kentuck
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Sun Dec-20-09 09:49 PM
Original message |
Barack Obama believes in the Golden Rule. |
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Edited on Sun Dec-20-09 09:55 PM by kentuck
"He who has the gold makes the rules."
And the President is smart enough to know that. The big insurance companies and Big Pharma have the gold. They make the rules.
The President knew that the only way they would agree to cover 30 million more people was to make it attractive and profitable for the insurance companies. So they agreed to a plan.
Big Pharma would get $80 billion dollars over 10 years and who knows what the health industry was offered? But the upside would be that we would cover 30 million more Americans with healthcare.
The White House agreed with the Big Pharma that drug prices would not be negotiated and also agreed that drugs should not be imported into this country from Canada. And the White House agreed with the insurance companies that there should be no public option and that employees would not be able to opt out from the plans their employers offered them.
So they made an agreement. They would cover another 3o million Americans with healthcare. They would offer to take the cap off annual allotments for illnesses. And they won the argument that there would not be a Medicare "buy-in".
And the insurance companies and the pharma stock soared. It reached an all-time high last week. Basically, we are all becoming stockholders in the insurance companies.
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LWolf
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Sun Dec-20-09 09:52 PM
Response to Original message |
1. Why did they need to "cover" 30 million more people at all? |
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We could have offered a single-payer not-for-profit plan that wouldn't have required for-profit insurance companies to cover anyone.
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Edweird
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Sun Dec-20-09 10:15 PM
Response to Reply #1 |
11. For about 1/4 of the cost. And no one benefits from your suffering or death. |
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Yeah. Kinda sucks the way things worked out.
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LWolf
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Mon Dec-21-09 12:04 AM
Response to Reply #11 |
laughingliberal
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Sun Dec-20-09 09:52 PM
Response to Original message |
2. stockholders with no options and no dividends nt |
varelse
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Sun Dec-20-09 09:54 PM
Response to Original message |
3. I thought there were 42 million Americans without coverage |
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what happens to the "expendable" 12 million? Or did someone report the math all wrong to begin with?
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kentuck
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Sun Dec-20-09 09:56 PM
Response to Reply #3 |
5. Can't cover those 'aliens', you know. |
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The Republicans would not like that.
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Jamastiene
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Mon Dec-21-09 12:57 AM
Response to Reply #5 |
15. Don't forget childless people in poverty who |
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Edited on Mon Dec-21-09 12:57 AM by Jamastiene
have extenuating circumstances due to sick family members (and many other situations) that the government doesn't see as worthy of aid.
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NMMNG
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Mon Dec-21-09 02:52 PM
Response to Reply #15 |
19. If you're not procreating for The Lord |
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You don't count. Didn't you get the memo?
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dflprincess
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Sun Dec-20-09 10:13 PM
Response to Reply #3 |
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and with this bill, there will still be 23 million uninsured by 2019 http://www.startribune.com/business/79720077.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiUPlus the number of underinsured will continue to climb and, I would guess, the number of medical bankruptcies.
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varelse
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Mon Dec-21-09 02:27 PM
Response to Reply #10 |
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I thought the whole point of this "deal with the devil and his advocates" compromise was to achieve full coverage? When was it decided that 12-23 million Americans can go without and it'll still be a great Health Insurance Reform bill?
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Edweird
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Sun Dec-20-09 09:55 PM
Response to Original message |
4. They only get to make the rules if our leaders are in it for the gold. |
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Edited on Sun Dec-20-09 10:00 PM by Edweird
If they were in it to actually make things better for us, they could take away all the power the insurance companies have. Expand Medicare, increase the Medicare deduction on your paycheck and maybe a sales tax on things like big screen tv's and jewelry. That would put the insurance companies out of the 'deny care for a profit' business. We would all save money. Win/win.
But that's not what's happening.
We have the highest per capita costs, and we damn sure aren't getting our money's worth.
It's about to get a whole lot worse.
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kentuck
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Sun Dec-20-09 09:58 PM
Response to Reply #4 |
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That is not what is happening.
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blues90
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Sun Dec-20-09 10:00 PM
Response to Reply #4 |
8. and remove the tax cuts for the ulta wealthy . nt |
Edweird
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Sun Dec-20-09 10:01 PM
Response to Reply #8 |
varelse
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Sun Dec-20-09 09:58 PM
Response to Original message |
6. My mind puts "trickle-down" economics and the "golden rule" together in a very disturbing way |
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excuse me while I hunt down an umbrella... can't trust a tarp these days :(
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dbonds
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Sun Dec-20-09 10:56 PM
Response to Reply #6 |
12. Ah, the Golden Trickle |
Jamastiene
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Mon Dec-21-09 12:54 AM
Response to Reply #6 |
14. It's Reaganomics on steroids. |
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Reagan said piss on the poor and the middle class and said he wanted to see the middle class destroyed completely. Then, he proceeded to piss on us.
Obama said one thing and did another and so did many of our Democratic leaders. Only this time, the poor and the middle class are ACTIVELY being beaten up and robbed.
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Tierra_y_Libertad
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Mon Dec-21-09 02:32 PM
Response to Original message |
17. Somebody 'splain to me. Just what health care does the Insurance Companies provide? |
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About the only procedure that I can think of as somewhat similar is the greasy finger prostate check.
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bobbolink
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Mon Dec-21-09 02:33 PM
Response to Original message |
18. So, you have a piece of paper that says you're "covered". |
TwilightGardener
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Mon Dec-21-09 02:54 PM
Response to Original message |
20. What do you mean, Big Pharma will "get" 80 billion? I thought they agreed |
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to GIVE 80 billion over 10 years to fix a Medicare-drug donut hole, in exchange for not allowing the re-importation thing to go through.
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DU
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Wed Apr 24th 2024, 01:33 PM
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