

US health-care reform

Proceed with caution

A health-care reform bill gets to the floor of the Senate. A rowdy debate will follow

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Readers' comments




I love the Democrats' non sequitur logic. Healthcare is a national security issue because its exploding costs will bust the budgets of our entitlement programs therefore we must create expensive new entitlements to extend insurance coverage to people who choose not to pay for it.


@One Purple Nation
Classism is not the reason these people are uninsured. And, while it's tragic that there are a few who will not be provided care because of lack of insurance, it's wrong to force those who work to provide for their families to care for these few. The action shouldn't be directed at health insurance and finding new ways to pour money into it, but at the things that are driving up costs: pharmaceuticals, malpractice insurance, administrative overhead, medical education; things that this bill does not address.


If the bill proposed by the Democrats is "so" good for the masses and the US, why are all the congressional delegates and Washington bureaucrats not anxious to sign up for the same plan? It is never mentioned!


To even begin contemplating the passage of such a bill with the current debt boggles my mind. Don't people realize that debt approaching the total value of annual GDP is a serious problem?
The money that would fund this bill is not based on real value, so we can expect to see a substantial boost to inflation as a result. As if explicit taxes were not enough, implicit inflation taxes will now hurt every American.
I encourage people to ask why we got to this point where health care is such an issue and to not discount the relationship of any factor.
Consider this: If corn was not subsidized, then cheap, unhealthy food would not be as accessible. Healthy food would be relatively cheaper and perhaps the high rates of obesity and obesity-related illnesses would not be as prevalent.
If oil was not subsidized, then walking, biking, and less fuel-intensive modes of transportation would be relatively cheaper, so people would probably exercise out of necessity more often.
These two economically unjustifiable government subsidies add to the health problem, inevitably leading to increases in premiums paid to health insurance companies.
I encourage all to think about the interplay between governmental actions (and inaction) and supposed free market capitalism in the realm of health care. If something can be done to address the root of the problem instead of the symptoms, we should enact meaningful reform in those identified markets that adversely affect those reliant on health insurance. But continuing to throw illusory money at a problem whose depth anyone has yet to comprehend is a grossly oversimplified treatment of a much deeper problem.
I am deeply disturbed by this state of affairs. How dare anyone even consider spending money that doesn't exist on a problem they don't understand.


PE in NY, look at this:

We pay twice as much as any other industrialized country, yet our quality of care is not any better. Health Insurance companies get half a trillion dollars from us and they use it on non-health care related expenses. The number one corrupt scandal in the United States is our health insurance companies. They are more corrupt than the Mexican government.

PE in NY

We have the most expensive health care system in the world - and pretty close to the best system (just not per dollar spent). This bill will make it even more expensive, and all that money will now being going through the governments hands. How well has that "care-taking" of the SS money gone so far? They spent it all on other things? Really?

Vinny L.

Yes lee2! I want all Chairmen and CEO's of Fortune 500 companies and all congressmen (and congresswomen) to sign their own children up for rationed care WITH NO LOOPHOLES! Then I will believe this is good for me...


Republicans are living in their own world. Europe, Britain, and the rest of the Americans all have some form of universal care. So why are you guys saying inaccurate things like if the United States follows through we will all be communists, or if the CEO's don't like it, I don't like it.

Last time I checked, communism is dead. Also, the CEO's already have the best health care in the world because they own the hospitals and the health insurance companies. Do you really want to put your fate in a monarch CEO that is stealing 1/2 a trillion dollars from the U.S. tax payer through corruption and stealing, or do you want to listen to the American people when we say we've had enough of the insurance companies corruption stealing money from us.


We have the worst health care system in the world. I don't understand why people want to complain about reforming this system to make it better because in the end it will save us all money when we end corruption involving our health insurance and hospitals.

That or we can stop giving for free terrorists weapons paid for by the U.S. tax payer.


