Mike, I agree with you 100% about the lazy non productive people in America. I also agree that there something that needs to be done about them. I have always been a firm believer in helping someone for a very limited amount of time. Lets say that they lost their job and need food. Ok, 2 months, not for life. At the end of the two months you loose your food and either you get off your a** and get a job or you die. Survival is human nature and they will become productive citizens when given these options. As long as there are enough jobs to support each and every person.
My issue is the health care system IS broken due to the governments lack of attention to monopolies and corruption within the health care system. I will repost what I previously wrote as it explains it clearly. Also, there are free market ways of resolving this issue, the problem is that the conservatives act as if the only way to resolve this issue is via more government control which is not the case. BTW, I am a far right wing conservative, further right than Rush or Hannity. About lined up with Levin, Savage or Bortz.
I am a far right conservative republican that supports health care. Wow, doesn’t sound like the conservatives on the radio, does it? Actually, I agree with most of what they say but have to draw the line here. I support health care for everyone as I am pro life. Not just pro life for babies but for adults as well.
I don’t think that someone should have something catastrophic happen to them and have to choose between death and financial ruin. With those two choices in mind, they have to choose financial ruin.
I am not saying health care for someone who has the sniffles. I am saying major medical with a relatively high deductible. High enough to encourage people to not use it unless it is absolutely necessary. Low enough to allow someone to pay off this debt within a year or two and be back on their feet without a tarnished credit rating or a lifetime of debt.
Those who want to see the doctor for minor issues can pay for it out of their pocket. When negotiating with a doctor, I have found rates significantly drop if it is mentioned that you are paying cash. A $75 dollar 5 minute consultation quickly turns into a $40 consultation.
I am going to let you in on a couple of things you may not be aware of as being issues within the health care industry. This is insider information that I am aware of and that I have not heard a word of from the mainstream media.
My father was a vice president of The Travelers Financial Services prior to their breaking up. Back when they were one of the largest insurance companies in the United States. He told me a couple of very interesting stories about the industry.
His first month or so that he was on the job, he was meeting with top executives of many of the other largest insurance companies in the country and the topic came up of raising premiums by a certain percentage. The insurance companies all agreed together to do so.
At this point he was afraid from what just happened. My dad was previously the VP of RJ Reynolds / Nabisco and if something like that ever happened he knew that he would be sent straight to prison for price fixing or collusion. So… upon returning to The Travelers he immediately reported to the president and said I can’t believe what just happened, they were all talking about raising prices and now I am going to end up going to jail. The president of Travelers laughed and informed him that there legally is an exception for insurance companies and this is perfectly legal for him to do so within the industry.
This was quite shocking information to my dad and when he told me about it I too was surprised that the government would allow this.
A couple years down the road the insurance giants were going head to head with the all mighty American Medical Association. The AMA has some sort of book. It’s kind of like a guideline of what is acceptable to pay. Got the sniffles and insurance companies must pay __ dollars. Got a broken arm and it will cost insurance companies ___ dollars. Well, the AMA decided to increase prices across the board to the insurance companies. The insurance giants were outraged at this and got together to decide how to handle this. They were fully aware that the AMA was controlling the supply and demand of doctors in the United States so they decided that they would threaten exposure and let the cat out of the bag.
They came back to the AMA with a response that if they even think about raising the prices they will drop the ball on how the AMA was only allowing a certain number of doctors graduate per year. Just enough to account for population increase and death of doctors. This tight control of the supply and demand is what has allowed health care prices to go through the roof and medical doctors to get paid 3 to 4 times the amount that doctors and highly educated people of other fields get paid. Even the doctors that simply treat people with the sniffles are flush with cash after a short term of paying off medical school due to this monopoly that the AMA has created.
They also promised that they will make sure that with the breaking of the news they will ensure that thousands upon thousands of highly qualified doctors get imported from India to the United States which will in-turn create an atmosphere of competition, and prices will drop regardless of what the AMA does due to the change in supply and demand.
Upon the receipt of this counter threat, the AMA quickly decided against raising prices to insurance companies and the issue was resolved.
Our health care system is broken. Broken in a huge way. It is broken due to non-regulation. I am not saying that we need government-controlled health care. I am saying that we need regulation in this industry. It is broken because the government has allowed a monopoly with the AMA and allowed collusion among insurance companies. Sure, there are many other reasons why it is broken. These are two glaring examples which have caused the American people to feel that even Government controlled health care would be better than what we have now. And it would be. When the government doesn’t enforce the laws we already have in place, or give special privileges to particular industries, things get broken and it makes it seem that the only option is more government control.
Regardless of the situation, people need health care and the system needs to be fixed. Health care costs are through the roof in all areas, from pharmaceuticals to hospitals, from insurance to doctors themselves. No one should face a financial ruin or death decision due to a catastrophic health problem. Lets get this problem fixed. Those who are profiting to a massive degree will go down kicking and screaming all the way and that is to be expected. “Plants” will be hired by the profiteers to appear on the media giving reasons why this is a bad idea. A campaign will be kicked off likely using scare tactics, etc. Regardless of what happens, we need to push through major medical for the people.