Wow....

[mrsltg]

I see the words "allow" and "may" thrown about in this thread so much. I have to say, the OP wondered when Americans became selfish, I'll skip right over selfish and go for stupid.

When did the government start getting to "allow" people to do things? As in, you are "allowed" to keep your money. Or, you are "allowed" to choose your doctor from our list. How generous of the junior Senator from NY to "allow" me, under her plan, to continue purchasing the coverage which best suits my needs! I have to wonder, what with the cost of her home in Chappaqua, and the money made from her and the Mr's book deals, how many American uninsured could they PERSONALLY help? Not through the veil of taxes and deciding what is best, but how many people could they help and for how many years by simply selling the big house (which two people occupy) and giving all of their book money to charity? A Senator's salary combined with a Presidential pension is a quite a handsome number. They can't live off this alone?

Further, some posters are quick to say Anne is wrong. Afterall, she *may* not see a decrease in her services. She *may* not see an increase in her premiums. Isn't this good enough for her? Heck, the OP went so far as to call her a 'selfish *****' for daring to raise these questions instead of opening her wallet and saying, "help yourself, Uncle Sam!"

No, Americans are not selfish. Our charitable giving is unbelievable. We constantly help our neighbors, often times at risk to ourselves (the three men who died trying to rescue the trapped miners for example.) So for those who say if you don't agree to a tax increase to fund yet another Federal blackhole you are a selfish person, I say 'whatever.' Year after year the pork projects roll, even authored by those who supposedly want smaller government, yet nothing is done. Year after year the GAO releases reports on millions upon billions of dollars unaccounted for in the Federal government. Year after year news networks bring us "keeping them honest" stories of horrific theft costing the taxpayers. Year after election year the beaurocrats pay lip service to fixing the "problem" and yet nothing changes. So forgive me for being 'selfish' and saying kiss my heiney to those who want me to spend more and get less.

 

[CoPirate]

People just need to get smarter about insurance.

I personally am healthy. Im young, i dont smoke. I go to the gyno once a year. I go to the doc when Im sick and to the dentist for annual cleanings.

I have emergency health insurance, that I pay $30 a month for, privately. It has a high deductable, but would cover the cost of any major surgeries, should something happen.

The last time I was sick with strep I went to the health department, which is charged based on income. I paid $17, and then $25 for two prescriptions. When I go to the gyno I go to planned parenthood, where I buy a 6 month supply of BC for $180, a round of STD tests for $50 and my exam which is $40.

Dental insurance costs me $10 a month and that includes routine cleanings.

The gov. shouldnt do unviversal healthcare, and people should take responsibility for their own costs.

 

[Princess_Michelle]

When did the government start getting to "allow" people to do things? As in, you are "allowed" to keep your money. Or, you are "allowed" to choose your doctor from our list. How generous of the junior Senator from NY to "allow" me, under her plan, to continue purchasing the coverage which best suits my needs! I have to wonder, what with the cost of her home in Chappaqua, and the money made from her and the Mr's book deals, how many American uninsured could they PERSONALLY help? Not through the veil of taxes and deciding what is best, but how many people could they help and for how many years by simply selling the big house (which two people occupy) and giving all of their book money to charity? A Senator's salary combined with a Presidential pension is a quite a handsome number. They can't live off this alone?

Not to mention, it's not like members of the Congress actually have to PAY for Healthcare, they get it for free. I think the biggest problem with Healthcare, and I see a lot, (my mom, 3 aunts, and a cousin are all nurses), is that the people with ALL the money, and the people who don't work, have the best access to it. It's the hard working middle class that can't afford it, or get shafted with HMO's. I don't think we should raise taxes to fund healthcare. I think the money that they take should be reallocated. And the first thing to go, would be free healthcare for people (like Congressmen) who make more money than they could ever need. The second would be time limits on welfare and medicaid. My mom does dialysis now and it just burns her up when she sees the sheer waste!! All these low lifes come in, (my mom works in the mountains of North GA., ie. high concentration of poor ignorant people) going through the process of dialysis, and they don't even follow preventive measures to keep them healthy. People with emphysema still smoking, people with diabetes chowing down on junk food. Why should they bother.....it's not like they are footing the bill each and every time they go, AND they get free pain meds to boot!! They are too ignorant to care that they are killing themselves. I knew plenty of people who refused to work. Why should they??? If you make the smallest amount of money, you don't get free healthcare, or food, or practically free housing, childcare, you name it.....and you can make a ton of money dealing drugs, or running scams, or just plain old stealing from people who DO work for what they have.....

