Letter to the Editor: Health care reform should move forward
By admin • Mar 10th, 2010 • Category: Opinion“Let’s get it done.”
In his address on health care reform this past week, the President said “I don’t know how this plays politically, but I know it’s right… and I look forward to signing this reform into law.”
As health care insurance rates continue to rise exponentially, we have reached a point where 14,000 Americans lose their health insurance every single day. The nightmare is reflected in city and state budgets across the nation, small businesses trying to survive, school budgets… you name it.
Obama put forth a plan that:
1) ends the worst insurance company practices and outlaws discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions,
2) reduces costs for people with insurance and makes coverage more affordable for people without it today,
3) sets up a new competitive insurance marketplace where small business owners and families can shop for the insurance plan that works best for them, giving them the same buying power and insurance choices as all members of Congress.
In addition, he called for an up or down vote on the legislation that has been passed so far. By the way, we should remember that reconciliation was used to pass both of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. How about using it for those cut out of health care.
I think his call at the end of talk, “Let’s get it done,” was meant to go out to all of us. This is work we can all help with. It’s time to pick up the phone, call Senators Collins and Snowe, and read Obama’s quote to them. Tell them your personal story, what you currently pay, whether or not you have coverage, if you’ve been cut off after a diagnosis, kept out due to pre-existing conditions, etc. Speak up, and then let them ponder his words, “I know it’s right.” We know it’s right too, and Snowe and Collins need to hear that from us.
Eileen Kreutz
Industry
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admin is the DailyBulldog.com's editor of all things contributor generated.
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Before this thread is consumed by the shouting, I’d like to point out the 1993 GOP Healthcare proposal co-sponsored by William Cohen. It’’s not all that different from the current reform bill. Radical it ain’t. Below is a link; there may be others. Now I assume we will hear rants on socialism. Cheers.
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Graphics/2010/022310-Bill-Comparison.aspx
and by the way Obama and all you liberals railed against an “up and down vote” when it was done by the republicans, so don’t be a hypocrite and praise it now!
and by the way:
If person ‘A’ (a poor person) is entitled to health care, and person ‘B’ (a taxpayer) is responsible to person ‘A’ to provide that entitlement, then what did person ‘B’ do to fall into the debt of person ‘A’? what is person ‘A’s responsibility, having received the entitlement without contributing to the system for it, to person ‘B’ having been forced by the federal government to provide that entitlement. Does person ‘A’ owe it to person ‘B’ to live a healthy lifestyle, that is to refrain from excessive drinking, smoking, sexual promiscuity which can lead to sexually transmitted diseases, obesity or any other lifestyle choices that a person can make that contribute to their health and welfare? Will the government force people to modify their behaviors? With this demonstration, it can be concluded with little effort that person ‘A’ and person ‘B’s liberty is not looked at equally by the federal government, that is to say that person ‘B’ cannot refuse his or her obligation impelled by the government and refuse to pay the taxes that will be levied against them for this new entitlement through threat of incarceration and penalty.
and by the way if you can’t call Collins and Snowe and give them your own opinion in your own words and really need to read quotes off Obama’s teleprompter then what have your really become.
Hutch, Are you against funding police departments, prisons, the military, fire stations, schools, road-building and maintenance (even where you don’t drive!!!)? Your ideology has some limitations.
Hutch,
Person ‘A’ could be any of the following:
A working taxpayer who cannot afford health insurance.
A laid off former taxpayer who has lost health insurance.
A fine upstanding young adult taxpayer who is struggling to start out in life and can’t afford health insurance.
A critically ill child of a working adult who cannot afford health insurance, who may die without healthcare.
A single working mom taxpayer who cannot afford health care for her child.
A disabled veteran whose benefits aren’t covering his disability.
Etc. Etc.
Person ‘A’ could be you someday.
Your definition of Person ‘A’ as “poor” is very small. If everyone were well and working and contributing,
we wouldn’t have any problems, we wouldn’t need health care or insurance. Unfortunately we have to deal with the real world where everyone is not either an ‘A’ or a ‘B’.
