Public Rejects Changes to the Health Plans and Why the Politicians Don’t Care

Ken McCracken • May 21, 2009

Americans are evenly divided over the idea of making free health care available to every one in the country, but opposition grows dramatically when their own health insurance is involved.
Forty-two percent (42%) of Americans say every one in the United States should have free health care. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 44% disagree.
However, by a two-to-one margin (60% to 27%), Americans reject free health care for all if it means changing their own coverage and joining a program administered by the government. Many surveys, conducted over many years have found a similar unwillingness to support any program that requires a change in coverage. Last December, 58% opposed any kind of government-controlled health plan if it meant they had to change their own insurance coverage.

Most people are happy with the health care they earn. Everyone would be happier than heck if everyone who doesn’t have coverage were able to get it. Unfortunately there isn’t a plan in Washington that would do that without taking away our health care that we work for or making us pay for people that are too lazy to earn it themselves.
Neither one of those options are acceptable. Why should we get crappy health care because a bunch of illegal immigrants or people too lazy to hold down a job? But this is what Congress is going to do if we let them. It’s funny because during the campaign Obama was running a commercial saying that he was going to find a middle-ground. He’s not talking about that anymore. Right now he and the other radicals in Congress are working full-bore at tearing down the best health care system in the world.
One has to wonder why they are so desperate to screw things up. Over the weekend Rob ran a story about Obama was claiming that they’d never fix the federal budget until we fix health care.
The fact is that publicly funded health care systems are broke. Medicare and Medicare and SCHIP expenses are out of control. So the political class wants to force the rest of the public (who generally are healthy) into one all-encompassing system so that everyone’s in the same boat.
Now if they want to raise taxes for Medicare there’s a lot of resistance. The beneficiaries won’t or can’t pay for much of their own coverage. But if the entire all-encompassing system needs money they can mute the protests because they’re raising “YOUR” premiums because of “YOUR” insurance.
It’s not that those of us working aren’t paying through the nose for Medicare insurance. A large part of your Social Security tax goes just for Medicare. Not only that but the government underpays medical providers so that they are forced to raise their prices when you go to the doctor. In effect, that’s an hefty tax for using health care services. (And what is the justification for taxing people on medical services?)
You can translate the phrase health care reform to really mean a massive recurring tax increase on those few that are still productive.
The people don’t want it, but the politicians don’t care. We need a whole new slate of leaders.

Tags: Domestic Issues

http://Array Bodhi

Government run healthcare is a failure waiting to happen. One need only look at Medicare to see that.
badlands4

Here is the Whole Foods example,although I was a bit off on the exact plan(It has been quite a long time since I saw the original program, so forgive the bit of muddle info ):

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/Story?id=3580676&page=2

John Mackey, CEO of the supermarket chain Whole Foods, saw his insurance premiums rise through the roof so he changed the way his employees got health care. He proposed a health insurance plan with a high deductible. To help meet that deductible, the company puts money into a “personal wellness account” for each employee and employees use that money to pay for routine care. The money in the account belongs to the employees and puts them more in control of their health-care spending. Employees pay for the small stuff, like sore throats and sprained ankles, but their health insurance covers them in case of a catastrophe. Accounts like these are typically called HSAs, or Health Savings Accounts.

Mackey saw Whole Foods’ health-care costs drop by 13 percent the first year the plan was in place. Some employees objected. They wanted the old “full-coverage” plan back. One wanted “pet bereavement services” covered. Whole Foods then held a vote and “77 percent of team members voted for the health plan that we have today,” said Mackey. Today he says most of his employees love the plan because it allows them to spend the money how they want to spend it.
robert108

Too simple?

One simple question: who “gives” the money?
In order to have a properly functioning healthcare industry, you have to remove restrictions on supply imposed by the AMA and empowered by the govt. When supply is allowed to rise to meet demand, the best price is achieved.
Do you have trouble getting the breakfast cereal you want? Do you need the govt to tell cereal manufacturers what to make, how much of it to make, and what price they should charge for it?
Govt is necessary to enforce laws and minimum standards; otherwise it just costs us, with no return.
Daffy

Whistler, have you been to Europe? Just curious.
badlands4

Sigh…I am either not writing this well, or you are missing my point. I never said it was a good idea to have the govt allocate health care! It is a TERRIBLE idea. It is why I gave the much better example of Whole Foods(I believe that is the company) who does healthcare for their employees in a really good way, and a very cost effective way. What I said is that I am a realist and they ARE doing this now, so I was trying to think about ways to minimize the damage as much as possible. It doesn’t mean I condone it, nor does it mean I think it is the permanent answer.

