Government bailing out BIG Business-----with National Health care!

[theophilus]

I was listening to an Arkansas version of the McLaughlin report and the panel talked about the prospect of National Health care. The upshot....it is much more likely now that the mega businesses are faltering and have so much tied up in health care, pensions, etc. The Liberals said that single payer was what they preferred. The Right Winger said no to that but that Government might have to step in to save Big Business. One of the Liberals said that if it was like the Medicare "reform" we have been seeing, forget it!

Anyway, I think someone, Mr. Feingold for instance, should take this issue and run with it. It has legs from the left and is getting legs from the right as a bailout of the precious big business. The one thing that is essential is that Liberal/Progressives plan it, implement it and manage it. This was encouraging to me, though, to hear this argument. (The Walmart thing was being talked about.)

What do you think? One panelist said that 2008 or later might be "the time" for National Health care.

It will release Big Business and refresh them. It will, if done right, cause small business to bloom in this country, too, imho.

Comments?

[Warpy]

1. The LAST people I want touching health care reform

are the conservatives from either party!

Consider the proposals the New Dems/DLC have put forth: like Hillarycare, they leave the insurance companies in charge, meaning they're leaving companies that devote more and more resources every year to the denial of care than to the delivery of it! Insurance companies need to get OUT of healthcare, no other option will do. Consider also that Hillarycare was responsible for the concept of managed care, with bean counters acting as gatekeepers, second guessing every physician decision and often denying needed care. This is WRONG. Bean counters do not see the patient, are not trained in assessing a medical patient, and have no business interfering. Insurance companies were very quick to latch onto managed care without providing universal coverage, and that's what we have now. We have the most expensive system that denies care to the most people and leaves the most people without access to adequate health care. And that's what conservatives DO. They lack the courage to kick a powerful industry that has screwed up a system out of that system.

We'll have to clean house a hell of a lot before we get a Congress that is capable of dealing with the institutionalized cruelty known as the US healthcare system.

[theophilus]

3. Well said. We need to clean house for a number reasons. n/t

[justabob]

10. I don't want insurance, I want health care

for the reasons you mention. Insurance is a racket and health care should not be a for-profit industry. Once upon a time, we were entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I think making sure that EVERYONE has the option to be cared for without sacrificing their food, their home, their sanity falls under the heading of "life".

[okieinpain]

2. yes I agree with you.

[creeksneakers2]

4. Major GOP groups have been secretly meeting with unions

and other left wing groups for years now. Here is more about the meetings.

http://www.aapd-dc.org/News/health/recomuninsured.html



Health insurance is becoming more expensive for companies and the government programs are growing at rates that are not sustainable in the long run. My guess is the final solution will be some kind of government cost controls paired with a rationing system that allows some health care for everybody. That's basically what other countries have.

I monitor RW propaganda on the radio and they've been slowly selling the mind slaves on the idea that companies can no longer afford to pay for health care.

Bush is coming out with some health care proposals for his state of the union speech. I have to admit, some of them sound like improvements to me.

[lindisfarne]

5. I find it very ironic that the same corporations which today are crying

over the cost of health care did nothing to support the Clintons' 1993 attempt to get some kind of national health care. One more example of corporate execs being incompetent: if they didn't in 1993 have some kind of estimate of what their 2005 health care costs were going to run, they should have (even in 1993 it was obvious health care costs were going up at far higher rates than inflation).

[wakeme2008]

6. read a good editorial column in the Tampa Trib

About GM and it's health care problems. The write pointed out when the Japanese first started selling in the US in the 70s one big reason they had cheaper labor cost was National Health care. GM and others ignored that fact and now are stuck playing mega bucks for health care.

This writer stated that had GM and others back then pushed for National Health care, then everybody would not be in the position they are in today.

[theophilus]

7. That was part of the argument being presented on Arkansas Week.

It was said that to be competitive in the world market, GM and others must get out from under the burden of worker health care. Gee, I guess Bill and Hil were on to something. Imagine where the economy might have gone if we had gotten a good national health care in the 90s.

[wakeme2008]

9. And how many jobs would not have been

outsourced because the labor costs for US workers would have been less.

[aquart]

8. That's what I keep saying.

Take Healthcare off the back of American business. Make America competitive again. It is the duty of the national government to ensure the health of American workers, children, and retirees. If we aren't fit, we cannot compete. We are losing our edge because of the healthcare mess.

[Auntie Bush]

11. True...but the thing that irks me is the damn Rethugs will get

the credit for giving us health care and they will never let anyone forget it. They take the Dems ideas and twist them to their own financial advantage and take the credit. It makes me so mad...I almost wish they would fail. :argh: :mad: :grr: