"Public Option will put private ins cos out of business"

[Uben]

That's a bad thing? They are the one's who got us into this mess. Fuck em, run em out of business.....NOW!

[veritasvg]

1. Fine...

...but insurance companies own the country. They always have.

I've told several people I know that I think a lot of liberals will go ex-pat in the coming years. I still feel that way.

[WVRICK13]

10. Already Dreaming

about how to get the fuck out of this pathetic excuse of a country.

[morillon]

11. Count me in.

We started planning to move to Canada on December 12, 2000. We'd already be there if the real estate market hadn't crashed. We've priced the real estate in question much more aggressively now, and we hope to be there by this time next year.

I just want to live out the rest of my days in peace, in a country that takes care of its people and that doesn't have such an entrenched lunatic fringe.

[dgibby]

18. What are the requirements for immigrating to Canada?

I'm thinking about Mexico, but am also considering Canada.

[morillon]

37. Depends on how much money you have, your skills, your age, etc.

If you're 49 or less, you get maximum points in the skilled worker category. Here's a link to the site where you can get the best, most reliable information:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/index.asp

If you don't want to become a permanent resident, you can spend six months at a time on your U.S. passport alone. You just have to leave for a day to reset the clock, and then you can spend another six months, pretty much indefinitely according to what I've read. You don't have to be a permanent resident or citizen to own property in Canada. We're planning to become permanent residents and then citizens for a variety of reasons, one of which is being part of the Canadian social safety net.

Have you looked at Panama? Some people I know are thinking of moving there.

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. No, they haven't. What you are seeing now didn't start until the 70s or so, and it

wasn't that bad back then.

[WeDidIt]

2. So a government that is so inefficent that it should enver run anything

is so efficient that Insurance companies are incapable of matching that inefficient efficiency????

:wtf:

[JDPriestly]

26. Our government was very efficient until we started outsourcing.

Our military is the best example.

The last war we won was WWII -- and it was fought with an all volunteer army.

LBJ started using contractors to build airfields in the Viet Nam War -- and we lost.

As private contractors have become more and more central to our military actions, we have had less and less success.

The same is true in so many areas.

Yesterday, my husband and I went to La Canada near the homes of some of our friends to survey the damage done by the fires. The firefighters are public employees -- and they work miracles. Their efforts take a lot of coordination. They have to know the drill. You can't bring in a lot of part-time employees to put out forest fires. It was astounding to see how they had cut shrubs and trees with perfectly organized methodology and timing so as to protect people and houses. If they had had more public tax money and resources, they could have saved a lot more trees and wildlife.

The public sector in our country is working just find. The problems in our country today are caused by a private sector where greed has run wild and is way out of control.

[Synicus Maximus]

32. I hate to correcft you, but WWII was not fought with an all

volunteer army. The draft was started in 1940.

[JDPriestly]

39. It was all government employees. Perhaps I should have used that term.

[FreakinDJ]

3. They said that when California changed Auto Insurance rules

funny - still seeing no shortage of auto Insurance Copanies around here

[jeffbr]

4. The insurance industry death panels have killed countless people

and bankrupted and ruined countless lives. For profit.

[Critters2]

5. I hope so. nt

[FormerDittoHead]

7. +1 n/t

[Kansas Wyatt]

6. The Insurance Companies have put THEMSELVES out of business.

Fuck them! They are nothing but money sucking DEATH MERCHANTS, that are sucking the life out of America.

[JDPriestly]

27. Aetna's CEO made over $124 MILLION last year. Enough said.

[Turbineguy]

8. Public option will not

put insurance companies out of business. The repubs will require a public option designed to be fucked up to prevent this. In fact insurance companies will prosper due to adverse selection in their favor.

Those who are sick or can't pay premiums will be shifted onto the government. The repubs don't give a shit about you. You don't vote for them and they are better off if you are fucking dead.

Insurance rates may drop but only because insurance company benefits decrease more, therefore increasing profits.

And when enough people have died to put the repubs back in power by default, the government health benefits will be cut.

[donheld]

9. They've screwed us enough. Let'em die.

[zbdent]

12. so they're admitting that the Govt. would do a better job of paying for health care

than the insurance companies, with their for-profit agendas and all their administrative costs?

[ohheckyeah]

13. Nah - insurance companies

are like vampires. They never die and like vampires the insurance companies will continue sucking our lifeblood until we are dead.

[Jkid]

42. Unless you expose them to silver,garlic, or sunlight

Since you think health insurance companies are the same as vampires, the equivalent to silver, garlic, or sunlight is single-payer health care.

