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Sad, sad, sad country!
The biggest economy on the planet and can't take care of it's citizens
Always squabbling over money like little children do
This is mine... no it's mine... no it's not it's mine!!!
Right on!
All the polling data going back decades proves hands down that the vast majority of people on Medicare (80 percent plus) love it, even though they may grumble and grip now and then about this or that. Of COOOURSE, the never-satisfied outliers and whiny little babies who watch Fox Faux News will piss and moan about anything and everything "guvmut," especially when they're out of beer and off their meds.
The main things wrong with Medicare are all the holes punched in it by corporatized Republican and Democratic politicians who are always scheming and conniving to divert taxpayer money into the grubby hands of their greedy donors. Bloated puss-guts, who need two chairs to plant their fat asses at the table, always want a bigger and bigger piece of the public pie. Well, too f*cking bad; they don't deserve a gawddamn crumb! Time to go on a starvation diet, you worthless fat bastards!
Until the people stand up and demand real change, they will continue to suffer under a hybrid, bastardized, semi-privatized nightmare of part B, part D, Medicare (dis)Advantage "plans," and E-F-X-Y-Z-1-2-3-kiss-my-ass supplementals -- primarily designed to suck on the taxpayer's teat.
Nearly one third of the cost of healthcare in the private sector is wasted on armies of clerks and their dizzying array of computer algorithms and paperwork: providers fighting to get paid; insurers fighting for profits. The collateral damage, as always, are the innocent civilians caught in the middle -- patients and taxpayers.
Medicare for all, no holes, no sh*t!
C'mon, Thom. Big "Duh". It's called the insurance and big pharma lobbies. It's called capitalism in action, parading in the full regalia of exploitation, bigger profits at all costs, and what me worry if we trample down the little people.
Lefaivre:
Yes, Diane has had 6 years experience with Medicare.
Insurance companies will tell you up front what is and is not covered. If I elect to proceed, it is on my dime and I am ok with that. If I felt I needed more complete coverage, I am free to purchase such a plan. Under Medicare, primary carte doctors only get paid in full if they follow all the prescribed Medicare rules. Deviations are not covered at my long time family physicians clinic.
I will defer to the Doctors and clinics as far as "responsible payments" back to them.
Medicare and VA records are available to far too many Government agencies. Many people blindly sign papers that allow such practice.
Insurance companies DO require paperwork. It is duplicated when sent to Medicare. You now have a scribe in with the doctor during your exam.
My best response is to tell you to ask your Doctor and clinic how obamacare and Medicare have altered the time spent with, the tests permitted, and the quality of care given to their patients.
The only Americans who disagree are godless, heartless, selfish, greedy, paranoid, sociopathic, subhuman, brainwashed, racist, misogynistic Republicans with micro-minds who think Trump is their great white saviour. But I repeat myself.
Whatever people call it, what they are talking about is universal health care. They would have to explain the logic of providing more than emergency room services to our poor, just to dump them back on the streets. Deprivation of adequate food and shelter take a very heavy toll on human health.
The UN's UDHR lists food, shelter, and medical care as fundamental human rights, even for the jobless poor. Americans disagree.
The Right doesn't want a single payer system because we have government of the wealthy, for the wealthy, & by the wealthy, & the current administration seems to consist of sociopaths who lack all empathy & compassion. I believe we're the only country that allows basic healthcare to be run as a for-profit system, but I'll bet few people are aware that there's a better alternative. Brainwashing about the "evils of socialism" & the problems w/ single payer from Fox, etc. has also worked very well to keep people ignorant. Dislodging the parasitic insurance companies & big pharma from our system will require all of us who want a better system to get active & pressure our legislators, including the Democrats, to back Bernie's bill. I'm guessing that without intense pressure from constituents, most Dems will not have the guts to vote for it. Obamacare shows that once you give people something, it's hard to take it away, so we need to keep up the pressure.
I'm beginning to think, it was the only way to slip it by them and now they can't repeal it. We were lawyered up!
Diane, you obviously don't have Medicare experience.
1) and2) Don't you think that insurance companies are making decisions about the care you receive or the tests they can include? Medicare has rules but they are approved by doctors.
3) Medicare does pay responsibly. When things go wrong, as they do with ordiary insurance also, it has to do with payment submission procedures. If we had one payer, we wouldn't have to put up with dozens of different procedures with all the attendent opportunities for confusion and mistakes.
4) Who says medical records handled by Medicare are not private?
5) Medicare absolutely allows you to choose doctors and clinics.
6) You think insurance companies don't requiere paperwork? Our current mishmash of insurance paperwork requirements from dozens of different companies is much worse.
