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HK[_6_]

On 3/8/10 4:24 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 8 Mar 2010 10:41:51 -0800, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

What??? Bush bankrupted the economy and you're blaming Obama????

The thing that really is going to bankrupt the country is the
entitlements.
That was an 80 year process where nobody was willing to say no and
nobody was willing to actually pay for it. They just passed the cost
on to the next generation. Minor stuff like the 4 or 5 wars were
trivial since they have an end. There is no end to the entitlements
and they will gobble up an ever increasing part of the GDP until we
fix the problem or until the country actually does bankrupt itself.
This medical insurance boondoggle is just more grease for the slippery
slope. To start with, does anyone really think congress will actually
make the Medicare cuts part of the "savings" are based on?
Do you think the insurance companies won't restructure the "Cadillac
plans" enough by 2018 (the current "cut in" data) that they avoid that
tax?
Do you think they will actually raise any of the taxes necessary to
fund this?

If so, you have been living in a cave for the last 40 years.

All the spending is immediate and the funding is years down the road.

There is also no restraint on what insurance companies will charge,
only the mandate that they have to cover more people. They would do
that tomorrow ... if we were willing to pay for it. This bill makes
sure we will. You will see this October when the new policies come
out. The election in November. Any questions about how that will come
out?

What is needed is a complete trashing and restructuring of our health
care payment methodology.

The Swiss have a good model. Basic and decent health care insurance is
mandatory. You have to buy it. If you don't have the ability to pay for
it, you get whatever subsidy is needed to cover its cost. The insurance
is provided by private sector insurance companies. The basic plan is the
same and at the same cost no matter which insurance company you select.
The insurers compete by offering a wide variety of supplemental plans at
market price. There are plenty of insurers competing for the Swiss
health care insurance dollar.

That's just one way to do it. There are others.

What is in the works here now is far from ideal, but it will get
coverage to tens of millions more Americans than have it now. The GOP
counter plan is nothing more than silly.

I don't see where it is in the interest of this country to pour billions
upon billions of dollars of profit into the coffers of health insurance
companies.