Thanks Obamacare!

[Greasy B]

Going uninsured is an option. A person just needs to be about dead when you go to the ER so they admit and treat you. You will get a bill that you can never possibly pay but if you simply pay a hundred bucks a month for life they will leave you alone. Wait a minute that sounds like socialized medicine doesn't it.

[Jack Jones]

Greasy, that's about accurate in how it works. When I was hospitalized two years ago with a bacterial complication of pneumonia and almost died, the total bill was close to $100,000 for two weeks care. Thankfully I have insurance and only had to pay out about $4500 when all was said and done.

Seeing as how my student loans at graduation were close to 60k and I'm paying those off over 30 years, that one hospital bill would have taken me well about 50 to fully pay. So yeah, to me it just makes sense to have each person pay a smaller amount every month and have coverage than to require them to have this take it or leave it free market approach which leaves people without, impoverished (which would have been my situation), or hurting.

This health care debate shouldn't be about insurance companies, profits, or political principles. It's about people darnnit. And either we care (for those who say we're a Christian nation then we care like our Lord would), or we don't. But it's high time we stop gambling with people's lives in a day and age where we certainly have the money and resources to help more people than ever.

Now I'm done with my rant. I gotta stay off those energy drinks!!!

[Justin Spencer]

This health care debate shouldn't be about insurance companies, profits, or political principles. It's about people darnnit. And either we care (for those who say we're a Christian nation then we care like our Lord would), or we don't. But it's high time we stop gambling with people's lives in a day and age where we certainly have the money and resources to help more people than ever.

Well put Jack, and those who think that if we repeal Obamacare we will replace it with something better are dilusional. It took a half century to get any kind of reform passed, now we need to improve it not scrap it. Most of us who are paying for our own healthcare only have major medical because it is all we can afford, but we have it for just the reason Jack did, so when we have a major problem we don't go broke. Without our health we have nothing, and paying for insurance should be ahead of paying for things like our cell phone, internet service, cable television, a nice car, going to the movies, etc. If you have none of these things and are still trying to make ends meet, then medicaide should help you out, otherwise you should (and now are) be forced to purchase coverage so the rest of the country doesn't have to pay for your gamble.

This seems to me like a conservative view of making people pay their own way and not having the people (or govt.) bail you out. Somehow it has been twisted into the belief that it is a liberal idea, and now by calling it a tax, it makes uninformed conservatives against it even more.

[ness]

Without our health we have nothing, and paying for insurance should be ahead of paying for things like our cell phone, internet service, cable television, a nice car, going to the movies, etc.

I agree with that sentiment 100 percent. And, it applies to other things as well. Where it gets muddied up is when you don't have to make those choices -- because the safety net is too large.

I've noodled this over a lot, and I really don't have a solution. About the best thing I've come up with is that the current healthcare model is severely broken in many ways. Just look around you:

-- New hospitals are being built like crazy. The one I worked at for my first job was closed, and a new one built a few miles down the road. They look like palaces.

-- Costs are out of control -- even the most basic procedure can be tens of thousands of $.

-- Drugs are the new treatment -- everything is treated with drugs.

-- Drug companies are making so much they can afford to be crooked. Pfizer has paid close to $3 billion in fines, Merck $1 billion, Glaxo $3 billion, J&J $1 billion for illegal marketing, fraud, kickbacks to prescribers.

-- Medical malpractice awards are crazy.

-- Medicare fraud is rampant.

Things is jacked up.

[Feathers and Fins]

Just recieved a letter that ARBCBS will be dropping many hospitals and doctors from it. They says its because they want more money and i am sure they do with the passing of O-Care and the tons of paperwork it will generate and the need for staff to push it. Sucks because it is looking like I will have to be searching for new docs! Goverment is NEVER the solution its is however ALWAYS the problem.

[Greasy B]

Goverment is NEVER the solution its is however ALWAYS the problem.

Wow! Just like that the bubble of ignorance that surrounds my head popped and I breathed the fresh air of intellectual clarity. The country and its myriad social and economic issues are now solved with one simple statement. Thanks,

[ness]

Always ignore, and never believe, any statement containing the words always and never.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Drug companies are making so much they can afford to be crooked. Pfizer has paid close to $3 billion in fines, Merck $1 billion, Glaxo $3 billion, J&J $1 billion for illegal marketing, fraud, kickbacks to prescribers.

-- Medical malpractice awards are crazy.

-- Medicare fraud is rampant.

I have to disagree with some of what you say, I believe new hospitals are a result of a growing population, more hospitalization and room for equipment, PET comes to mind, that save lives, but take up a lot of room.

While what you say above is true, the drug companies got a bye in the act, malpractice awards weren't addressed (I'm sure it was impossible in a room dominated by lawyers) and I found the statement that the 500-700 billion run on Medicare was going to be offset by attacking Medicare fraud. So are we to believe that going after Medicare fraud is a new program? I thought we always had people addressing that problem?

If it's any conciliation, they tore down the hospital I was born in, but I don't think it was because of me?

[Justin Spencer]

The only way to prevent needing all the drugs is to somehow get people to prevent the problems before they happen. We educate and teach about health lifestyles and how to live longer but unfortunately (much like healthcare) unless we outlaw everything bad for you many people will choose not live healthy because they can just buy drugs to help them, instead of good diet and exercise. I say we let people refuse healthcare, but if they do they need to prove they eat healthy, workout, have low body fat, don't smoke, or do drugs, then I guess if you get in an accident we will bail you out.

[Feathers and Fins]

Ok Justin but what about someone like me... All test came back I shouldnt have had a heart attack! Yet it was not until the nuclear stress test was it discovered that I had blockages in the small arteries of my heart and that was due most likely to heriditary heart issues. But here is the kicker I never knew my family had a history of early heart problems as most my grandparents and family lived well into their 80's only my mothers father died early of a heart attack and back then it was diagnoised only as heart failure they did not have the technology back then to say why.

I eat healthy, get plenty of exersize yearly check ups ( just had one not 3 weeks prior to theheart attack) and have had no other medical conditions, even smoking was ruled out as a cause in my case. So what about others like me then? It is impossible to prevent or even forsee every possible condition and situation. I will go back to this 17.00 for a asprin was just one charge on my hosp bill. It is the COST of medical due to lawsuits and paperwork that has the prices so high.

We could have the best care in the world and lowest cost if instead of mandating healthcare by law/tax to all of us would instead institute laws to protect doctors from lawsuits and require fair price laws IE Gouging laws.

Here is an example.

Overnight in hospital with no monitor on and no nurses checking on me was 2,853.27$ A night in a very nice motel room at most is 165.00 a bottle of asprin is 7.00 for 100 count yet hospital 1 pill was 17.00 or 1,700.00 a bottle... Now tell me why that night and pill should have been any more than $182.00? lets tack on a doctors visit that night before bed of 45 typical existing patient price and dinner of 12.00 just to be fair and im still only at $239.00 for a nights stay!

Insurance pays 80% of that I pay 20% I think most people could afford that even without insurance. We need healthcare reform true reform not a tax and not a forced insurance or someone telling us to be healthy or die. We need medical care pricing reform and medical professional protection to the doctors and staff and that is the true solution.