What's so scary about Obama's health care plan?

[bw1]

Here's the bottom line: It's a matter of trust. Do you really want
to trust the elected officials in Washington to decide whether or not
you need a medical procedure? Our elected officials can't be trusted
to balance a budget to keep our government from going bankrupt. I am
certainly not going to put my health care in their hands. The power
of daily life or death decision-making that patients and doctors now
possess must not be handed over to government bureaucrats. Let's
unite (Democrats, Republicans, Independents, everyone!), write or call
your Representatives and Senators, and demand that health care
decisions remain in the hands of individuals.

Yes, we must work to find ways to bring costs down and to help every
US citizen to be able to get the care they need. If the government
imposes reasonable regulation across the board to shore up the system
then we get the best of all worlds. Allow the free market to continue
to reign as far as is possible. This keeps quality high and maximizes
individual freedom and choice. Too much public intervention will ruin
our ability to lead the world in medical advancements. Obama's public
health insurance option will put private insurers out of business and
eventually eliminate the option of private health care altogether if
allowed to run its logical course.

Some may think that's just fine, let's go ahead and socialize. Sorry,
but socialized medicine has been proven to result in sub-standard care
in every country where it has been tried. If the US were to socialize
our health care system where would the Canadians go when the
government tells them "sorry, but you're going to have to wait a year
and half for this emergency heart surgery", or "sorry, you're too old
to qualify for this life-saving operation"? Let's keep our heads on
straight people and be careful how we handle the future of the
greatest health care system in the world.

[bw1]

Here is a link to a sensible plan that is in the works:

http://www.johnboehner.house.gov/UploadedFiles/06172009GOPHealthCareReformSolutionsGroupOutline.pdf

All of our officials (Democrats, Republicans, Independents, everyone!)
must unite on enacting legislation that meets the goals of ensuring
that coverage is made available to all, ensuring portable coverage,
eliminating denial on the basis of pre-existing conditions, and
bringing costs down to affordable levels. All of this can be done
without President Obama's public insurance option. The public
insurance option if allowed to run its logical course will put private
insurers out of business and eventually eliminate private health care
altogether putting US government bureaucrats ultimately in complete
control over every decision you might want to make about your own
health care. We can't allow this giant first step toward socialized
medicine to be enacted. Write or call your Representatives and
Senators today about this important issue.

[bw1]

The biggest things we should be doing to help people afford health
care are to: 1) Allow the free market to control costs, 2) Allow ALL
legitimate businesses to prosper thereby creating good jobs with good
incomes for all. A public health insurance option is not needed to
accomplish these things. Let's talk about the facts. Anyone's input
on this subject is welcome on this discussion group. Together we
citizens can make a difference. The open discussion of sensible ideas
is the only way to keep things moving in the right direction.

On Aug 11, 1:45 am, bw1 <beedub...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Here is a link to a sensible plan that is in the works:
>

> http://www.johnboehner.house.gov/UploadedFiles/06172009GOPHealthCareR...

[hickster]

Legitimate business is not prospering because of any fair market; it's
becoming obscenely wealthy by sacrificeing health care. As
contradictory as it sounds, health care insurance provides precious
little health care. 36 countries provide better care thru the
government than we do thru private sources. Citizens of 49 countries
w/ socialized medicine live longer. The embarrassing thing is that
many countries with socialized medicine will only dispense
prescriptions made in the USA of Germany for their quality control,
where as we are sold the cheapest available, frequently useless
untested generics. The so-called pandemic laws passed by Bush in 2006
repeal the testing regs for vaccines, and take away the right to sue
drug companies for damages. Those same vaccines that are right now
being scheduled for use in schools. Anyone who thinks the drug
companies are prepared to police themselves, is ignoring their past
record. Drug companies will raise the price of any drug prescribed
until it's too expensive for people to afford, after which they;ll
make some minor change, farm it out and call it generic. Our childhood
mortality rate is an embarrasment, and our health care is a leading
cause of death. Bob H.

[d2e2]

On Aug 11, 1:17 am, bw1 <beedub...@gmail.com> wrote:

Sadly, your comments prove that you are an enemy of this country and
the principals for which it stands. They are seditious in nature and
fallacious in fact. The fundamental principal you violate is the fact
found in our Nation's Declaration of Independence, this Nation is
governed by the people for the people. It is not governed by
politicians who are completely dependent upon the people for their
support. Do politicians fail to do your personal will? You are but
one out of many millions and so your personal will is actually
meaningless unless of course you can convince others by a presentation
of fact that the individuals representing them in the government are
not serving the purpose for which they were elected.

Your post does not provide any such fact with regard to health care.
In claiming that the "government" cannot provide effective health care
is a lie that is readily exposed by the existence of government run
health care in the United States and around the world. The health care
provided to our seniors, our children and our Veterans is well above
the standards offered in your "free market" system. I am a senor
citizen and I know for a fact that my health care is better, much
better, than yours and your premiums are three times higher than mine.
So I get much more for much less and for this reason I am convinced
that this country needs a universal health care system like the one I
have. I am convinced that this country must provide such a system just
as I am convinced it needs a national highway system and railroad
system. We need it so that people can enjoy and benefit from the
economic growth these systems have provided historically.

