Local Letter Summarizes Healthcare Debate to a T

[FayeforCure]

End demagoguery

It is incredible and ridiculous that the debate about health care reform has gotten to the point where we see it today.

Where was this passion when it turned out that we were led into a war under false pretenses, and that was directed so ineptly by political leaders who disregarded our generals and our budget?

Where was this passion when New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast were devastated by Hurricane Katrina and our political leaders barely lifted a finger to save lives and property?

Suddenly, when reformers want to make it so that insurance companies cannot deny you necessary medical treatment to protect their profits, there are passionate denunciations of these same reformers as traitors and Nazis? There is something dreadfully wrong here.

Every advanced industrial democracy (including all those allies who were in NATO with us, to protect our freedoms against the Soviets) has better health care and better health coverage for its citizens than we do.

And they are all democracies. Not one of our allies has sacrificed basic freedoms to give their citizens better health care.

It is time to stop the demagoguery, get back to reality and get back to facts.

DAVID SCHWAM-BAIRD

Jacksonville

http://www.jacksonville.com/opinion/letters_from_readers/2009-08-21/story/letters_from_readers

[FayeforCure]

Here some on the solution:

Broken system: Navigating the health care maze
Friday, Aug. 21, 2009

My aging father has Medicare, with Blue Cross to pick up what is not covered.

My sister, who is his primary caregiver and works in a job with no coverage, has had an expensive private policy for years.

Her kids are on a state plan. Her husband recently got a job with great health insurance coverage, but which will only cover their son for one year until he graduates from college.

It is profoundly complicated, and each one of the plans involved requires redundant administrative expenses.

Who knows if Dad is missing some available care, because who really knows what is included?

I was under my husband's insurance until my employment became full-time.

Now I am under BlueCross BlueShield of Florida, and he is under BlueCross Blue Shield of Nebraska, except his dental is under something else, and eye care has to be recovered under a flexible pay account.

I was in a bicycle accident at about the time of the transition, and over a year later they are still sorting through who should pay for what.

I recall when U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich was in town campaigning for the 2000 presidential primary. At that time, if we removed the for-profit element from the system, there was enough money in the health care to cover medical, dental, optical, mental, and long-term disability for every man, woman and child (legal or not) in the United States.

We definitely do not have great health care, when measured by any parameter I have seen.

There is a lot of money going into it, but too much is spent on redundant administration and on Wall Street profits, and the disparity across policies is obscene.

My gut feeling is that many of the people who are fearful of a single-payer government plan (which is not even on the table) don't understand that pooling resources and streamlining is sometimes the most efficient pathway.

TERYN ROMAINE

Ponte Vedra Beach

http://www.jacksonville.com/opinion/letters_from_readers/2009-08-21/story/broken_system_navigating_the_health_care_maze

[buckethead]

More anecdotal testamonials?

Another plea for emotional response?

This only leads me to believe you are not capable of debating the constitutionality of the mandated health insurance initiative.

[FayeforCure]

More anecdotal testamonials?

Another plea for emotional response?

This only leads me to believe you are not capable of debating the constitutionality of the mandated health insurance initiative.

I will repeat my response to your repeated allegation:

I agree with you fully on the deficiency of using anecdotal information, since it just stirs up emotion without contributing to the debate.

I started adding anecdotal info. when I heard some legislators invoking a "Canadian friend of a Friend in Florida" who "died while on a waiting list."

But since I'm an economist and prefer factual info, (even when it comes as anecdotal: please name names) I had initially limited myself to raw and shocking statistics that apparently went unnoticed by you and others.

Just yesterday I posted an expose of indisputable statistics that were sourced by the non-partisan National Coalition on Healthcare:
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,5592.0.html

The most shocking is this comparison:

In the US:
More than 1.5 million Americans file for bankruptcy in the US.
A Harvard study found that 50 percent of all bankruptcy filings were partly the result of medical expenses.
Every 30 seconds in the United States someone files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem.
Almost 70 percent of the individuals who filed for bankruptcy because of medical expenses had health insurance.

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20090818/OPINION07/908180321/1004/OPINION/The-real-health-care-providers----doctors----support-reform

In other advanced nations:
Bankruptcies filed due to medical expenses: 0

Consider the plight of David in the US:


Quote
David had to stop working as a truck driver after he was diagnosed with kidney cancer and has since been struggling to pay for COBRA during the two-year Medicare waiting period. His wife, Gloria, is his full-time caregiver and cannot work outside the home, and the couple has had to use much of their savings and borrow from friends and family to pay for their COBRA premiums. David cashed in his 401K at a 24 percent loss so that they will be able to continue to pay the COBRA premium until he is eligible for Medicare. Gloria tried to apply for Medicaid, but she learned that their income is too high. "There is not any help for people like us. We are not considered poor enough, but we don't have the money to pay it on our own," Gloria says.


http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/140367/health_insurance_bankrupts_americans/

Let's just make the best statistical comparison IMO in a visual:



There is absolutely no denying that getting us closer to a universal healthcare system like is commonplace in other advanced nations, will greatly benefit us all!!!!!!

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,5791.0.html

[buckethead]

You provide more anecdotes and unsubstantiated statistics as a defense for supplying anecdotes as a driving force for socio-economic policy?

Why do the "caring" insist on forcing others to pay for their "cures" rather than using their obvoius talents to fund and administer those cures privately? Perhaps your faith in you stated remedy (although I don't know we've seen this) isn't strong enough?

[FayeforCure]

You provide more anecdotes and unsubstantiated statistics as a defense for supplying anecdotes as a driving force for socio-economic policy?

Why do the "caring" insist on forcing others to pay for their "cures" rather than using their obvoius talents to fund and administer those cures privately? Perhaps your faith in you stated remedy (although I don't know we've seen this) isn't strong enough?

Sadly it is you who prefers to ignore the statistics. Personally I LOVE statistics because they tell a compelling story, but that may be lost with with the obstructionists ( like yourself) who are fighting hard to maintain the status quo.

I believe in Progress and in learning from other advanced nations, that do not tolerate third world conditions in the healthcare provision to their citizens.

Not sure what you believe in, except that I see you defend and protect the Party of NO at all cost.

[buckethead]

More empty rhetoric? Please describe your solution. I am but a humble servent of messageboard trolldom. You are campaigning to become a US Senator. It's up to you to show solutions, not me.

I would still ask if you think the US Congress is authorized to fund and administer a public healthcare plan/system (Medicare... I know, but did they have the actual authority to enact it, or did they usurp the authority?). Likewise, does Congress have the authority to mandate universal participation in an insurance scheme, be it public or private?

The plain and obvious truth regarding this proposed legeslation is this: Everyone will be forced to participate in a monopolized system under the threat of imprisonment??? That's right. They will impose tax penalties for non compliance. Try to keep your money...errr the Peoples Money, and watch the bullets fly.

I am a vocal member of the non-party of freedom. You are proposing tyranny in the name of compassion. I'm not buying.