This sentence pretty much says it all.
Booooooo, Free Market! Yaaaaaaaay, government programs!
By Jeff Emanuel Posted in Georgia | Government-run health care | Health care | Policy | The difference between Democrats and Republicans — Comments (37) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
From Georgia's Catoosa County News comes this very apt description of the difference between the two sides of the political aisle on health care reform (and on problem-solving as a whole):
Among the major proposals in front of lawmakers right now [to reform Georgia's health care system and help those in need of coverage to be better able to attain it] is a move by Gov. Sonny Perdue to embrace high-deductible health care plans and accompanying health savings accounts. Also getting attention is a pair of proposals from Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, one that would give a financial boost to free clinics and another that would provide more information to health-care consumers. Rounding out the bunch is a proposal by Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine to force health insurance companies to get his approval before they can raise premiums.
Critics, though, question how valuable some of those free-market ideas might be and tend to focus on efforts to expand what they see as tried-and-true government programs, like the joint state-federal Medicaid health insurance plan for lower-income Georgians.
Read on.
These "tried-and-true government programs" will not, in reality, seriously alleviate the plight of the uninsured. Amping up taxpayer-funded "solutions" or attempting to make insurance affordable and available by implementing a form of "managed competition," especially if these programs are funded -- like those proposed or implemented in Washington, Wisconsin, San Francisco, Massachusetts, and elsewhere -- by new payroll taxes, will exacerbate the problem, skew the health care market, and create new problems by imposing artificial ceilings and floors on coverages and practicioners' wages, by making the demand for coverage less elastic, and by taking more money from employers that was being used to pay employees, thereby lowering wages for ordinary workers and possibly resulting in the elimination of jobs.
The health care system as a whole needs help -- but it doesn't need more "tried-and-true government programs" (though that's what we seem to get anyway).
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This sentence pretty much says it all. 37 Comments (0 topical, 37 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
A bureaucrat wants his power and influence magnified by giving control of an industry ? As it stands you have to ask isn't enough they have to get the approval their customers.
The health savings account coupled with catastrophic insurance will probably do the most good. There needs to be some education that patients will be able to shop around on referrals nad they don't need to go where the doctor sends them.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
The last thing we want is just more government programs. That will not fix the healthcare coverage problem and will only hurt the industry even more.
Once again, I hope that states are allowed to continue to act as laboratories so that we can really see some of the different types of reforms in action, including those that seem totally wrong - more socialized.
Before we enact ANYTHING on a national level I think congress should encourage state's to enact the various reform ideas that are out there. In the mean time congress should work to fix some of the many, and I mean MANY, quick fixes that are out there.
Republican leadership should also make an effort to educate our constituents on what the different reforms really mean. There is such a knee-jerk reaction (for example - see individual mandate) that any reform is bad and against the free-market and this just isn't true. We can and should win this issue by proposing reforms that protect private payors, eliminate junk lawsuits, pay fairly for services, encourage electronic records, etc. I am appalled at how few Republicans out there have even a basic knowledge of the health services industry.
This is not going away and just complaining about everything that has been tried WILL, I am confident, lead to the Dems gaining expertise status on this issue and killing our country with truly socialized healthcare.
"The time for honoring yourself will soon be at an end."
- Maximus
Let's try it from one extreme to the other in various states and then use the best one.
McCain can run on that and it is hard to argue against.
it's just that many states are still working out what plan to go forward with, beginning to implement, waiting on a vote, or whatever. There are a lot of unique ideas out there that just might work; there are also a lot of really bad ideas that need to fail so people can see that.
I prefer the federalist approach for now and possibly forever. The only reason I would support a major national initiative would be if it would keep true socialized medicine from being introduced. I truly believe that if Republicans don't come up with their own solution then the Dems win because they look like the experts and we will end up with a single payor system.
"The time for honoring yourself will soon be at an end."
