Another health care thread.

[discreetgent]

Originally Posted by Rudyard K

And you never invite me!? A man of slightly more frail emotional balance might be hurt.

Surely you two fat cats can spare a beer or two.

As long as the first toast can be to no longer having GWB in office
You can make the second one

[dearhunter]

Originally Posted by discreetgent

As long as the first toast can be to no longer having GWB in office
You can make the second one

I am not sure which is worse.......a liberal disguised as a conservative........or........ .....a socialist disguised as a progressive

[discreetgent]

Originally Posted by dearhunter

I am not sure which is worse.......a liberal disguised as a conservative........or........ .....a socialist disguised as a progressive

You'll have to forgive me but I have no idea what you are trying to say. I have never hidden my political leanings.

[atlcomedy]

Originally Posted by discreetgent

You'll have to forgive me but I have no idea what you are trying to say. I have never hidden my political leanings.

A little self involved are we? It's not about you

I believe he's talking about GWB & Obama respectively

[WTF]

Originally Posted by atlcomedy

A little self involved are we? It's not about you

I believe he's talking about GWB & Obama respectively

LOL....sorry DG, that was pretty damn funny.


Where'd that TexasGator go? They have fried Pork Chops on Mondays at Peters BBQ. Wednesday is chicken Fried Steak!

I gotta start taking the 290 Aggie route.

[discreetgent]

Thanks guys.

[WTF]

Originally Posted by dearhunter

I am not sure which is worse.......a liberal disguised as a conservative........or........ .....a socialist disguised as a progressive

I don't know 'bout all dat but a prophet disguised as a dearhunter should scare the chit out of us all.

[Texas Contrarian]

History expert and vice president Joe Biden, while introducing President Obama, also introduced Americans to the new name for health care legislation:

17-second Video Clip

Over 100 years ago, Theodore Roosevelt promoted the "Square Deal."

In the 1930s, FDR created the New Deal.

In the '40s, Truman introduced the Fair Deal.

Now Obama has brought us the Big Fucking Deal!

[Marcus Aurelius]

My daughter is in clinicals right now as a heart sonogragher.
All day long people in their 80's and 90's are brought in. One guy had a scar from having a pig valve put in years ago and he had no recollection of it.
All forms of dementia etc. Many of these people are racked with all forms of cancer as well. But their physicians insist on having procedures done to check out their heart function. Lungs empty from emphysema. Now, some of these people have family but a heart condition is the least of their problems but rack up the fees anyway.

[Guest083011]

A friend's mom was unresponsive was at "the home" Saturday. Her aid was with her, and she (the mom) also fell. In the ambulance or in the hospital she was back to normal. So they have opted to install a pacemaker. $70k is the probable cost. The woman is in her mid-eighties. Probably has dementia but is okay. Another friend assists with GI exams (lower and upper) and the patients are in the eighties too. At 85 leave my tush alone. Just let me go to the strip clubs and see the courtesans in peace. (I'll put the money in my pants pocket "hey honey, wanna search for hidden treasure" [old line from SNL delivered by Buck Henry] )

[TexTushHog]

Originally Posted by pjorourke

Executive Orders don't mean squat. they can be changed by this president or another one. They have no force of law. Stupak is catching shit because he sold out for nothing. At least Nelson got the Cornhusker Kickback. Stupak just got fucked in the ass by Nancy with a big thick dildo. Anyone up for a side bet as to whether or not he is defeated in November?

Primary of general. He's got a pro-choice primary candidate, Connie Saltonstall, that I gave some money to when the House bill passed.

As for the general, I don't know who's running, at least by name. But the demographics of the district make it possible that a Republican can win. PVI +3R so it's doable. But I've understood when I asked around about the race when I sent money to the pro-choice candidate that the Republican candidate (who lost to a better qualified candidate in the primary in 2008) wasn't a very strong or very qualified candidate, nor was she expected to have much money.

But I might be willing to put some substantial money on it. My minimum political bet is $1000. I'll go up to $10k, but I want to run some traps and check on the polls in that district first. How much are you willing to bet?

Originally Posted by pjorourke

Agreed. The concept of a moderate Democrat is a myth. They are all Pelosistas.

