If socialized medicine is good enough for Congress, it's good enough for ME.

Do our congress-critters have to shop around for the best insurance rates? Do they have to worry about "portability" of their plans? When they leave office, do they have to show proof of insurance to prospective employers?

Why do they deserve to get something WE can't have? How much are their co-pays? Do they pay deductibles? Or is it service on request?

These are serious questions. If "socialized medicine" is so bad, why do both Republican and Democratic members of Congress have something that looks remarkably similar to that reviled system?

Maybe because it works?

We don't need any cobbled-together plan that helps the insurance companies more than it helps the average American. We don't need giveaways to the profit-driven corporate bastards who take money with one hand and withhold it with the other.

Maybe eliminating the health insurance end of things isn't the answer. Maybe there IS room for them at the table. But WE should be deciding what portions they get. Denying valid claims for the sake of the bottom line should be a CRIME. Punishable by jail time and massive, punative fines. Of course, that should go for the rest of the goddamn industry as well, but we're not discussing that end of things at the moment.

They're trying to force feed us feel-good healthcare "plans" that, in fact, do nothing to solve the problem other than to promise us that they will miraculously cause the insurance companies to become more competitive with one another and the government run plans.

Yeah...well, that competition has been working out SO well in recent years, hasn't it?

We really need to eliminate the for-profit motivation in the healthcare industry in general. At some point it becomes less about helping the sick and injured and more about exploiting them...and exploiting their fears of being sick and injured without health insurance.

Do these plans help people avoid medical bankruptcy in the face of catastrophic illness or injury? Do they provide a real safety net against a lifetime of debt for things outside a person's control?

No? Why not?



And, yeah, I'm harping on this a lot. Because I think this is one of the most important fights we have in front of us. If we surrender, we're cutting our own throats.

I've got decent insurance. But I know how lucky I am. But I've also seen people screwed by the system--even if they HAD insurance. I want that to end.

We have to come up with a way to show that we mean business here. We want REAL healthcare reform, not a patchwork nightmare.

Who's with me? And what are we going to do about it?

I was under it for 40 years having been wed to a military man than moved into care under SS. I think my care and my children's were a lot better than people on the out side. My mother got ill in England once and she said her care was better than here. She would not vote for it as she was a GOP type person but always said the GOP should pick up the ball and run with it, so she could. That always made me laugh.

People are forced to accept the reality of "the bottom line" at their jobs, and it just spills over into every other cultural and human activity.

Health care is one area where return on the buck should not be the priority. But there are other issues as well. Like the huge administrative bureaucracy of the insurance and health care industry. They are like a two hundred pound leech on a fifty pound dog.

Another concern I have is "for profit" hospitals and health care facilities. (See point one) What happens when the choice between profit for the shareholders and providing health care?

So why are people looking to the Congressional plan as the answer?

You said:
>>
We really need to eliminate the for-profit motivation in the healthcare industry in general.
>>

How does the Congressional plan "eliminate the for-profit motivation in the healthcare industry"?

They need all the financial breaks they can get because they HAVE to maintain two households, one in Washington DC where the prices are high. Nobody else in the United States of America has it so hard. And don't forget, WE FORCED THEM to run for office; and once there, it's not like they're pulling strings for cronies to make their retirement packages more cooshy.

But maybe this post should be in the "general discussion" forum?

I'm not sure how it ended up here.