The healthcare system we have today is working out great for the health insurance companies, whose CEO's are earning over $210,000 a day, but it's killing over 18,000 people every year. The health insurance industry denies access & coverage while increasing co-pays, deductions, and premiums.
The U.S. Healthcare system is broken for you and I in the general admission section of the country; 46 million people don't have any coverage except their local ER room. More than 1/2 of all bankruptcies are due to medical costs and 3/4 of those folks HAD health insurance!
All of the House members who are voting against reform were paid on average over $111,000 from health insurance companies and over $225,000 from the pharmaceutical industry over the last 20 years. My congressional representative, Cathy McMorris, has received over $69,000 from the health industry-and that's just this election cycle. she’s received over $144,000 since her election in 2004.
There are now 6 lobbyists for each of the 535 members of congress. Over $200 million in media buys just this year. (These numbers come from the Center for Responsive Politics.)
We simply want quality healthcare that's affordable and fair. Each of us should have the right to pick our plan and our doctor, not just those in the loge seats.
Nobody is pushing rationing, pulling the plug on grandma, federal payment for abortions, coverage for illegal aliens, deleting Medicare money for the elderly, or mandated government coverage for those preferring their own insurance – these are all distortions of the actual debate taking place. But the the other side keeps throwing it out there to scare people into hanging on to the status quo.
Who among us is more worthy than anyone else to have quality healthcare coverage?
Mike
This is a continuation of the downhill fiscal and financial slide facing virtually every landscape in America...rural, suburban and urban. The very first seed was planted in 1964, growing into an unhealthy tree that could not be distinguished from the healthy ones then surrounding it (the latter being the ones planted after 1945). From that single toxic tree fell cancerous seeds in 1981 and 1986...seeds that took root and began choking the life out of a heretofore healthy forest. There were brief attempts in 1990 and 1992 to eradicate the unhealthy scourge running rampant across America's fiscal and financial landscape. However, those attempts were completely short circuited in 2001...owing to the single December 12, 2000, swing vote of the supreme Court. The American voting electorate managed to eke out a 53% "mandate" for complete eradication in 2008. The question is, "When will the elected eradicator step back from the trees and look at just how sick the forest has become...just how cloudy the big picture's horizon presently is?" It seems that even new nonnative species have been imported by the descendants of that mad Johnny Appleseed of 1964...and by his descendants in 1981, 1986...and in 2001 when even more toxically expensive species were imported---their shipping containers harboring the nonnative diversionary pipe dreams of "democracy" in SW Asia and "universal" health care in America.
Just make it a point to buy your cigarettes online. The state won't get a dime from your cigarette purchases, and you'll save money. If enough smokers pool together and do this, the state will lose money, not make money. People on this site are trying to feed you a bunch of bologna, that you have to grow your own tobacco or roll your own cigs. Just buy your darn cigarettes online and let these antismokers rant and rave all they want.
I note that "the major United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, this December. "Water is a key medium through which climate change impacts will be felt," it reads, adding that "water-related adaptation" should be seen as part of the solution. The statement also calls for funding "to assist vulnerable, low income countries already affected by climate change," along with longer-term adaptation efforts".
Yes it is part of the solution. However, the other side of the coin as Lovelock/Tickell/Attenborough correctly states is "population". Without support for sustainable families and sustainable population any amount of lecturing about using water wisely, and saving 10% of water via metering and not running the tap when brushing your teeth is going to be totally inadequate. I'm not sure how you help vulnerable low income countries without appearing either authoritarian, or patronising... but limit their populations they must!!
Great response. But this is what I’m thinking: If someone is going to point out that the constitution affords the right for unequal taxation – as you pointed out, as well as such is the case illustrated by the high spikes in cigarette taxes – then that’s something we as smokers need to address; after all, the greatest thing about the constitution is that it can be amended. Also, I don’t think we necessarily should just grow our own tobacco, though that’s one option, but that more of us should stop buying the cigarettes in the states imposing these unjust taxes. It’s easy, really. You simply tell yourself there is no way I am going to pay these taxes; then you Google buy cheap cartons of cigarettes, and select your purchase, pay about $25 a carton, and have the UPS (government) deliver the smokes to your front door. It’s only a matter of time before people start catching on to this, and just like hacked TV, music, movies, etc., cigarettes will added to the list. (You just gotta love the Internet!)
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