Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

Suppose one were to substitute ANY thing else in the above rant other than “health care”.

Suppose one would say “big screen TV”, or “groceries”, or “automobile”.

Would that make any sense?

No.

If you want those things you’re expected to pay for them…right?

The problem with health care in the US is that everyone wants it but no one wants to pay for it.

Why is that?

Just a few facts here. We have an economic tsunami in deficits facing us now and even far worse in the immediate future. And that tsunami is mainly due to Medicare and Medicaid that are both economically out of control. and you cannot solve our future destructive indebtedness unless you solve Health care costs. Our system of health care in the USA is about twice the cost of any other first world country with poorer results. The USA brings in about 3 trillion per year in revenues,spends about 3.4 trillion (in 2009-2010 that spending will be about 4.5 trillion),we currently owe about 12 trillion and it is expected that in 10 years from now we will owe 21 trillion. We ask the Chinese/Japan and others to loan us about a billion dollars every other day. At some point in the near future ,nobody will want to lend us any more money because they will believe we can pay them back. We ,as a country,CANNOT survive many more years at this indebtedness pace. We are leaving our children an economic mess that is impossible for them to overcome. The time is today to make the hard choices to change this. It will require the most difficult choices of our lives-health care changes,more taxes,less service,etc. To do nothing is not a choice-but is a recipe for failure. If we don’t change health care,we CANNOT solve this tsunami. sam

You’re right about our debt but spending more on a new universal healthcare, including people that shouldn’t be here isn’t going to fix our debt problem. Medicare needs to be fixed and controlled more and some reforms are needed in the private sector, but spending us into oblivion for some grandiose scheme to give everyone a one payer health care system is NOT the answer.

Unless we fix our Health system,we can NEVER fix our debt issue. The cost of Medicare and Medicaid is the MAJOR cause of our indebtedness now and far more so in our immediate future. That is why ,no matter how bad our debt is today (and it is horrific) we CANNOT afford to kick this decision down the road again. The reason we need to change Health Care for many of us is this indebtedness issue-not providing Health care for all in the country -that is an importaint secondary reason. The system we have today in the USA is about TWICE the cost of any of the other Industrialized nations -with poorer results. Our system is rated 37th in the world. And several of the best systems in the world are NOT Single Payer systems-some are all private sector run. Some are combo of Govt and Private Sector- thats what Canada has-all the Doctors and Hospitals are privately owned. If you want a second-rate system at twice the cost of the rest of the world-then don’t change .If you want a better system,at half the cost then support major changes in Health care.Do it for your children and grand-children. Thanks

You can add Social Security to the Medicare/aid fiasco causing our debt. All of these programs were in place to help people in need. Now someone making 100k a year in their retirement is b*tching about his Social Security check and how Medicare won’t pay for something.

We need to get people off of Government handouts that don’t need it. Social Security is insurance, the name is still SSI. How many times do you get money back from your car or house insurance premiums and think you deserve it. It’s a tax and you should just kiss it goodbye and not expect the government to take care of your retirement. If something happens and you don’t have a retirement, fine, let’s help those people out, but everyone thinks they deserve their money back that’s insane.

I wouldn’t believe any poll from the UN where that probably came from. There are plenty of horror stories from every country’s health care. People from other countries come here for healthcare, not the other way around. People cross borders for our hospitals, even from Canada. People are flown to the US when a major surgery is needed. All of those Conjoined twins and critical children aren’t flown to India, they’re flown here.

Obama isn’t going to come up with a better system because he doesn’t want a better system, he wants to “spread the wealth” to people that don’t need it and don’t deserve it. There should be something in place to help the poor, but Medicare isn’t it and this new health plan isn’t it either and is only going to cause new poor and destroy business, which is what Obama and everyone on his staff really wants.