It is obvious to me that what we need is an education effort to help people like Diane understand what the real world is like. If you rely on Fox "so called" News and right wing radio you can easily live your life in a fact free universe.
I think there are many reasons the right rejects out of hand the idea of Medicare for all. One is that they are committed to the idea of protecting the income for the wealthy (even though it has no effect on the average person. But I think that the average person has the impression that the government is giving you free care. I hope Bernie can explain that it doesn't have to be that way.
The medical insurance companies keep about 80% of the dollars spent for medical care to cover CEO salaries, advertising, shareholders, and a dozen other expenses that have nothing to do with treating people. The companies that administer Medicare charge about 3% for the administration of the program. If you just charge everybody what they are paying now, everyone would save about 20%.
The other issue that the right has always emphasized is that the government will take over decisions about who gets what sort of treatment. There is an element of treatment decisions but then the insurance companies make their decisions also. Talk about making your own choices - anybody who has experienced medicare in it's basic form (not some restrictive advantage plan) knows that you are free to go to any doctor who takes Medicare.
I get it that the change will be considerable. A lot of insurance company CEOs will have to hook on with a some other company to before they buy their next mega yacht but all in all it will be better for the masses and the government because Medicare for all will actually drive medical costs down.
Many (not just republicans) don't support Medicare for all for various reasons up to and including,
1. They don't want government making decisions for them regarding the care they receive.
2. They limit the tests that a doctor is allowed to perform in order to get a correct diagnosis.
3. They want proper and timely payment to the clinic and doctors. The last visit to my clinic when I presented my supplemental insurance card the receptionist said, "thank you, at least we will get paid on time for part of the exam". I want my doctor to make a lot of money. They invested in a profession that would reward their long education and years of internship and contrary to leftie/socialist thinking, they deserve to earn a big salary.
4. They want medical records to be private.
5. They want to choose their doctors and clinics.
6. Heavy increases in paperwork for doctors and clinics.
The list can go on and on.
#obdoc54: I totally agree. I've had several experiences with government run Medicare and it's totally unresponsive. The people who answer the phones know nothing. They are taught to be sympthetic and read from a book of pre-packaged scripts; period. Anything outside of that and you get a big fat runaround. And you can't complain to Medicare about Medicare. They send you to some company to complain but that company will tell you that it has no power to do anything and you soon realize that you have been handed off to a deadend street. My candidate for runing our National Health Service is the Veterans Administration. My mother and I (nurses) both worked for the VA and they were WONDERFUL. They are also fiscally balanced and sane and know how to keep costs down while still delivering excellent services. The VA could also negotiate for lower drug costs. As long as no corporate entity or influences get into the VA, it would be the best choice to run our National Health Service, just like Canada.
The Republicans aren't in favor of Medicare-for-all because (1) it takes medicine out of the (obscene) profits zone, and (2) Right-wingers are the takers in our society; not the givers. The Republicans want both medicine and us as commodities that they can juggle around and manipulate for an ever greater renewable cash flow. It's all about their mindset. They are taught never to admit they are wrong, to always cast whomever they are talking with (at) as the lesser being (because they are always right no matter what evidence to the contrary,) and to prove they are right, they double-down on whatever insanity they are trying to defend.
I had a friend that I met on line nearly 15 years ago. We were pals until the division lines started being drawn between Right and Left. I went from being a cherished friend whom she wrote several times a day, to being an arch enemy that she finally wrote this very hurtful three page letter (single space) ending our friendship in the most unkind way possible. But, she was a product of the Jesus Camps and the churches she attended and studied bible at, once or twice a week, and her parents are Tea Party Republicans, so what could one expect? As a whole, I find they are not educated; trained, yes. Her father is a medical doctor, but not educated (Socratic Method/critical thinking) so she is a brainwashed constituent who will never think outside of the box that someone else defines for her (she is a Southerner and lives in NOLA.) Over the years, I tried to open her up; get her to see other points of view, but they have had the empathy gene beat out of them and I see them all as true sociopaths. (In later years she took to keeping chickens as a "Preparer", and talked with glee about chopping their heads off or wringing their necks. She made me physically ill with this.) The average Republican constituent is very dependent in their personalities, from what I saw and experienced, which accounts why they have moved in lock-step in the past. Things seem to be changing, however. Maybe life is getting too real, and the thought of losing Social Security and health insurance is finally cracking that rock-solid exterior. I hope so. We've paid terrible prices in this country for their lousy mind-set, and I'm pretty sure it's not over, yet.