Hutch,
Don’t let them knock you off of the moral high ground. Your clear headed and rational arguments cannot be overcome. These opponents are convinced that THE GOVERNEMENT IS THE ANSWER. It isn’t. Taking money from earners, using the police power of the state, to then dish that money out in whatever politically advantageous way the politicians want is immoral. One of your critics above actiually believes, it seems, that there is no health care for those he/she names. Why do you suppose there are so many in the emergency rooms. Health care is free in the U.S. already. Governments handouts are not charity. These STATIST UTOPIANS will never get over their envy and faith in ever larger governement.
I bet you go to church and pretend to be a Christian, Hutch.
I only disagree with the Senate bill in that it doesn’t take the most cost effective route, universal single payer government run health insurance on the Canadian model.
The happiest people on Earth (according to a recent study) are the Danes. Yes, they pay higher taxes, but they don’t wake up each morning worried about the cost of a hospital stay or their child’s university education. Their tax monies are well spent, not turned over to the already wealthy to trickle on the masses.
you liberals miss the point as usual.
are you willing to give up rights and liberties to pass your agenda?
and i have the right to not care about person A, no matter person A’s situation. i know that’s sounds cruel by its the fact, person A could also represent a drunk driver who survived a crash that killed a family of four or someone who smokes knowing it’s giving him cancer and doesn’t care because he knows the cost will be picked up by person B.
what good timing:
when the government decides whats good for you and pays for you health care, guess what, the start making laws telling how to live!
from the Great liberal state of New York:
“No owner or operator of a restaurant in this state shall use salt in any form in the preparation of any food for consumption by customers of such restaurant, including food prepared to be consumed on the premises of such restaurant or off of such premises,” the bill, A. 10129 , states in part. The legislation, which Assemblyman Felix Ortiz , D-Brooklyn, introduced on March 5, would fine restaurants $1,000 for each violation.
upanddown,
YOU pay for person A’s health insurance. I say all bleeding hearts should foot the health care bill and you know what would happen? There would be no bill.
It’s not a bad idea, can they take out of the reform the words ‘we want control over you and everything else’
Again, let us focus on real solutions such as cutting cost.
Maybe there are cost cutting measures in this bill, but we won’t know until it is passed. As Pelosi said “We have to pass the bill so you know what is in it.”
This administration and congress is absolutely ludicrous. They are so consumed by their ideology and getting their system in place that they will commit political suicide without blinking. They are disgusting to our founding fathers and the everyday American.
Everyone else, please move to Europe or Canada and leave our constitutional republic to the ones who love it.
Tony in Wilton,
Please feel free to move to Demark. I know several Danes and what you say is not true.
Hutch, the last time I smoked a cigarette it was pure bliss — I thought to myself, “By the time I get cancer, there’ll be health reform and guys like Bill Reid and Hutch are going to have to pay for my hospital stays and treatments…. ”
Guys, we live in a mixed economy — the pooling of public money and other resources so everyone can have quality care and not have to worry about that diagnosis that will sink them is just common sense. Just like funding the other institutions I listed above. We fund these other things without hesitation. And when they ask for too much, like the recent request for a 3 million dollar police station, the public can say no. That’s a lot more democratic than watching corporations jack the rates (or deny coverage) basically at will.
Tony,
I forgot…Sweden has a Queen….anyone here want to be a serf?
Sorry Tony, That should read Demark.
JMS,
your are confusing federally funded programs, like the military (which is in the Constitution (please read it)) and locally funded services like police and fire department, which is optional in many towns across the state! if you want health care as a right please begin working on the 28th amendment. Our lives should not exist to solely fund government!
If we turn our health care system into Canada’s where is their prim minister going to go for heart surgery? he didn’t want to wait in his own country for the operation so he flew to Florida!
“This was my heart, my choice and my health,” Williams said
“I would’ve been criticized if I had stayed in Canada and had been perceived as jumping a line or a wait list. … I accept that. That’s public life,” he said.
