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#68, I didn’t ask why insurance was high. I asked by Health Care was so high.
Why does a doctor have to charge so much for an office visit?
#70 – LibertyLover,
Do you know how hard it is to pursue happiness without a car?
Strawman!!
This depends on where one chooses to live. Where I live, car ownership is below 50% of the population. I can get to the store on my feet. I can get to my job on my feet, a bicycle, or a train. I can rent a car at many locations nearby if I need one.
There are many walkable towns in the U.S. where a car is not required for the basics of day to day living and happiness.
http://walkscore.com/
There are many more in more civilized countries of the world where GM has not actively dismantled the public transportation systems.
http://tinyurl.com/6oex4n
It is only here where the government is of the corporation by the corporation and for the corporation that anyone might even begin to fall for your strawman automobile argument.
Try replacing car with water and you’ll have a far better analogy.
As for equality of outcome, certainly not. I’m advocating that certain basics are required for anyone to survive at all in the modern world. Healthcare is one such necessity. Until you try living without it, you should not advocate that other people should.
State versus federal is not a big issue to me. Certainly we have interstate highways that are federal and the FBI for interstate law enforcement. I fail to see the huge deal that everyone makes over the level of government providing basic services. Certain things today are provided at the local level, such as our pathetic school system. Certain things are provided at the state level. Certain things are provided at the federal level like our excellent interstate highways. In general, I don’t care much except to say that some states really get shafted under the current system and it does prevent us from becoming a democracy.
#71 – LibertyLoser,
I answered why health care is expensive in this country. You read only a small portion of my post. All of those things go into the high cost.
Doctors charge a lot because it is a for profit, fee for service industry. Drug companies charge a lot because it is a for profit, fee for service industry. Health insurance companies charge a lot mostly just because they can.
BTW, as for doctors charging a lot, they don’t really. The only people they charge a lot for are those who have no health insurance. Look at your insurance statements one day. Doctors may charge $200 for an office visit with a few tests. But, after you pay your copay of $35 and the insurance company pays $31, the doctor eats the rest.
It’s only the poorest in our country who have no health insurance who would have to pay the full $200, if they could afford to walk in the door at all. Since they can’t, they wait until it’s an emergency and get worse care at the hospital for thousands of dollars and then don’t have to pay. The hospital generally eats those costs, or more accurately, charges you and your insurance company more, when you come in to make up the difference.
We’d all be better off if we simply paid the $66 office visit for the uninsured instead.
Personally, I might only need major medical insurance an drug coverage if doctors would take the $66 from me as payment in full. But, without insurance, there is no one to help get their prices down for you. So, without insurance for the doctor’s visit, you’d be stuck paying $200.
It all comes down to a thoroughly broken health care system that is the worst among the developed “democratic” nations of the world. Yet many induhviduals keep fighting to keep the broken system rather than risk improving our lot in life with any of the tried and proven systems of the world. Some are single payer; some are not; some have care provided by government employees; some have private providers; all work better than what we have.
#72, This depends on where one chooses to live. Where I live, car ownership is below 50% of the population. I can get to the store on my feet. I can get to my job on my feet, a bicycle, or a train. I can rent a car at many locations nearby if I need one.
Interesting. Then saying insurance is too expensive and everyone needs “free” insurance is as well. My insurance is substantially cheaper than most everywhere else in the country.
Let’s get everyone with expensive insurance to move to a place where it’s cheaper and we can get everyone without a car to move to a place where they don’t need one. What a great idea!
Try replacing car with water and you’ll have a far better analogy.
Now that you bring that up . . . why pay taxes for a public system you have to buy water from?
As for equality of outcome, certainly not. I’m advocating that certain basics are required for anyone to survive at all in the modern world. Healthcare is one such necessity. Until you try living without it, you should not advocate that other people should.
Health care is available, right now, to anybody who needs it.
If the Federal Government didn’t have so many damned regulations, the costs would be a lot lower and this “problem” wouldn’t be a problem.
State versus federal is not a big issue to me.
I know. Fortunately, people are starting to realize the difference and the word is getting out.
Certainly we have interstate highways
Which should be paid by the States. Bribe money paid for them.
FBI for interstate law enforcement.
You need it for, well, interstate law enforcement.
I fail to see the huge deal that everyone makes over the level of government providing basic services.
Because it is not in their charter.
I want my free car!
Certain things today are provided at the local level, such as our pathetic school system.
You won’t get any argument from me on that.
School vouchers!
In general, I don’t care much except to say that some states really get shafted under the current system and it does prevent us from becoming a democracy.
You don’t want a democracy, hoss.
The founding father knew this and specifically tried to avoid it.
#73, I answered why health care is expensive in this country. You read only a small portion of my post.
I did read your entire post.
I am trying to get you think about HOW these people get away with everything. Stop thinking with your heart and start thinking with your brain.
And quit being so selfish. Just because you “want” something from someone else doesn’t give you the “right” to take it.
It’s only the poorest in our country who have no health insurance who would have to pay the full $200
PUH-LEAZE! Saving the whining for something that matters. I don’t know what the doctors are like in your area, but I’ve been in my doctor’s office before and I’ve seen them treat people for “free” when they didn’t have the money. Yes, it costs me, but I still “choose” to go to that doctor. I don’t want some snot-nosed kid in Washington telling me I have to pay for it. It’s called free choice.
#74 – LL,
Wow. I knew you and I didn’t see eye to eye on almost any issue in the world. However, I’m quite surprised that you would make comments like these:
Health care is available, right now, to anybody who needs it.