Now, we have GREAT healthcare, but we also pay almost $500 a month, just for the 3 of us. I can't imagine how we would do that if DH had an average salary. It just doesn't seem right that the vast majority of people who work their butts off, and obey the laws, and pay taxes, can't afford basic medical care, while the super rich and the lazy bums alike, get it for free.

Also, my sister AND my SIL are both single moms. Both received WIC. My sister received subsidized housing and daycare, as well as free healthcare. You know why, cause she was mooching off my parents and not working. My SIL held down two jobs while going to school, and she made TOO MUCH MONEY ($12,000 a year) to receive any help. SO, when my sister finally finished beauty school and got a job, making a whopping $16,000 a year, she lost her healthcare. Luckily, she still gets help with housing and Head Start. But you should see where she lives. Brand spankin' new apt's, set aside for section 8 (this is not the city, remember North GA). Has the highest concentration of pond scum living there EVER. Anywho, rabbit trail...I digress.

I'm all for helping people...UNTIL they get on their feet. After that they are on their own. It infuriates me that a penny of my tax money goes toward any of the scum that my mom and sister deal with on a daily basis.

 

[Snow_White]

I have a friend in Northern Ireland with a sick infant son. She has to wait 6 months to see the specialist that he requires. In the meantime, he is getting sicker and sicker. It is very sad and he's in a lot of pain. This would NOT be the case for my son with our system, nor do I want it to be that way.

 

[RNMOM]

I agree with an early poster about having the govt involved with health care. I feel the same way about insurance companies. What are they for but to be middle men and collect the profits?

How could we deal with healthcare costs otherwise? I was kinda thinking the funds from employers/individuals be put into a pool and used uniformly. Why do we have so many different types of coverage? Working in healthcare I can tell you it is a mess.

Everyone should have similar coverage from the president on down. That would make it so much easier and reduce some of the cost of healthcare too.

 

[DISUNC]

I would be interested in what everybodies Doctors have to say about the current Health Care situation.

I Know two Dr's personally (one of them is my personal Dr.& friend) Both HATE the current strangulation that the Insurance companies have on their practice. The paper work and interference is pheonominal. One is a GP with a HUGE base. He was so crazed with the Insurance companies one day and then a patient came in. The patient was a Tatto artist. he wanted a mild sedative so that he can sit for hours at a time tattoing and NOT having a cigarette. He told my Dr. that he makes $300 a hour, 95% profit. My Dr went !!!!! He wanted to just stop his practice, throw his license in the trash and open a Tatto Palor!

I think I will become a Tatto Artist....Stick Figures Only!

Lesson learned...in this day & age A tattoo Artist makes WAY more $ with MUCH less work than A General Practioner.

Here is the Americal Medical Associations official proposal for Health Insurance reform. They say 1 out of 7 Americans is uninsured. 80% come from working families. 20% are children.

I read it through and through....It sounds pretty much in step with Hillary Clintons plan.

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/363/ehi1012.pdf

 

[barkley]

is there fraud in gov assistance programs? yes
is there waste in gov assistance programs? yes

should all gov assistance programs be halted until a better way is found to adminster or police them? NO, NO AND NO.

there but by the grace of god goes any of us.

i processed applications from every walk of life. people who like many who post here, believed 'never me'. they had their moderatly mortgaged/even paid off homes, their reasonable autos (not high end-even paid off), their retirement accounts, their 'safety net' savings accounts, their good health insurance....and then it happened. the job disappeared and although they had great experience there were no jobs to be had, months and hundreds of applications later they had exhausted all their savings as well as their uib, and the last lingering days of cobra were'nt an issue-they had'nt been able to pay their share to keep it up for several months. another all too common case- a spouse had a catastrophic illness and was unable to work-they had to dip into savings and break into retirement accounts once the emergency fund was gone. they were left with hundreds and thousands in debt just for their co-pays on their 'good insurance' (which when it maxed out dropped them like hot potatos as did their great doctors who were very 'picky' about what kind of insurance they were willing to accept ). then further tragedy, the spouse died-yup, there was life insurance, maybe some social security-but you had kids emotionaly devastated and acting out such that the surviving parent got fired from their job for missing so much time taking the kids to counseling appointments, running to school because of behavioural issues.... it was almost worse when the deceased parent had been a sahp-more often than not no life insurance, no contributions to social security-so surviving non sahp is left with devastated kids who are being thrown into the alien world of childcare-childcare that there are no funds to pay for.

i had my 'career clients', a good share. but a large portion of my caseload included people who never fathomed they would be 'one of those people'. one of those people who despite receiving a cash grant and food stamps still were under the federal poverty level. one of those people who could wait upwards of 5 or more years to be approved for a housing subsidy or a section 8 certificate. one of those people who receive 'free medical' at the cost of days upon weeks of searching for a practitioner who will accept it.


one of those people could at one point or another be any person posting on these threads given the wrong set of personal or professional circumstances.