Speaking of wait times, lets look at Mass, which has instituted its own plan (which they should on a state level, if they want).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqD-nMpsYAY&hl=en&fs=1&
Please some one answer: how much are you willing to give up or pay?
beer, cigarettes,salt, sugar, motorcycles, snowmobiles, skiing, tennis, the possibility of life in a bubble (is that were it will end?)
JMS.
Just because there is already gov’t funding for certain programs, doesn’t mean that they aren’t huge, money sucking inefficient failures (schools). Also, you claim that “pooling” public monies to provide “quality care” for folks so they won’t have to worry about “diagnosis that will sink them is just common sense. So, would that also apply to auto insurance? Life insurance? Is our current system flawed? YES! Is gov’t the answer? NO! With the exception of some sort of regulation to make things fair, get gov’t out of the way and let the free market and personal responsibilty take care of this stuff.
Mike,
“With the exception of some sort of regulation to make things fair”…..did you mean numbers 1, 2, and 3 in the editorial??
JMS,
Please feel free to pay for others health….I am keeping my money! Maybe you forgot, but the health care bill will require you to stop smoking or be fined. AND, you will have to work or get no care.
To all,
In Maine since we have had Dirigo Health. Google this for your information. I just did myself. This is referred to as a “Model Failure”. How would the Federal Government do any better?
Also has anyone read in the past few years about the hospitals in Maine and not getting paid by Maine Care.
This is government funding paid by our tax dollars.
I myself recently went to the emergency room and there is a paper in the emergency room that if you can not pay, you are not denied treatment and In the State of Maine it takes care of young single mothers very well. I heard yesterday that the State of Maine provides them with a car.
Is this reform a wolf in a red cape. I am very pessimistic on this reform.
I like what Will Martin has pointed out. the idea that we must pass a bill in order for the citizens to find out what is in it is , simply, ludicrous. How about some transparency before the bill. These Democrats are contemptable.
How will our “Iron Mike Michaud” vote?
“don’t let them knock you off of the moral high ground. your clear headed and rational arguments cannot be overcome.” that’s a riot. bill, either you’re mocking hutch here, which i doubt, or your idea of morality is “every man for himself,” and your idea of rational arguments are hutch cutting and pasting fox news blurbs and spamming us with “and by the way obama is a scary muslim socialist who was born in africa.”
emergency room visits are not healthcare, and they are not free. there is a bill. it will come in the mail and it will say 300.00 dollars or something equally ridiculous even if you saw a doctor for 10 minutes who told you to go home and take some ibuprofen. of course, even if you could afford to pay it, you wouldn’t simply on principle. this of course leaves the hospital with a large amount of unpaid bills for services that may or may not have been rendered, and they will sue you or have you reported to a credit bureau or bill collector or something like that. in the meantime, this will raise the cost of your care as the charges for services will increase because the hospital actually loses money at this racket. good thing you people with your wonderful private insurance are there to pick up the slack when the premiums rise because people who rely on emergency room healthcare can’t pay their bills. and apparently bill thinks this is just dandy.
“please feel free to move to demark. [sic] i know several danes and what you say is not true.” a vet, i think you probably mean “dames.”
furthermore emergency room visits will not help you if you have a chronic disease or require ongoing treatment. you can’t go to the emergency room for radiation therapy, and they don’t hand out life-saving heart medication et cetera. you may get a prescription, but good luck at the pharmacy. you’re essentially saying, as is anyone who is against public healthcare, that the only people that deserve to be alive and healthy are those that can pay for their healthcare. moral high ground my ass.
universal healthcare is scary, i know. only every other industrialized nation in the world has it, along with american soldiers and politicians. those, poor, poor suckers.
Bill,
we all know how Michaud will vote, and i think we all know its time to end his vacation in Washington D.C.!
That’s why I support Single Payer. It is simple, direct and equal treatment for all citizens. And it will be good for businesses when they can drop their private insurance plans.