This is complete and utter bullshit. I can’t believe you even had the balls to type it. You can’t possibly believe it.
School vouchers!
That’s your fucking answer??!!? Are you really insane? How about school standards. Instead of local little stupid fiefdoms deciding whether it is OK for their children to learn the difference between science and stupidity, how about just having real educational standards … kinda like the ones every nation in the world that is kicking our asses in education have. You know, the standards that leave our children so ill-prepared to compete in the real world that they can barely say “would you like fries with that?”
But, go ahead and support your stupid school vouchers. You think you know what the founders had in mind? It sure as hell wasn’t giving you government money for you to give to your local church so they can fail to educate your brats.
And, yes, regardless of what the founders thought, I don’t think that it takes four Texans to equal one Wyomingite. That’s just dain bramaged.
#75 – Loser,
The doctors near me do not do pro-bono work. It just doesn’t happen. Don’t be stupid. They’re in business. Besides, you don’t make policy based on a single case or even both of the doctors in your one-horse town who treat people for free. That doesn’t happen much in the rest of the world.
#76, Health care is available, right now, to anybody who needs it.
Tell me someone, you know personally, who needed an operation or anything else, who was actually refused treatment?
School vouchers!
That’s your fucking answer??!!? Are you really insane? How about school standards.
And who gets to set the standards? Some bureaucrat in Washington? It should be handled at the State level. How they decide it is none of Washington’s business.
Besides, where in the Constitution does it state that the Federal Government is responsible for educating the kids in this country?
But, go ahead and support your stupid school vouchers. You think you know what the founders had in mind? It sure as hell wasn’t giving you government money for you to give to your local church so they can fail to educate your brats.
BWAHAHAHA!!!
Where do you think the “government money” comes from? Me, you, Bill, Joe, Sarah, etc. And they don’t get a say in how it is spent on their kids? They don’t have a choice, Scott, on where they send their kids. They are stuck sending them to whatever rathole happens to be down the street.
A voucher is nothing more than a tax refund to allow parents a choice as to whether or not they want to send their kids to a better school instead of the monopoly system run by the government.
There is a reason the teacher’s union is afraid of vouchers — it will make them accountable. We can’t have that, now can we?
The doctors near me do not do pro-bono work. It just doesn’t happen. Don’t be stupid. They’re in business. Besides, you don’t make policy based on a single case or even both of the doctors in your one-horse town who treat people for free. That doesn’t happen much in the rest of the world.
I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. And yes, they are in business. But they’ve also taken the oath. Believe it or not, there are people who actually care about other people and are willing to do something about it instead of lecturing from a keyboard.
How many homeless people have you offered your couch to over the last few years? Oh, that’s right — it’s easier to legislate someone else doing it.
as usual bill was taken out of context ! one must listen before and after to get the real story ! bill has already commented on this bogus lie going around ! unreal ! you people will do anything to try to ruin his name !!!!!!
#78 – LibertyLover,
Tell me someone, you know personally, who needed an operation or anything else, who was actually refused treatment?
That’s a bullshit argument. Tell me someone you know personally who is homeless. We tend to associate with people in similar socioeconomic status. It doesn’t mean that others don’t exist.
School vouchers!
That’s your fucking answer??!!? Are you really insane? How about school standards.
And who gets to set the standards? Some bureaucrat in Washington? It should be handled at the State level. How they decide it is none of Washington’s business.
I will never ever understand this sort of non-argument. State is a government. Fed is a government. Why does it mean so much to you to have your state set the standard? Do you think it’s good to have Mississippi with much lower standards than New Jersey? What do you have against Mississippi?
Besides, where in the Constitution does it state that the Federal Government is responsible for educating the kids in this country?
When the constitution was written, was there any requirement at all that children go to school? So why is this a valid argument?
Where do you think the “government money” comes from? Me, you, Bill, Joe, Sarah, etc. And they don’t get a say in how it is spent on their kids? They don’t have a choice, Scott, on where they send their kids. They are stuck sending them to whatever rathole happens to be down the street.
A voucher is nothing more than a tax refund to allow parents a choice as to whether or not they want to send their kids to a better school instead of the monopoly system run by the government.
Well, by that argument, I want my school voucher money since I don’t have any kids using either system. And, while I’m at it, I want a refund for all of the federal dollars spent on the military and on corporate welfare.
There is a reason the teacher’s union is afraid of vouchers — it will make them accountable. We can’t have that, now can we?
Teachers should be accountable. I just don’t think sending federal money to church is the way to make it happen. And, yes, it is federal money, just like the military budget and the money doled out by the Export/Import Bank. I fail to see how you see it differently.
I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. And yes, they are in business. But they’ve also taken the oath. Believe it or not, there are people who actually care about other people and are willing to do something about it instead of lecturing from a keyboard.
Texas must be an idyllic paradise … except for the assholes trying to teach creationism in the state regulated public schools.
How many homeless people have you offered your couch to over the last few years? Oh, that’s right — it’s easier to legislate someone else doing it.
Ah yes. Another straw man. Instead of actually supporting programs to help the poor, just point out that most people wouldn’t invite them into their homes. Here’s an interesting little fact. I don’t trust most people, homeless or otherwise. This argument is, much like most of your others, not an argument at all. Real reform to does not begin by bringing one homeless person into your home.
Jeez. And, I’m the misanthrope here. I think you hate people more than I do.
Freedom to starve!!