I can understand this sentiment because when I was a younger man, I probably would have said the same thing. Firstly, the government is not taking anything over. Your health insurance card will still work if there is a public option, hence the word option. People want to talk about the founding of our country and freedom when this comes up. The Declaration of Independence speaks to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. How meaningful are those concepts if you are needlessly dead because you did not have access to the health care system. I am a fairly conservative guy. Ask anybody around here. I just think that if something real is not done to ensure that people have access to health care, we will have a lot of people needlessly deceased. Those people will have families and people that will be impacted in very real ways by their death. This is something that impacts us all in one way or another.
Aren't you worried we'll become a welfare state with lazy people mooching off handouts? I get that slippery slope a lot from conservatives, and it's hard to convince them otherwise about the public option.
Am I concerned that we would eventually have a government takeover of the entire health care sector of the economy? Yes. I think that would not be a good thing. Do I think that a public option would make it a certainty? No. Do I think that my fear of a government takeover warrants leaving people to die needlessly by doing nothing? Nope. No. Uh-uh.
agreed and I don't think that would happen from the debate today 2:21 p.m.: Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) makes the point more clearly than any of his colleagues. The public option will not be an entitlement. It will be a government insurance plan that people pay for, at rates that will cover all the costs of the services provided. That's key--the law would have to be changed for the government to be able to subsidize it, and, therefore, for the plan to slip down the slope toward a tax-funded single payer system. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/...n-of-rockefellers-public-option-amendment.php
Possible; myself, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not sure how the American system works. It's not just the individual bill though or the individual votes that I'm concerned about though. It's the partisanship and the fear-mongering spirit that has pervaded this whole debate and is demonstrated once again through this vote. With these kind of factors present it is very hard to imagine solid change happening; it looks to me like it'll be more compromise this compromise that until even if a public option gets passed, it'll probably be the weakest link possible to appease everyone. Half-ass change, in other words. Big pharma gets a share, insurance companies continue to line their pockets, politicians get their votes and nothing truly significant or in other words remotely threatening to the corporate establishment will happen.
I stated that what we have sucks. Government takeover just sucks more. Yeah, they say "option" but wall all know that wouldn't last long. You are kidding yourself. Liberals want nothing less than the complete demise of private health insurance. You can not convince me otherwise. link I want something done. I want tax-exempt health care. I want more options and more competition. I want affordable insurance untied from my job. Let's work for that. That is truly American.
The funny thing is, you could have pretty much everything you want if it wasn't for your phobia about liberals.
What evidence do you have that a government takeover would happen other than some silly blog or "I just know?" There is no such evidence. Monetary concerns (ie the pockets of those in Congress) will not allow that to happen. Why would they strangle the goose that laid the golden eggs (ie the insurance lobby)? You will be much happier when you open your mind and stop clinging to an ideology despite evidence to the contrary.
I see the evidence all around. The takeover wants to come, just like the smoking bans in bars, and now the soda taxes. They so want it to come. They need it. Government required health checkups will be here soon. You can just smell it.
The paranoia about everything that fuels so many right-wingers just amazes me. There are no words to describe it. I guess some people are just programmed that way and are pre-disposed to it.
The evidence that the public option would lead to a virtually complete takeover of health insurance is the record of governments in this country offering public options in insurance. The best example is Texas windstorm insurance (which is a near monopoly for those of us who live in coastal counties, and actually has more private competition than most Gulf Coast states). Government insurance always beats the private sector on premium costs, but it's not an accurate price, because they are re-insured by the taxpayer. So the "public option" becomes a monopoly, generally with lower quality coverage, and with perpetual funding crises that would put a private company out of business.
I'm not sure if that's a great example. After a few really expensive hurricanes hit Florida (Andrew) and the Carolinas in the 1990s, private insurers left the coasts in droves, scared off by having to pay out. The risk of a major hurricane hitting a coastal city was too much. Most of the main home insurers got out of the coastal regions as quickly as possible. In Texas and lots of other places, the government option (here I think it's TWIA) became virtually the only game in town, not because they undercut private insurers, but because the private insurers no longer wanted any part of that business. (Sort of like how no one wants to provide affordable health insurance to people with pre-existing conditions today.) Say what you will about its shortcomings, but if you live on the coast and it did not exist, you would not be able to afford any type of insurance at all. I see this as more of an argument for a public health option, covering those who the main private insurers refuse to cover, than against it.
Where? Over there? Somebody spilled evidence all over the floor. Come and clean up all this damned evidence. Did you bother to ask the takeover about this personally? Dude. I am a smoker and have no problem with having to go outside to smoke. There is little justification for clouding an enclosed space with cigarette smoke. I just am not that selfish. You know that this is not likely to happen. If not, you should know it. All I can smell right now is the manure you are shoveling. (pun intended) This is not about mandated health standards or anything of the like. This is about making sure people can have access to health care. You can have the best health care in the world and it will not matter at all if people do not have access to it. This is not about government takeover. I suspect you know that (unless you have been brainwashed by Glenn Beck - then good luck to you, buddy). This is not even about government insuring everybody. This is about those that have fallen through the cracks. This is about my buddy who has great health insurance through his job (he is the sole breadwinner for his wife and 3 kids). He can cover himself very reasonably. He pays $1,100.00 per month to cover his family. This is not even about free health insurance. This is essentially a user pays system. If you cannot afford private insurance, you can buy the public plan for less. It seems a lot like the old German system. Everybody must have health insurance. If you cannot afford it, we have a policy you can buy. It always seemed very reasonable to me and freed people to become the best and most productive they can be. It is fundamentally about life and freedom. It will keep people alive and give them the freedom that they need to be the best they can be.
