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The Real Truth behind Public Option

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains what a public option for healthcare coverage really means for working people.

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15 Comments

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Flynn_2006 : LVL 47: VP 5: said:

Flynn_2006

1 votes NegativePositive

73 days 1 hour ago...

So if the goal is to provide people with affordable options and self sustaining service without tax payers flipping the losses, then what is the added value to have it provided by the government in the first place?

truth-is-the-nemesis : LVL 39: VP 4.7: said:

truth-is-the-nemesis

3 votes NegativePositive

73 days ago...

lower overheads, skyrocketing costs & people getting dropped by their providers when `they do need it`.

no more inability to receive healthcare due to pre-existing conditions.

less profit for denying care.

more competition & a way of keeping costs down & honest business as the market is unregulated.

more people get insured who were previously unable due to care for profit.

i have nothing against companies making a profit just as long as it is not though denying care that they have been granted access to but get dropped due to the fineprint that the insurance company doesn`t care about until the time comes to pay the bills.

why is America the only country to do things this way? is everyone else wrong - especially when they tell you as i have that no one i know has ever lost out on anything financially due to medical bill payments.

Flynn_2006 : LVL 47: VP 5: said:

Flynn_2006

0 votes NegativePositive

73 days ago...

^ Maybe you are right that people shouldn`t loose everything they have to pay for medical. Though if the public option makes a loss in profit, who`s funding the losses then?

blade9z : LVL 34: VP 4.2: said:

blade9z

2 votes NegativePositive

72 days 23 hours ago...

Just cut a 1/4 of defense budget, which still larger than many nations added togther, will pay for it all. Why obsess on providing means of killing while your citizen is dieing?

truth-is-the-nemesis : LVL 39: VP 4.7: said:

truth-is-the-nemesis

1 votes NegativePositive

72 days 23 hours ago...

bout the same people who are paying for it now, through higher & higher premiums & deductables due to healthcare providers dropping customers & is exactly why we cannot continue down this current path we`re on.

America is the highest payer of healthcare costs in the world & pays 3-4X as much as other countries & doesn`t seem to be reeping any rewards for the participants involved, only finnacially benefiting the CEOs at the top of the pyramid.

previously you have stated that competition will help in bringing `down` costs & thats purely in regards to the private sector, so why would the same not be true of the public plan?. (its competition & much cheaper, either cut profits or cut business).

i don`t think everyone will run to the public option but it definately needs to be passed in my opinion to give the over-looked victims of the current system a fighting chance.

other than your objection to the public option or taxes, what is your solution to this monumental
problem?.

Flynn_2006 : LVL 47: VP 5: said:

Flynn_2006

-1 votes NegativePositive

72 days 23 hours ago...

My solution:

Abolish third party paying system. No more health care through an insurance agency. People would purchase health care through their own pocket.

No more barrier to entry. Destroy organizations like the American Medical Association and the FDA.

Total destruction of medicare and medicaid.

Lower income tax to say...... 0%.

--------------

Could someone tell me if they make sense?

truth-is-the-nemesis : LVL 39: VP 4.7: said:

truth-is-the-nemesis

1 votes NegativePositive

72 days 22 hours ago...

again what if your short of cash?, your just swapping apples for oranges and not addressing the problem for those who have little & are in trouble especially the way things are now...it would be fantastic if everyone had enough good fortune too pay out of pocket for medical but how many of us have that much disposable income?.

what if the operation cost 15K do you have that much to spend at a whim? & remember no-one chooses when they get sick.

FDA? who will ensure food safety, drug safety, Vaccines, animal drugs & food Etc.

Medicare & Medicaid - i`d like to see congress try & dismantle Medicare as seniors are a high voter demographic, besides how are the elderly going to pay for expensive operations on a pension?, are we dismantling social security too?, where do they get the money for hip-replacements?

(if your keeping a pension then you`ll have to raise it to float the bill & if not they simply won`t be able to afford it soo whats the big change for the better there?).

the whole i`ll take care of myself & to hell with everybody else doesn`t work, it hasn`t up till now and isn`t going to in the fore-see-able future, because some people just aren`t in that position. (through no fault of their own).

Flynn_2006 : LVL 47: VP 5: said:

Flynn_2006

0 votes NegativePositive

72 days 22 hours ago...

health services would be drastically cheaper as the system allow people to shop around with their own money.

If government charity exists because individual person donate money, then it certainly will arise from the private sector as well. No need for government. You really care about others, donate some of your money.

FDA sucks. The average time a drug gets to be approved today is 15 years. That increases the cost of medicine by alot.

Social security is a ponzi scheme. It will be dismantle soon enough.

