82 responses to “Wanted by Obamacare: The young and the stupid (updated 31jul13)”

1. 

   George Rebane

   30 July 2013

   BenE 446pm – from where do the worthless bureaucrats get the dollar of which they deign 30 cents to dribble down to the needy? The gulf in our understanding is complete as illustrated by your faith that world class incompetents should be given even more money the extraction of which does less for the needy and slows down economic growth even more. You are truly irredeemable while fulfilling Einstein’s classic definition to the letter.

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2. 

   Paul Emery

   30 July 2013

   George
   As I’ve repeated endlessly show me the alternative to a national health care system that meets your credos anywhere in the world-even a work in progress and we might have something to talk about. Without that my 30 July 2013 at 03:58 PM comments remain unchallenged.

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3. 

   fish

   30 July 2013

   One way we could do it is to mandate a tax on every dollar of profit made to go towards a health care system for all. Or we could just put a transaction tax on Wall St who has never done so well to pay for the entire health care system. http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/pages/financial-transaction-tax
   We could remove the cap on FICA and open up Medicare for all to pay into the system. There are plenty of ways of doing this where we all pay into it so the working poor don’t have to depend on charity especially religious charity who might hold the afterlife as hostage to receive such charity to those in need.
   Sorry Ben you lose! It’s corporatism for the foreseeable future! Don’t be sad though….you make it to congress and they’ll just buy you too (of course the cynic in me doesn’t think that this will upset you much). Have fun down on the farm!

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4. 

   George Rebane

   30 July 2013

   PaulE 506pm – the one we have now, and the possibility of improving it through deregulation, reforming the tax code and medical tort laws, and forcing insurance companies to compete nationwide, while growing the economy.

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5. 

   Ben Emery

   30 July 2013

   George,
   You numbers are inverted when it comes to health care anyway. Private health insurance has an overhead cost of around 30% and Medicare runs at around 3% overhead. The privatized medicare program Part C runs around 5% higher over head costs.
   Can you explain your understanding of how risk pooling works?
   Medicare is poor program for risk pooling since the people who are participants are the highest risk pool. The best way to drop the premiums is to reduce the average risk of the pool. Having 300 plus million people buying into a insurance program that runs at a 3% overhead would reduce the average health insurance cost by around 50%.

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6. 

   Ben Emery

   30 July 2013

   George last comment is for 30 July 2013 at 04:58 PM comment.

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7. 

   stevenfrisch

   30 July 2013

   Shoot, lets just tax this!
   http://www.businessinsider.com/goldmans-alleged-aluminum-scam-2013-7

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8. 

   Ben Emery

   30 July 2013

   Fish,
   If I were to ever get elected making friends wouldn’t be my purpose in DC or Sacramento. Exposing the corruption/ inefficiencies and one party rule would be my purpose. I believe in self determination with citizen legislatures not career politicians and corporate sell outs.
   The chances of that happening would be a million to one in our current system. Even that number is very generous at a person such as myself chances of being elected in a duopoly where the biggest spender wins 9 times out of 10.
   I lost my patience with the Dems in the 90’s and lost my respect for the Repubs during the Contract On America era. In the last 6 month I have been getting people everywhere I go asking me to run again in 2014. Changing a congress which has a decade approval rating less than 20% is only going to happen by voting outside the R’s and D’s.
   I think Obama should be impeached for shredding the US Constitution and his assault on government whistleblowers and then put on trial for crimes against peace and humanity.

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9. 

   Bill Tozer

   30 July 2013

   Mr. Paul. You will be most pleased that when ObamaCare kicks in, all 500 of Nevada County’s needy who have come out of the darkness to ask for help will BE on Medical. Yep, all 500 on them, except their pets. Age don’t matter any more. 18 years old and up if they make below 137% of the federal poverty level AND fall into the category of the most truly needy of our community. Like a partial subsidy won’t cut it. They will be 100% covered! Free at last, free at last, thank God in Heaven, they will be free at last.
   Paul, would you be so kind to point out one single Welfare Momma that does not have health insurance for herself and the children she is struggling to raise. Please name just one. Just one. She can remain anonymous of course. Name one single Welfare Momma that we are have not covered 100% with subsidized health insurance for the poor soul. This injustice must be addressed and heads will roll, guaranteed. The Welfare Momma is ALREADY free at last. Thank God in Heaven, she is free at last. Let freedom ring from the Smokey Mountains to Bend, Ore. Let freedom ring.
   Free health care will soon liberate the good honest decent folks from the HH. Soon they can join hands with the Welfare Mommas and sing praise. A life changing event. Yes Paul, this is a life changing event. We have overcome! Its a miracle, an answer to prayer. This has radically changed their lives and circumstance. Stand on your chairs and shout “Amen”. Do I hear an Amen? Amen!. No more sorrow, no more tears. No more poverty. Nothing put blue skies on the horizon.

