I am struggling with motivation today for reasons most of you will understand…some of you won’t. Watching our government last night on C-Span pass that monstrous health care bill under the premise that it will reduce our national debt over the next 10 years just seems crazy to me. I don’t know about you, but I have not seen any government programs or projects come in under budget OR save anyone money in the long term. Medicare and Social Security as well as Welfare are all draining money out of our government and the bigger you make the programs the more it costs us long term.
I have read numerous reports on this bill and our government in general and I saw a fact that the government borrows $ .43 out of every $1.00 it spends. That is out of control and whether you are a democrat or republican, you need to call on your congressman or congresswoman to stop the spending and help control costs. The government is adding to our national debt at a rate that we can’t sustain…prior administrations included. My children and grandchildren will be saddled with a debt so out of control they can’t recover.
Small businesses employ +/- 90% of Americans and are the lifeblood of the economy. Strapping them with more taxes to cover the non-taxpayers health care is just not right. I do believe that every American should have the ability to get treated for illness in one way, shape or form. I don’t believe that this bill is the answer. The health care industry as a whole does need some work and corrections – torte reform to be specific. One way to reduce health care costs would be to limit the number of frivolous lawsuits that are filed against the industry as a whole. Doctors have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in malpractice insurance which gets passed on to the consumer. That is just one problem that I am pointing out, there are dozens more.
In general, my opinion is that any bill, especially of this magnitude, should be a bipartisan bill contributed to by both parties and put together by both parties. I think that giving either party complete control of our country’s future is a bad idea. They both have ideals that affect different people and they both have their good points and bad. Having just democratic support for this bill means that it only really is designed for about half of the Americans, the other half have no representation.
There are some benefits of this program, but as a whole I can’t see an overwhelming amount of benefits for many of the currently insured Americans or the ones on welfare, medicare or medicaid (which is about 90% of the population). So this whole overhaul seems like a stretch and a big commitment to help the 10% of the Americans without insurance and I am sure there are more cost effective ways to help them. Time will tell if the new competition created by a government run exchange is a good thing or a bad thing, but I don’t have any positive vibes about it today. I think that in the long run the private insurers will start to disappear and the “last man standing” will be the government and we will end up just like Canada or some of the other foreign countries with universal health care of which if you need good treatment you go to the USA. Where will we go since we just eliminated that option!?!
I would welcome your feedback to this post and your ideas and thoughts on the health care bill as it is proposed. This is an open forum!
Jeff Eriks
Jeff, I have similar thoughts, you’ll see in my post today and yesterday on my political blog. I think though that this is a terrific civics lesson on how our government works, and if the Supreme Court strikes down portions of this bill then we’ll learn even more.
daltonsbriefs´s last blog ..Region thoughts on healthcare takeover bill
I am thankful for any health care reform. Health care reform has been neglected for the past 40 years. It has not gotten better trusting Big brother Corporate America, or big brother insurance companies to improve anything other than their own self interests. Our child mortality rates are getting higher and higher, our life expectancy is getting lower, our health care costs are getting higher than other industrialized countries. In America people should not die for lack of health care.
It is like not having insurance for me because I pay $2,000 for Aetna health insurance with a $10,000 deductible. That is because I can not longer afford the $6,000 Blue Cross Blue Shield with $1,500 deductible.
The insurance companies that pays for Viagra, and not birth control is immoral! We have neglected the people and given life and death decisions to big insurance companies. Big mistake… people are dying because they are denied coverage or treatments. Sorry I think the government could and should do a much better job. I’d like to see Planned Parenthood included in health care reform. We have enough people. We are not an endangered species. No one should have to bear children, they are not able to provide for. We have lots of work ahead of us to make sure the future has a better world than we have had with opportunity to work at real jobs that produce results.
Big insurance is just another unregulated industry who remains “blameless”? Who do you think has been buying all the derrivatives, just the bankers trading amongst themselves? No way! Corporate America Big Insurance is at that casino everyday too! (Too big to fail) is too big to give a damn, and has taken over.
I was driving home several weeks ago and passed a bunch of Tea Party protesters with signs “Honk if you think health care reform is wrong”. Nobody was honking!
Proud to be American, where we have a right to public transportation but not health care? We need reform, recovery, and to get back to work, and to our roots. “By the people and for the people”. Change may be didfficult, but the changes that are coming could be the best news for you and me and tomorrow’s America.
The Supreme Court just gave Corporate World the right to buy all of our elected officials. When was the last time you ever saw a corporation vote, serve time for violating the law, serve jury duty or give a damn? The Supreme Court sold us out! What a democracy NOT. We never vote for the Supreme Court Justices, they are immune from the voice of the people. They are making very bad decisions… that one did not benifit you, or me, or any of the people of this once great country.
I appreciate your thoughts and honesty. I too believe that healthcare reform is essential, but it needs to be done differently. I believe the people should be able to buy AFFORDABLE health insurance policies. I believe that insurance companies regulations should be modified in order to create more competition. I believe that no one should be denied coverage based on pre-existing conditions. As a small business, our healthcare insurance costs for our employees are second only to our payroll costs. We spend a lot of money every year just carrying insurance policies.
The way the government bailed out the big corporations is also wrong, I agree completely. I would have let them fail as I believe it would have just made us stronger in the long run.
Things definitely need to be done differently in Washington otherwise we will be a poor, poor nation with undereducated citizens. We can’t keep borrowing to pay for programs we can’t afford.
Thanks again for your thoughts and honesty.
Jeff
When is the “real” worker in America going to get a break? Let’s prioritize the people making the wheel go round and round and NOT those soaking the system on disability, welfare and healthcare. I’m sure that there are legitimate, deserving individuals who are involved in those programs, but lately I just see and hear of more and more Americans taking advantage of these programs. Now we want to funnel illegal Aliens into these programs??? When are we going to say enough is enough? When is this country going to get back to what made it great? Hard working, dedicated individuals who take ownership of their jobs and responsibilities is what this country needs. Also, citizens taking ownership of their “bad decisions” and debt. Too many Americans are playing the blame game and looking for someone else to “bail” them out. Take responsibility for your own mistakes, something our government should learn to do.
Mike,
Some very valid points. A lot of people in this world definitely have problems taking accountability for their actions and it is always someone else’s fault when they end up in a bad situation. Rewarding the hard working individuals would definitely be a profound approach and many companies that are successful do just that.
Did you know that the average government employee makes over $75,000 per year? Must be nice. How many of those employees have you encountered and said, “Man is that person working hard for their money!” All this while the average citizen makes a mere $50,300 according to the US Census bureau. Do you see anything wrong with this?
If the gov’t only hired the best employees at their position (which according to pay they should be) AND made them perform like it and follow budgets than this country would be much better run and figure out a way to cut the deficit. Instead they hire employees and keep them forever (regardless of performance) and their pay just keeps increasing because they get COLA raises virtually every year (unlike the private industry).
This country has a lot of problems…we need the right congress to try and fix them and I mean both Democrats and Republicans alike. We need a change of mindset in this country – for the sake of our future generations!
Liberals are already pulling out the race card about this new Arizona immigration law, but in what way is it racist? Most illegal immigrants are Mexican, particularly in Arizona. It only makes sense that they’ll check Latinos. I don’t believe they will be stopping just any old Latino, they will be stopping the types searching for day jobs on the street, etc.
Even though I think your article is on the proper course there are actually some factors that i tend not to go along with.