- Maximus
Republicans need to change the paradigm. One thing that everyone agrees on is that the way that we insure health care just flat doesn't work. Why then, would we introduce government programs to expand health insurance? Rather than subsidizing insurance, we need to find ways to bring actual costs down. Shifting who pays those costs from employers or individuals to the government does nothing for anyone except those that pay no taxes.
We need increased access to information in order to make more informed health care insurance, greater wellness incentives in our subsidized programs (Medicare and Medicaid) and an expansion of the tax benefits for purchasing health insurance to individuals rather than just employers.
I could go on and on, but I'll refrain from writing a book here.
I have yet to see a Republican propose a truly market-based solution that actually reduces how much the government participates in the process.
...and I'll show you a unicorn.
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"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
The next war that goes well will be the first.
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"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater
The military hasn't lost one yet.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
It's the best in the world. That doesn't mean it's run particularly well.
It's slow, bureaucratic, resistant to adaptation, divided into fiefdoms, and has most of the other bad traits one expects in a government organization.
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"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
our defense "works" but it sure costs a hell of a lot. The Grace Report twenty years ago characterized military procurement as one of the worse areas of government abuse, and it has probably gotten worse.
"Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty"
Kyle
so let me just observe that, In life you pay for what you get. We have the best military in the world. It costs. Its worth it.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
since you love your wife, and she is a good woman it should not matter whatsoever if she spends you into bankruptcy right?
"Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty"
Kyle
have absolutely nothing to do with Defense spending.
What I wanted to do but couldn't find the way.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
If you are saying that all the waste in the rest of the government is even greater, then I agree, but if you believe that the Defense dept is some sort of holy sacrosanct entity which can do no wrong and cannot be questioned then I say NUTZ. It is full of waste fraud, abuse, duplication of effort, and we need a complete rethinking of everything we are doing and why.
And there is nothing liberal bout that.
"Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty"
Kyle
Our government Defense program is full of waste, fraud, abuse, and duplication of effort.
Once again, our nation's financial problems have nothing to do with our spending on Defense.
We have the Cadillac (is this car good again ?) of defense establishments. It does costs but not that much. I am sure we could get a cheaper military but would you want it ?
From the libertarian side I have heard all kinds of plans to cut the cost of military. I for one am not up to a round of neighborhood nuclear superiority.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
Joliphant: Ease up. The military is an expensive, bloated bureaucracy that happens to be in charge of some well-trained, well-equipped fighting men who do our country proud.
But the organization? The program as a whole? Give me a break. It's just another government quagmire.
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"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
...really, really, really wants to see a unicorn! :-)
Seriously, though, you're both right -- as is, in part, kyle8 upthread. The military is a bureaucracy with countless bureaucracies built into it, and it is inefficient in so many ways.
However, it continues to be the best -- and the best-run -- military in the world, period.
"We have the Cadillac (is this car good again ?) of defense establishments. It does costs but not that much. I am sure we could get a cheaper military but would you want it ?"
I would like to see some of the bases the military does not want anymore closed, and the VA streamlined (Newt used to talk about a VA hospital in NYC with more doctors than patients).
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
which if taken in sufficient amounts never fails.
If you're a liberal nothing succeeds like failure.
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
I whole-heartly endorse Sonny Perdue for VP
Yes, there is waste in the military, but as that is what government does, offer and provide largess to insiders, then why the offense at this particular Department.
The military makes things that go bang and kill people, there are demonstrable results to their expenditures, unfortunately including the waste. What results as against what waste do you get from the Dept's of Education, Agriculture, Energy, etc? We have a comatose State, and a CIA that at whatever expense we could hope would only be inefficient as against deciding what Administrations they will work against while releasing secrets to the media.
I will only mention the gigantic Ponzi scheme known as senior citizen programs.
The Military must perform, the rest don't have to. From this I conclude that waste is relative to performance & while not forgiving I'm willing to give the DOD something of a pass as against Agencies that are at best parasitic.
