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I'm not an actuary, a healthcare administrator, or other "healthcare industry" worker, but I am an experienced primary care physician, now, thank God, gratefully retired after a 42 year practice. Fogive my ignorance and much thanks to Thom, but "single payer" means a single, centralized, efficient funding source, which may be in an otherwise private delivery system, as I understand Canada's system to be. This gives a tremendous savings in administrative costs. Correct me, if I'm wrong. A totally socialized uniform government run delivery system is another kettle of fish. We have neither, but, rather, the most expensive, ineffective (except for the wealthy) and, to my mind, corrupt feeding frenzy of a "healthcare industry". I loved helping my patients but hated the insurance companies, HMO's, government oversight, over-priced drugs, over-paid medical specialists, etc. that I had to work with. All medical services and personnel must be not-for-profit. It's a simple moral issue, which the Europeans get, but we do not. In my practice, we refused to collect copays and, thus, lost $1,000,000, but I sleep great and skweak by on my SS. Like E.F. Shumaker said: "small is beautiful". Thanks, Thom! By the way, Al Gore was and is still my President. Kick the ursurpers to the curb! Gregg Miklashek, MD (retired)
Great that Gore mentioned Single Payer...but there are many who do not know what it means...namely... Government-Funded, Government-Administered National Health Care For All That is Far Less Expensive Overall than the Current System and Involves No Private Insurance Businesses and No Wasteful Advertising, Lobbying, Campaign Gifts or Plush Insurance Headquarters.
If Gore or even active Health Care For All people publicized that top for-profit insurers invest Billions of our supposed health care money in health-damaging industries such as cigarettes, oil, coal, pesticides, pharms that make even tobacco pesticides, military contractors, nukes, GMOs, junk food, etc...THAT Might dissuade anyone from supporting Obamacare OR Trumpcare or anything like it.
Info about where, and for how much, for-profit insurers invest is publicly available at the SEC's EDGAR Database. Maybe the Hartmann team has a techno expert who can download some of that...for broadcast airing.
Don't know (yet) where CEOs of "non-profit" insurers invest, or how to find out.
Over 99% of the media is owned by the Rich and greedy. Did you EXPECT them to cover Al's story?? He's a DEMOCRAT, not a GOPher.
At work and can't call In but glad we are looking for a central message here's mine that I think covers what we need.
RESPECT SPELLS OUT-
R IGHT TO VOTE
E QUAL EDUCATION FOR ALL
S INGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE
P AY YOU CAN LIVE ON
E QUALITY FOR ALL LGBTQ
C LIMATE CHANGE IS REAL SCIENCE
T RUTH
Ou812
Election fraud is illegal. If Mr Palast has the proof, why haven't Democrats done anything about it?
Possible answers:
A. Democrats don't care about election fraud, the rather have the illusion of election fraud to anger there duped supporters.
B. Republicans are smarter than Democrats and will continue to beat them at every turn.
C. There is no proof, Mr Palast is the fraud. He's managed to make a tidy sum dupping Democrats.
D. Democrats don't want to admit the truth. The were beaten in a fair an square election, because they ignored there base, dumped Bernie Sanders and joined in the failed coronation of Hillary Clinton
the correct answer?
E. All of the above
Laws of Natural Science 2020
Rule # 1: Trump Doesn't Understand (.)
Rule #2: When In doubt, see rule #1.
Great job on this one thom ; just quit putin on those nasty libertarians and Dog face back stabbing fascist republicans ! They make me very sick :
WISCONSIN - Voter suppression is awful, and Crosscheck is intolerable. But facts need to be kept straight. Wisconsin does not participate in Crosscheck, and had not done any state-initiated purges of voter registration lists for two years before the 2016 election.
Same-day voter registration protects us against suppression-by-purging because if people find they are not registered when they get to the polls, they can register on the spot and cast a regular (not provisional) ballot. Your state, too, should have same-day registration at the polls. Research backs it up as the ONLY administrative measure that increases turnout (much more effective than mail-in or early voting, for example.)
Wisconsin's problems are 1) Voter ID; 2) certifying the voting machine output as final election results without checking its accuracy--if anyone was hacking our elections, no one would know; and 3) gerrrymandering.
