Supporting something I care deeply about

[conspiratorsb]

Last night was the first time I saw a "scare tactic" commercial regarding health care reform. It made me laugh because the things it said would happen were so incredibly ridiculous!! So I am passing along a link to the white house's video page regarding the reform that Obama wants to seeI am/was one of the nearly fifty million people in the US

Comments

[mrnicefrog]

Yes, so many people are in the same boat in the US, even couples with kids where both parents are working.
From this side of the pond it seems difficult to believe. Over here, "social security" means something. We even take it for granted. Going to your GP used to be fully-refunded and people were in uproar when it went to 1€. Going to the dentist is the same, unless you need something like a bridge, in which case it can be expensive. Glasses can be a bit expensive too. But otherwise medical or hospital treatment is all taken care of by the state ( = by everybody's high taxes) , unless you choose to go private, obviously. But why should you ? The best hospitals are the public hospitals (so far anyway...).

I have a Texan "friend" on Facebook, who's currently vociferating against the Obama plan. She's 35. Her husband owns several car and motorbike dealerships, they just bought their second home. She doesn't need to work. Her comment is: why should she "pay" for everybody else?

Boeluen's 2 years of cancer treatment at home and at the hospital didn't cost us more than 300€. And by treatment I mean everything from x-rays and CT-scans to the weekly blood checks, chemotherapy, all kinds of medication, etc. The taxi to and from the hospital was taken care of except for 1€. My supplementary medical even paid for her meals while at the hospital. And also, social security meant she had some kind of replacement income for 2 years. Not a massive replacement, since she had just set up her company and couldn't prove past income, but still...

Who wouldn't wish to pay taxes under such a system? It benefits everyone.

Sorry about the rant but this issue angers me.

[bird_mom]

Unfortunately for us, there are a lot of Americans who buy into the myth of rugged individualism, when the truth is that the frontier was closed over 100 years ago. I think that myth allows people to disregard social responsibility, until a major illness happens to them and then they wonder how they are going to pay for it - even with insurance, we had to file for BK in the 1990's because my bills were so high and disability pay from the state was so minimal. That's one of the reasons I'm all over this issue.

The truth is that the healthcare insurance companies are much less efficient than Medicare, which is the government run program for the elderly and indigent. Medicare used 3% of every funding dollar on administrative costs. Private insurers use an average of 27% of every funding dollar for administrative costs. Yet the lobbyists for the private insurers are the ones who are perpetuating the myth that government run health care will be expensive, inefficient, and a nightmare for individual citizens. They simply don't want to lose their profit margins. I'm sorry, but the necessities in life need to be regulated. Medicine should not be a "for profit" industry with shareholders demanding a bigger return on investment.

I've had friends argue that those who want to can voluntarilly donate money to the government to pay for the healthcare of those who are without the means to do it themselves, but please. I don't know why, but people in this country don't want to do the right thing unless they're forced to do so by legislation. And then they try to override it with ballot propositions, as in the case of gay marriage. It's embarrassing to be American at times.

[conspiratorsb]

No apologies necessary, Froggy.