I am not sure I can word it any better, so I will just leave it at that
Saffronutella

Get Real about Health Care (rap poem)

Â© 2009 Catherine Gody Wolf

Obama called a health care meeting
But only insurance execs he be greeting
No rep for the public health care option
That he campaigned for its adoption
Not one rep for the single payer
Barack, Barack, do you be a player?
Do you really think health care for-profits
Will reduce their income, I ain’t no prophet
They deny and deny your every claim
They do it because big bucks be their aim
Our infant death rate be giganda
Just slightly less than third world Uganda
With 47 million uninsured
Meeting with insurance companies be absurd
Barack, Barack, you need to be bold
And not just give us more of the old
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

and my husband served 21 years in the Air Force and EARNED some kind of medical insurance, although Congress keeps cutting it.

It seems to me that kills off your idea as it is.

What’s to stop Congress from cutting your “simple” solution year after year?

Now a simple solution would be the simple solution that’s worked for years.

If you want coverage than you work for it. Now I think the best way to go about it is to insure yourself for things you can’t afford and pay for yourself those regular things you can afford.

Now there are some simple things that can be done to roll back government interference in the market. Mandates for one. Special interests lobby legislatures to get their services covered under insurance.

The question is if I don’t want that coverage why should I have to pay for it?
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Those Canadians and Euros aren’t doing so bad for themselves.

Healthy lifestyles are more important than our care after we get sick.

Bad, I agree, that’s a better model than the traditional health insurance model for sure. Of course in that case you’re earning your coverage rather than the slackers who want to get free coverage while they’re home watching Oprah.

What’s interesting is that plans like those are really in the crosshairs of the communized medicine types.
badlands4

I see this as such a simple fix, but nobody wants to talk about it, so maybe I just don’t get it. Let me preface that I have a medical condition that will require me to take medication for the rest of my life, and my husband served 21 years in the Air Force and EARNED some kind of medical insurance, although Congress keeps cutting it.

Anyway, I see a few problems in the medical field; not enough doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists, etc. This will get much worse

You will have to have major rationing just because of the amount of citizens in this country. You will have bureaucrats deciding who lives and who dies, and it will no longer be a decision between you and your doctor. My sil has breast cancer. She is only in her early 30′s. Had she not worked on the labor and delivery floor where she had a relationship with the doctors, and found one that was willing to have her do a mastectomy even though she was considered “too young” that test found the cancer and let them do the surgeries and treatment. If the mastectomy had been rationed and denied because of her age, she would be dead, and dead isn’t something you can take back after a “oops”

The Canadian Supreme court ruled that people were dying and suffering due to the health care system. Their ruling stated “access to a waiting list is NOT access to care” there are more Canadians in my neurologists office than Americans and they are very vocal about the anger towards health care system there.

Britain is already denying life saving cancer treatments, etc.

Medicare is a nightmare

Okay, now maybe this is too simple, but it seems the solution would be to give each family, and individual money each year to buy private insurance. It gives competition because the money goes with the family vs the insurance company picked by the company or the govt. Competition will provide better care, and this would be MUCH cheaper and better care than the govt run healthcare.

Too simple?
robert108

You should not get all your tax money back.

Since the subject was money collected for healthcare, that was what I was referring to. My point is that it would be better to have my money in the first place(again, for healthcare), than to have it confiscated to the govt and then having it redistributed to me later(with no interest, btw).

I am being a realist about what is going on NOW…

By definition, hope lies in the future; now is all it can be at this moment, so talk of changing now is a waste of time.
What we can do now is to accurately identify the cause of the problem, and then work to eliminate that cause. Since the cause is govt interference in healthcare, the solution is then to get govt out of healthcare. Unless you have given up, the fight must be to accomplish the goal that will solve the problem, right?
You can’t win by giving up or admitting defeat.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Not for quite a while.
robert108

The govt is NOT going to drop healthcare…

You admit defeat, then. Since the govt is the problem, kicking them out of healthcare is the answer. Nothing else will work, as we have learned since JFK and LBJ started this contagion.
badlands4

One simple question: who “gives” the money?

