I'm no sadist, but there is something satisfying, cathartic even, in this public browbeating of Long Island Congressman Tim Bishop (watch it here). The pained look on the congressman's face after angry constituents reacted to his holding up VA hospitals as model institutions is priceless (2:48). "The VA health-care system is a system that runs quite well," an aloof Bishop contends. "Ask most veterans." One veteran took this as an invitation to sternly lecture the university-administrator-turned-politician. "Are you a veteran?," the older vet asked the stunned congressman. "If I'm going to see a doctor, I might have to wait two months.... Don't ever tell us that you know the VA is an efficient medical system." If politicians are "single-minded seekers of election," as political scientist David Mayhew famously theorized, then Bishop, and others of his ilk feeling the heat from constituents on government-managed health care, may think twice before casting a "yea" vote on Obama care.
I think Annal Speckter D-PA, got reemed at a town hall meeting. he he.
Ask seniors if they like their single-payer universal health care. They do, and they don't want anyone touching it. It's completely government-funded, and it's called Medicare. Do you support a dismantling of the government-run Medicare system?
How do you feel about for-profit corporate interests interfering with doctor-patient relationships? What should happen to people who need health care but have pre-existing conditions? Should for-profit health outfits be allowed to purge their rolls of the sick in order to boost profits? Should insurance companies be permitted to rescind a policy because a holder failed to disclose a visit to a dermatologist for acne 18 years prior?
Do you feel it is justified for producers of medical equipment to charge 100x the production costs for their equipment, and should doctors have an incentive to use the equipment because it is profitable, even if it doesn't result in better health outcomes? Similarly, how do you feel about existing patent laws with regards to pharmaceuticals and cost growth? Lastly, how do you propose to reduce the growth of health care costs? Do you mainstream corporate-fellating conservatives have any solutions to these problems?
The circus sideshows of unresponsive, avaricious, and ignorant "public servants" (ie corporate whores) dealing with anecdotes are barely interesting and discussing them is a pathetic straw man that does nothing to address the legitimate concerns of Americans, who are losing health coverage at the rate of 14,000/day (which doesn't begin to account for those with policies which have been downgraded to catastrophic due to increased costs) with an already estimated 47 million uninsured.
Contrary to what some on this site might like to believe, there is not only NOT a clamoring for rationed government run health care but the multitude of public protests and disapproval amongst a majority of the American public disclaiming anything to do with Obamacare is growing.
And more seniors are coming around once they realize that pretty much everybody over 50 under the government's system will be deemed medically expendable.
True and scary for us...
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/07/obamas_birth_debate_its_about.html
PDA: That's what I like best about liberal arguments to throw the baby out with the bathwater: self-righteousness.
One Word- well two: TORT REFORM!!!
I want to apologize to everyone here at flynnfiles for my stupidity and insults. Health care reform is an emotionally-charged issue with truly life and death consequences, but that does not warrant using abusive or vulgar language, and I won't use it in the future.
From the PNHP website:
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2008/january/make_that_22000_uni.php
"The absence of health insurance creates a range of consequences, including lower quality of life, increased morbidity and mortality, and higher financial burdens. This paper focuses on just one aspect of this harm—namely, greater risk of death—and seeks to illustrate its general order of magnitude.
In 2002, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimated that 18,000 Americans died in 2000 because they were uninsured. Since then, the number of uninsured has grown. Based on the IOM’s methodology and subsequent Census Bureau estimates of insurance coverage, 137,000 people died from 2000 through 2006 because they lacked health insurance, including 22,000 people in 2006.
Much subsequent research has continued to confirm the link between insurance and mortality risk described by IOM. In fact, subsequent studies and ana1ysis suggest that, if anything, the IOM methodology may underestimate the number of deaths that result from a lack of insurance coverage.
More broadly, these estimates should be viewed as reasonable indicators of the general magnitude of excess mortality that results from lack of insurance, not as precise “body counts.” The true number of deaths resulting from uninsurance may be somewhat higher or lower than the estimates in this paper, but that number is surely significant."
@xantippe:
I am in no way suggesting that the technological infrastructure or resources of the current health system be destroyed (though some may argue that that could be a consequence of socialized health insurance or medicine). I'm suggesting that more resources be allocated to deliver universal health care. As long as that condition is met, I'm open to different delivery mechanisms.
Liberals rule.
Health Care and Martini's for everyone.
You Right Wing MothA F&*&*(ers , Ill take you all on the Chappy Ferry like I did that Mary Jo Chick and thatll be the end of you and all you Cheney lovin MO FO's.
Black is beautiful Obama for emporer. Kim Jong Il for Vice Emporer and Matt Damon too.
When I got baaaghk Mary Jo, the Chivas and the caaagh wergh gone!
MarkR - right on the dinero.
But Obama would rather cut off his right hand (or would rather REALLY stop smoking) than mess with one of the biggest lobbies who helped put him in the White House. Trial lawyers are a predominant reason that the best health care on the planet here in America is so expensive.
Ain't going to hear a peep about that from President Smoke and Mirrors.