If you believe people need help to take care of each other, then there is more reason to do it voluntarily. If you want to debate general welfare of people. consider this, would people on the border line to receive welfare checks willing to share their wealth with people who are absolutely in destitute? Remember the rich did not hold people at gun point to make a profit. Except maybe blackwater of course.

truth-is-the-nemesis : LVL 39: VP 4.7: said:

truth-is-the-nemesis

2 votes NegativePositive

72 days 21 hours ago...

"the rich did not hold people at gun point to make a profit".

No - they just did the next best thing, in setting the rules in opposition.

voluntarily medical help already exists in America it is called `Remote Area Medical`, doctors volunteer their time & resources to help the needy, left by the private sector who did not hold people at gun point to make a profit.

interestly through they are often not allowed access to other neighbouring states when doing their Humanitarian work to help the unfortunate due to the strong lobby of the healthcare industry, so explain to me again why i should donate to the private sector who forbid this and other positives like the public option to happen?.

truth-is-the-nemesis : LVL 39: VP 4.7: said:

truth-is-the-nemesis

2 votes NegativePositive

72 days 21 hours ago...

the healthcare industries are spending 1.4 million daily to defeat this bill, & that could be spent on actually bettering the system but instead they will fight tooth & nail to maintain the status quo & ill-informed people who should be cheering it on are soo brainwashed that they`re actually shouting them down, which is very ambivalent.

Flynn_2006 : LVL 47: VP 5: said:

Flynn_2006

-1 votes NegativePositive

72 days 21 hours ago...

^^ because if you don`t Michael Bay will make another transformers movie with the same quality except no Megan Fox.

Form your own charity if you have to. Whatever it takes. If people are smart enough to figure out they should help each other, then they should be smart enough to organize themselves in ways they themselves would approve of. How do you lobby against a voluntary action?

Chuckus : LVL 37: VP 4.5: said:

Chuckus

2 votes NegativePositive

72 days 21 hours ago...

Flynn:

Government run companies are supposedly better (in VERY RARE CASES) because of the simple principle that you can vote out the CEO if it doesn`t work. Take medicare. If the president fucks with it and drops people he loses votes. If it were private, they would drop them no matter if 35%, 60% or even 99% of the countries population suffered. It`s not responsible to the share holders it`s responsible to you.

It has it`s advantages and disadvantages. Since the companies leadership cares more about votes than efficient management, business decisions will tend to be political rather than based on economics to a certain degree. While it will e run like a company with an executive "czar" appointee, he will from time to time be forced by whichever president is in power to change policy to suit voters whims which may or may not be efficient or good for the company.

In the private sector it`s the same thing instead the pressure comes from shareholders not voters.

Your "public option" is vastly different from our Canadian system where the healthcare system is paid for by our taxes. The public option`s primary goal is going to be setting the price of insurance at a reasonable level on the open market. Socialized medicine requires that there are NO private insurance companies or their role is EXTREMELY limited.

truth-is-the-nemesis : LVL 39: VP 4.7: said:

truth-is-the-nemesis

2 votes NegativePositive

72 days 20 hours ago...

How do you lobby against a voluntary action?

because they use state law to prohibit doctors crossing the border to help many more.

i think your alittle confused when it comes to `voluntary action`, cash wise as i have explained above would not change the system of healthcare & charities do not provide medical care apart from the rare case of remote area medical which actually started as an overseas effort but quickly found there was more need here.

people cannot help people in this fight, because everyone`s not a doctor.

you seem to be soo adverse to even the idea of government run healthcare that you are unwilling or unable to gauge its effectiveness for future generations, do you think we should remove VA healthcare funding since thats government run?.

the sooner America gets this the better.

Red Heaven : LVL 39: VP 4.7: said:

Red Heaven

1 votes NegativePositive

72 days 9 hours ago...

Flynn

As of now I`m unemployed. As of this moment, I have a severe pain in my wisdom tooth.

I can cross the border and pay a dentist over there $25 to look at my teeth, and remove it as necessary.

Problem?

-I cannot afford this Mexican dentist-

I always have to inform you again, and again, and again, and again that some people live on, or under, the poverty line. I live on the US Border. This is where the cheap labor comes from.

Most jobs pay minimum wage at best and right now no one is hiring. And this isn`t just me. This is a whole fuckin` major city. Not every place in the USofA has pocket money to give out.

You posted a video where you can pay a monthly fee to a clinic and get all the checkups you want.

I can`t even afford a fuckin` phone right now. Or gas to put in a car.

Not everyone in the US is breakin` the bank.

Flynn_2006 : LVL 47: VP 5: said:

Flynn_2006

1 votes NegativePositive

72 days 9 hours ago...

^ If you need help here is my email.

flynn_parish@yahoo.xxx

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