At least we didn't end up with HRC who was on the Saudi payroll for 15-25 million dollars, awarded the Saudis 300 billion in arms sales with which they are killing innocent civilians in Yemen, and prostituted the State Department while she was Secretary of State in her 'pay for play' scheme.
No matter how bad Gorsuch might turn out to be, and I think he is a decent and honorable man, it would in no way compare to having our country controlled by Saudi Arabia through their chief lobbyist the Podesta firm and the same John Podesta who was Hillary's campaign chairman.
Better together? The Saudis money and influence and our democracy?
The Saudis spend over a million dollars each and every month buying our politicians, and far too many are taking the Saudi money directly or indirectly...and yes, this IS interfering in our elections and democracy.
Do women only have 'rights' or do they have responsibilities also?
I hear an endless reverberation from the corporate media about
women's rights, identity politics, and people of different shades all saying the same thing around the corporate table. Is that outcome really diversity? What about responsibility and merit? Does responsibility and merit mean anything in our society anymore? What about being decent and acting decently...and is that in contradiction when you are thinking 100% of the time about your 'rights?' Do women not share an increasing responsibility for much that is dysfunctional in our socieity started with child rearing?
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LEFTIES MOBILIZED - {a rhyme}
News-reports have us apprised
that Trump and the Right have revised
all that is civilized.
Our nation is compromised
by stuff this regime has devised. -
- We Lefties are agonized
but not demoralized;
instead, we’re mobilized.
============================
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ADIEU to AMERICANA - {1.60 limericks}
Righties and Trumpies undo
the American Way. - Adieu
to what we have been.
Again and again
they’ve flushed us down their loo.
They’re under our skins
and kicking our shins.
It’s time for a leftwing coup.
========================
I wish that OU812 could explain why single payer works in Taiwan with a population of 23 million, but would not work in the USA because of a population of 360 million. Makes zero sense. Typical right winger alternate fact.
Thank you deepspace, much appreciated. This reminds me of a piece I wrote, some time ago. I don't write often, or much. Now and then, something pops out - you might like it:
http://tahomahome.weebly.com/turtlewalk.html
Why the Healthcare bill failed? Trump thought they were talking about Wealthcare!! Which of course is what Trumpcare was all about.
I believe Trumps greatest desire is to become the worlds first trillionaire. This so called infrastructure plan is just one of the steps he has planned for skimming money. And I suspect even this is just one more of his distractions so we don't look at what he's really doing...
Good for Bernie, single-payer is inevitable. If the Democratic Party takes ownership of it now and makes it their main message, it absolutely will propel them to victory in 2018. Throw in "raise the cap" and I don't see how they can be stopped. The time has never been more right.
Given the content of the Ryancare plan, if anyone other than billionaires still believe Trump and the Teapublicans are looking out for them..... then they're forever lost in a Fox News/Breitbart fairy tale world.
obdoc54,
Sooo, besides complaining about dah guvmut, what is your grand plan?
BTW, it's OUR (not "the") government, and it's supposed to work for us, not the one percent! Screw "Citizens United;" if Congress passed legislation to get big money out of politics and to publicly finance elections, then the common folks would be able to effectively lobby their representatives (not "leaders") to fix whatever problems patients and providers might have with Medicare (which can operate relatively efficiently on only a 2-3 % overhead, because our goverment doesn't skim profits).
Got a problem with your private policy and didn't get anywhere with their three-step appeals process runaround? Can't sue because the fine print you signed precludes resolution in the courts? Well then, if somehow you can manage to get the proper authorization and ID badge, take the elevator to the 80th floor in the golden tower of a private insurance company (which, before the ACA, was very efficiently skimming yuuuge profits with a 30-40 % overhead) and try lobbying the millionaires and billionaires on the board with your pathetic, little-people problems. Hahahaha! Security!
Evidently, only in America -- supposedly the greatest nation on Earth and the so-called leader of innovation -- can no other healthcare system seem to work except one that profits on the sick and the dying by collecting obscene premiums, denying claims, and creating a mountain of fine-print, legalese paperwork and a jungle of deductibles and co-pays to abrogate the responsibility and accountability of the greedy money changers at the top of the pyramid, while tens of millions of wage slaves can't afford "access."
Only in America...
I totally support single payer...but it desperately needs to be repackaged....Here is what I would suggest and emphasize....GET HEALTHCARE OUT OF BUSINESS...campaign on that slogan and we will get a lot more support from both sides of the aisle. I have tried it from this stand point and I actually get my conservative friends exited about it...
Simple, because Republicons are in the pockets of the insurance and drug companies. They are addicted to the contributions.