[bamacrat]

14. Good, they charge outrageous premiums and the ask for copays, and deductibles then deny claims...

what a rip, let em burn.

[endless october]

15. good, then we'll have single payer.

[kestrel91316]

16. From our lips to God's ears.......we can only hope.

Can you tell I have been soaked by medical insurers? And I don't even have major medical issues or anything whatsoever chronic.

Medical insurance should be ILLEGAL. It is a total scam anymore.

[BlooInBloo]

19. It's astonishing how they've gotten such a large percentage of the public....

to rally around the insurance companies.

I wish I could identify the method they used....

[NikolaC]

20. Racism, Lies, Ignorance & Fear n/t

[BlooInBloo]

24. Hmmm. Nope - can't possibly be that. We white folks always like to make it clear...

that "it's just a *FEW* bad apples".

And we would never, ever lie about such a thing. Why do you think we're so gosh-darn trustworthy on racial matters?

[Deja Q]

21. Or the hospitals that charge the insurance company $20 for one aspirin pill...

Let's not scapegoat just one entity. Plenty of blame for all, depending on how it's framed and assuming it's deserved blame and not a frame-job...

[L0oniX]

22. If anyone deserves to be in the unemployment lines it's these sociopaths.

[marmar]

23. Good.....R.B.N.I.P.

(Rest But Not In Peace)

[fujiyama]

40. Another: R.I.H.

Rot in Hell

A bunch of parasites that should be flushed out.

"I have mine so screw you" is the motto this country runs on.

[JimWis]

25. Good. I hope it does. Insurance companies will eventually put

themselves out of business even if we did nothing. They will eventually reach critical mass. In other words, no one will be able to afford health insurance.

[western mass]

28. it's a lie, though.

Germany has an excellent health care system that combines a public system with the option of having private insurance.

[bemildred]

29. Indeed.

They were sold to us in the first place as a way to manage health care costs. They are abject failures at that.

[Octafish]

30. Where were the insurance companies when American manufacturing was getting the ziggy?

Even when it's at the expense of We the People, it's odd how those with lots of money can afford to maintain their money.

[Triana]

31. that claim doesn't add up....illogical

...if public/gov't-run health care is SO BAD then it will NOT put private insurance out of business because people will use the private instead of the public (since, according to the various vacuum-packed wingnuts, the government program will suck to High Heaven).

See?

Doesn't wash. They can't have it both ways.

If gov't-run health care is so terrible as they say it is, then it will be NO THREAT to private plans.

Pfft.

Is UPS a threat to the USPS? Do public libraries put bookstores out of business?

NOOOOO...

:wtf:

Such asshattery and wingnuttery is the stuff of vacuum-packed, knuckle-dragging neanderthals who are apparently still trying to figure out how to walk upright and think at the same time. Egh.

[sfpcjock]

33. Yes! They need to get honest labor

Any "industry" like so-called health care insurance that kills 19,000 Americans every year, many of whom paid premiums, copays and minimums and THOUGHT that they were insured... were in fact TOLD that they were insured deserves to vanish from the face of the planet. Wall Street is not where we coin our compassion for fellow man and preserve the human riches of our society: http://MichaelWieser.blogspot.com">Michael Wieser Memorial he was left to die at 27 years

[galloglas]

34. Good !!

[Libertas1776]

35. Not necessarily...

Countries like the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and Japan have universal coverage but utilize private docs, private hospitals, and private insurance. I think Germany has over 200 different insurance cos you can choose from and change whenever you feel the need. Now that is choice and competition, not the corporate insurance monopoly- unholy alliance with congress thingy we have here. But the bloodsucker American insurance cos don't want you to know these things; they're basking in the status quo right now.

More here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6478277

[populistdriven]

36. or the multiple identical tests ordered by doctors out of fear of malpractice suits

The test labs are profiteers also

[Cleita]

38. Unfortunately, it seems we are going to have to starve them out of business

first before we can get a Medicare public option to everyone who wants it. The way the insurance whore Finance Committee is writing a bill, it seems that the public option is going to be a choice for a private insurance that the taxpayers pay for, so they will be competing with each other. Yes, Medicare as the option will force them to compete or get out of the business. This is what they are squealing like pigs being led to the slaughter about this.

[jtrockville]

41. Do we exist to serve the industry, or does industry exist to serve us?

If industry isn't meeting our needs (and clearly the health insurance industry has failed miserably in meeting our health care needs), why shouldn't we turn to the government for an alternative?