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10. 

    Paul Emery

    30 July 2013

    So George what insurance company would cover the costs of my friends who have genetic diseases if your 30 July 2013 at 05:10 PM wishlist were to come true? Also if things are basically as they are today with noted reforms what incentive would there be to insure those with preexisting conditions in general? Also tort reform without details is a hollow concept. Can you give me some indication what this would look like? By the way single payer insurance would of course extend across State lines and all national health care systems have tort reforms.
    If it’s the insurance companies that prevent extending insurance beyond state limits what indication is there that the billion bucks a year spend on lobbying wouldn’t prevent that from ever happening since the Republicrats all share the same windfall. I have no confidence that would ever happen with the current phoney two party system. The Pubbers were in total control for years and seemingly did not advance that concept one bit. Why do you think that was? Should that be done on a State level. Apparently Georga tried it with these results
    “In 2011, Georgia passed a law allowing people to buy insurance from out-of-state carriers. But not one out-of-state insurer has sought to do so. “Nobody has even asked to be approved to sell across state lines,” Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens told Teegardin. “We’re dumbfounded. We’re absolutely dumbfounded.”
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2012/05/11/will-buying-health-insurance-across-state-lines-reduce-costs/

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11. 

    Paul Emery

    30 July 2013

    Bill
    You’re 6:15 comment is cynical beyond reasonable standards. You write like a person that’s got theirs and are willing to give a big fuck you to those not on your boat.

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12. 

    Michael Anderson

    30 July 2013

    Meanwhile, the rocket surgeons in the US House of Non-Representatives will be voting this week for the 40th time to repeal PPACA. Here is an actual picture from the future, showing those stalwart efforts as they take place: http://i42.tinypic.com/71k7td.jpg

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13. 

    George Rebane

    30 July 2013

    PaulE 946pm – I think you have it backward again. As I have explained here several times, under the present system the insurance companies have government set-aside fiefdoms. They would be the last to ask to start competing nationwide for business. The intent is to open up the health insurance market and force them to compete.

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14. 

    Bill Tozer

    30 July 2013

    Paul, what are reasonable standards? If you mean social norms, well I have pushed that envelope beyond recognition years ago. Good thing you did not know me 20-30 years ago. I am just a sliver of that Wild Bill now. I am just a quiet well mannered softy.
    I see you got my point. The poor woman struggling to raise her kids ALREADY has free state sponsored health insurance and health care. So, can’t use her as an argument that I am going to let her die in the ER. Dying in the ER happens everyday. Don’t use her as an example. That gun fires only blanks.
    Everyone at HH WILL get free health care in a few months. So, what is the reason to even mention them? Like they are all going to die cause they can’t make it to the ER? That sadly happens everyday someplace in time. Heck, I might die before the meat wagon arrives if I fall and lay unconscious for a few days. The smell usually alerts neighbors to call the authorities. So, your 500 brave souls that have come out of hiding now can walk down the sunny side of the street.
    Now I don’t know your present insurance carrier, whether it be Medicare or a policy you bought for yourself. Its none of my bees wax. However, if you are uninsured, you best kick down and buy a policy before the Full Faith and Credit of the IRS comes looking for ya. Its the law. No ifs, ands, or butts about that fact.
    I don’t have an answer to your friends challenges in life. 6k/month is a lot of mula and might as well be 6 billion a month to most of us common folk. That is between a rock and a hard place. Apparently the kids have gotten this far somehow, someway. That is why I fear Obamacare, at least one aspect of it.
    That aspect is the unelected commissioners who sit on the thumbs up or thumbs down panel. Oregon has a similar program. Say a kid needs a 300k operation. The Oregon panel denied a kid that needed a mere 130k operation, giving the kid the thumbs down. Why? Because they justified that with that money they could help 10 kids who needed a 10-15k operation. Its called rationed health care in the states that have that kind of panel.
    Whether I am giving a big middle finger to those without means is not the point. The point is that giving someone health insurance is to many not the end all to all. Of course there are daily exceptions, but not to most average Joes. The welfare momma still comes home to the same apartment facing the same challenges, looking at the same furniture. The homeless see a doc for an abscessed tooth, yet they still face the same challenges and life style. I had a knee operation that got me walking and working again with the help of a handful of pain killers each morning. I still came home to the one bedroom apartment I raised my kids in, drove the same car, looked at the same old test tube tv and faced the same challenges and opportunities. Yes, health care insurance did get me back to work faster, but life changing? A basic right? What did they do when all people had was old saw bones and a shot of whiskey??
    At workie they used to have some great freebies in the medicine cabinet. They stopped supplying them for some reason I can’t understand. They were called Pain Busters. Half aspirin and half caffeine. Pop some of those and head out into the field with work and toil and sweat on your mind. Anything else was just excuses. They worked better than seeing old saw bones.
    Hope your health insurance is better than mine. I hope every bodies is. Mine is better than what Congress gets, way less expensive per month (about 1/3 of what Congresspersons pay)and all in all is ok, cept now I have to pay more to fund the subsidy. No big deal. I will just work harder and longer each day. Piece of cake. I hope you and yours can to better than dumb ole little softy me. I hope everyone does better than this uncouth lout. And God bless Tiny Tim.

