Quite frankly, most Americans simply DON’T want to pay MORE for LESS and most Americans certainly DON’T want to pay more so that others may have what they’re currently paying for.
With an estimated 39 million people in America currently uninsured, it’s been shown that 43% or 17 million of those are “uninsured by choice”, that is, they are largely young, healthy Americans who choose more take-home pay over paying into their health insurance premiums. Another 15 million are illegal immigrants who would NOT be covered under any proposed plan and which 88% of American citizens DO NOT support being insured by any program financed by American taxpayers.
That leaves a grand total of about 7 million Americans (at the highest estimates) uninsured and many, if not most of those are employed in part-time and per diem jobs that offer no benefits.
That is hardly a crisis, certainly not grounds for the federal government to look to seek greater control over 1/6th of the American economy.
Many Americans support “lower cost healthcare”, but the primary reason American healthcare costs more is because it IS cutting edge. It DOES offer patients a wide array of tests and treatments that cost more.
American business AND government supports a healthcare system that rations care for the poor and those both unable and unwilling to spend MORE to get better quality care.
What’s more, many, if not MOST Liberals, folks like Ted Kennedy support healthcare rationing and restrictions too!
Recently, William Kristol wrote, “For Kennedy and his co-author, Bob Shrum, have let the rationing cat out of the bag. And that's a problem for President Obama and the Democrats. Make no mistake: Beyond all the other crippling problems with the Democrats' health care proposal--its cost at a time of massive deficits, the tax increases it requires at a time of recession, its preference for government over the private sector and for central planning over free competition--the deepest vulnerability of Obamacare is that it (intentionally) puts us on a course towards government rationing of health care.
“Here's the key paragraph from Kennedy and Shrum:
We also need to move from a system that rewards doctors for the sheer volume of tests and treatments they prescribe to one that rewards quality and positive outcomes. For example, in Medicare today, 18 percent of patients discharged from a hospital are readmitted within 30 days - at a cost of more than $15 billion in 2005. Most of these readmissions are unnecessary, but we don't reward hospitals and doctors for preventing them. By changing that, we'll save billions while improving the quality of care for patients.”
Even in countries like France, Germany, Sweden and England, healthcare is NEVER rationed for the rich. The wealthy in ALL those countries are free to go anywhere in the world to get the very best healthcare available.
The same would be true under ANY healthcare plan offered here in the USA. In fact, EVERY plan to date would severely restrict both visits and treatments to those on the government plan, BUT traditional insurers would be free (under ALL such plans) to come in and offer “gap insurance” for those willing and able to pay more to avoid the rationing and restrictions that the likes of Ted Kennedy would impose.
What Kennedy and his cohorts have failed to do is sell the American people on the need for rationing and restrictions to reduce the costs of healthcare...maybe they should’ve hired someone who could get that job done.
With an estimated 39 million people in America currently uninsured, it’s been shown that 43% or 17 million of those are “uninsured by choice”, that is, they are largely young, healthy Americans who choose more take-home pay over paying into their health insurance premiums. Another 15 million are illegal immigrants who would NOT be covered under any proposed plan and which 88% of American citizens DO NOT support being insured by any program financed by American taxpayers.
That leaves a grand total of about 7 million Americans (at the highest estimates) uninsured and many, if not most of those are employed in part-time and per diem jobs that offer no benefits.
That is hardly a crisis, certainly not grounds for the federal government to look to seek greater control over 1/6th of the American economy.
Many Americans support “lower cost healthcare”, but the primary reason American healthcare costs more is because it IS cutting edge. It DOES offer patients a wide array of tests and treatments that cost more.
American business AND government supports a healthcare system that rations care for the poor and those both unable and unwilling to spend MORE to get better quality care.
What’s more, many, if not MOST Liberals, folks like Ted Kennedy support healthcare rationing and restrictions too!
Recently, William Kristol wrote, “For Kennedy and his co-author, Bob Shrum, have let the rationing cat out of the bag. And that's a problem for President Obama and the Democrats. Make no mistake: Beyond all the other crippling problems with the Democrats' health care proposal--its cost at a time of massive deficits, the tax increases it requires at a time of recession, its preference for government over the private sector and for central planning over free competition--the deepest vulnerability of Obamacare is that it (intentionally) puts us on a course towards government rationing of health care.
“Here's the key paragraph from Kennedy and Shrum:
We also need to move from a system that rewards doctors for the sheer volume of tests and treatments they prescribe to one that rewards quality and positive outcomes. For example, in Medicare today, 18 percent of patients discharged from a hospital are readmitted within 30 days - at a cost of more than $15 billion in 2005. Most of these readmissions are unnecessary, but we don't reward hospitals and doctors for preventing them. By changing that, we'll save billions while improving the quality of care for patients.”
Even in countries like France, Germany, Sweden and England, healthcare is NEVER rationed for the rich. The wealthy in ALL those countries are free to go anywhere in the world to get the very best healthcare available.
The same would be true under ANY healthcare plan offered here in the USA. In fact, EVERY plan to date would severely restrict both visits and treatments to those on the government plan, BUT traditional insurers would be free (under ALL such plans) to come in and offer “gap insurance” for those willing and able to pay more to avoid the rationing and restrictions that the likes of Ted Kennedy would impose.
What Kennedy and his cohorts have failed to do is sell the American people on the need for rationing and restrictions to reduce the costs of healthcare...maybe they should’ve hired someone who could get that job done.
Just FYI quoted you in my article Those Greedy Health Insurers - NOT
ReplyDeleteHey! THANKS Bernie....I've got to check out your blog.
ReplyDeleteI'm not very optimistic about any of this turning out very well, but....