Everitt, would you like to see private industry take over Medicare,Social security and the VA?? They are all run by the Govt which means ,in your rationale,that it must be too costly. So would you prefer private companies running those 3 agencies. And please don’t avoid the question.
As for Canadians pouring into Michigan for care? -just simply not true. Ask any canadian if he would prefer our system to theirs? I lived there for 4 years and can tell you they would not. The creator of their Natl system is a revered figure in Canada.
The WHO is recognized as the best agency for worldwide Health care info,stats, etc. The medical profession is always quoting from that group.Where do you get your stats from??? And yes the US system is rated 37th in the world and France is #1. And our system is almost twice the cost per person and our results are not good.
Hard for me to believe that you really believe Obama wants to “cause new poor and destroy businesses”. And you can find me some facts to substantiate that of course. Can you?? Please do enlighten us all.

There’s really no point in trying to enlighten people that already know everything. Maybe you should read the man’s words, in his books, listen to his speeches. He has told everyone what he’s going to do. His actions explain everything, the people on his staff and all of those czars that only answer to him and the Democrats are so enamored they are in power they are blindly following and voting for things they aren’t writing and not even reading.

What do you think will happen to business with all of this debt and the printing of all the money to pay for our own debt because no one else will buy it anymore. Think that’s good for business? Welfare and food stamp lines are longer than ever. Obama has made getting food stamps, unemployment and welfare even easier, which is not a good thing. Let’s save welfare for people that need it and not for those that refuse to work or even try. The poor get poorer and that’s good for the Democrats because the poor keep them in power, thinking they are going to get something for nothing.

How’s that stimulus working? Great idea to spend more money to get out of debt. These people are smart, they didn’t get where they’re at by being stupid. They know exactly what they are doing and have said so many, many times.

Everything from the fact that Obama was recorded saying he wants a single payer system which will eliminate competition. He has also been recorded as saying Reparations don’t go far enough.

The left is finally starting to see the light and even a liberal talk show host has said, that he lies, but he does it so well or eloquently or whatever, look it up yourself.

If France has the number 1 health care system in the world, let’s be like France. But nowhere and no one has said we’re building a system like France. We’re just going to do it, we have no idea what we’re going to do, but we have to do something and do it right now and we’re going to shove it down people’s throats while keeping the Congressional and Federal employee health care system in place. Let them eat cake!

Sick and Tired of it. Thanks for letting me rant.

Sam, you dont want to know the facts. You would rather believe in fairies and pixie dust and government as nanny. Fact is, hospitals in Canada now contract with Detroit hospitals to provide specialized care that they cant do there. The Canadian Auto Workers actually have it written in to their contract that they are allowed to come to Michigan for urgent, critical care. There was a big stink recently because Homeland Security held up an ambulance carrying a CAW union official having a heart attack on their way thru the tunnel toward Detroit. I also have an acquaintance in Windsor who takes psychoactive meds for schizophrenia. She gets her pills thru the mail like clockwork. She hasnt seen a doctor in NINE YEARS!! No matter the pills are dangerous and dont work worth a damn – I suppose you could say she has medical care. Did you ever wonder why taxes are so high in Canada? Because they’re paying for that lousy health care system with payroll taxes and taxes on goods-home of the $8 hamburger-and the pickle is extra! Clinics actually tell you confidentially to go to a private clinic if you cant wait three months for an MRI. The young people in Canada LOVE their health care system – because they dont have an ongoing need for health care and dont want the responsibility of having to pay for insurance on a monthly basis. A report just came out of the British health system saying 4000 women gave birth in the halls, bathrooms and emergency rooms of their facilities in the last few years because the system is non-functional in an emergency-cant even bend a rule enough to admit a woman in the last stages of labor. They are having to fly medical personnel in from Eastern Europe because they’ve had so many doctors and nurses quit practice as they simply cant deal with ‘the system’. WHO is a corrupt, far-leftist world-government-style group that has been thrown out of several countries in Africa. Why? Because they were giving ‘vaccinations’ that it was proven contained sterilizing agents to reduce the population without anyone’s knowing or giving permission. Totalitarianism, pure and unadulterated!

