Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: CarolC Date: 03 Mar 10 - 08:51 PM I don't disagree with some of your points, ichMael, but you can make those points successfully without misrepresenting things like you were doing there. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Amos Date: 03 Mar 10 - 08:33 PM He is not, and has not posed as an expert on insurance. I imagine he knows a LOT more about than Bush ever did, especially since it became an issue on a national level. What he is though, is an intelligent and curious President with a keen intellect, a category of existence Bush could not imagine, let alone aspire to. A |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: ichMael Date: 03 Mar 10 - 08:05 PM Doesn't change the fact that he blathered on the same level of assininity that Bush used to achieve. And he blathered on a topic he's been telling us he's expert on--insurance. Obama is serving the same banking interests that Bush did. Insurance companies have in effect become banks since Glass-Steagall was repealed (FDR program to keep bankers off of Wall Street, repealed under Clinton). So, insurance companies started gambling on derivatives and the bad investments are about to come crashing down. Obama's proposing to give them TRILLIONS of taxpayer dollars, force 50 million uninsured Americans to buy insurance (choose between food for the kids or insurance), and provide diminished healthcare. All to bail out criminal banking/insurance companies. Not faulting Obama any more than I would Bush--both would have done the same thing. It's not a partisan issue. Both men serve the same bankers. As people they're just corrupt to the core. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: CarolC Date: 03 Mar 10 - 07:54 PM So what? That doesn't say anything at all about him at this point in his life. That was decades ago. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: ichMael Date: 03 Mar 10 - 07:53 PM But he was a COLLEGE GRADUATE on his way to becoming a LAW PROFESSOR. Shades of G.W. Bush. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: CarolC Date: 03 Mar 10 - 07:45 PM ichMael, I don't see any evidence that Obama doesn't know auto liability coverage from full coverage. I only see evidence that he didn't know the difference between them back when he first got out of college. If you can't see the difference between those two things, I don't see any reason why any of us should take you seriously. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: ichMael Date: 03 Mar 10 - 07:34 PM Oops. Here's the WSWS link: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/pers-j23.shtml |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: ichMael Date: 03 Mar 10 - 07:27 PM Didn't see another thread on the healthcare debate. Last posting here was back in September. But the issue's back in the news: WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Looking to push the "long and wrenching debate" over health care into its final stages, President Barack Obama asked lawmakers to schedule an up-or-down vote on overhaul legislation "in the next few weeks." http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100303-717240.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines What I find interesting is how the far right and the far left agree on this issue. On the right, the LaRouche people say: None other than Mr. Peter Orszag himself took to the pages of today's Financial Times to assure London financiers, that "once health-care reform is in place," Social Security is next on the Obama administration's chopping block. The pledge by President Obama's Office of Management and Budget Director is made in the concluding paragraph of a signed op-ed touting the Obama administration's fascist health-care reforms as "A Medical Plan to Boost America's Fiscal Health;" not to secure human health, but that of the financial system. http://www.larouchepac.com/node/10681 On the left, the World Socialist Website says: ...a comment by budget director Peter Orszag last week in the Financial Times. In an opinion piece titled, "A plan to boost America's fiscal health," he wrote, "Reducing the number of tests, procedures and other medical costs that do not improve health presents an enormous opportunity." Orszag then elaborated how the Obama administration would be taking advantage of this "opportunity," through Medicare and Medicaid "efficiencies," with proposals to slash more than $600 billion from the programs. ... "Once health care reform is in place," the budget director wrote, "the US can then focus on other aspects of fiscal sustainability, including Social Security reform." ... antithetical to a system that would provide high-quality, affordable health care to the broad mass of the American people. Lots of countries have good nationalized healthcare systems, but the one being proposed in America is a government/private industry partnership. Fascism. And it's being pushed because the private insurance industry is dying, same as the banking system was dying before the Bush/Obama Bailout/Stimulus giveaways. Insurance companies have invested