Sen. Franken Delivers Major Speech on Health Care (Clips)

[HayateAce]

Al Franken, pushing America to ruin, one bullshit social program at a time....

[rightsman123]

Yeah, MN is leading the way in Healthcare Reform. That's why the illegal immigrants have been taking advantage of our system at the tune of 185 million dollars. Thanks Frank, but keep your rhetoric.

[mstaff657]

Simpleton Franken

[mstaff657]

It is a free country

if a health insurance company does not want to insure those people they should not have to.

If I ran an oxygen supply store I sure as hell would not sell oxygen to Al Franken.

Simpleton Al Franken does not tell us how many insurers do not cover those patients , bet money there are lots of insurers that do cover them. The dink is a LIAR.

[sensodyneuser]

It is not a free country. Everything about living in America is either taxed or sold. If you buy into a health insurance plan (a socialist idea by the way) then you have a bit of your income taken from you (a tax) each paycheck. For them to arbitrarily turn around and say- no you cant have this, you cant have that- for arbitrary reasons- just because its your turn to need help- then they better be in dire financial trouble or else its unfair.

[mstaff657]

you may need the title Simpleton as well.

[sensodyneuser]

@mstaff657 cmon man youre not seeing the big picture. I see all these flamers to ideas that seem entirely just to me. I know the insurers have all the money in the world- what is their problem that they cant play fair and still have most of the money? By the way to my mind these guys have no obvious ideas that anyone could look at and say- yeah- thats why they earn 100,000 or 500,000 a year. Its one of the flaws of Capitalism that you can just be a lackey and earn that much

[russkie69]

Al Franken is a genius! God bless you!

[roblinkd]

As a Canadian I am happy to see one of your senator's gets it.......nobody in Canada goes broke or gets denied coverage... we don't even think about it in Canada.

[f1nK3L90]

yeah, let's be more like the canadians from now on.

[jvry8c]

funny thing is that every time i have ever talked to a Canadian they really are not sure what the fuss is about and tend to like there system. In addition you can receive private insurance in Canada. I'm at a major loss why so many people are opposed to a public option.

[f1nK3L90]

increased consumer coverage in the medical industry will create an enormous amount of wealth. the healthcare industry is going to become so efficient because of infrastructural advances (like information sharing) that we'll have free health care in twenty years. even doctors will be unnecessary as the surgery industry is more automated; people will do all their own physicals at home with easy tests. this year, self-AIDS tests were handed out in waiting rooms with 99.5% accuracy (sciencenews-org)

[f1nK3L90]

if by chewed up you mean saving lives, raising healthcare quality, investing in permanent infrastructure improvements, than i would be happy to see my paycheck "chewed up". i don't think many people understand what "infrastructure improvements" means. whenever money is spent on design initiatives, those improvements can not easily be dismantled. for instance, once medical information is computerized, it will likely remain readily available to doctors nationwide to save time and money.

[harvey101107]

there's nothing wrong with computerizing medical records. I'm not concerned with the cost-cutting measures. I'm concerned about putting 60% of the country on a soon-to-be bankrupt government medical program.

[f1nK3L90]

well that makes perfect sense. if you're afraid of losing your money in a government medical program, then don't join it. but your insurance company, it doesn't matter which one it is, will have to change its policies to at least match the efficiency and coverage as those of the government. so it doesn't matter whether you think it's going to go bankrupt or not, because certain people need the option of cheap, broad government medical programs, and they're the ones who are going to fund it.

[nimbusaurus]

Oh please, soon-to-be bankrupt? We could give healthcare to EVERYONE for 10% of the military budget and we wouldn't have these 'deductibles.' Government programs don't go bankrupt, they simply perform with whatever money the people decide to provide them with. Why isn't the military bankrupt? Why isn't our system of corporate welfare bankrupt. Kindly shut the hell up about gov't programs going bankrupt.

