Medicare a Bad Precedent for Government Health Plans?

[jayseah1932]

This guy doesn't use Medicare, has never used it, so knows nothing about how well it works. I've been using it for 12 years, and have had some very serious medical problems dealtt with, and they have handled them very well. Guys like these need to just shut up whaen they haven't had any participation.

[AdamHeilbrun]

Among the other flaws in Capretta's argument is that he ignores the fact that 1/3 of our health care dollars are now being gobbled up by the insurance industry which provides no healthcare services whatsoever - only massive red tape. Dump them and we can fund decent health care for all, just as Medicare now does for seniors.

[Nintendomanwill]

@AdamHeilbrun

The current healthcare system unfairly benefits insurance companies BECAUSE of government, they subsidise companies driving up costs and killing competition, they MANDATE insurance packages which is unbelievably destructive of choice and competition and market forces, and worst of all they delineate various fixed packages in terms of in which of the 50 states you live...so the government has given companies the power to extort through lack of choice. Nice one, government!

[MrPlaid81]

Former Bush Administration official James Capretta

Give me a BREAK!!!

[allgoo19]

Former Bush Administration official James Capretta

Who else can make more biased opinion?

[offsprng46]

So, the whole notion that the only thing the government can do is to dictate prices is a total lie. What government can and should do is to go out and physically MAKE SAVINGS - authorize credit for the capital and educational investments which will increase physical supply and drive down costs. This worked spectacularly well under the New Deal and Late New Deal, and it will work again if undertaken.

[offsprng46]

This guy is a total incompetent; he was in the Bush administration, after all. The FACT - which this little faggot, as well as the right-wing anarchists ("libertarians") - choose to ignore is that the federal government created the world's best public health care system under the Hill-Burton Act (look it up), which was designed not to micro-manage providers, but to build up the physical plant of the health care system. Since the Nazi Dick Nixon though, we've been stuck with the HMO parasites.

[Mastikator]

Here's health-care reform I'd support:

Disband the AMA and legally protected terms.

Disband the regulation institutions.

End the legal cartels on medicine. End the monopoly.

Historically the free market is the only place where high quality, affordable goods and services emerge.

It can not be dictated or mandated by some top-down official. It can only emerge.

[funkalunatic]

I think this guy's last job was probably assistant manager at Wendy's.

[thesparitan]

lol damm

[mattghtpa]

Wowits amazing how easy it is to spot the bullshit even when it's obfuscated by complicated jargon, sophistry and false altruism.

[thesparitan]

if medicare is so terrible why did no republican vote on weiners bill to repeal edicare

[lynchmobb2000]

@thesparitan

Exactly! When I hear repubs complain about Medicare and Social Security, and encourage them to put planks in the GOP platform to repeal Medicare and Social Security. Could it be because these programs are successful and popular??

Cheers

[thesparitan]

lol haha i check your profile stanley kubrick what the f man thats my favorite director

and you stole all my favorites and my political philosophy

i cant believe how many anrachist i see these days its fucking awesome dude

way to go i have never seen so many radicals in my life

PARECON

[thesparitan]

ok so he has no idea what he is talking about. there you go defend the healthcare compenies that kill people.

and he makes no rational argument supported by facts

[liber8me]

everyone does realise that america spends the most per person on healthcare than ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.

all obama is doing is throwing more money at the problem.

[dlucas90]

If Obama / Bush wouldn't bail out these top heavy monopolies he wouldn't have to worry about competing against them. They would be busted up into smaller companies that actually have to compete against each other.

We the tax payer are being asked to fund both sides of this competition! We are to bail out the evil monopolies, then we are to pay for a government program that will be able to compete against the monopolies we are subsidizing. How stupid is that?

[666norton420]

maybe you guys woudn't care so much about the costs of healing your citizens if you didn't spent all your money on wars.

;d

[caltrop69]

This is a good point. Of course, it's only half the story.