heavily in the collapsing derivatives market, and their only hope now is for a government handout. That's no way to set up a compassionate healthcare system. Or so it seems. Wasn't there a furor about mammograms since last September? The government used to say women should begin getting them at age 40 (for decades we were told this), and now the government is saying to start at age 50? Yeah. I googled it. That was back in November: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=mammograms+at+50&aq=2&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=mammograms And just last week, Obama revealed his total ignorance of insurance in general. He doesn't know auto liability coverage from full coverage: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=obama+acme+insurance&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq= So, if the president is so ignorant on the topic of insurance (he said he was a COLLEGE GRADUATE when he went through the liability thing), and if the government is already pushing a change that will lead to no telling how many deaths from breast cancer, can we trust ANYTHING that comes from Washington in the healthcare "debate?" |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Donuel Date: 04 Sep 09 - 09:09 PM I like your style Ken M I will look for your contributions. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: CarolC Date: 04 Sep 09 - 07:48 PM I'll consider it good if JtS and I can get access to good medical care that we can afford. If that doesn't happen, then whatever plan they come up with will suck. And I consider myself and expert on that. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 04 Sep 09 - 06:01 PM The essential thing is to get the best package of reforms that can in fact be got. There are more ways to skin a cat than one. It will still be far short of what is needed, and I doubt if there are many people outside the USA, in any of the other countries with universal health care up and running for decades, who would willimgly change with what you are likely to come up with, at least initially. We certainly wouldn't in the UK - but the thing is, it will be far better than what you have now. The old saying shouldn't be forgotten. "The best is enemy of the good". |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: heric Date: 04 Sep 09 - 05:31 PM If President Obama offers up single payer on Wednesday -- THEN we'd hear a choir! |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: The Barden of England Date: 04 Sep 09 - 05:14 PM I agree Amos - but some of that choir need to feel the music, rather than just be told it's the best music there is by the music industry. John Barden |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Amos Date: 04 Sep 09 - 04:24 PM John: WHile I applaud your sentiments, I am sure you are preaching to at least some of the choir! A |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: The Barden of England Date: 04 Sep 09 - 04:21 PM All these horror stories in the newspapers, and still nobody believes us Brits when we say it works. We Brits are all wrong, because the papers say we are. Don't believe us then, let your countrymen and women die because your 'system' looks after you (if you're in work that is). I know mine does its very best by us all, and I would NEVER change it for the 'lottery' that exists in the USA. That lottery being whether you have insurance or not. We poor Brits have insurance from the cradle to the grave. We pay to the government, and that then correctly looks after us. Whatever happend to Government of the people, by the people? Or is that too 'Liberal' for you? John Barden |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Greg F. Date: 04 Sep 09 - 09:34 AM Now, if only they'd shoot themselves in the head..... |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 04 Sep 09 - 06:08 AM ""Here's a link that was posted on Facebook. It's worth sharing. It was a site set up by some Republican group looking for horror stories about socialized medicine. Instead, the only horror stories they got were from the USA. http://collegerepublicans.org/node/4292"" The phrase "shooting oneself in the foot" springs to mind. Magic Don T |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: KenM Date: 04 Sep 09 - 12:43 AM Oops......right progressive party but I had my lineage wrong on Naomi Klein. She's married to the son of Stephen Lewis (not Douglas), who in turn is the son of David Lewis....along with Tommy Douglas, one of the founders of the New Democratic Party. Never mind, read her book, The Shock Doctrine.....it will scare the hell out of you! |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: KenM Date: 04 Sep 09 - 12:17 AM Earlier in this thread, there was discussion of the legacy of Tommy Douglas.....one of my heroes!! One of his grandchildren, the daughter of Stephen Douglas, is Naomi Klein, frequent contributor to The Nation and a prolific progressive author. Apples don't fall far from the tree!! I'm an ex-pat Canadian who has lived in the U.S. for 20 years. I have been blessed on two counts: 1) I have always worked for an employer who