The govt enacts a flat tax, so EVERYBODY pays their “price of admission” then you get every year an extra portion of YOUR tax money, money you paid in and should get back, that the govt takes for the terrible medicare/medicaid/s-chip programs that are rife with fraud, rationing of care, non and extremely slow payments to the providers, etc. So, that money that you are paying in via taxes for those programs, you will get each year to buy the health care plan of your choice.

I think it is Whole Foods(saw this on 20/20) that gives a certain amount of money to each employer/family for health care. They get to keep what has not been spent. You have people that will buy into a health care program with that money and then you had people that just got the catastrophic cap care or paid cash. The experiment proved that took better care of themselves, did preventative care before they really got sick, used home care remedies FIRST before spending the money at the doctor, and searched around to find doctors that would take cash, making the apt cheaper.

To me, that proves that the family or person having the healthcare money, makes health insurance companies provide better care in order to get the business, and it will allow more doctors the freedom to lower cost for cash patients because the paperwork is so much less. It is paid for by just giving you back your own money you have paid in taxes. If you make the tax code fair, then everybody will pay taxes.

Just trying to figure out a solution. The govt is NOT going to drop healthcare, so trying to find the best option in the situation…shrug
robert108

The govt enacts a flat tax, so EVERYBODY pays their “price of admission” then you get every year an extra portion of YOUR tax money, money you paid in and should get back, that the govt takes for the terrible medicare/medicaid/s-chip programs that are rife with fraud, rationing of care, non and extremely slow payments to the providers, etc.

Some thoughts: when the govt takes my money, I can never get all of it back; even if I receive no services in return from the govt, a healthy chunk of it is eaten up by the bureaucracy. Govt redistribution is not the solution to anything.
IMO, it’s also grossly unjust to make one person pay for another’s medical needs.
badlands4

My last point is the Whole Foods way of health care is a PRIVATE business tackling health care for their employees, not the govt. If more business would do this type of plan, then you would have more competition and the costs would lower for everybody, and the govt could just butt right out.

Call me Pollyanna, but I believe that most employers would like to offer health benefits to their employees, and not at govt gunpoint. I also believe that most employees would rather take less actual pay if it meant they could get health care.

Dunno, just seems a more reasonable way to me, and takes the govt out of the equation.
Bat One

So, the same people who run TSA, the Post Office, and the IRS are now going to make my healthcare decisions for me? And I’m supposed to pay them to do this???

No thank you! That very same government has already mismanaged Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. I believe I’d prefer to look after myself.
robert108

bad: I appreciate your position, but all such plans, including the WalMart discount plan, are simply like giving a cancer patient painkillers. It gives temporary relief from the pain, but does nothing to deal with the underlying problem.
In this case, the underlying problem is the govt control of the supply. Until that is voted out, the problems will continue to get worse. When there is insufficient supply to meet the demand, price goes up, and if price can’t go up, due to govt mandates, the supply simply shrinks even more. This has been going on since the Sixties, and simply gets worse and worse, as each administration kicks the can down the road.
When the govt starts rationing healthcare directly, the misery will increase, and we will be in the same boat as the Canadians and Euros.
Daffy

we will be in the same boat as the Canadians and Euros.

Those Canadians and Euros aren’t doing so bad for themselves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
badlands4

when the govt takes my money, I can never get all of it back

You should not get all your tax money back. The Constitution requires certain things, and those things have to be paid by taxes. Now, obviously the govt has become the mob and are making major grabs for every penny you make it seems(IF you are a taxpayer vs the half the country that does not pay), but we are all obligated to pay taxes for the things the Constitution requires, such as National Defense, etc

You admit defeat, then

No I don’t admit defeat. I am being a realist about what is going on NOW, and NOW they have the votes to do what they want, and they WILL do it, so I am trying to think about a better way to do what they ARE going to do. Now, will that be the same in 4 or 8 or 10 years? I hope not, but it depends on how fed up the public gets and whether they vote them out, and I am talking about BOTH parties(as I have said repeatedly, I am not a Republican or Democrat, so I am an equal opportunity “you stink” person for both parties). Until then, you have to work with what you have and try to make it as palatable as possible, not stand around railing while the things around happening around you anyway.

I don’t know if I can type this up so it makes better sense or if I can really get across what I mean.

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Public Rejects Changes to the Health Plans and Why the Politicians Don’t Care

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