Universal Health Care

[Jesus_lol]

[quote name='kamiller42' date='25 April 2010 - 06:39 PM' timestamp='1272245973' post='2100060']
I want my utopia and I WANT IT NOW!!!

[img]http://mypoliticalexile.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/veruca_salt.jpg[/img]

Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So let's sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again!

From the Book of Duh...


Wasn't one of the major reasons for passage of Obamacare was to contain costs? Government takes over and costs are going up... duhhhhh!! We ain't see nuttin yet.
[/quote]

possible reason for a cost increase? 57 odd additional million people getting some kind of coverage?

[Winchester]

[quote name='havok579257' date='24 April 2010 - 11:48 PM' timestamp='1272167314' post='2099541']
next time, instead of jumping to conclusions, how about actually ask me where my experience comes from. although why do that when you can just assume things and make posts like these.
[/quote]
No, I asked a question and gave a parenthetical note to show contrast.

You've come to a different conclusion from your experience and there's no arguing you out of it. The people who are truly victims of circumstance and working poor are a rarity. They are the exception to the rule of people who want luxuries instead of necessities. Who use ambulances like taxi rides, refuse to get their free prescriptions filled on their own time with their own effort. The number of supposed poor I've transported who carry bags of medicine that I couldn't afford outweighs the number of hard workers who've run out of money from living frugally. By far. I entertain the notion there might be a different culture elsewhere. In a major city, I doubt it, having talked to so many others who say the same things about clientele.

How many times have you walked in to a house for breathing difficulty and had to explain to the asthma patient that smoking (cigarettes are affordable to so many "poor" people) isn't good for asthma patients? You don't really have to explain it--they already know. They play dumb. The guy who has epilepsy but drinks knows it cancels out his meds. He doesn't care. He feels [i]entitled [/i]to drink. I've learned to accept it, and I even feel bad for some people. But the reality is the overwhelming majority have put themselves in their situation, which isn't really as bad as they make it. I've lived paycheck to paycheck. I've worked beside people on government aid at the same job with the same pay. The difference between us was my willingness to forgo some luxuries in life and to make a decision to not have kids I couldn't support with people I wasn't married to.

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='Jesus_lol' date='26 April 2010 - 12:34 AM' timestamp='1272263699' post='2100229']
possible reason for a cost increase? 57 odd additional million people getting some kind of coverage?
[/quote]
You have missed kamiller42's point, i.e., that the Obama administration said that this "reform" would contain and even lower the cost of health care in the United States, but the exact opposite is happening. In fact, like all government entitlements the new system will be run inefficiently and will cause the federal deficit to skyrocket. America already has 108 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities, and this new health care system will cause that figure to rise exponentially, which is why the prediction of rationing of care and death panels is true. No country can continue deficit spending at the rate that the United States is doing it. The Obama administration has increased the deficit in two years by nearly as much as the Bush administration in eight years.

[kamiller42]

[quote name='Jesus_lol' date='26 April 2010 - 02:34 AM' timestamp='1272263699' post='2100229']
possible reason for a cost increase? 57 odd additional million people getting some kind of coverage?
[/quote]
In addition to what Apo said (He nailed it.), the costs were supposed to go down. Why? Because with more people participating (paying in), costs would be divided among more people, even the majority of non-payers being forced to pay, and purchasing power by the participants would be greater. And if none of that works, the government would just dictate what health care providers can charge for a service.

I think these thick headed politicians will find profit margins are what they are in most cases for a good reason. (For those cases where it's not, any savings from margin lowering mandates will be eaten up in a government bureaucracy.) Once they see adjusting margins down causes red ink, they'll simply adjust operating costs down, e.g. salary caps, reduced services, downgrade facilities and equipment, etc. If it's not by mandate, the industry will just have to do it to survive or fold up.