[harvey101107]

They're not bankrupt because the Chinese buy our debt in bonds! The second they stop doing that America will have to face reality and quit deficit spending and giving handouts to the poor.

[harvey101107]

Which, by the way, doesn't help the poor at all. It makes them poorer, and furthermore gives them an incentive not to work.

[reed0the0red]

Franken is freaking amazing :)

[harvey101107]

sorry Al we can't afford the democrat's bloated bill right now. Focus on reform & cutting costs, not socialized medicine.

[Stealth42o]

Sorry Harv, we spent over 700 billion in one year on a bloated defense budget. However giving everyone in this country the right to see a doctor would cost a 7th of that a year.

Moral country my ass. Hypocrites, no wonder the world cannot stand America.

[harvey101107]

Not saying I agree with our defense budget. I hate America's imperialistic, nation-building attitude.

[threadysparrow]

harvey god dammit didnt we spray the apartment for bugs like you. shoo shoo bug. go on get out. go home. you cant live in my bathroom under the sink. i will pick you up and put you outside this time, but try to stay out of my bathroom mr bug.

[Greywyn7]

Spoken like someone who truly has no idea what's going on.

[harvey101107]

What don't I know? You sound like a douchebag who's got all the answers. How much money should we borrow from the Chinese to expand our bankrupt, government-run and regulated health care system?

[kingme99]

Typical fear-based uneducated reponse. "Medicare-for-all" is not an American invention and in fact has worked for all the countries that currently have it. We would borrow more from the Chinese if we did NOTHING, in order to pay for the millions that go bankrupt or die from our current health system. That is the truth. Get a mop and help clean up.

[harvey101107]

Just because I don't like the bill doesn't mean I want to do nothing. While some countries have had moderate success with socialized medicine (depends on your definition of "work"), this American version of it is a complete financial disaster. What we really need is tort reform, less government regulation and caps on awards in medical malpractice cases.

You are so blind if you think more government takeover of healthcare is the answer. Privatized medicine works, it only needs to be done right.

[kingme99]

"Moderate success" - Please. A substantial majority in each of those countries praise their system. Could you find a few percent that those systems fail? Absolutely. But I'd take a few percent over what America has now which is 50 percent failure.

Governmental healthcare works, it just needs to be done right.

[harvey101107]

Yeah, rationing healthcare is a pretty amazing system. Can't wait for all the new taxes, too. Nothing like giving away most of my paycheck to see it chewed up and spit back out at me in the bureaucracy.

[kingme99]

It's this type of reaction that is so typically "nearsighted" - You forget to look at "net" costs - and focus only on increases, when the decreases will outweigh any increases. I don't need Obama to show me that preventive maintenance saves money, in fact, you might even save money AND get better care! The bottom line is: the healthier people are, the less you will pay. And with medicare for all, people WILL be heathlier and net costs will go down, even if there are increases.

[harvey101107]

Medicare for all - until it goes bankrupt. Then again, we can always keep burying ourselves in foreign debt. Hey Bernanke, keep rollin' that printing press.

[kingme99]

Our health care system will make you bankrupt long before a government program will.

[harvey101107]

Hey - not saying i'm satisfied with the status quo.

[Greywyn7]

And yet nothing you've done.

Just like the republicans who masquerade as saviors of the healthcare industry.

[Greywyn7]

Not all of them, but certainly more than you.

[threadysparrow]

i disagree i dont want anyone else to have the choice of a public option. and if you want a public option then you are an unamerican terrorist

[f1nK3L90]

if being an "unamerican terrorist" means wishing to give the comfort of health and security to thirty or forty million people than i am an unamerican terrorist.

[Stealth42o]

And your an asshole, so what's your point?

[threadysparrow]

my point is that assholes like myself should have our way all the time. and the bible is too liberal

[JesusSavesAtCitibank]

Thank you for all you're doing, Al!

[BentSlightly]

Keep kicking ass!