[bw1]

Ok, sorry about the late reply here. I've just been really busy.
Sorry that you took such obvious offense to my original post on this
thread. I assure you no offense to anyone was intended. I'll go
ahead and insert some comments below.

Come on, "enemy of this country"? "seditious"? Don't you think you're
overreaching and overreacting just a little? I will accept the
challenge to be factual and of course always seek to be. Most of what
I believe about this is what I would call common sense, but I
certainly welcome debate at any time. I do love my country and do not
believe the President's proposals on health care thus far are in any
way good for this country which I dearly love.

> The fundamental principal you violate is the fact
> found in our Nation's Declaration of Independence, this Nation is
> governed by the people for the people. It is not governed by
> politicians who are completely dependent upon the people for their
> support.  Do politicians fail to do your personal will? You are but
> one out of many millions and so your personal will is actually
> meaningless unless of course you can convince others by a presentation
> of fact that the individuals representing them in the government are
> not serving the purpose for which they were elected.
>
> Your post does not provide any such fact with regard to health care.

Not sure at all how any of the above supports your main points, but
I'll comment anyway. If indeed we are to be governed by the people
and for the people (which I agree with wholeheartedly) I would think
we should care and protest when the current government wants to limit
our rights to free enterprise. The state insurance proposal will
seriously undermine "the people's" right to conduct business freely.
It will amount to unfair direct competition by the government and
could completely destroy the health insurance industry. I'm not
saying the current system is perfect. Our current system has many
difficulties which need to be addressed. The government certainly
does have the right and the obligation to give help in working out the
issues and coming up with solutions. I just happen to disagree with
the government health insurance idea. I think it's too drastic. It
undermines free enterprise. A good solution will help to reduce costs
and will enable businesses to flourish and prosper. Limiting
government interference with business is what has made us the great
nation we are today. Two other nations with abundant resources but
with traditionally oppressive governments, China and Russia, proved
that having a prosperous economy is not all about being lucky and
having resources. Our system of government has allowed the people to
have freedom to choose their own personal destinies and the results
have been wonderful for the most part. For all of it's flaws and
problems, I believe we live in a great nation and am proud to be
called a citizen of the USA. Our system is based on maximizing
individual freedom, and it works. We need to keep the tradition of
freedom alive in our dealings concerning health care, not emulate old
communist Russia and China. Their economies collapsed under the
weight of socialist control, but in the past 20 years have both
experienced huge leaps forward in recovery and revitalization now that
they have moved away from socialism and toward privatization.

> In claiming that the "government" cannot provide effective health care
> is a lie that is readily exposed by the existence of government run
> health care in the United States and around the world. The health care
> provided to our seniors, our children and our Veterans is well above
> the standards offered in your "free market" system. I am a senor
> citizen and I know for a fact that my health care is better, much
> better, than yours and your premiums are three times higher than mine.
> So I get much more for much less

I have never heard anyone else ever claim that medicare and medicaid
provide anything resembling good health care. Sorry you're going to
have to back up your claim to getting "much more for much less".

> and for this reason I am convinced
> that this country needs a universal health care system like the one I
> have. I am convinced that this country must provide such a system just
> as I am convinced it needs a national highway system and railroad
> system. We need it so that people can enjoy and benefit from the
> economic growth these systems have provided historically.

Yes, highways and railways are great government services. Our tax
dollars should continue to go toward things the government is good
at. They don't need to play doctor and pretend to know something
about how to treat me if I get sick. Dear God, man, I'm just glad not
everyone shares your delusion that socialism is somehow going to work
now when it's proven to fail so dismally everywhere it's been tried.
You need to bone up on modern economic history. Check out England as
a great case study on how things work wonderfully when taxes are low
and things are privatized as opposed to the downward slide that occurs
under socialization and higher taxes. We've had it too good in the US
to even begin to understand how bad other people have it when
governments get too powerful and try to micro-manage the lives of the
people. I'll continue to support our Constitution and our Declaration
of Independence that say we the people have the inalienable rights to
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Big government is the
opposite of government by and for the people. A big tax and spend
government is tyrannical and controlling. A small government that
protects my right to pursue happiness in freedom is the kind of
government that our original founders risked their lives to bring into
existence. They did this in opposition to big government tyranny.
They thought that idea was worth dying for.

Let's keep free enterprise as a part of the health care system in the
US. Let the government work with, not against, the current system.
Obama's popularity is tanking. Enough time has passed to see that tax
and spend isn't actually the panacea his allies have been promising.
He says he's not for high taxes, but you can't have it both ways.
Spending trillions more than the previous administration means if the
trend continues our future economy is going to be much worse than the
present bad economy. Sensible people are beginning to see that. It's
not too late to reverse the damage that's been done, but will be too
late very soon unless policies are quickly brought back in line with
common sense and historical precedent. Our bad economy was caused by
inept government oversight and social engineering regarding home
mortgages by liberals who wanted easy home ownership for everyone.
Bush sadly didn't see the danger of what was happening until it was
too late, but the ball had been rolling toward disaster for many years
and was started in that direction under the Clinton administration.
That's of course another topic entirely. Cheers.

[comba...@gmail.com]

I definitely don't trust Washington with managing my health care.