I am not confusing anything in the Constitution or in my understanding of how social institutions are funded, local, state or federal. We unquestionably have these services set up to serve the people. I do think the more local they are, the more likely they are to be effiicient and accountable to the voters… which makes me think that in Maine we’ll be alright if the health care reform in its present state does not get ratified.
I work and get very good health insurance, but I think it is the right thing to do to support health care for all. I know Maine is already a strong state in terms of treating its people fairly. I’m very happy to live in Maine. The Massachussetts reform got 98% of their people covered from 88% and this was all through the existing private system so there are other, effective ways to do it.
One more thing, Bill, if you do the partisan thing, you’ll soon find yourself a hypocrite. They are contemptible, all of them. What have the Republicans done to this country (and the Dems for not standing up to them or doing anything about it when they got their supermajority) with their three trillion dollar war(s)? …And tax breaks for the richest Americans. Hundreds of billions of dollars of giveaways… and then the same politicians will talk about not extending 10 measly billion for unemployment benefits. It’d be really difficult to find any politician with a leg to stand on.
JMS…… I’ll wager you were smoking something other than a cigarette………
I believe these supporters of the health care take over, these Pollyannas, are operating in a history vacuum. Why would anyone, in his or her right mind, want the government to do more. It is such a mediocre performer. There are thousands of examples of government foul ups, failures, misteps, outrages, fumbles, stumbles, inadequacies, mis-estimates, and general goof ups, that it is hard to see how anyone would want the government, state or Federal, to take over one sixth of the GNP of the country. Promised utopias are intoxicating! Proponents are swept away , blinded, by the glowing promise the government offers us, but they don’t consider who is making the proposal, i.e. the state and federal governments and who has to pay for it. Here is a short sample list to consider.
The Big Dig
Yucca Mountain
20,000,000 + or - illegal aliens in the US, a clear failure of the government to do its job.
The greatest swindle in the history of mankind, Madoff’s work, slipped by the SEC for years.
Katrina
Plundering of the Social Security Fund
The Vietnam War
Massive Medicare fraud unstopped
The FSLIC Banking fiasco
Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac
The Dirigo Health debacle
Walter Reed Army Hospital
50 million dollar software failure in the Maine DHHS
AmTrack
USPS
The Sgt York system
ETC. ETC. ETC.
Jonboy,
please name another industrialized country with 300 million people with a similar geographic size and a national dept of
$ 1 2 , 5 5 1 , 1 3 4 , 3 2 8 , 3 1 2 . 8 6
increased
$3.96 billion per day since September 28, 2007
Please everyone watch this video, you will know what the truth is.
A little over two years ago, Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under President Bill Clinton and currently an economic adviser to President Obama, spoke at the University of California, Berkeley.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT7Y0TOBuG4&feature=player_embedded
hutch, ALL other industrial countries. i’m not going to list them, you can look them up yourself. even excluding china, their combined populations and geographical mass are well in excess of the united states (although i don’t see how geographical size even enters into it.) as for the national debt, the fact that other countires have successfully instituted universal healthcare without accruing debt similar to ours should be seen as an example. how do they do it? i would imagine it has something to do with not getting themselves into unnecessary wars and nation building, and they probably tax more justly the rich and corporate non-persons. do you even remember the bush years? were you concerned about the national debt then? were you aware that we are fighting two wars? that costs a lot of money, and we don’t have it. it also costs a lot of money to bail out jerks like gm and aig when their fat cat leaders realize that they weren’t paying attention to the economy over the last couple decades.
bill, i would rather that millions of americans, including myself, had mediocre healthcare than none at all. the government is full of crooks–the same crooks that are taking money and marching orders from the insurance companies as we speak to obstruct reform and confuse the public. should we do away with the government altogether, as you seem to be implying? think about these publicly funded government programs and tell me whether you would rather have them or not: the public school system, police departments, fire departments, town government, the food and drug administration, the united states military–and i believe you already indicated that medicare and social security should be thrown out with the bathwater.
where is the campaign against universal education in america? how is it that an elementary and high-school education is viewed as a basic human right, but not life itself?
