I would hope that the government would be counting on the old bromide to “do no harm.”

But today, we have allowed the Insurance Industry (and it is a government-financed industry) to call the shots on their ability to stop covering their contracts.

We are here and responding to the commentary to talk about the situation. But we cannot pull out of our Insurance coverage when the government mandates that we must be covered. We are simply debating what will be inevitable when the Senate takes their vote.

Sandy

Kent Shaw

Sandy

I am a vet, and it breaks my heart to hear of fellow service men and women dying, but the fact remains that the health care is out there. Most vets will not seek it out on their own. But I am on the page of giving the best, and I mean the BEST, health care to our service men and women. It is the least that we can do as a nation.

Free markets are the only ones that work without going completly to the total socialistic policies of a monarchy or communisim. Any government tampering disturbs the balance and creates large conglomerates at the expense of the little companies and tax payers.

Dan

Could it be that our Citizens do not respect the free market approach due to the corruption found in our government to knock it down? You have opened a much-needed subject that I want to expand. Stick around please?

Sandy

Sandy

I can give you the name of a young lady who died and HAD health insurance. Nataline Sarkisyan. She died at 17 because CIGNA refused to pay for her liver transplant and guess what, the hospital did NOT step up to do it. Finally after lots of public pressure CIGNA reversed itself and said they would pay but it was too late and she died the same day of their reversal.

I could go on and on but I know it would not change your mind. If you can flippantly ignore a Harvard study you can just as easily flip me off too.

Technically you may be right and some of these people could have gone for treatment. But when you are barely scraping by you may decide you cant go for any treatment because any more bills could destroy you and your family financially. You don’t want to see you wife and kids living in a car so you hope you get better on your own so you don’t end up becoming homeless.

There is a mass delusion on the right that the free market is the best way to dispense health care. Well guess what it is NOT. NO OTHER RICH COUNTRY IN THE WORLD uses a free market system to deliver healthcare to their citizens. NONE, ZERO, ZIP. Not the Japanese, not the Germans, and not even the Swiss which is probably the European country that is most like the US.

Some countries use government run single payer systems while others use heavily regulated private companies, some use a combination of both. But NONE of the rich countries that insure all their citizens use a free market system. They don’t because they all say it DOES NOT WORK.

If you want to inform yourselves on the issue watch the PBS Frontline show “sick around the world”. They describe how 5 different countries provide health care to all their citizens. Unless you are hopelessly indoctrinated by the political drivel that is thrown around in our country you will have your eyes opened like I did. After I watched that show I felt completely embarrassed by the health care “debate” that is going on in this country.

If you remember long ago fire departments used to be private. You bought a badge from them and put it on your house. If your house caught fire and had a badge on it they put the fire out, if it did not they let it burn to the ground.

The problem with that model was that when they let that house burn down others caught fire and a whole neighborhood could go up in flames. So it was decided that for the “common good” the fire department should be public entity.

“The free market is dead in the minds of the People.” is a laughable statement. “The free market is good” is drummed into the minds of the masses by the corporate media every minute of every day. Go ahead and say something should be “socialized” and see how far that will get you in this country.

What is dead is the notion of the need for a “common good”. The thought that some things should be done for the good of the population as a whole is looked at by many with total distain. I am somewhat amazed that we still have public schools in this country. I mean seriously if my money should not be used to subsidize someone else’s health care why should it be use to subsidize the education of kids that are not mine?

Why not privatize the police? Wouldn’t that be great! Say your ex is breaking into your house and wants to kill you. You call 911 and the first thing they ask for is your credit card. But darn you are over your limit. You cant pay so they won’t come out to help you. They end up transferring you to a cheaper private police department that will give you a “Payday Loan” to cover them coming out. Unfortunately as they are gathering your personal info for the loan, your ex breaks in and kills you.

Oh well it’s just the invisible hand of the free market working its magic, just like it does with the health of the American public. But hey it does make SOME people REALLY rich and that is ALL that matters in the good old USofA.

As to your examples of what you think must be supplied by the government — and that is only conjecture — they would be the provence of local government, not the federal government, so they do not really support your argument.

And in regard to healthcare, you are wrong to think it is functioning in a free market. Not only is it heavily regulated in general, but the government is also a major player in the industry through medicare, medicaid, military and military retirees, and legislation. I mention this only because if folks go around not even knowing what the source of the problem is, they will be only to happy to gobble up what politicians toss them.

An aside: If your “ex” is breaking in to kill you, and instead of being prepared to take responsibility for your own defense, you are depending on a phone call to 911 to save you, you will most likely not have a good day. There are things that truly do require you not depend on the authorities that be.:-)
Yours,
Issodhos