offered a good health insurance plan as part of the benefit package; and, 2) I have been blessed with good health where neither my physican or me personally has had to contest the denial of a treatment option and, when I have changed jobs, I have never had to worry about the dread of a "pre-existing condition." Millions of Americans are not nearly as fortunate as me but I know full-well my own good fortune could turn on a dime. However, unlike most of my fellow country-men/women, I have an escape option.....I can always return to Canada! Of course, this scares the dickens out of my two adult-age sons who fear the specter of their aging father and step-mother coming home to live with them!! They have become obsessivly concerned about our health and strong supporters of single-payer health care in the U.S. This country needs a strong and fearless leader who will take us where others have feared to tread in the area of health-care reform. I once thought this President was that leader but I'm having my doubts. Franklin Roosevelt once entertained a group of progressive left-leaning people at the White House and having heard their ideas, told them, "I agree with everything you said, now go out and make me do those things!" A unified progressive front on health care reform is needed in this country....my two sons up in Canada are counting on it! |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Amos Date: 03 Sep 09 - 11:26 PM "This weekend, North Carolina Democrats became the latest in a series to endorse a public health insurance option: Be it Further resolved, that the State Executive Committee of the North Carolina Democratic Party directs Party Chairman David Young to instruct Senator Kay Hagan, Representatives G.K. Butterfield NC-1, Bob Etheridge NC-2, David Price NC-4, Mike McIntyre NC-7, Larry Kissell NC-8, Heath Shuler NC-11, Mel Watt NC-12, and Brad Miller NC-13 that the North Carolina Democratic Party and its members – in the absence of Single-Payer as a choice — strongly support a robust Public Option as an alternative and expect their Congressional Representatives to make a robust Public Option mandatory; and Be it Further resolved, that Chairman David Young conveys to Senator Hagan and our Democratic Congressional House Representatives that a bill without at least a Public Option is not acceptable to the Democratic Party of North Carolina and its members and urges our Congressional delegation to vote against any health care reform bill that does not contain a robust Public Option. I think their message to Senator Hagan and their House delegation is clear. A few weeks ago, a coalition of Montana Democratic elected officials passed a similar resolution and pushed Senator Max Baucus to represent their views: U.S. Senator Max Baucus has finally broken his silence regarding his personal position on including a public option in health care reform legislation. Last Monday night (8/17), in an unprecedented conference call to Montana Democratic central committee chairs, the powerful leader of the Senate Finance Committee told his strongest supporters that he supported a public option. While discussing the obstacles to getting a public option through the Senate, he assured his forty listeners, "I want a public option too!" … In the aftermath of the teleconference, a coalition of eighteen Montana counties in the Senator's home state decided to move forward with their plan to issue a Unified Statement accompanied by a joint press release. The statement sends a loud and clear message to their Senator: Any health care reform package coming out of his Senate Finance Committee must contain, at a minimum, a provision for a strong public option. … Calling themselves the Coalition of the United Montana Democratic Central Committees, the group's statement announces it has "established a position in support of a strong public option as an essential element in health care reform." These resolutions are popping up all over the country, in blue states like California and in more traditionally "moderate" states like Montana, North Carolina, and Colorado. The message is clear, and will only become clearer as more of these resolutions are passed. 77% of the American people want a public health insurance option. Elected officials in states all over the country are standing up and declaring their support. This is grassroots support the Senate can and should act on. The Senate has to ignore the insider politics that say a public health insurance option isn't possible. The country wants this and needs this, and the overwhelming majority of the people are saying so over and over. The majority in the Senate should reflect the majority in the country." |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Amos Date: 03 Sep 09 - 11:24 PM Here's a WHite House-generated Reality Check on key aspects of the Health Care Reform issues. A |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Amos Date: 03 Sep 09 - 10:26 PM The people supporting Health Care Reform tell some interesting stories about their campaign. The lack of health insurance costs the lives of 18,000 AMericans a year--six