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15. 

    L

    30 July 2013

    Just got the dog back from two days in the hospital. Somehow she exploded a disc in her spine which lodged against a nerve and caused a complete loss of motor control. Most people would have just shrugged and let her go. Problem is, by the time the problem had been diagnosed, via CT and MRI plus misc charges, the bill was already over $3K. So, we Ok’ed the operation and it came to a total of $4600 for a damn mutt.
    I’ll guarantee if Ricki had been a human, the bill would have been $46,000, or more. Ask yourselves why and you’ll understand George’s comment about tort liability laws and much else being herein discussed. L

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16. 

    L

    30 July 2013

    It isn’t the cost of medical care per se, it is the riduculous overhead that makes the cost of human care so unaffordable to so many.
    $1300 to remove a tick?!! Especially when Lyme’s disease only occurs in a few geographic areas? Why should anybody pay that?
    Come to L’s clinic and I’ll do it for $.50 per critter. Are we kidding?

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17. 

    Paul Emery

    31 July 2013

    Bill T 30 July 2013 at 11:07 PM “Apparently the kids have gotten this far somehow, someway.”
    The kids got this far because of government support, something many on this blog would like to eliminate and leave up to charity.

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18. 

    Michael Anderson

    31 July 2013

    George wrote: “The intent is to open up the health insurance market and force them to compete.”
    So why can’t this be done under PPACA??? Use the legislation to get what you want!!

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19. 

    Bill Tozer

    31 July 2013

    Paul. If your friend’s children have made it this far by government support, then it is a non issue. They are not at risk of me letting them die a slow death. This is good news for them and their family and friends. The government is their backstop. And they have made it this far in life without Obamacare kicking in. Indeed proof that there is a safety net for them. Congratulations are in order.

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20. 

    Gregory

    31 July 2013

    RL, so sorry to hear of your wife’s surgery, hope the recovery is without drama.
    The pre-existing conditions problems were due to the whole employer based system that grew out of the choice not to tax “fringe benefits” provided by employers. Fixing it could have been done without restructuring all of health care in the US.
    In any case, it’s good to be an old fart again, as under Obamacare, mortuary bait not yet on Medicare can’t be charged more than three times what the young and not yet decrepit can be charged for the same coverage even if they’re expected to pay out five times as much. Yet another transfer of income from young to old but only if the young choose to buy Obamacare insurance rather than the pittance of a penalty and then buy “insurance” when they’re sure to have some expensive bills about to arrive… Try calling Allstate to buy comprehensive insurance after your car gets wrecked.

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21. 

    Gregory

    31 July 2013

    “The kids got this far because of government support, something many on this blog would like to eliminate and leave up to charity.”
    Paul, the government support is charity.

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22. 

    George Rebane

    31 July 2013

    Apropos to this comment stream, I have posted the 31jul13 update.

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23. 

    fish

    31 July 2013

    I think Obama should be impeached for shredding the US Constitution and his assault on government whistleblowers and then put on trial for crimes against peace and humanity.
    But he’s black…..and with a Nobel Peace Prize……how could you wish this upon him?

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24. 

    Bill Tozer

    31 July 2013

    I knew it was coming. You could just smell it. First it was smokers. Then the filthy ones chugging carbonated corn sweetened soda pops. That opened the door for the next phase in our national us vs them debate, i.e., crudely known as fat people. The obese ones driving up medical costs for all of us, even the simpletons. They must be penalized for their own good and the good of our nation. Fat people just are too darn expensive to maintain on our healthcare roles…We need government intervention. Big Bro is watching your scales. No wonder the IRS ordered tiny bugs to be put in bathrooms.
    http://money.msn.com/now/post–can-you-be-deported-for-being-fat
    Sure, scoff and say that is just Victorian New Zealand. You know that quaint country where it is against the law in the Capital not to have pretty flowers growing in the window planters. That silly New Zealand with its green push and socially conscience sate of mind.
    Who says it can’t happen here. This is not like Goverinator Arnold promoting exercise. This is not like Michelle O planting her victory garden. No, this one comes with public humiliation, lost of employment, forced to buy two airline tickets, and more costly health insurance with penalties. Body Mass Index is coming to a exchange near you.
    If you are going to play, you are going to pay. Its comin’ by gum.

