<blockquote>A real scientist would not support a solution set that includes a cap and trade scheme that does not solve the problem described. Only a politician would declare this topic concluded and this solution objective. </blockquote>
You sound like a real expert on what "real scientists" would or wouldn't do.
If politicians won't go for a solution set that Wall Street can't make billions and trillions off of, that's not scientists' doing. It's our magnificent free enterprise system, that has made America the greatest...etc., etc., etc.
Dear Wendel Potter,
I am a 55 year old Vietnam Era Veteran, who is permanently and totally disabled, but I currently have VA insurance for myself and Medical Mutual Insurance of Ohio for my wife and I. We are both disabled at 55 and 50 yrs.
I am worried that whenever Big Brother and Government steps into a free enterprised, they overstaff it with ignoramuses, who don't know a fig about health care, are more concerned about their next break from the break they call work, and over inflate our health care costs.
I do not want my health care managed by an HMO, PPO or Big Brother, so they can limit my health care, exclude new experimental drugsmedical treatments and procedures to make us well, and deny old people health care as we are too old to be of any good use to the society as a whole, so kill us off now as they can't afford us.
Now I have lived in Odessa, Ukraine, with my Russian wife of six years and I know first hand how this socialized medicine works. The doctors are not paid a living wage, which causes them to prioritize who gets health care on the basis of gifts, bribes or whatever you want to call it. Then you also need to give to the doctors a bottle of vodka or box of candy to pass out to their friends and family for such a privilege. You don't need a prescription to buy a drug, except narcotics, and can go to any drug store without such and pay $.50 to $2.00 for your favorite drug of choice.
The recent economic downturn has increased these costs in the last two years, since I was there. When you have a small medical problem, this system is satisfactory, but you have to wait all day in the hallway for the doctor to get to you, or pay a doctor to come to your house, yes they still do house calls.
However, if you have a heart attack, you will have a major health care & financial problem, as they have you by the shorts. None of your medical insurance works as they will not give to you a bill for a bribe, which means your 80/20 insurance card will not work in a socialist, low paid, medical plan.
Because of my beautiful daughter-in-law opera singer, I got to see the chief cardiologist of the President of Ukraine in Kiev, they said I should go to the US and have this done, bypass, angioplasty and stents or pay them $25,000 to $50,000 to do such there. They were trained in the US. Normal meds cost $2 a bottle, but heart meds cost so much, my wife had to borrow $500 for one month of foreign made meds like Plavix from Franceyour . So I came home, saw the VA and had my heart cath, angiography, angioplasty and stent done in Ohio.
Now I see this big problem about the proposed health reform. I can see the Canadians coming to the US to avoid rationing of health care for 2 to 3 years and do not like this prospect.
I do not like the idea of the government forcing me to pay for five jokers who have never worked a day in their lives and decreasing my access to advanced medical treatment and drugs to pay for them, when I have to pay $150 a month for such and will have to pay much more than I can afford, since I am $20,000 below the poverty level for 2 people as a disabled veteran without a military pension as of yet.
If any of my fellow medically insured change their plans from civilian to government covered plans, my Medical Mutual of Ohio will not be able to compete and throw me and all the others like me, who have earned their retirement benefits and full medical coverage into the new socialized medical plan. This threatens my health coverage, health, marriage, than and life as I am 55 years old. What young looking wife, wants a sick old man for a husband? Care takers of the family suffer from serious depression and that causes divorce.
So now my question is, what do I do? Pray to God the health reform fails? Go back to Ukraine, or emigrate to another non-socialist country?
The 10th Amendment stops the US Government from claiming rights that are not specifically enumerated in the US Constitution, and such legal rights belong to the Sovereign States and Individuals.
The Government will have denied my God-given right to contract with those medical insurance co and doctors, that I need to become healthy and remain so. Somehow, I am sure that all this control of our doctors and medical systems, will profit some fatcat bankster or politician down the line. What is your take on all this?
I too feel sorry for the hillbillies of the Appalachians, for I am one of them, and do not wish to join the lines of people to sick to get such coverage. Then I see that those who are already disabled, will be forced to pay a fortune for such care or be penalized for not having done so, in order to spread the costs, and I already go to the food pantry 4 times a month. Where is the line for the medical pantry? I have no huge financial largesse to afford more taxes or costs by gold digging politicians or banksters. I am not the only one. Three times, I have almost been killed by the pill pushing VA, who now gives me 22 types of pills a month at an additional $176/mo. Tell me they care about me. Hog slop.
The one thing I did like about the medical system of former Russian controlled Ukraine was that they used alternative, integrative, and complementary health care by incorporating the Eastern medical philosophies of acupuncture, herbs, and less potent pills, thereby allowing your body to heal itself, rather than poisoning you with counter-acting side effects, making your whole body a toxic waste.
My only hope is that Jesus will come soon and give to me and my wife a new, immortal and incorruptible body, because my faith in any health care system has failed due to greedy, ignorant, politicians, and the pharmaceutical companies.
If you have the time, please comment.
Yours,
David Harvey
So health insurers are terrible people. This is new? And how does this justify national healthcare? You noted that lawmakers will do everything they can to discredit you, the same lawmakers that work for the government you want to take care of our health. So the government is corrupt but not when it comes to health care?
Further, crying socialism isn't a scare tactic just because some suits have caught onto the socialism scare and are trying to exploit it. There is nothing wrong with wanting to provide health care for all. But forcing everyone to pay for it is criminal and it is socialism--spreading the wealth when it's not yours to spend. If you want to spread the wealth, fine. Leave me out of it. Please, don't tell me I ought to support something I fundamentally disagree with because you feel bad. Respectfully sir, that seems to be your problem. Instead of thinking, you feel. You felt good about taking that money until you felt bad.
I appreciate your insight and think it is valuable, but I don't wish it to be used to dismantle the system we currently have. The government can't take care of anything, speaking as a military wife who had this so-called great government health care that everyone raves about. They screwed up our paychecks, screwed up all our moves (because the government only cares about the lowest bidder and hence low quality ), messed up reimbursements and just about anything you can think of.
As a former employee of CIGNA, though far from an executive level capacity, I always felt that insurance companies have been ripping us off for years. It may have paid my bills for 6-1/2 years, but the basic principals under which they operated just seemed wrong.
The talking-heads are telling us that having "choices" of which insurance company we're going to buy our mandatory coverage from will bring prices down because of "competition", but car insurance never went down when states passed mandatory coverage. Why should we ever believe that the cost of health care will come down as long as insurance companies have control?
Maybe after they fix health insurance, Congress could pass a similar national car insurance system.
Article just posted about this appalling piece of climate greenwashing:
http://thesietch.org/mysietch/keith/2009/06/27/hopenhagen-climate-greenwashing-with-un-approval/
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