times as many as died on 9/11. Worth going to bat for? A |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Maryrrf Date: 03 Sep 09 - 10:17 PM Here's a link that was posted on Facebook. It's worth sharing. It was a site set up by some Republican group looking for horror stories about socialized medicine. Instead, the only horror stories they got were from the USA. http://collegerepublicans.org/node/4292 |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Maryrrf Date: 03 Sep 09 - 09:48 PM I just now had a chance to see that video Alice posted of the crowd jeering and heckling the disabled woman at the Health Care Town Hall. There are no words... |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 03 Sep 09 - 07:12 PM Whoever had the responsibility for chairing that meeting was clearly pretty incompetant. Not an easy task, I accept, but it would appear that whoever it was wasn't even trying. Or maybe it was a cunning plan. If I was running a media campaign to support reform, I think I'd just show that clip over and over, and rely on the fact that people would find the behaviour of those buffoons nauseating, and would feel disinclined to want to be on the same side as them. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Little Hawk Date: 03 Sep 09 - 05:45 PM They probably figure she's a "socialist". |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Alice Date: 03 Sep 09 - 05:10 PM Because Republicans have considered themselves the Moral [Christian] Majority, I added the word Christian, because the behavior of heckling a disabled woman isn't anything like what I was taught regarding the teachings of Christ. I thought it was ironic that they would heckle a woman in a wheelchair and still consider themselves to be the party of "values" and "morality". Alice |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Don Firth Date: 03 Sep 09 - 04:49 PM Rig, who said these people are all Christians? Or that this has anything to do with religion? That's making one hell of an assumption. Not unlike assuming that illegal immigration will ipso facto scupper single payer national health care. Where do you get this stuff? Don Firth |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Peace Date: 03 Sep 09 - 04:16 PM "Yes, we must devise a way of keeping Christians from voting." Shouldn't be too difficult. It seems they've already learned how to stop thinking. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Riginslinger Date: 03 Sep 09 - 04:13 PM "And these people have the vote! How scary is that!?? We are DOOMED!!!" Yes, we must devise a way of keeping Christians from voting. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Little Hawk Date: 03 Sep 09 - 03:52 PM As demagogues throughout history have found, an informed electorate is the LAST thing you want! It would impede the usual processes of graft and corruption that are the hallmark of what they would term "good" government....ahem...(cough! cough!) Can a well-orchestrated national mass media confuse, divide, delude, and control enough people to fool the general public into supporting something that's absolutely no good for them? You bet it can. And it does. Over and over again. To be believed, a lie simply has to be repeated very frequently. It helps if the lie is the deliberate, truly blatant reverse of the actual truth. Bold and sweeping lies are far more easily believed than half-hearted ones. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Don Firth Date: 03 Sep 09 - 03:44 PM And these people have the vote! How scary is that!?? We are DOOMED!!! Don Firth P. S. What was that Thomas Jefferson said about democracy depending on an "informed electorate?" |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Alice Date: 03 Sep 09 - 12:46 PM So called "Christian" Republicans at a town hall - heckle, boo and shout down a disable woman in a wheelchair trying to talk about health care and the disabled. Wheelchair-Bound woman shouted down |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: CarolC Date: 03 Sep 09 - 12:42 PM Can any Australians verify whether or not the nutjob Glenn Beck was telling the truth when he said that a prime minister of Australia was forced to come to the US to receive important medical care that he couldn't get in Australia? |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Little Hawk Date: 03 Sep 09 - 06:30 AM Glad to hear it, freda! |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: freda underhill Date: 03 Sep 09 - 05:32 AM We have a national free health care system in Australia, brought in by a very progressive government in 1975 - and it is GOOD. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Neil D Date: 03 Sep 09 - 12:12 AM Thanks for the link Bruce. He sounds like the kind of elected leader that we could use a lot more of. Of course he had to have the support of the people to get these things accomplished. There is something to be said for the theory that we, collectively if not individually, generally get the government we deserve. