to protect, nor will they risk their assets to improve their lot.

One crazy non-insurance, egalitarian, not-for-profit, left wing, bull-shit way of providing healthcare was adopted by Kaiser Engineering to cover its employees in the 1930's. "Why pay an insurance company to trade dollars? We can manage the care ourselves, cover everyone, and reduce costs. Of course, since it is a free service based on a per capita funding system, if you get fucked up by a doctor you can't sue. If you don't like that, go work somewhere else" What a disaster! And that is exactly the type of crap proposed by Kennedy, Clinton, et al. It's an idea tried 75 years ago and IT DOESN'T WORK! Healthcare isn't better there, costs aren't lower due to efficiency but because "prissy MBA's deny services". What do you think DHS is made up of? Doctors?

And yes, I DO know everything. I am over 1300 years old. And when Kennedy dies before me, as he most certainly will, I will visit his grave and relieve myself on his tombstone. Don't make me put YOU on that list.

Put me on any list you want. I have you on the elephant dung list and you really are not as frightening as you would like to be, unless you are a real Right wing taliban, of course.

Elephant dung? Good one. Really.

i'm not sure if that is a real picture of you, but judging from the way you talk , I will assume that it is. because that makes perfect sense.

Well said.

And Obama definitely never promised free health care.

Right, He did not. And it could never be free. SS is not free, and our roads are not free and our schools are not free. We pay for them with our taxes. Even the poor pay sales tax, licence taxes, fees, tolls ect. Everyone pays some kind of tax.

Exactly. Also, the far left will probably criticize him for inviting insurance companies in on the talks.

And they should. If we had the same system as France, it would cost less per person, and the quality would be better than it is now, and more would be spent on preventive care.
But so many insurance companies and HMOs are making so much money rationing care and prissy little MBAs are telling MDs who they can give necessary tests to and who they can exclude.
I guess most who support the big money on health care don't know that Nixon is the one who pushed HMOs through? Its on the tapes. He even said, and I paraphrase this that they could make money by limiting care.

But those who are very priviledged, and I am probably one of those at the present, don't need to worry that they will deny our MRI and let us walk around with a cancer still treatable. So the priviledged want the big money to stay in the system because its the poor and middle class who will do without proper care.

And those who use the word France like its 4 letter word and propagandize with lies about their system are only depending on the fact that the average American has never been there, will never go there, and does not have family there, so they can lie all they want and fool the peasants.

Also very few know about the not for profit hospitals and insurance companies, before Nixon. And under that system the "Administrators" did not make milliions like they do now. The MDs were the best off and almost everyone could afford health care. Thanks to Nixon we have HMOs that let people die for a 500 Cat Scan.

I am on the farther left, and my problem with the insurance industry is this. Medicare and Medicaid provide coverage for the disabled, the most poor, and the oldest; the three groups of people most in need of health care. In a sense, that leaves the healthiest of Americans for the insurance industry to cover, and they still can't fucking do it. They should be included in the talks, but they should be watched like hawks and trusted like the Wall Street vipers who have robbed America blind.

Hey carmalite,

How many people go to France if the need specialized medical care. The US has been the world leader in medicine since the 50's and that has not and will not change unless the government shoves socialized medicine down our throat. I love how everyone tries to make it sound like most Americans do not have healthcare when the opposite is true. If you want to make healthcare affordable then get the lawyers under control. It is the millions of lawsuits annually that are responsible for the rise in health costs. I am not saying all lawsuits are frivolous, but there are a ton of them that are frivolous.

I will never advocate socialized medicine because it is extremely inefficient. Bad healthcare for all is NOT better than Good healthcare for most. I have been on both sides of the insurance aisle, those that have it and those that don't, and I have akways found the healthcare I needed.

Dougin, Yea, lots of people from bananna republics like Mexico and Latin America come here because what they have is worse than what we have.

If we are doing so great, why are we behind Canada, France and most industrialized nations in longevity? And why are we LOWER than some Central American countries in INFANT MORTALITY? LOL

Perhaps 20 years ago we were really good, but we are not anymore.

There is a procedure my insurance company routinely denies here in the USA that EVERYONE in FRANCE, the UK, and all countries with socialized medicine allows if the physician recommends it. WHY?
It cost 6000, that is why.

So you may not know it, but people have managed to go to CANADA get to be residents and get these treatments. So when they can leave and go elsewhere, they do. ANd better off Americans routinely go to Switzerland and other counties.

Also we had to send our VETERANS from the IRAQ war to GERMANY (a single payer system) and Japan for specific blood tests for Depleted Uranium because we don't have them yet. LOL So we are not as advanced as Germany and Japan in these tests yet.

You are living in the propaganda of the past. Perhaps 20 years ago when our infant mortality was not equal to that of bananna republics and people lived longer here, you were right, but you are not correct today.