Health Care Behind Closed Doors! Congressman Van Hollen

http://MOXNews.com/
January 07, 2010 CNN

Category:

News & Politics

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• Congressman
• Van
• Hollen
• health
• care
• bill
• reform

[RyandocDO]

I support limited government and decreases in taxes.

[ThunderDog97]

Health Reform for the good of pharma companies and insurance companies.

The losers are the citizens of America.

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[joshuag5732]

But they refuse to be.

[joshuag5732]

I went a whole winter without going to the store for food because my family jarred vegetables and we got three stags for meat. There are people who live like this all year round.  If you get a deadly illness, you have to go to the doctor or else you die.

The insurance industry is not regulated as interstate commerce. It is governed by state insurance commissioners. i have no problem letting them operate over state lines if they are willing to be regulated as interstate entities.

[TheRealMikeSmith]

Insurance companies have to charge more because the government has outlawed risk-pooling and competition over state lines. Again, government intervention is the problem.

Milk was just an example, you dolt. You can't live without food, and yet the giant food conglomerations are not holding you hostage with high prices.

[joshuag5732]

Because I can survive without milk. I don't even drink milk but if i did i have a huge selection of suppliers. But if i had cancer i couldn't survive without chemotherapy. The insurance companies and big pharma know this and they exploit it. They keep getting bigger and more powerful and our choices become less and less.

[TheRealMikeSmith]

So why isn't food more expensive? Everyone needs food to survive. By your logic, milk should cost $100 a gallon.

The fact is, 90% of the hospitals are controlled by the government. We are where we are now because of government. How will more government make things better?

[joshuag5732]

No it wouldn't. The companies would get so large that they would gouge people. Health care IS exempt from the rules of economics because it is something we need. Its not like you can just choose not to take your medicine because you can't afford it one week. We are physical beings and our bodies break down. Big pharma and the health insurance companies are taking advantage of that. IT's a life or death situation.

[TheRealMikeSmith]

How do you think the USPS can operate in the red decade after decade? Because when they don't meet the budget, they get money from the government, and where does the government get money...? UPS and Fedex would be even better and cheaper for us if they were allowed to use our mail boxes. But the government has made that a federal offense.

Health care is not exempt from rules of economics. Left to the free market it would become better and cheaper like computers, phones and all other tech.

[joshuag5732]

How is it stealing if you are getting your mail delivered. Fed Ex and UPS do very well. The point is that we have an option. If you don't want to use to the post office to send packages, use UPS. If you don;t like UPS use FED Ex. The competition keeps the prices low. We can choose any of these services. But health care is not like the mail. If you don't get a letter on time its not the end of the world. If you don't get medication, you can die.

[TheRealMikeSmith]

Rising health care costs are BECAUSE of government intervention. More intervention will just make things worse.

60 years ago, 90% of the hospitals were private. There was more access and you didn't need insurance to get your foot in the door. Insurance was only for extreme cases, like heart transplants.

Now the government controls 90% of the hospitals, prices are skyrocketing and you can't do anything without insurance.

[TheRealMikeSmith]

No, it will give the government option an unfair advantage because it will be subsidized. Like the post office- it's prices are low because it's a legalized, subsidized monopoly. When they don't make budget, they just steal more from the taxpayer. This leads to inefficiency and poor service. Why strive for improvement when you know you're the only choice and have a bottomless budget? If FedEx and UPS were allowed to compete fairly with the USPS, the USPS would go out of business in a month.