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25. 

    George Rebane

    31 July 2013

    BillT 145pm – Mr Tozer, did you misspell ‘gun’ in your last sentence, or was that a typo?

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26. 

    Bill Tozer

    31 July 2013

    UNWANTED BY Cities From Honolulu To New York: the young and stupid
    And some call me harsh. Even progressive Seattle? But they have Medicaid, so whats the problem?
    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/31/hawaii-lawmakers-to-buy-their-homeless-one-way-tickets-out-town/?test=latestnews
    Dr. Rebane. No typo. “By gum” is correct, by gum. Just like the lead in to the classic song “June is busting out all over”. The lead in to the song goes something like this:
    “and a crowd of Doubting Thomases was predicting that the summer would never come. But its coming by gum, you can feel it come, you can hear it in the trees you can smell it in the breeze, look around look around, look around….June it bustin’ out all over, all over the meadows and the hills, that the young Virginia Creepers are a hugging the bojeepers out of all the morning glories on the fence.
    That, my respected sir, is from memory of my 7th grade choir song. Yes, only 3 guys in chorus and the rest were fine young ladies. Also took typing for the same reason. Unfortunately I had no interest in singing nor anything close to talent. I was told to mouth the song. Fortunately the girls in the class helped me get over any hurt feelings. And, yes, I digress.
    The War on Fat People is a coming! Its a comin’ by gum, you can feel in come, look around, look around, look around. The War on Fat People is busting out all over

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27. 

    George Rebane

    31 July 2013

    BillT 556pm – Mr Tozer, I was just wondering what if the ‘gum’ didn’t work, if you just chose to stay fat and refuse to heel under the government diktat. Would they then try more gum, or something a bit stronger? I can assure you that they have already dispensed with gum when it comes to enforcing Obamacare.

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28. 

    Michael Anderson

    31 July 2013

    The ‘gum’ will veer toward total compliance. Just you watch.
    Here is another look at it: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/01/opinion/collins-politics-of-a-screeching-halt.html?hp&_r=0

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29. 

    Bill Tozer

    01 August 2013

    Dr. Rebane wrote in his excellent piece “after applying the Pelosi Principle to the unaffordable care act, everyone with a couple of neurons to rub together wants to climb on the already crowded Exemption Express.”
    Nothing new under the sun. Our elected representatives that devote their lives caring for the feeble, the poor, the slow, the down trodden, the sick, the disabled, the abused, the discouraged, the victims of the white ruling class always exempt themselves from the laws that protect us from injustice.
    They have exempted themselves from the minimum wage laws, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title 9, and a myriad of other laws designed to stomp out inequality at every turn.
    These laws are not meant for Pelosi or Reed or Carlos Danger..its the old bald headed boss chasing the young defenseless secretary around the desk and she gets fired when caught routine.
    It would be priceless to see Nancy or Harry or Maxine Waters stand in line to sign up for Medicaid. Well, Nancy is 70 so she does not get Medicaid. But it a priceless imagine in my mind nonetheless. Perhaps Hoffa can take her place or even that young Rahm Emmanuel. Never happen in a billion years.
    Even the staff at AARP is finding ways around Obamacare. Its for the well being of their employees of course.
    Careful what you wish for. Reminds me of an old show when a husband died and his wife wished him to come back to life. Unfortunately for the wife and more so for dearly departed husband risen from the dead, the man was pumped full of embalming fluid. Not a pretty picture and his screams still haunt me.
    Hope this old hobo can still hop the Exempt Express before it leaves the station.

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30. 

    Bill Tozer

    02 August 2013

    No thanks. I would rather not switch toilet paper right now.
    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/01/irs-chief-says-hed-rather-not-switch-over-to-obamacare-plan/

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31. 

    Bill Tozer

    22 August 2013

    Obamacare is an assault on women. But, the U of V??? Say it ain’t true. I was wondering how the University will manage to continue to provide great education at bargain basement tuition for its students. Think they have found yet another way to keep their tuition from skyrocketing unlike most institutions of higher education.
    http://money.msn.com/now/post–ups-cites-obamacare-for-cutting-benefits-to-spouses

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32. 

    Bill Tozer

    09 September 2013

    http://washingtonexaminer.com/report-claims-obamacare-union-fix-will-cost-187-billion-over-a-decade/article/2535474

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