WHO is all about control: the so-called ‘pandemic’ laws that they’ve managed to make international are proof of that. They can actually order martial law in the US-under their UN treaties and now, US law-for this silly swine-flu non-epidemic. You’d better find out what that 37th ranking is based on . . we talked about this before. If you actually look at care, or what we think of as care, the US is #1. And, are you aware of the fact that many of these countries, including France and Canada, many people actually pay for an additional private health insurance policy to cover all the things their state-run health care system doesnt cover? We already have universal health care-in an emergency, you can go to any hospital and they will treat you. You WILL get a bill . . is that what you object to?

Fact is, this dumb statement that ‘our health care crisis’ is destroying the economy is a real can of worms! What they mean is, government already spent all of the money that was earmarked for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. In fact, they just gave what was left to the banks-including overseas banks- and they need a quick infusion of cash from the taxpayers. The statement that they’re going to ‘save’ money on Medicare is pure crap, if you look at what’s written in these bills. They’ve made deals with Big pharma-no savings there, and there really could be. Too many congressmen hold stock in Health Insurance companies-no savings there. They fully intend to ration care-severely. That’s one reason they need electronic health records. (paid for out of the R&R/stimulus). The so-called ‘death panels’ are already in place-paid for out of R&R so you’ll never see it. Read some of Ezekiel Emmanual’s (Rahm’s brother-he’s on the panel) ‘scholarly’ papers-he’s all about rationing care and saving it for 15-40 yr-olds. The man is a walking Soylent Green Board of Directors! They’re just like the health board in Britain that says you have to go blind in one eye before you can have treatment on the other eye . .if it’s age-related. Unions and Congress have already been given special, favorable deals. . .no savings there. We already ration care-the insurance companies do it. So, dont pretend they dont intend to ration care. . its the only place they can save money. I’m 62 and disabled-and dont intend to “go quietly into that good night”! My mother is 86-and she isnt going quietly either!

Do I think this bunch in the White House would consider killing off a bunch of ‘old people’ to balance Social Security? In a hot minute! We over-forties are a real problem to this gaggle of communists: we actually learned the Constitution, read the federalist papers, remember the horrors of Nazi Germany and Pol Pot’s Cambodia. And, we learned the power of critical thinking. We actually know 2 = 2 is 4, not 27 . . and we’re not blinded by the halo the media photo-shops around this idiot’s head (yes-he’s an idiot-and a Marxist!). The little tin-pot wannabe dictator says one thing to one group and the exact opposite to the next group day after day. . .while this bunch of Czars and unelected marxists behind the scenes tries to turn this into some third-rate banana republic. Cash for clunkers? My tax dollars paid for part of a new car for my brother, the executive! I’m just thrilled with ‘spread the wealth’!

You, Sam, are either one of the groups that get special perks from this plan or are too dumb to look at the whole picture. Dont be so blinded by that photo-shopped halo. I have a 20-yr-old granddaughter in college who also has been taken in by the constant socialist indoctrination she’s being fed in one of the State universities. We can only hope that she figures out that college credits granted for supporting the Obamessiah dont actually gain her an education. Luckily, her mother and I have given her a solid foundation in practical common sense. If you think you can make a silk purse out of a sows ear, you’d better know what you intend to do with the rest of the bleeding, pissed-off pig!

Just a few points here.
- I am a Veteran of Vietnam and am very pleased with what i get from the VA and have no interest in seeing the VA,Medicare,Medicaid or Education run by For-profit corporations whose only interest would be their profits. And understandably so -thats what private industry’s job is- to make money.And to make that profit the private Ins companies are always looking for ways not to pay for services for their insured.
-The Federal employees (Including Congress ) have a good plan-and maybe we should consider their plan as an option.
-If WHO is such a vile group ,why does virtualy the whole medical world accept them as the best Health group for info in the world. Can you name one better?? If so,what is the name if it???
-Sad that you folks really believe that Obama and his “Marxist” group really want to take over the country. Though when asked for proof of this ,you folks can never provide any document of that idea.

Linda says
- “death panels ” already in Place-NOT TRUE.
-”Unions and Congress already given special favorable deals”-not true.
-Look up the “Fiscal Wake-up tour” for facts about how Medicare and Medicaid costs are destroying the country’s fiscal stability. Please deal in facts and not fantasy. Thanks