The truth is...History shows that peaceful societies that value individual rights have been more prosperous for everyone in those societies....Upper and lower class alike.

In the U.S., we have this partisan false dichotomy of EITHER taking care of the "poor" or taking care of "corporations." Both are collectivist, big government, anti-individual ideals.

[3star2nr]

If medicare is so bad why not kill it?

seriously how dumb do these people think we are.

Medicaren is having problems because republcans fucked it up

and NO ONE is doing what hes proposing

[wervasdeferens]

3star2nr , you're right.

But like he's saying here and even what Obama has said, the way that Medicare reimburses Doctors incentivizes waste and fraud.

Medicare pays for quantity of procedures, not quality of outcome, and that's what needs to change.

Then offer Medicare to everyone.

[3star2nr]

my question is why cant we walk and chew gum? fix medicare and then do medicare for all.

If the system is broken, and we know how it s broken, wouldnt the logical thing be to fix the system? Y bitch about it?

The problems medicare has can EASILY be fixed with a couple amendments.

Republicans strike me as the kind of people who will get a flat tire, will get out and scream at it for hours and not even try to fix it. And then bash and fight off anyone who tries to fix it

[wervasdeferens]

I agree!

It doesn't take a genius to fix these problems. Greed and self (special) interest are the forces that always thwart change and progress.

Repubs not only yell at the flat tire, they refuse to acknowledge the bed of nails that they drove the car through.

[DescentToCocytus]

If greed is indeed the problem, then it is the greed of unscrupulous politicians for the power they gain by pandering to their ignorant masses of voting constituents who know precisely dick about economics.

[wervasdeferens]

Historical data, is all that matters in these debates.

Check some figures of the income and wealth distribution ,in the US, over that last 100 years.

Look into any economic statistical data of the last 100 years.

Then research the similarities in the deregulatory legislative agenda prior to the Great Depression and the last 30 years.

If you're saying that the GOP dupes it's ignorant constituents into voting against their own economic interest, then you're right.

[blackiron60]

So, public healthcare for all is not realistic in "a country of this size"? Well Canada is even bigger and it successfully implemented a public system that is far more efficient than anything that the United States has ever come up with - including the present proposals for reform. Hell, in terms of providing universal medical coverage the Soviet Union did better than the United States by a long shot!

[wervasdeferens]

Capretta actually makes some valid points and solutions.

My question is why hasn't the GOP done anything about health care previously? While they were in power the costs of health care doubled. These higher costs have affected job creation,state and federal budget deficits and overall economic decline.

Relying on the "Free Market" to solve everything means you do nothing.

Doing nothing has been the GOP's albatross.

[Keylimedelight]

I agree with you, but in defence of 'Free Market' solutions I think it's important to recognise that the GOP has only been interested in the Free Market as a bit of rhetoric than an actual economic philosophy.

GOP /= Free Market Economist

The past two republican presidents have shown that well enough.

[wervasdeferens]

True, they've been more about crony capitalism than free market. Also their dismantling of government regulations has concentrated the capital in very few hands. Which,in turn, has led to less competition and market share monopolies. It has also fostered rampant corruption due to lack of oversight and enforcement.

So I agree,their "idea" of free market capitalism is not accurate.

I'm a "freshman" in the Austrian school of economic thought, so I'm still have some socialist leanings. LOL

[blackiron60]

And be proud of those socialist leanings, we need them in today's world, and I'm not being sarcastic.

[wervasdeferens]

I agree!

[terpis]

'Defined Contribution model'...the preferred solution of a little Eichmann (hey man, if the shoe fits...) more enamored of 'market efficiencies--setting aside that sick people & parents of sick children are anything but 'rational market actors'--than a system that guarantees & holds the line on some set of 'Defined Benefits'.

[Bobbiethejean]

Yet funnily enough, no politician in their right mind would dare even hint at taking away medicare. Why? Because the people love it. It may be imperfect but the people have spoken.