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Peace Date: 02 Sep 09 - 08:21 PM "As stated in the Canada Health Act, the federal government is committed to maintaining Canada's world-renowned health insurance system. This system is universally available to permanent residents, comprehensive in the services it covers, accessible without income barriers, portable within the country, and publicly funded." |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Peace Date: 02 Sep 09 - 08:16 PM An article you might like, Neil. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Little Hawk Date: 02 Sep 09 - 04:19 PM He was that very rare thing...a true social idealist and a politician who works for the genuine good of the entire public rather than on behalf of some big entrenched financial interests. Such men are about as rare as hen's teeth in today's political order, but I think Dennis Kucinich is such a man. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: GUEST,Neil D Date: 02 Sep 09 - 03:48 PM Earlier in this thread some Canadians spoke glowingly of Tommy Douglas, the man most responsible for bringing universal healthcare to Canada. Last night Rachel Maddow showed a commercial made by his grandson(now living in the US) in support of healthcare reform, mentioning his grandfather. That grandson was Kiefer Sutherland. Rachel also said that Tommy Douglas had been rated in a poll as the most popular Canadian of all time. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Little Hawk Date: 02 Sep 09 - 01:43 AM Agreed, Don. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 01 Sep 09 - 07:43 PM ""I'd like to see our present health care benefits extended to cover dental...a major expense for most people. Most places could use some improvements."" I'd agree with that, with one change LH. ALL places could use some improvements. Having said that, you cannot IMPROVE what you don't actually HAVE. USA please note. The rest of the civilised world is forty to sixty years ahead of you. Don T. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Little Hawk Date: 01 Sep 09 - 04:03 PM Me too. And as far as Canada goes, I'd like to see our present health care benefits extended to cover dental...a major expense for most people. Most places could use some improvements. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 01 Sep 09 - 02:23 PM Only time I've been to the States I had a great time. A lot of the people I most admire, both in folk music, and outside it are American. And I would challenge whether I am in any way anti-American. There are lots of things about America I dislike, but I think those are generally the same things that millions of Americans dislike even more. In particular, in the context of this thread, the failure to provide equal access for all to the kind of excellent health care which is available to those with adquate resources, or adequate insurance with insurance company who don't cheat their customers. I'd like to see America become what it could be. |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Don Firth Date: 01 Sep 09 - 01:38 PM On the other hand, Doug, I find most of Kevin McGrath's critical comments about the United States--like them or not--to be spot on. Honest criticism isn't "anti-American." In fact, it can be very helpful, provided one doesn't get one's nose out of joint. Sometimes the truth hurts. But turning your back on it is not a good route to improving things. Don Firth |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Greg F. Date: 01 Sep 09 - 09:30 AM So Doug: You are perhaps the most smug, self-satisfied, misinformed and ignorant person I have ever encountered. You have a right to your delusions, of course, how much time have you actually spent in Britain? Or, for that matter, any country other than the U.S. of A? |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Greg F. Date: 01 Sep 09 - 09:09 AM I think, Kevin, that you are the most anti-American I have ever encountered. Ol'Douggie sure revels in his delusions, doesn't he? |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: DougR Date: 01 Sep 09 - 01:35 AM McGrath: you write in one of your August 28 posts, the importance of immigrants to the NHS in your country. Are you referring to legal, or illegal immigrants? I think, Kevin, that you are the most anti-American I have ever encountered. Many, many, posters on this forum are critical of my country, but you, my friend, never seem to find anything positive to say about the United States. You're have a right to your opinion of course,but I wonder, have you ever spent much time in our country? DougR |
Subject: RE: BS: Nationalized Healthcare, good? bad? From: Little Hawk Date: 01 Sep 09 - 12:43 AM Great video, Carol. I watched the whole thing. This is why I go to a Naturopath. And you know what? I have found him to be considerably more efficient, more communicative, more helpful, more knowledgable, and more effective than ANY M.D. I have ever gone to. I know I'm going to die anyway. In time. When I do, I don't want to die like a helpless guinea pig in a high tech lab somewhere in some hospital after many months of "heroic measures" to keep me miserably alive on machines and drugs. Not if I can possibly help it. |