White House wants more power to set Medicare rates

[Slinky]

Dang! I knew I should have bookmarked it! I was just reading an article tonight how the French have the best health care system in the industrialized world. Yeah, uh huh. It sounds good and makes for good reading anyway.

Doctors go to medical school free. No crushing debt when they graduate w/their MD degree. Our colleges will LOVE that one! I forget some of the other differences. Altho it seems to me healthcare cost about $1,000 per person per year less in France.

[roster]

Dang! I knew I should have bookmarked it! I was just reading an article tonight how the French have the best health care system in the industrialized world. Yeah, uh huh. It sounds good and makes for good reading anyway.

Doctors go to medical school free. No crushing debt when they graduate w/their MD degree. Our colleges will LOVE that one! I forget some of the other differences. Altho it seems to me healthcare cost about $1,000 per person per year less in France.

Yes and the French don't eat and live like we do (and they don't fight wars like we do). We have a horrible diet, drive everywhere, always try to find a parking space close to the entrance, abuse drugs and alcohol, shoot people, abuse our children. We get ourselves in horrible shape and then spend tons of healthcare money to keep us alive a few more years. We still socially suffer from the ravages of slavery.

The Feds also say 25 to 33% of all healthcare costs occur in the last six months of life. We keep people hanging on and suffering a miserable existence as long as we can. My wife and I will get living wills. No intubation, no shocking the heart, no feeding tubes. When I am too demented or physically broken to use the CPAP and read my Encore Pro reports, I will take a bottle of muscle relaxants and go to sleep on my back without my CPAP. That should save some healthcare costs.

Have sweet sleep and peaceful dreams tonight. I damn well intend to!

[momsworry]

Why do so many think that it is the government that must come to the rescue? Rescue with what, their plan? Why would you want the government in the health insurance business? We don't have a health care problem, we have a funding of health care problem. This plan by Obama will take on health care in all aspects, and not just the funding of it. Think hard before you wish for this, once Pandora's box is open there will be no putting things back in and closing it.
If the government has a role, why can't they have oversight, much like the federal employees plan? Those plans are all private insurance GROUP plans with the plans administered (some oversight) by the federal government? Just put everyone on that sort of a plan, but make them pay something for it. If it's free it's wrong. You can then pick your coverage. Some might just need catastrophic coverage, others maybe more. Also, let all citizens establish a flexible spending account for health care. Get rid of the phony notion that it all must be spent in one calendar year too. Let it accumulate, heck even earn interest. Let the government then keep it's grubby paws off of that money. That would be too easy, and it gives the individual too much control. The feds don't like that, they can't then tax the money put into those flex spending accounts. No, they would rather tax the pi$$ out of the wealthy, (meaning anyone that has a job) and give it all back for free. It won't be free, that's for sure. This is a horrible idea and the solutions to the current problem are many and varied, but government health care is not the right fix.

[Slinky]

Well, I think we all agree on one thing, the major problem is health care funding - and I haven't see one single suggestion that will actually curb the excesses in health care costs. Obscene salaries, obscene profits, obscene charges ....

No one in government has the balls to attack the main issue in this country EXCESS GREED and no one in government or outside government can do much about American EXCESS except ourselves. Why is bigger always better? Why is more always better? But that is the American way.

[roster]

Why do so many think that it is the government that must come to the rescue? Rescue with what, their plan? Why would you want the government in the health insurance business? .........

Whatever plan they pass, one thing is sure, members of Congress and their families will not participate. They will have a separate taxpayer-paid plan for themselves.

When Ted Kennedy needed brain surgery, he hurried off to a private enterprise, Duke University Medical Center, to have it done. He certainly would not allow government sponsored doctors to cut into his skull.

[JayC]

My youngest brother had a brain tumor removed at a major university medical center in NC.....5 years later he continues his neuro follow-up care at major university medical center in Texas. He's doing fine.

I moved from rural indiana back to my birth state for access to teaching hospitals and other teaching medical providers.... lots of state and fed and private monies flowing in these health partnerships!


I'd go to university based/university affiliated medical care, especially if I needed brain surgery.....I'd want cutting edge, from those who get lots of practice doing it..... Don't think Kennedy's job or health coverage had anything to do with his choices......... teaching hospitals WANT cases to work on.... and not just if your last name is in the news!

J

[cflame1]

I read this in my local paper today... with all of the talk about health insurance, it kind of fits!

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/articl ... can-people

[Muse-Inc]

...This is an emotion charged issue...

Amen to that Jan!

[Slinky]

But, CFlame, WHY stop at the national healthcare program?? Why not discontinue Civil Service? Throw its money into Social Security and enroll them all into Social Security as well? All those nice annual retirement equal to annual salary for the Congress would have to be reduced, of course, but then we must ALL sacrifice to get our economy healthy again, right? Even our elected officials, right? Yeah, right. Sure.

[JayC]

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongres ... esspay.htm

need a little fact checking........

But, CFlame, WHY stop at the national healthcare program?? Why not discontinue Civil Service? Throw its money into Social Security and enroll them all into Social Security as well? All those nice annual retirement equal to annual salary for the Congress would have to be reduced, of course, but then we must ALL sacrifice to get our economy healthy again, right? Even our elected officials, right? Yeah, right. Sure.

[Slinky]

Wow! Thanks, JayC. One then has to wonder why they spend so much money to campaign for these positions. There's gotta be some perks and benefits that we aren't seeing there.

[cflame1]

I believe that the piece that I posted was written by somebody local and it was just their view... nothing official.

[Slinky]

Well, I do know about CSRS and FERS for "some" federal employees. The government decided to abolish the United States Post Office Department and re-establish it as a quasi-governmental corporation called the United States Postal Service. I was a clerk and then a rural letter carrier and was "caught" in the CSRS/FERS notch. Whether Congress and the Judiciary were actually involved in the CSRS/FERS switch I can't vouch for or deny.

[LinkC]

Hey LinkC, pull your head out of your ass.

Nice rebuttal! If only you had some facts and/or logic to supplement your profanity. <sigh>

[LinkC]

Why not discontinue Civil Service? Throw its money into Social Security and enroll them all into Social Security as well?

Pssst--they HAVE discontinued CSRS (Civil Service Retirement System). New-hires haven't been CSRS in about 15 yrs now. They are all FERS (Federal Employee Retirement System) which comprises a small pension, SS, and matching contributions to "401k-type" investment plan.

You can't just magically switch everyone overnight, you have to introduce the new system and let the CSRSers flush thru. That's well underway...and has been for years. (For the record, many CSRS folks who were still early in their careers voluntarily switched over to FERS initially.) It's potentially a better plan if you plan your investing right...and have the time left to take advantage of it.

EDIT: Sorry, I hadn't read the link which describes CSRS/FERS far more eloquently. But if you were involved in the switch-over, you obviously already know why they cannot just "throw" the CSRS money into the SS. Or at least you SHOULD know...