I would really like to contribute something positive here but after reading some of the above I’ve decided to make an apparent observation that ends up not so positive.
To jonboy.
Give it buddy, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make a conservative think. Or feel for others. They may sit in a church every Sunday but they really have no idea what Jesus was talking about. Hypocrisy. They opposed social security yet they’ll gladly take the checks. They fought vigorously against civil rights legislation and equal right for women. They have opposed nearly all of our presidents policies yet called anyone who opposed Bush either unpatriotic or a terrorist. Hypocrisy. They can’t see how negative, destructive and hypocritical conservative policies have been for our nation because they are more obsessed tax money helping anyone other then hugh corporations. They cannot connect the dots between the six years the Republicans owned the White House and Congress, the war we were lied into, tax cuts for the rich and the deregulation of the banking industry to the meltdown of our economy. And our huge national debt and to the millions of lost jobs, homes, health insurance etc. It is sad and disappointing but it seems to be true. In the recent past I tried to engage the very contributers on this page in a dialogue concerning the latest Supreme Court decision to no avail. I could not get one intelligent, thoughtful response. They seem to be missing a certain ” intellectual curiosity “. They seem incapable of understanding the dire need for health reform and that without it the cost is going to sky rocket. But what does A Vet care? He’ll still get his monthly retirement check and health care that my taxes are paying for. Hypocrisy. Look at who the local conservative mouthpiece is. None other then John Frary. An elitist who spent his career as a college professor in New Jersey. Hypocrisy. He recently predicted that Republicans would take over in November. He certainly didn’t do such a good job predicting the outcome of his own congressional campaign in which he was severely trounced. In his debates with Michaud when he had his chance to shine was quite an embarrassment to to any thinking Mainer. He seems to think he’s William F. Buckley but he’s closer to Will Ferrell.
So you may as well talk to a wall in your quest to enlighten these guys jonboy. They just don’t have the goods.
One more thought, maybe compassion empathy and intellect are like talent, you either have it or you don’t
jonboy, lumping countries together is ridiculous! I do agree we should pull all of our troops out of ever part of the world, and let everyone fend for themselves, lets see how the world gets along when we stop being the military for all the defenseless countries. We have no money! We should take care of ourselves, and when the next world war starts, we see how many people start begging us for help.
If your really going to blame wars and the rich for our situation lets, see how congress has done on spending our money!
During the most recent seven years that the Democrats have controlled Congress, their deficits have averaged $619 billion a year, or 5.3% of the gross domestic product (GDP). During the most recent seven years that the Republicans have controlled Congress, their deficits have averaged $93 billion a year, or 0.6% of GDP. Over their entire seven-year spans, the Democrats’ deficit spending has totaled $4.3 trillion, the Republicans’ $651 billion.
Over the 14 years in question, the four highest deficits as a percentage of GDP have all occurred when the Democrats have controlled Congress. The five lowest have all occurred when the Republicans have controlled Congress.
The Republicans’ highest deficit (3.6% of GDP) has been lower than the Democrats’ average deficit (5.3%), and the Democrats’ lowest deficit (2.2% of GDP) has more than doubled the Republicans’ average deficit (0.8%).
rest of the article can be seen here:
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=522949
Actually it was a cigar, Steve. And I didn’t even inhale.
I’m getting tired. I don’t think I have the energy to make a list as long and exhausting as Bill’s but of the corruption and criminality enacted on the people by the private sector. So I yield to Jonboy and his last post.
One question…..with unemployment like it is and no jobs to be had……how are people supposed to pay for this “affordable” insurance? And if you don’t buy it, you get fined. That’s just great….and without a job where do they get the money to pay a fine??
