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Do you know that the people who are trying to block health care reform are the same kind of people who tried to block universal education, social security, and nearly every other step forward we have taken as a nation? Same mentality. Same lame excuses. "We can't afford it!", they say. These are moral issues! Ending slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, giving women the vote, ending child labor - all this progress was opposed in much the same terms as we see happening today.
48 replies [ Reply | Watch | Options ]You should realize that many people are not opposed to what they are trying to do, but how they are trying to do it... the government would like you to think otherwise.
[ Reply | Options ]NP: And yet many of the alternative ideas that have been proposed would do little to nothing to address the problem of extending insurance to those who are currently uninsured. Many people on both sides would like to see changes. I would like to see more emphasis on promoting effective treatments and discouraging ineffective treatments. But at the same time, something needs to be done now.
[ Reply | Options ]We need to reduce the cost of healthcare, so that it is more affordable. At the same time our population is aging and medical care and technology has gotten more complex and expensive. Raising taxes and cutting reimbursements to healthcare providers is not the solution.. it will result in extreme shortages of Doctors as they leave the profession because they can no longer cover their expenses. Who is going to see all these newly insured patients. We need torte reform! We need to allow insurance companies to compete across state lines. These are two changes that would cost relatively no $ and yet are not part of the current proposal ( not in a meaningful way ). What is being proposed will not work and will result in a deterioration of current medical quality, shortages & rationing AND higher taxes.
[ Reply | Options ]These are starts, but they are not enough. I agree with you that both should be incorporated into current proposals. But I don't believe for seconds that doctors are going to leave the profession in droves. I am married to one and work with many, and most of them are not in it for the money--the good ones anway! They could do their part by trying harder to incorporate evidence based medicine into their practice. This craziness about the age at which to start mammograms is illustrative of our commitment, as a country, to early, frequent, and often needless screening + intervention (even when health outcomes are worse as a result).
[ Reply | Options ]I am also married to a doctor ( and writer of the comments above ). My husband often works until 11 at night and often 7 days a week. His expenses keep going up ( malpractice, office staff, billing ) and yet his reimbursements are going down. They only way for him to maintain his current income is to see more and more patients which is becoming very difficult given the hours he is already working. Many of the guys that he knows that are in their late 50's and 60's are planning on retiring if things continue to get difficult.
[ Reply | Options ]I hear you--it's hard work. Hard for them, hard for us (the families), and the training is brutal. That's why I would like to see torte reform too, and maybe some kind of windfall profits law about what can be charged for insurance (have you ever seen one of the graphs of profits vs what they pay out?!). I would like to see better pay for the primary care docs so that more go into that profession, and less money going towards all of the personnel who have to handle billing (on our side and on the insurance co. side). agree the system is out of control!
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If ppl think that health care reform will not increase everyone's taxes in the long run then they are fooling themselves. You are wrong they are not all the same ppl that tried to stop SS and universal education. There may be some but what do you expect this is a Christian society.
[ Reply | Options ]Don't be so simplistic! Take the time and understand the financial situation that this country is in and what the proposed plan is going to do to the economy. It's great to want to have universal healthcare but you have to have the money to pay for it. The plan on the table right now is completely unrealistic from a cost savings standpoint and is going to create further tax increases that are going to further weaken the economy.
[ Reply | Options ]The very fact that The United States of America does not have the best, most affordable health care on the planet, along with the best in Public Education - without question, given our wealth is a national disgrace and an abomination. Period. The end.
[ Reply | Options ]Of course it is going to create higher taxes, that is all Obama does. Big ideas that everyone but illegals and the super poor do not have to pay for.
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np LOL. Wait 'til you're lined up at a walk-in clinic waiting for primary care...
[ Reply | Options ]you realize that many countries with universal healthcare still have privately owned clinics/hospitals/practices, right? the average wait times in germany are less than in the US.
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HUH? I live in a Canadian city where everyone is always bemoaning the lack of GPs. Yet, the problem is a lot more structural than it is one of numbers. The GPs are there, but there is no simple way to match a GP to a patient. That's the real issue with universal healthcare: very difficult system to manage efficiently. But that's the same with private healthcare as well, Americans don't seem to believe that private insurance makes the system easy to navigate.
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This is UrbanBABY. You need to go find a political site that you can rant on b/c people here do not come here to listen to your political POV
[ Reply | Options ]op - Saw an interesting op ed in the NYT today that echos some of these same points and especially highlights the arguments made against the introduction of social security and medicare when they were introduced: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/opinion/19kristof.html
[ Reply | Options ]OK and I'll bet you're the first to complain that you won't be able to get a mammogram until your 50. That's just the begining. I'm sure under healthcare reform there will be many new studies that say you don't need the exsisting care you already receive.
[ Reply | Options ]What is wrong with you people? Nobody is saying that you CAN'T get a mammogram until you are 50. A committee that studied the effects of screening via mammogram found the benefits from 40-50 were outweighed by the negative effects. Thus, they are advising against the routine use of yearly mammograms before 50. If anyone had any indication of NEEDING a mammogram before 50 (high risk for whatever reason, found lump, etc.) they can certainly get them under these recommendations.
[ Reply | Options ]I don't understand why proving people don't need the care they are receiving is a BAD thing? I mean ideally we'd have a system where we don't actually give people the care until we prove that they need it, but absent that, what are we supposed to do? Go on doing the wrong thing forever because we screwed up when we originally recommended it?
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For what it's worth, Lincoln was a republican. Also, Strom Thurmond led a walk-out of southern democrats in 1948 and ran against Truman as a Dixiecrat. BTW, does you DC go to public or private. If you really wanted diversity, you would be in public. Your arguments are nothing more than bloviating hypocrisy.
[ Reply | Options ]NP: Wow. You realize, I hope, that what the republican party (and democratic party) stand for has changed a lot over the years? What exactly were those statements supposed to illustrate? And where on earth did the public/private school thing come up in THIS post? BTW, my child does go to public and I'm not sure why you would assume that OP's does not. What that has to do with healthcare reform, I am not sure.
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