Karen McKim, Coordinator
http://www.wisconsinelectionintegrity.org/
Legend, Actually I think Trump's new healthcare proposal will be for the infirm to touch the TV while he prays away their sickness and injuries. That's probably why he went to visit Pat Robertson, to get some pointers.
Maybe he can convince his base that Mexico will pay for healthcare.
E. Hotdog doesn't do homework, looks dumb in class, everyone giggles.
Of course, the 64 billion dollar question is how the Republican base squares the fact their Senators and Congressmen have exempted themselves from their own healthcare plan. Apparently, they have no compunctions regarding throwing their constituents to the wolves while they feast in the Koch Brothers, ivory towers.
As the old Fox News saying goes: "Fool you once….shame on us, fool you every time…welcome to the Republican Party."
Here's how the Republicans can easily fix the current healthcare debacle. Take the ACA (Obamacare), add or subtract a dollar or a comma here and there, then change the name to: The Very Very Good, Very Very Great, You're Gonna Love It, It's Gonna Be Wonderful, This I Can Tell You, Fantastic, Very Great Healthcare Act!!!!
Problem solved!!!
Deepspace stated: "you may begin your education with Greg Palast, who, through many well-researched works, lays out the long record of election fraud for all to see."
Election fraud is illegal. If Mr Palast has the proof, why haven't Democrats done anything about it?
Possible answers:
A. Democrats don't care about election fraud, the rather have the illusion of election fraud to anger there duped supporters.
B. Republicans are smarter than Democrats and will continue to beat them at every turn.
C. There is no proof, Mr Palast is the fraud. He's managed to make a tidy sum dupping Democrats.
D. Democrats don't want to admit the truth. The were beaten in a fair an square election, because they ignored there base, dumped Bernie Sanders and joined in the failed coronation of Hillary Clinton
Is Medicare the answer? I am on Medicare. I pay $121 per month. The regular plan covers 80% of a procedure. But the procedure costs about 5 times what it would in another country. Which means you pay 100%. What a benefit. For 2 to 300 more you can get supplemental insurance from a for profit insurance company. The older that you get the more that you pay. I went the Medicare Advantage way which makes more sense to me. Plus it is with a not for profit company.
Osterstock: It is not just you. Would anybody care to paraphrase what he tried to say? (I don't mean what he was thinking (i.e., "Screw everybody that makes less money that me", etc.) but what he was actually, and unsuccessfully trying to say.
Trump and many others are trying to subvert and destroy our democratic republic - for various reasons. Democrats must grow more support for saving our united states under the Constitution and a strong federal governement.
Thanks for all you do.
12 times 70 is $840 dollars. What dreamer thinks he can get a policy with that?? $840 might get you checked into to a room at a hospital. NOTHING is cheap at a hospital!! I guess the qualification to be a politician is, first be an idiot. And 2nd, to think you know everything! And 3rd, to be heartless.
All that means is one of two things. He is either messing with people's minds, or he has a mental condition. He is either out of touch with reality, or he is laughing at people's ignorance.
Since he has laughed at people's ignorance for a long time, I bet he is just messing with people minds. Perhaps he is trying to find out how long it takes people to figure out that they are fools, if they ever do, Puerto Rico had a governor like that. He would act in ways that showed how much he despised people and, yet, some people called him the Messiah.
He will probably quit doing it when serious politicians stop using the garbage to keep people confused. The moment people start ignoring Trump's stupid comments and start discussing things that are really important and that could improve our lives in the US, take us out of the hole we dug for ourselves, he will quit making dumb comments.
Hard to image that the republicans in the room are on board with making the internet a public service like #15 suggests. Nothing would prevent anyone from upgrading to pay a private company for internet, kind of like the USPS and its private competitors. Notice how private mail carriers rely more and more on utilizing services by outsourcing to the USPS for those more pesky delivery routes?
Hopefully TusconJack that you do not also have your amateur radio rigged up to the internet, which would defeat the purpose. If you don't ham then you could resort to messenger pigeons. After listening to the segment earlier this week about the book Raven Rock, who knows what is in store for us with the billionaires in charge of everything. We better pick up a Farmers Almanac and see if anyone has messenger pigeons for sale. Otherwise smoke signals seem to have been very popular.