They're pretty much all moderate Democrats, unfortunately. If they were progressives, we'd have a strong bill that fucked the insurance industry instead of made it richer. Single payer is eventually where we'll end up. This will increase the breadth of coverage, but it won't do much for costs because for profit medical financing is the real problem.

Oh, and all this hand wringing and hysteria reminds me of this quote:

" . . . behind it will come other Federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country. Until one day, as Norman Thomas said, we will awake to find that we have socialism. And if you don't do this and if I don't do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free."

http://www.larrydewitt.net/Essays/MedicareDaddy.htm

This was Ronald Reagan, while being paid by the AMA, when he was campaigning against Medicare. Nothing of the sort happened then and nothing of the sort is going to happen now.

"Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past."

George Santayana

[WTF]

Originally Posted by TexTushHog

This was Ronald Reagan, while being paid by the AMA,

Good ole Ronnie......the biggest snake charmer this country has ever seen!

[Rudyard K]

Originally Posted by TexTushHog

Oh, and all this hand wringing and hysteria reminds me of this quote:

" . . . behind it will come other Federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country. Until one day, as Norman Thomas said, we will awake to find that we have socialism. And if you don't do this and if I don't do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free."

http://www.larrydewitt.net/Essays/MedicareDaddy.htm

This was Ronald Reagan, while being paid by the AMA, when he was campaigning against Medicare. Nothing of the sort happened then and nothing of the sort is going to happen now.

There are many in this country who feel it just did.

[Texas Contrarian]

Originally Posted by WTF

Good ole Ronnie......the biggest snake charmer this country has ever seen!

Do you really think Reagan was a bigger snake charmer than Obama? If so, I'd love to have some of whatever you've been drinking!

Originally Posted by TexTushHog

...it won't do much for costs because for profit medical financing is the real problem.

We went through all this way back when the thread's post count was about a dozen short of a hundred!

The real problem is not the existence of for-profit health care; it's the fact that no one (including the consumer) has any incentive at all to control costs. Some solutions are outlined in the article to which I linked in post #88.

Food availability is an even more critical need than health care coverage, yet does anyone seriously believe that for-profit food production/distribution is a problem? Of course not. Can you imagine how bad state-owned farms and supermarkets would be? The key difference is that grocery store shoppers have access to good market information and incentives to keep costs down. The same goes for producers and distributors of food.

The sad truth is that the current health care delivery system is about the furthest thing imaginable from a well-functioning free market.

It's also a shameful absurdity that no one will confront the politically-powerful trial lawyers lobby. Physicians feel compelled to practice costly defensive medicine by conducting all manner of tests which are intended, in many cases, only to "paper the files" -- and improve the prospects for defence in case of jackpot-seeking lawsuits. This considerably drives up aggregate costs.

As I see it, the biggest problem of all is that we're adding the second big, expensive entitlement program within a span of just about seven years without asking anyone to pay for it -- and at a time when we already have out-of-control spending and deficits. In 2003, Bush and a Republican congress jammed through an expensive prescription drug benefit plan at the same time that we were getting an across-the-board income tax cut. Now we just passed an even more expensive health care plan. The notion that we can pay for this with tax hikes only on the top 2% of the income strata is absurd.

This health care bill is not "reform" -- it's simply the subsidization and massive expansion of an expensive, dysfunctional system in which perverse incentives are allowed to continue unabated.

If we continue on our present course, we'll soon face a calamitous fiscal train wreck -- even without adding huge new entitlement programs.. Passing this horrifically expensive health care "reform" bill is a little like choosing a kitchen remodeling contractor while the house is on fire.

[Hot to Trot Daphne]

Originally Posted by Dasani

Honestly... I want to say, to you, No. However realistically, Yes.
That's why, I feel, there should be, More hair pulling.
Hey, but I couldn't, make it, to Washington this term.
:

why Dasani? WHY??? you and Nina kill me with your obscure haiku s....Is it akin to Zorro's "Z" so we know it's you? Or just a misunderstanding on my part? I love you both, sisters by heritage and profession, but aggggg.

Perhaps this will help.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/607/02/