Overstaying his welcome
Only 25% of Americans polled by CNN want the current bills to become law. According to CBS, “only about one in five Americans think health care reform will benefit them personally.” And yet the President drones on: “We all know that this is urgent,” he said. (HT: Instapundit)
February 26th, 2010 at 8:53 am
Eric Cantor (R-VA) just said that we can all “read letters by constituents who are allegedly wronged by our health care system.” It’s as if Cantor doesn’t even believe his constituents who tell him they’re wronged by their health insurance companies. This one quote tells everyone that they are not being listened to. Their complaints are merely alleged and their real life troubles are nothing more than props. The real suffering they deal with every day, the pain, the bankruptcy, the loss of money, sometimes even the onset of health problems due to inability to afford insurance in the first place, those are merely alleged. Screwing over everyone with pre-existing conditions, everyone who has had acne, people who have been raped. All pre-existing conditions. You can be denied insurance for this.
Then there’s the billions of dollars of “alleged” profits the health insurance industry rakes in. Along with the millions of dollars of “alleged” lobbying that insurance does in Congress to make sure the American people are “allegedly” screwed over. There’s the “alleged” eight health insurance lobbyists for every member of Congress. Apparently though, Cantor and the Republicans take the alleged hurt to the health insurance industry a lot more seriously. They don’t use words like “alleged” when referring to possible loss of profits. They didn’t use words like “alleged” back when they were discussing a public option and how it would kill private industry. They didn’t say “alleged” death panels.
No, those are all real. — The only “alleged” complaints are those of real Americans.
February 26th, 2010 at 10:02 am
And of course, when the IRS is collecting your health insurance premiums (on behalf of those very same insurers) everything will be so much better…
February 26th, 2010 at 10:43 am
As long as we’re identifying disconnects, how about this one:
“During the Health Care Summit Republicans are simultaneously proposing to abolish Medicare and replace it with vouchers, and they also claim that they’re opposing Health Care Reform to save Medicare.”
February 26th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
No disconnect there. You may or may not agree with the policy, but the Republican argument appears to be that the voucher policy would be more efficient to administer than actually using a government-operated insurer. The savings would be used to preserve at least some Medicare benefits. Currently, Medicare is scheduled to begin consuming a politically unsustainable portion of the federal budget starting within a few years. The primary activity of the federal government will be taking money from young, relatively poor citizens and giving it to old, relatively wealthy citizens. This will not succeed, and must be prevented.
I know you won’t agree with this statement. My challenge to you is this: can you raise your response above the level of ad-hominem and straw-man arguments?
February 26th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Obama’s strategy is to force everyone into the government funded healthcare program so he can use it as a source of funds for other uses. He will borrow from the program and provide it with the same “IOUs” that social security gets.
Once you are in, there is no getting out; unless you are Greek and watching your civilization go up in smoke…. again!
February 27th, 2010 at 2:38 am
Steve,
I’m not surprised at your comments. Now that Global Warming has been recognized as a scam by so many (and those who perpetrated the scam are in fear of being fitted for orange jumpsuits by their local constabulary for fraud against their respective governments) you’ve selected this topic to enlighten us. I appreciate that.
And, yes, I do agree that there are situations where insurance agencies have been quite unfair. Yes, there are bureaucrats in these agencies who exercise their minor power over people. They make decisions that are dumb, thickheaded and wrong. Moving these decisions from a private insurer to the federal government would change this how? Have you ever had to deal with local governments and local zoning boards? Try it sometime and see how the people we elect (or those put in positions of authority by the people we elect) use their power to show you who really has the final say in what you can and can’t do to your own property. It will be an eye-opening experience, I assure you.
That being said, there are changes in the insurance industry that need to be addressed. Pre-existing conditions and being able to take your insurance with you to another company or another state are just two. But the entire system doesn’t have to be dismantled to achieve these goals.
And as for sob stories, I’ve grown callous to them. Not because I don’t have a heart or don’t care. It’s because I don’t believe them anymore! I’ve counted more debunked stories than those that were true, especially from the lips of the president. When he goes ahead and repeats the same story even after he knows it’s not truelet’s just say that’s when I stop believing all of them.
By the way, my understanding (from an insurance executive I know, an honest guy, too) is that the pre-existing concept was put in place for those who do not want to buy insurance until they find out that they have an illness and then want to buy coverage. As someone who’s had or purchased insurance all of my working life, I find that a bit rude on their part. I paid even when I wasn’t sick, as does most everyone else. If you want to game the system, fine. But then be prepared for the consequences. On the other hand, if an insurance company wants to give them coverage, they have every right to charge them more. That’s how they are able to keep premiums lower than they would otherwise.