Universal health care by default?

"Obama is doing the right thing by hiring someone to look for this waste and fraud, and getting rid of it" yes, he has already demonstrated we can trust him implicitly do do this by hiring a tax cheat to run the treasury department and a defense lobbyist as deputy defense secretary. oh COME ON ! What the hell is wrong with people in this country? Are people really that blind now? "Obama is gonna..." "Obama is making sure...." "Obama Obama Obama....." For CRIPE SAKES! What is going to take for everyone to realize all we did was change one name plate on the oval office desk for another? Obama, Bush. Bush Obama. It's the whole abominable bunch. Until we purge the system, we can trust it to successfully operate, manage or clean [b] NOTHING

X, I guess you didn't read my entire post. If the economy continues at this pace, and businesses continue to stop offering medical insurance, or make it so expensive that no one can afford it, then the government will be forced to act. We will have universal health care wheather we want it or not. It always makes me laugh when republicans complain about corrupt government buerocrocy when it comes to health care, but never say a word about the extremely corrupt tatics of our department of defense when you have defense contractors working with generals that they have already offered jobs to when they retire. Ever look at the number of former pentagon workers employed by defense contractors? Ever hear of the reason D!ck Cheney was selected to run Haliburton? If you want to talk about corrupt government buerocrocies, lets talk about the department of defense (we won't even get into the money laundering going on between the department of defense, the defense industry, and the republican party). As for paying for it, two corporations (GE and GM) have subsidized the United States health care system to the tune of $1 + Billion dollars for years now. That is just two companies out of millions of companies in the United States. The health care industry is a $2 Trillion dollar a year industry that was less than $1 Trillion ten years ago. Here is my answer to your points: A. Do you think there is some waste and excess there (How many government employees make $175 million a year, and have a golden parachute worth $300 Million?) B. We have the best military in the world, and they are payed for by the United States government. Maybe moving the health care industry under government control we would have the best health care in the world. C. We have monsterous buerocracy in the department of defense, I never heard you say a word about that X. Why is that? And, if you want talk about corrupt? The department of defense is the most corrupt department in our government. D. Orwelian intrusion? You mean like the patroit act? X, it sounds like you are taking sides with the executives of the health care industry (who donate large amounts of money to the republican part. Go figure). I would rather be on the side of the American people who are sick of subsidizing the health break throughs that save lives everyday at the expense of the American people. We need to find another way to pay for or health care, and I think common business practices should come into effect: If 313 million people you buy insurance from one company, they would get a better price than if 313 million people by seperate policies.

And it makes me laugh even harder when people assume I am a republican. I also find it funny you mention corruption in the defense department when your guy appointed a defense lobbyist to the position of assistant secretary of defense. I haven't heard you utter a peep about that. "If 313 million people you buy insurance from one company, they would get a better price than if 313 million people by seperate policies. " No, if there is one insurance company, there is nothing to keep prices affordable as people will have no other choice but to buy from thatone company who can charge what ever they feel like for the policy, knowing full well people will have no other choice or the ability to shop around. I don't know what the tally is right now of medicaid and medicare recipiants is right now, if things get bad eniugh, then yes as the rolls increase in recipients, we will have a defacto national healthcare system in place, but it would still not be legaly mandated. What I fear is a system that becomes so bloated and complicated and expensive that healthcare quality will go through the floor, the requirements and strings that inevitably come with any government program will be intrusive and infringe on peoples personal lives far more than they already do and the cost to the country will be astronomical because we will not only be paying for the health practices, doctors and hospitals themselves, but for the beurocrocy that runs it, which will be twice as expensive itself with out even figuring in the cost of the care itself. I'm not saying something shouldn't or won't be done, but we should be very very carefull about how we go about it and not fall in to the same pit we seem to always do of creating a beurocrocy to fix a problem.

X, I did not assume you are a republican, I take the information you give me, and it tells me what you are. You can call yourself something else (like O'Reilly, and Hannity love to do), but your ideas are in line more with the republican party then the Democrats. I never said anything about a lobbiest being appointed to assistant secretary of defense because our entire department of defense is corrupt, so hiring one is just par for the course. I don't agree with the selection, but again it is par for the course when it comes to the department of defense. Your comment about insurance would make sense unless you look at history. Don't you remember when we deregulated the electric companies in California in the 90's? Does the name Enron ring a bell? Competition doesn't always lead to lower prices, as a matter of fact deregulation has created more monopolies, and has destroyed competition in many cases. Recently my states public utilities were ready to become deregulated, and were forced to stop after they announced they would raise prices 20% (we are now we have the highest rates in the state, and some of the highest in the country). X, if you look at the amount of money Americans spend on health insurance alone you could create a system to cover every American without forcing them to pay one dollar more than they do today. You are paying hundreds of billions of dollars covering medicaid, and medicare, why not cover everyone and save yourself a few thousand a year. You could give every American a huge cut in their daily expenses, and take away the liability from corporations, saving them hundreds of billions. This could stimulate the economy so much, you might be able to avoid Bush's depression.

But are you willing to work 40 hours a week or more and only come home with half the income you currently make? In areas where there are universal healthcare plans in place, the citizens pay upwards of 60% or more in income taxes to support this. Keep in mind all the bills you currently have will likely increase but your pay will be slashed in half. I don't know about you, but I know I couldn't afford it.