Single Payer health Care

[Ramulux]

what? every democrat got campaign funds from somebody with an agenda. so we just get to pick and choose who is a "real" democrat? well if that's the case, from everything i've heard, barack has had nothing to do with the bill besides saying that he will support it. he's not been responsible for anything in the bill. how many pages is it? like 2000 or so?

can you please explain to me what a real democrat is? are they they ones who vote for bailing out large corporations with our tax dollars?

It is not about getting to pick and choose,its about acknowledging which democrats stick to their beliefs and which ones do not. In the same way, you probably don't support everyone in the republican party I do not support everyone in the democratic party.

Now listen I am not going to get into a discussion about the bailouts because we probably agree that they were a huge mistake. That money was pretty much stolen from us and handed over to the federal reserve, I am well aware of that. Being pissed off about the bailouts has nothing to do with the left or right. Providing insane amounts of money to the companies which caused all the economic problems is a bad idea regardless of where you are on the political spectrum. Any congressman or senator who voted for those bailouts are traitors to their respective political parties.

we need less government not more. currently the us is ranked 37th by the WHO on it's list of health care systems. right between costa rica and slovenia. what do you think this legislation will do to those statistics?

we are 24th in life expectancy. i believe that we are already second on the list of total health expenditure as a percent of the GDP, around 15%.

and supposedly we have the best healthcare system in the world. i hate to see what happens when the govt get's involved.

Dude, those are all examples of how our health care system as it exists right now is fucked. Those are statistics describing our "current" health care system, not what would happen if we went to a single payer system. If the government provided a public option it would revolutionize the health care industry. It would create real competition and force the insurance companies to adapt to reality. If we do not create a public option there will always be a significant percentage of our population without access to basic medical care.

since they are taking away the incentive to be a doctor (capping pay) do you think this might have a negative impact on medicine here? perhaps they will go to other countries to practice medicine?

Private insurance companies do the exact same thing. If a doctor submits a claim for insurance reimbursement they are paid according to the pay rates set forth by the insurance company. That is all the government is doing. These rates put forth by the government are also generally in line with the standard market cost for health care services.

who's gonna pay for this? $900 billion over 10 years? supposedly there is 2/3 already accounted for by drug companies and the like. we are already in the whole. let's see the budget was, what, $4 trillion and we brought in $2.5 trillion. and barack said that it would be this way for at least the next four years. so how does this work out?

Like you said, 2/3 is already paid for and the other third is gonna be spread out over ten years. So that is $300 billion for the most comprehensive social reform in our history. A reform that is going to provide every child born in this country with the ability to go to the doctor regardless of their parents income bracket. That is a beautiful fucking thing and you are bitching about $300 billion. We just had over a trillion dollars literally stolen from us in these bailouts. That is a trillion dollars that none of us are ever going to get back. But now we have a chance to spend $300 billion on something that is going to benefit millions and millions of people in profound ways, and you have a problem with that. The tax increases that have been proposed so far do not effect anyone making less than $350,00 a year and are pretty minor.

they plan on taxing small business, right? i heard the tax rate in new york was going to be 57%. (sorry, just the only figure i've heard.) so how is this good for america? isn't small business the backbone of america? we won't save them, but we save big business? why? because they are too big to fail? c'mon now. that's how capitalism works right? if you have no money you go bankrupt.

we aren't supposed to look at this as "socialized" medicine. yet they are going to fine you and throw your in jail if you don't get coverage?

This proposal you are talking about has nothing to do with small businesses. This would impose a surtax of 1% on couples making $350,00 to $500,000, 1.5% between $500,000 and $1 million, and 5% for couples making over $1 million. This is also just a proposal and it was introduced a while ago so I do not think it ended up turning into anything.

I had also heard about how Massachusetts had begun fining residents for not purchasing health care, but that is under the current private system. However, I had not heard that you would be fined if you did not accept coverage with the public option. I do not really see how that would work but if you could provide some sources I would appreciate it because I cannot find any information about this.