Maybe It is Time for congress to just outlaw all health insurance. After all it’s just corporate welfare for insurance companies and it would force doctors and hospitals to charge a fare price. THINK ABOUT IT you right wing conservitives
JRB, obviously Congress should outlaw the Dept of Education. I am a right-wing conservative (not conservitive) and I am 100% in favor of all businesses charging a fair (not fare) price. When I was a kid, my folks didn’t have medical insurance - we didn’t need it. That changed when you liberals founded the Great Society and began the systematic transfer of wealth from those who earn it to those who don’t. It was the biggest instance of theft since FDR created Social Security. This brought on cycles of inflation, the apex of which was the Carter administration, which drove up all prices, cemented the requirement for health insurance, and began the inexorable march to today’s pathetic situation, where folks like you are perfectly willing to throw our country under the bus so you can take a free ride on it.
Passage of the bill will cause universities like UMF for example, to buy govt health care instead of good health care or no students will get a student loan from the govt. Think about that fact, all you folks who voted for him. It is tacked on to the bill. Goodbye good health care.
Hi, please use this one (#2) as there mistakes with the links in the previous one. Thanks
Hey, Hutch,
Not to make you sound like too rabid a conservative, but the figures you gave in your post #33 above came from an article written by a journalist who usually writes for The National Review ( http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=522949 ). As most of us know, The National Review is a conservative think tank. To quote another, The Heritage Foundation, ( http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures/ ) the budget projection produced by the conservative think tanks for The Heritage Foundation is not looking to rosy for Obama’s presidency.
Now, for a bit of what I would like to call “my perspective.” We all know that crooks do not pay for things while in office and while it is not my choice to labor over which party is more corrupt, etc., I do declare Bush and Reagan the winners when it comes to creating debt that is not paid for under their own administrations.
As you must know already, the overhaul of executive spending does not occur until after a president leaves office. Therefore, the conservative views of the budget predictions in the link above are most likely correct. However, the amounts of money required to end negligent agencies, as well as lawsuits stemming from social injustices likely caused under both Reagan and Bush, and the continuous bills caused by reckless and harmful spending put forth in the fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq don’t seem to be analyzed. Can you explain this, Hutch?
Furthermore, can you explain why the data found here: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures/ indicates a growing deficit in the first few years of Bush’s Presidency. However, this is not analyzed by the authors at The Heritage Foundation?
What did Bush leave the American people? Two wars that we, our children (as well as their children) will be paying for and more debt, despite the fact that President Bush coming into office with a budget surplus.
Here’s projected glimpse at the work ahead of the Obama administration: attempts to straighten out the huge mess leftover by the Bush administration, to pay for his mistakes, finance the end of two wars and removal of wartime infrastructure, fulfillment of numerous military and civilian contracts on behalf of the American people (that we can’t afford) put into effect by the Bush administration, and funding required to start up Obama’s universal health care. Its clear to see who Bush and Obama are working for. Bush was won over by people from Blackwater and the other industrial magnates, and while I’m not sure whether Obama wasn’t won over by the same ones, its clear that the current President would like to leave us with more than unfulfilled campaign promises and more additions to an already enormous mountain of public debt. What do the policy wonks at The Heritage Foundation and The National Review think of the differences here?
Well, as is so often the case, the original topic of my opinion piece was forgotten in the midst of some sort of local (what shall I call it?) feud.
Going back to the health care legislation that was actually enacted, I have listed research for our area. I am going to personally thank Mike Michaud for voting in favor. Of course I have to not thank Senators Snowe or Collins since they stuck firm to the Party of NO.
Here are some of the projected results, as sent to me, if you live in Maine’s 2nd congressional district. In this district alone, health care reform is projected to:
– Ban discrimination against 9,800 residents with pre-existing conditions;
– Provide tax credits and other assistance for up to 192,000 families;
– Extend coverage to 39,500 uninsured residents;
– Save 700 families from health care related bankruptcy; and
– Get full prescription drug coverage for 133,000 seniors on Medicare.
Now you fellows can go back to your unending arguments on national debt, which I personally think could be dealt with by creating jobs, especially green jobs, to move us in the direction of energy independence. But that’s another argument for another day. Tell me which parts of the projected health care reform outcomes listed above that you would NOT want to have apply to your specific family or friends.