Showing posts with label healthcare reform. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healthcare reform. Show all posts

Saturday, April 20, 2013

America’s Purposeful Downfall

Cloward and Piven are mentors of sorts to President Obama. They hate America and taught that America could only be destroyed from within. Their plan called for overwhelming the system with debt and hooking the majority of citizens on government handouts. Under the weight of the debt, the system would implode and the economy would collapse. Dependent and scared citizens would then turn toward government to save them – just like they did during the Great Depression when FDR gladly began his massive government expansion programs. Does any of this sound familiar?

Consider the facts:
  • Over 50 million Americans are on food stamps (20% of all eligible adults).
  • Fourteen million are on disability.
  • Millions more are on welfare, unemployment, housing allowances, aid to dependent children, or 100 other free government  programs.
  • Obamacare alone will bankrupt the Treasury. It will make every American poorer via higher insurance premiums. And it will make thousands (maybe millions) of Americans criminals if they do not comply. 
  • 22 million government employees drain our economy as tax-payers' dollars are spent on non-productive activities.
  • Record-setting numbers of Americans are emptying their retirement accounts to survive leaving them short-handed when they do retire and, thus, dependent on the government. 
  • Record levels of student loan debt financially strap the next generation of leaders.
  • Over 16 million Americans live in poverty making them dependent on the government. 
  • Every day the private sector (which is where new jobs originate) shrinks, while the government grows. Every dollar sent to the government hurts the private economy!
  • Thousands of new regulations from government agencies stunt all efforts the economy makes toward recover.
  • Social Security is essentially bankrupt as is Medicare.  
It is glaringly obvious what is going on. Time to wake up America!

Friday, February 22, 2013

Healthcare Reform

The unconstitutional Obamacare law must be repealed and the federal government needs to get out of the healthcare business. Below are my recommendations to fix the healthcare system and my reasons for the repeal.

Recommendations:
The reason the American healthcare system is in such a mess, is because of government intervention and the third-party payer system. If we reduce government involvement and bring back capitalistic, free market principles, conditions will improve.
  1. Allow people to buy health insurance across state lines like we do for life, homeowners and car insurance. Competition breeds better service and better pricing. If you think the free market can't fix the problem, you are obviously unfamiliar with the markets for Lasik eye surgery, elective cosmetic surgery, privately run urgent care facilities and services such as portable MRI machines all of which must compete in the free market for customers and all of which have seen dramatic price reductions over the last decade. 
  2. Remove government-imposed mandates on heath insurance companies. Let people buy a la carte policies or major medical policies rather than forcing the insurance company to cover every ailment under the sun.
  3. Implement portability rules. When you are young, you buy a health insurance policy that sticks with you your entire life regardless of your health. As long as you pay your premiums, the insurance company cannot kick you off the policy because of your health. The system we have now is ridiculous where you lose your insurance when you lose or change jobs. The insurance should stay with the person NOT the employer. When I get a new job, I don't lose my auto insurance! Why should I lose my health insurance?
  4. Pass tort reform to reduce malpractice insurance costs. 
  5. Promote and encourage the use of HSA's (healthcare savings accounts) - tax-free savings that can be passed down to the next generation. The other benefit is the patient is actually paying for the service rather than a third party. No more $15 co-pays! We should pay $75-$100 to visit the doctor. That will force the consumer to price shop and think twice about running to the doctor every time their stomach hurts. When your car needs new brakes or your house needs a repair, do you make a co-pay? How much does the average American family spend on their cell phone bill each month? $200? Their TV and internet service? $150? Entertainment and eating out? $100? Starbucks? $20? And we bitch and moan over having to pay our doctor $100 to take care of our bodies? How insane is that? 
  6. Allow citizens with pre-existing conditions to join large pools and spread the cost. Most states already have these pools set up. People with pre-existing conditions should expect to pay more for their health care than a healthy person because they use more of it. 
  7. Offer tax benefits to individuals rather than employers for health insurance premiums paid. 
Repeal:
  1. The law is unconstitutional. There is no enumerated power for the federal government to be involved in the citizens' healthcare. Nor can the federal government force citizens to buy a product or service.
  2. The manner in which the bill was drafted - with no input from Republicans - despite repeated promises by the President that negotiations would be broadcast on TV.
  3. The manner in which the bill was passed - bribing Senators, using budget reconciliation to get it passed in the House, not a single congressman whom voted for the bill actually read or understood it! As the bombastic Nancy Pelosi said, "We will have to pass the bill to see what is in it".
  4. The consequences of the law - rationing of care, fewer doctors, longer wait times, death panels, bureaucrats making medical decisions. Look at any country with socialized medicine and study their level of care, wait times, rationing, etc.
  5. Do you really want your doctor's office to run like a post office or your local DMV? Can you name one government-run endeavor that is run efficiently with the customers' best interest served? Are you willing to turn your families healthcare decisions over to a bureaucrat?

Thursday, March 26, 2009

10 Surprising Facts About American Health Care

http://news.investors.com/032609-472401-how-us-health-care-really-stacks-up.htm?p=2

This article, which outlines the findings from The National Center for Policy Analysis, concludes with this:

"Can the nationalized, universal systems in Britain, Canada or anywhere else improve on this [the U.S. healthcare system]? No, but we can ruin our health care by following the policies of countries where medical treatment is far below the American standard."

What has the federal government ever done well enough that gives you confidence that they can manage your healthcare?

Now for the Top 10 list:

#1 - "Americans have better survival rates than Europeans for common cancers."

#2 - "Americans have lower cancer mortality rates than Canadians."

#3 - "Americans have better access to treatment of chronic diseases than patients in other developed countries."

#4 - "Americans have better access to preventive cancer screenings than Canadians."

#5 - "Lower-income Americans are in better health than comparable Canadians."

#6 - "Americans spend less time waiting for care than patients in Canada and the United Kingdom."

#7 - "People in countries with more government control of health care are highly dissatisfied and believe reform is needed."

#8 - "Americans are more satisfied with the care they receive than Canadians."

#9 - "Americans have much better access to important new technologies like medical imaging than patients in Canada or the U.K."

#10 - "Americans are responsible for the vast majority of all health care innovations."