 

[jenm2878]

I don't think Americans are selfish for not wanting their taxes to go up. I have been on both sides of the healthcare fence. My parents never had much money, and between the age of 5 and 18 I think I went to the dentist once and the regular doctor a handfull of times. Thankfully, I'm very healthy and didn't need to go more often, but it was potentially dangerous to not have regular checkups growing up.

My DH grew up in the same financial boat as I, and we both worked full time while putting ourselves through college. (MANY student loans) We now have good jobs and very good health coverage which we utilize. We pay out the nose for taxes already, and with the price of everything going up, any more tax will strangle us. I would rather the government make better use of the money they are already given then to keep taking from taxpayers. I just feel like the government is throwing good money after bad, especially with the war. (whole other thread)

Do I think people have the right to basic healthcare - Absolutely. I don't necessary want the tax payers to fund it though, unless it is being funnelled away from other government fluff projects. Bottom line, I can't go to my employer and demand more money just because 'I need it,' why should the government be able to do that to tax payers?

 

[mickeyfan2]

Well you could do what is suggested for the uninsured man down the street...find a job with good healthcare coverage. If its good enough for him its good enough for you.

Sure could, but I would have lesser insurance so I will stay with my chosen career and keep my tax money.

 

[mickeyfan2]

More taxes=more money going into a system that is not working, not the solution. Correcting the problems with the current system or revamping the system altogether=the answer.

 

[mickeyfan2]

"If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:17-18

For Jimmie.

Not Jimmie. But just because I don't want to pay more income tax to the IRS does not mean I do not help my fellow man. I will not list what DH and I do, since we believe charity should be done annonymously and not for person gain.

 

[Christine]

I would be interested in what everybodies Doctors have to say about the current Health Care situation.

http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/363/ehi1012.pdf

I have two doctors that I see regularly that say that the problem with healthcare is the insurance companies who "manage" it.

One of my doctors, two years ago, dropped all insurance carriers and operates on a cash/credit card basis only. I have to file myself. He said that he could no longer pay his expenses and have a life while he was accepting insurance. He would charge $100 for a visit and he would get about $30 for that visit. He had a staff to pay out of that and had to hire additional staff just to prepare the paperwork. He said he wasn't making any money and it was a nightmare.

He dropped everything and, while he did lose patients, his professional life is so much better. He still fills his appointments all day (with those of us that have GOOD insurance) and he has one person running his office now. I have to admit, I "LOVE" going there.

My other doctor, has dropped all insurance except for Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Medicare. So, I must pay out of pocket and file on my own.

If I had really restrictive healthcare, I would have lost my two favorite doctors.

But, DISUNC, to answer your questions, two of my doctors say it is the insurance companies who are causing this and they are making huge amounts of money. It used to be the doctors that got so wealthy--now it's the corporation overseeing our care.

 

[PghLybrt]

This is before and after care for school age children? If so where in the world does she live? That is roberry plan and simple!

Before and after but one goes to kindergarten 3 days a week. The other is in preschool 2 days. The other days they are fully in daycare. Like i said they also take the children to school and pick them up. After looking into it it didn't look to be to bad. She lives in Pa but works in NJ where the boys go to school and daycare.

 

[bigmerle1966]

Before and after but one goes to kindergarten 3 days a week. The other is in preschool 2 days. The other days they are fully in daycare. Like i said they also take the children to school and pick them up. After looking into it it didn't look to be to bad. She lives in Pa but works in NJ where the boys go to school and daycare.

Then that isn't too bad.

Our programs here, that are on-site at the ES's, cost around $300 per month. But that is for K (ours are all full day, 5 days a week) to 5th.

 

[PghLybrt]

Then that isn't too bad.

Our programs here, that are on-site at the ES's, cost around $300 per month. But that is for K (ours are all full day, 5 days a week) to 5th.

It is and it isnt. After she pays daycare and rent she has $600 a month to live off of. That means all utilities, gas for the car, food and clothes! Needless to say she has no money for healthcare. And the kicker is, she makes to much money to benifit from state programs.

 

[bigmerle1966]

It is and it isnt. After she pays daycare and rent she has $600 a month to live off of. That means all utilities, gas for the car, food and clothes! Needless to say she has no money for healthcare. And the kicker is, she makes to much money to benifit from state programs.

Yeah that's what truely stinks.