Vinny, the first 4 bills that Obama tried to pass were not successful because they did not have Republican support. The only way to get that support was to add a few changes, but the bottom line of the bill would be yes everyone would need to pay for their own health insurance according to how much money they make, but it will include a huge number of the 50 million Americans that do not have health insurance and cannot see a doctor in the U.S. because of that. Americans are dying because they don't have the money to see a doctor, and this bill will save Americans lives.

Truth be told, this bill is still in somewhat of the beginning stages. If it keeps moving, we won't recognize this bill because of all the changes that will happen to it. What angers me the most is that Republicans want to see the Obama administration fail so they refuse to cooperate in reforming our health care bill. If they cooperated, this bill would be a million times better, but because they aren't we have to make sacrifices as a nation because we are being raped by the Republicans which is only going to backfire in their faces when this bill passes and people see how much better our health care is going to be.

One Purple Nation

Would you rather have thousands more go untreated and/or die in the next couple years? This bill is America's chance to combat the classist bastards that would deprive our rapidly climbing number of unemployed the healthcare all deserve. Of course, who knows what the chance of that really is; judging by the weakness we've been seeing among democrats in congress lately this bill will be another watered down excuse for equality.
To any Americans who read this: please call/email your senators to support a public option.


Please, someone help me understand! 1. Senator Lieberman is against a "public option" because it will drive private insurance companies out of business, but then he goes on to say "the premiums for the "public option" will be higher than private plans". Are we so dumb that we will support a more expensive "public option"? 2. Why do Republicans decry "government healthcare" but go onto decry cutting any money from the current government healthcare plan (Medicare)? If they weren't hypocrites depending upon elderly votes, they would want to eliminate Medicare (I would support that).


By now, I wryly suspect that *some* sort of "reform" or other will pass, however watered-down; to pass nothing at all would bring down this entire Presidency. ("Too big to fail", and all that...) So we'll get some reform, with weak mandates, even weaker penalties (i.e. with innumerable exceptions, exemptions, and "special cases") and everybody will be left just about equally unhappy. I do not begrudge it; that's how democracy works, after all.

The only problem with this likely scenario is that sky-high costs will STILL remain, ready to bite us in the derriere some other day-- and not too far in the future, either. The Administration that has proudly refused to "kick the can further down the road" will have done ~just~ that. Oh, well...


It looks like the Democrats are going to pass something and it is looking uglier and uglier. If we consider the Democrats in the 1964 election when they made major gains, the 1966 midterms showed the backlash - and the Great Society was the peak of Democratic federal power for many decades. This is looking like deja vu all over again.
Here is an interesting, but obscure, article examining the effect in 1966.


I think the Democrats must be a bit nervous about the Thanksgiving holiday, because holidays are when families take a time out and people start talking about stuff like this. And when people hear their sensible friends or family members talk about how this is a pretty massive thing and its a lot of money and almost certainly more than they are saying, and they hear the speculation about its impact (all of which sounds plausible and who the heck knows), its going to make people wary. I have to think that opposition is going to start ticking up.

I really don't know what the Democrats are going to do to get themselves out of this mess. They can't not pass health care. But they can't pass this thing either. There is too much legitimate opposition. I think the way the Democrats maintain their majority is to scrap it, and do the consensus stuff. But a too large portion of their party won't stand for that. Too many of them want this massive thing. Anyway... I don't know what they are going to do.

My last point: This debate will almost certainly go down the road about what the essence of the US is. My thought is that Americans are good with helping people, but not to the extent it breaks the bank or is done recklessly.

Vinny L.


Because republicans and some Democrats alike are protecting the insurance industry. The industry is frightened of becoming a government industry. They don't want the transparency that a single payer system might bring. They want the right to price us through the roof so they can make billions. My guess is that a STRONG public option will not make it

Vinny L.

This is great! We're in trouble with our banker (China) so now the elitist want to ration EVERYTHING on the backs of poor people. If you're going to ration our care at least lower the price workers have to pay for care. Oh, I forgot. This is the Health Insurance Company Wealth Protection and Enhancement Act! They're going to force everyone to pay for testing and care THEY SAY we don't need until we're 50 years old (Death Panel recommendation lol). Then throw people in jail if you can't afford it.

This is nuts!


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