Maybe someone #16 can explain to us what would happen if the internet stopped working in the private for profit market free-for-all. Maybe "Pharma Bro" will start providing internet access next. We the people do, well most of us, do put all of our faith in the United States Constitution and in the United States Government and have allegiance to this country. That is why the internet needs to be a public service so we can put our faith into its robustness as well. The postman always delivers; we need the postman to deliver internet access as a public service.
Obamacare was designed to fail. Does anyone not see that? Obama himself is on record saying he preferred single payer. He said circa '07 or '08 that there was not the political will to pass single payer but to wait 10 years. Of course he was expecting a democrat successor to his presidency. This is recorded fact.
After the passage of Obamacare, left-wingers were all singing the virtures of the ACA. Democrats all across the spectrum were saying that the healthcare/health insurance mess was finally solved. This is the democrats mess. They passed Obamacare and they own it. If the ACA was so great, why do democrats now say it needs fixing?
K2
Notice: To respond further is obviously an exercise in futility, so this post is primarily to practice my ever-lacking typing skills:
Thank you, me Lord Kilosqrd, for taking the time out of your busy day to consider that too-long dissertation, your humble servant's most inadequate offering. There is no greater honor than to serve a suppressed yearning for truth and light, a way out of the arrogance and ignorance of the fevered swamps. Why else do you enter the Chamber of Truth and converse with the High Council of Wise Elders, me Lord?
The illusive proof of which you speak, oh Grasshopper, is where you choose to look, and where not to look ( aaahhh ...Fux News, ya think?!). ...Ahem... to our delight, your travels and good fortune have placed in your hands the very answers to all the mysteries for which you have been searching all these long years. Simply scroll back to the bounty of reference material provided above, at your fingertips, at your convenience, and at your beck and call.
As was advised earlier, in case Your Excellency missed it during an episode of self-righteous anger, you may begin your education with Greg Palast, who, through many well-researched works, lays out the long record of election fraud for all to see. No one owns objective reality, Grasshopper; you will find many such truth tellers along the way on your long and arduous journey back to sanity ...not Hannity.
Patience is another virtue to learn anew. For proof of the many crimes of King Donnie Boy the Imposter, we must all learn to wait, unfortunately, for the investigation by the Sheriff of Donaldham to reach its inexorable conclusion. Sad.
Please refer any further inquires to the Royal Office of the Inquisition. They have bundles of documents and witness testimony stacking up in the evidence locker room, along with a mountain of corroborating evidence from His Majesty's 17 different intelligence agencies -- to be released at the appropriate time.
Alas, your humble servant is not on their gawddamn mailing list, and so can only point in the right direction. It is you who must arrive, most honored sir.
IOW: Do ya own feckin' homework, ya lazy eeijet!
Or, in the words of my wise and ...ah... "spirited" great Irish grandfather, "Focáil leat!.
What's the average age of death for U.S. males....mid 70's? I don't think Trump, the Kochs, or any of these out of control pecker heads think about that....they're all ffnn delusional.
I wish I could laugh at the god damn fool, but I still simmer with anger over what was an illegitimate election. None of this should be happening. Obama and our intelligence agencies could have ended this nightmare long before the electoral college vote took place.
Shame on the CIA for putting political partisanship and budget greed before the general welfare of this country. Not to mention Comey and his shenanigans last Sept.
BTW: I see the cost of doing business with Russia has cost Exxon a whopping two million. Wow that must have hurt...LMAO
What sanctions?
I'm 79 years old....never have I paid "$12" or "$15" for health insurance, and as I grew older, I needed it to cover more than just me....Not only doesn't Trump know about health insurance, or any insurance, no one has ever paid that little their entire life....if he wasn't so frighteningly pathetic, he could 'almost' be humorous.
I KNOW he knows nothing about health in general...just LOOK at him...he's puffy and bloated....just disgusting!
He's still the 12/13 yr old who was sent away to military school because dad and mom couldn't handle him....and neither can anyone else!