I can see from the comments to yesterdays Post That like most americans you have fallen for the Propaganda issuing forth from the special interests like big pharma and insurance. These are the folks that will tend to lose in health reform. Also your elected officials that benefit through campaign contributions both legal and ill-eagle. We gave the banks seven hundred billion dollars. The government , banks and the mortgage companies scared us into thinking if we didn't the country would go under all together. That money is now nearly gone as news comes in that some banks are paying back. Well that was a hell of a turn around for an industry that was teetering on total collapse. Now shouldn't we reduce the stimulus package by that amount? The stimulus money is trickling out slowly yet the economy is beginning to recover. Why should we continue with a stimulus as if it is an emergency. The only sectors that have benefitted from this mess is government by claiming more power to stick it's hand into our pie. The banks by getting tax payer money in lump sums with no oversight. Just grab a hand full and stick in your pocket. Mortgage companies as they have taken from the poor and given it to the rich through shady dealings and deceptive practices with mortgage buyers. Through tricky and border line legal derivatives wall street drove us into the ground. So who's your friend. We are. As in we the people. We have the power to regulate but we don't. If the government would do it's duty to it's citizens and do their jobs in enforcing regulations rather than turning a blind eye. Perhaps it was those campaign contributions or in the case of appointees plain bribes. We would not be in this mess to start with. It amazes me that people immediately move to the extremes instead of seeing the truth is somewhere in between. It is true that only 15% of the population is unassured. Those are the folks that go to the emergency room for all treatment. A cold or cough a scratch as well as serious health needs. This is very expensive and those of us that have insurance pay through the nose for them. We pay for every body else in the country. Since the insured in the country have to pay for them any way through rising taxes, rising hospital care giver costs along with your rising insurance premiums. Let's have a system that will save us some money. It is false that to bring these folks into the system would overwhelm the system. They are already in the emergency room system that we pay for and we are not rationed in our care . Why don't we form a giant group and self insure. A co-op if you will. We can then shop just as the other insurance providers do. We can contract with health car provider networks and bargain with our millions of members. A public co-op is not a government entity and can set our own standards of care .As for one-two trillion i say again we are already shouldering this in our premiums and government well fare programs . All the money we need can be found in obsolete waste full government programs. waste and fraud in all government from washington politics and favors to pork to every state. We will not need to pay our administrators a hundred million a year . We all know this is true. It is time to change and we can achieve our goals. To have a system that will save us money we need competition among insurers. At this time their is little or no competition among health insurers. For those of you that say a private plan will break the poor insurance companies and will put the government between you and your doctors. This is crap. The insurance companies is already standing there. You need a referral from your primary care Doctor to see a specialist. If the treatment for your illness is controversial or a pre existing condition you die. This not interference between you and your doctor. That causes you to pay more in co-pays and premiums. Many little insurance tricks like this are used every day to make you pay more. Just have a look at the small print of your policy. Reform is not only about the uninsured . It is also about abuse by the health industry. I am a healthy guy and have never had an expensive claim but i still pay huge premiums. So you see reform is really for me not the uninsured. You can call it social conscience if you wish but the self interest should make you want health industry reform. Reform of the industry not just insurance.As for oil companies wanting to dump their employees on the government. Again such stereo types help no one. Companies with less than fifty employees have no obligation to provide insurancefor their workers. However many of us do have a social conscience and do supply health insurance to our employees. We also supply life and disability for them. Over the past ten years it has been the rapid rise in premiums that have us thinking about dropping these benefits. Higher taxes. Higher insurance and care giver costs of all types are the things you should be thinking about. I am not the bad guy here. If cost gets out of hand and i go broke than these employees all lose their jobs as well as their insurance. then what happens is all go on well fare of some sort and you pay any way.The answer is to make our government use the power we have already given it to stop the theft, bribes and pork. This is the only answer to these problems. We have let large corporations dictate our policies and not kept out attention on them. This has been wonderful for them but deadly for us. legislature do you job or we will vote you out. Please people use your own brain. Don't believe those that are in washington to do your business are some how better than you or smarter than you. The opposite is true. Most are in washington because some one in the family had a lot of money and influence to get their kid in the seat. Most do not come from the street but from the elite. Spoiled kids that had every thing given to them and now believe they deserve it for the rest of their lives. Wake up from your dream state and yell.mbjmprGod bless