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
...AT LEAST use "Reply to This."
But thanks for the tip and when necessary I do just that, regularly. However as I was not responding to any particular participant I declined the benefit of the available technology.
Just to be clear.
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
Nobody's suggesting there's something wrong with having DoD or saying we shouldn't be pumping money into it, as far as I can tell.
What I'm saying anyway is that there's not something special about its bureaucracy that makes it somehow more effective than, say, the DMV.
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"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater
Are forbidden to the military by the Geneva Conventions.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
It'll make you yearn for the efficiency of the DMV.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
The data cited by the Commonwealth Fund in their report is from the U.S. Census Bureau report “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005.” The report puts the number of uninsured people in the United States at a 45.306 million.
That same report reveals 9.487 million people are “not a citizen.” So, if you subtract the non-citizens from that number, you will get a little more than 35.8 million uninsured “Americans.”
35.8 million uninsured includes Health, Life and Dental Insurance is not provided. Here’s an approach, not only a way to insure them but, every American born citizen from birth to death and every Legal Immigrant with a Legal Workers Permit or Visa who swears allegiance to and passes all tests for citizenship and assimilates into the United States of America Culture.
Every American citizen will be taxed via their Social Security Number at birth. The parents of the children will be taxed according to their income until the children reach the age of majority. If the children are not gainfully employed or attending an accredited Vocational School, University or College at the time they reach majority they will automatically be called by the United States of America for National Service or enlist in their choice of Military Service for a minimum of three (3) years. These American citizens will receive college credits and earn scholarship money for further education upon completion of service.
All other American citizens and immigrants with Legal Workers Permits who are gainfully employed will be taxed via their Social Security Number or Legal Workers Permit Number for their Health, Life and Dental Insurance and pay according to their income into the INSURANCE FUND created as an entity unto itself and underwritten by any insurance company recognised by the INSURANCE FUND.
When the American citizen and legally working immigrant becomes temporarily unemployed while on strike for any reason their insurance premium will be paid with funds accumulated by their employers and the INSURANCE FUND until employment resumes there. When the workers attain employment with another employer, during the strike or layoff, the insurance premium is transferred to the NEW EMPLOYER for collection.
During times of unemployment the American citizens insurance premiums will be paid by the INSURANCE FUND at the lowest APR interest loans to the American citizen until employment is attained. When the American citizen is gainfully employed insurance premium payments will resume and low interest loans will be collected by monthly installments from their checks until the loan is paid in full.
My approach also is to appeal to illegal immigrants who are involved in this dilemma of the uninsured, to announce themselves to the nearest local government facility their desire to speak English, assimilate and swear allegiance to the United States of America to begin the process of becoming legal workers and eventual citizens of our country by returning to their country of origin and apply for citizenship legally as millions of other applicants do. In the event the illegal immigrant does NOT comply and is apprehended, deportation will begin and these illegal immigrants will not be allowed entrance into the United States of America.
To expedite citizenship for Illegal Immigrants between ages 18 to 28, Male and Female, who speak and understand the English language, pass a security background check and have at least a High School Diploma or GED (General Educational Development), they would be offered an opportunity to join the military service provided they passed the medical physical and ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) test. Some of these individuals have attended and graduated our schools and colleges even though they were not born in America. Special attention would be given to expedite these applications during the legal process for citizenship.
Otherwise the illegal immigrant will not be covered by this insurance and will pay for any emergency treatment received and sent back to their country. THE ANCHOR BABY CLAUSE IN OUR U. S. CONSTITUTION SHOULD BE REPEALED.
"WHATEVER EVOLVES WAS FIRST, CREATED" - Jason Leverette, Patriot
Like those great programs that are bankrupting federal and state treasuries? The ones that constantly cut reimbursements to doctors so that many now cannot afford to see Medicaid patients?
“.....women and minorities hardest hit”