Not a nice thing to call someone, but come on. How could he write this in all seriousness?
New Gazette Editorial.
Sunday November 1, 2009
We are now closer than ever before to effectively eliminating the monopoly that exists on health insurance. I find it ironic that Republicans are now against competition that will cause the insurance industry to regulate itself.
Usually it is Republicans calling for less governmental control and free enterprise competition. Now we see them fighting against free enterprise. It is no mystery that people are shrinking away from the Republican party at an alarming rate.
Now is the time when we must resist the temptation afforded by health care lobbyists. It is an easy way to make more campaign money than God, and is especially tempting for congressmen from the smaller states where they could only ever dream of that kind of money. But they need to remember who they represent.
Their constituents are supposed to be the people in their state, hopefully the majority and not the insurance companies attempting to buy their vote.
CHRIS JOHNSTON
Champaign
Do I live in some alternate reality?
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Healthcare
So here it is. Why does the media say we will only have competition in health care if there is a ‘public’ option? I chose BCBS with a $10,000 deductible for my family. That is a little scary, but we could afford it and we have coverage if anything major happened. We have met that deductible twice and still paid less than if we went with the competition, which charged over $900 a month four years ago. Keyword competition. What they mean is unfair competition. A system similar to Medicare, where the gov’t sets the rates they want to pay and the hospitals pick up the rest. They can’t turn people away and they have to accept what is given them.
Who picks up the rest? Oh yeah, those that are paying their bills, in other words private insurance companies. Our local 300 bed hospital “donated” unpaid costs of Medicare and Medicaid totaling $48,044,115. That is just the amount that the gov’t didn’t pay, because they didn’t want to or couldn’t afford to at least not without voting in a tax increase. Unfortunately, only the gov’t can print money, so the hospital has to get the money from somewhere. The American people have another hidden tax in the form of hospital bills and insurance payments. Do we really want more of this type of competition? The only thing that will happen is more and more people will not be able to afford to pay the increasing load of bad debt that the gov’t piles on these hospitals. The hospitals have to make money and that seems evil in some people’s eyes, but how do they pay for the advanced medical equipment and the pretty private birthing rooms. Tell me do you want to be in a room with two other moms that just had babies that aren’t nearly as cute as yours, cry the whole night, and have obnoxious relatives visiting all the time. No. Then pay for it.
(FYI there are about 945,200 staffed beds in the US, our area is fairly affluent, which means lower Medicare population, think about how huge the deficit the US government is running in Medicare every year, this goes completely unreported by the government because the hospitals write it off.)
In addition, from the AARP commercials I see when I’m watching the game show network, Medicare doesn’t cover everything. Medicare recipients need supplemental insurance. We’ve been told that Medicare will start covering less when the funds get shifted around. If Medicare doesn’t cover it and the hospitals have to provide it, someone is paying for it. And you better bet if you pay insurance or medical bills it is you. This new program will add to that burden.
Don’t get me wrong. I think that everyone should have good health care. The question is who is going to pay for it. I say, let healthy adults be responsible for themselves. Let them make choices. Let them stand up and say, we are going to work hard to pay for ourselves whenever possible. Then, when there are occasions that community help is needed, let the community step in. That level of when community help is needed is the real debate. What sacrifice is enough? I was told by a State employee that if I put my family on public insurance that it could mean gymnastics lessons for my child and that my child was just a deserving as any other child. I would love them to be in gymnastics. That was one of the highlights of my youth. Do I think my neighbors should pay for it? HELL NO. And I’m a little tired of paying for everyone else.
Well, I’ve started to cuss so that will have to do for tonight.
My question for the general public is how did we get so far from the values of our grandparents and how do we return our country to those values? They believed in providing for your own, separating wants from needs, finding joy in the simple things of life, in giving willingly to help a neighbor, not by force of the government? Until we as a society return to those values we will never ‘fix’ the healthcare system.
Who picks up the rest? Oh yeah, those that are paying their bills, in other words private insurance companies. Our local 300 bed hospital “donated” unpaid costs of Medicare and Medicaid totaling $48,044,115. That is just the amount that the gov’t didn’t pay, because they didn’t want to or couldn’t afford to at least not without voting in a tax increase. Unfortunately, only the gov’t can print money, so the hospital has to get the money from somewhere. The American people have another hidden tax in the form of hospital bills and insurance payments. Do we really want more of this type of competition? The only thing that will happen is more and more people will not be able to afford to pay the increasing load of bad debt that the gov’t piles on these hospitals. The hospitals have to make money and that seems evil in some people’s eyes, but how do they pay for the advanced medical equipment and the pretty private birthing rooms. Tell me do you want to be in a room with two other moms that just had babies that aren’t nearly as cute as yours, cry the whole night, and have obnoxious relatives visiting all the time. No. Then pay for it.
(FYI there are about 945,200 staffed beds in the US, our area is fairly affluent, which means lower Medicare population, think about how huge the deficit the US government is running in Medicare every year, this goes completely unreported by the government because the hospitals write it off.)
In addition, from the AARP commercials I see when I’m watching the game show network, Medicare doesn’t cover everything. Medicare recipients need supplemental insurance. We’ve been told that Medicare will start covering less when the funds get shifted around. If Medicare doesn’t cover it and the hospitals have to provide it, someone is paying for it. And you better bet if you pay insurance or medical bills it is you. This new program will add to that burden.
Don’t get me wrong. I think that everyone should have good health care. The question is who is going to pay for it. I say, let healthy adults be responsible for themselves. Let them make choices. Let them stand up and say, we are going to work hard to pay for ourselves whenever possible. Then, when there are occasions that community help is needed, let the community step in. That level of when community help is needed is the real debate. What sacrifice is enough? I was told by a State employee that if I put my family on public insurance that it could mean gymnastics lessons for my child and that my child was just a deserving as any other child. I would love them to be in gymnastics. That was one of the highlights of my youth. Do I think my neighbors should pay for it? HELL NO. And I’m a little tired of paying for everyone else.
Well, I’ve started to cuss so that will have to do for tonight.
My question for the general public is how did we get so far from the values of our grandparents and how do we return our country to those values? They believed in providing for your own, separating wants from needs, finding joy in the simple things of life, in giving willingly to help a neighbor, not by force of the government? Until we as a society return to those values we will never ‘fix’ the healthcare system.
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