Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

I thought that the principal reason for the law mandating that everyone have insurance was to improve the longterm health of the country by providing regular access to care, thereby reducing healthcare costs.

The principal reason for the law is for the federal government to have control over virtually every aspect of your lives by having control over your healthcare.

Any other argument is hyperbole.

in my opinion the excessive health care costs are more driven by other known elements than those who are not currently covered doing it the more expensive way (what ever that may be).

The not so hidden rampant fraud, by providers as well as users, in Medicare. The well know coziness of pharmaceutical companies with government officials.

I do not see or hear anything regarding programs that will get the abuse under control....it will continue as business as usual while we all babble to each other what we thing is driving the numbers.

Please remember the inability and failure of the super committee to reduce spending.....complete failure....accepted. Nothing done to offset the task given them that they failed at.

The same failing, inept people in Washington will do nothing to correct the real ills of health care. They like Obama will pontificate how badly it is needed......nobody....NOBODY... will address the new rising costs of the programs, still UNKNOWN and will just be layered on top of the unaffordable fraud and cheating already long in the tooth existence.

The so called "benefits" of the health care proposal are far out weighed by the new to come additional costs....did I mention STILL UNKNOWN?

Health care rhetoric is not just political....it is worse. It is a political fairy tale being surprisingly accepted by way too many folks.

Health care will never cost you less than it does today....NEVER!! The coverage you get today will NEVER be as good in the future as it is today.

How can you add 15? 20? 30? 40? million more to the existing strained system without affecting what you have today. Just imagine adding 25-40 thousand more villagers to the medical system here without adding more capability. You think the lines are long now?

btk

Originally Posted by billethkid

in my opinion the excessive health care costs are more driven by other known elements than those who are not currently covered doing it the more expensive way (what ever that may be).

The not so hidden rampant fraud, by providers as well as users, in Medicare. The well know coziness of pharmaceutical companies with government officials.

I do not see or hear anything regarding programs that will get the abuse under control....it will continue as business as usual while we all babble to each other what we thing is driving the numbers.

Please remember the inability and failure of the super committee to reduce spending.....complete failure....accepted. Nothing done to offset the task given them that they failed at.

The same failing, inept people in Washington will do nothing to correct the real ills of health care. They like Obama will pontificate how badly it is needed......nobody....NOBODY... will address the new rising costs of the programs, still UNKNOWN and will just be layered on top of the unaffordable fraud and cheating already long in the tooth existence.

The so called "benefits" of the health care proposal are far out weighed by the new to come additional costs....did I mention STILL UNKNOWN?

Health care rhetoric is not just political....it is worse. It is a political fairy tale being surprisingly accepted by way too many folks.

Health care will never cost you less than it does today....NEVER!! The coverage you get today will NEVER be as good in the future as it is today.

How can you add 15? 20? 30? 40? million more to the existing strained system without affecting what you have today. Just imagine adding 25-40 thousand more villagers to the medical system here without adding more capability. You think the lines are long now?

btk

I cannot comment. The President said we would have an open and frank discussion for all americans to hear, but he had to take it VERY private thus I have no idea !

Much of the o.p.'s commentary seems to lead us to believe that the main complaint in this case--Constitutionality of the government forcing us to buy a product--is no longer worth mentioning because in his opinion, single-payer national government system would be better....

.....run by the same cast of bureaucrats that run the postal service and Amtrak which can get a person from Milwaukee to Orlando in an "impressive" 39 hours, with 2-3-hour layovers in Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia adding to the "efficient" routing, for $1,039 for a sleeper nook.

The above posts almost sound like our states' attorneys general should ignore the CONSTITUTIONALITY of this thing!!

...as opposed to the drones in the insurance companies that look for any excuse to deny benefits? Like kicking you off your plan when you come down with Leukemia. Like paying for polls showing 90% of people happy with their plans - ignoring all the people who can't get insurance, can't afford it or were kicked off when they got sick.

Remember, the postal service is private and has rules nobody else has to operate under. Amtrak is chronically underfunded as well.

If my congressman was suddenly going to be the one at my doctor's office checking me in, well, you'd have an argument. But I still depend on the doctors and nurses that we see. Whether the check paying the bulk of the bill comes from an insurance company or the government (Medicare) doesn't seem to affect their competence.

Originally Posted by djplong

...as opposed to the drones in the insurance companies that look for any excuse to deny benefits? Like kicking you off your plan when you come down with Leukemia. Like paying for polls showing 90% of people happy with their plans - ignoring all the people who can't get insurance, can't afford it or were kicked off when they got sick.

Remember, the postal service is private and has rules nobody else has to operate under. Amtrak is chronically underfunded as well.

If my congressman was suddenly going to be the one at my doctor's office checking me in, well, you'd have an argument. But I still depend on the doctors and nurses that we see. Whether the check paying the bulk of the bill comes from an insurance company or the government (Medicare) doesn't seem to affect their competence.

Your congressman won't be at the doctor's office checking you in, but he/she WILL be running for re-election every two years, and he WILL be appointing or campaigning with the local bureaucrats in charge of the local/regional bureau that doles out the budget money to your doctor in a Canadian-style system. Politicians constantly running for office/re-election overseeing regional health budgeting bureaus is a nightmare.