CUDA wrote:callmeslick wrote:
classic. you wanted the GOP plan, I provide you that info and you dismiss it because its a fox link.
that wasn't a PLAN. It was a motley collection of, at best, marginally related ideas. You see(and, this is sort of the key message Obama is trying to get across), unless we attack the whole mess with a complete plan, we are going to make things worse, more than likely. That is why Rugg's "go slowly" approach can't work.
First, unless healthcare insurance involves insuring everyone, at every age, the metrics will kill it. You can't just deal with coverage paid for by the most sickly. Second, unless you address all cost factors: reimbursement, lawsuits, fraud, waste, profiteering, etc, you won't make a dent in the overall problem. That what the GOP lacks, IMO....an overall plan. Why?? Because, at this point, healthcare reform has been ID'd as a Democratic Party idea, and they figure that true reform won't get them any political points. Therefore, they seemingly have chosen to just try to kill the thing. That worked well, politically, for Gingrich and his peers.
The problem is, it worked out pretty poorly for the rest of us. Hell, 10 years back, I covered my family for a total cost(my end, plus my employer's) of $4500. Now, a policy with less generous coverage(restrictions on network, some higher copays) costs a total of $13,000. That is nearly 200% increase in 10 years. We are not looking at a general inflation rate of 20% per year, so what gives?? Greed, is what the root cause is, and a stupid acceptance, in the US, that healthcare is a business. It is not, it's a necessity for the society. The Europeans get that idea. Many here never have.......so, we end up ranking behind EVERY OTHER developed nation in Europe and Asia in health outcomes, allow people to go bankrupt over healthcare, and hogtie our industries with outrageous overhead in a global economy. Little wonder that some folks like myself get a bit worked up when nitwits in this country try to turn a serious matter into a soapbox of idiocy(see: "Death Panels", for example).