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PDF versionHealth care: a comedy of errors?
by Maureen Fiedler on Feb. 26, 2010
I often chuckle out loud at some of the statements made in the current health care debate. Even yesterday, when the discussion at the “Health Care Summit” was at least civil, some Republicans continued to repeat their best laugh lines. For example, they talked about a “government take-over of health care.” As someone who wishes the government would indeed “take over” health insurance with a single payer system, I just laugh out loud when I think about the bill they call a “government takeover.”
And then there are the comic props. Like the 2,000-plus pages stacked on top of each other, as if one could do comprehensive reform in an abbreviated form.
But at the heart of all this debate is the quest for the common good. That’s a top value in the Catholic moral tradition, and many others. It means -- among other things -- concern for those with pre-existing conditions who can’t get insurance, for those summarily dropped by profit-gouging insurance companies when they get too sick, and for the 30 million-plus who have no insurance at all.
The Democratic legislation and President Obama’s amendments, go only part way toward dealing with those problems. But at least they try to deal with them. I have yet to see evidence that the Republicans even want to tackle these issues. Their plan does not deal with pre-existing conditions; they don’t want “too much” insurance company regulation, and they show little interest in covering everyone.
The real rub may be: adding people to the rolls requires subsidies, which cost money. Where to get the money? At least in part, from those at the higher end of the income scale. Some call this “income redistribution.” I call it policy for the common good.
H.R.3200 - America's
H.R.3200 - America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009
To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.
"And then there are the comic props. Like the 2,000-plus pages stacked on top of each other, as if one could do comprehensive reform in an abbreviated form."
AS IF anyone in the room actually read them or the 1002 changes!
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3200/text
If you taxed every penny of
If you taxed every penny of everyone in the U.S. who made more than $250,000/year in gross income for the next 30 years, you would not have enough money to fund Maureen Fiedler's ideal health care system. Even lowering that income figure to $50,000/year would not give you enough money.
What is more, eliminating the entire Federal government, including defense, except for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, would not begin to pay for the $57 trillion cost of those programs through, say, 2060. You either need more money, less spending or both. My question to Sr. Maureen is "What is YOUR solution to this problem?"
follow the Gospel mandate to
follow the Gospel mandate to heal the sick and comfort the afflicted
Let the Pentagon run bake sales. It alone holds the wealth we need for life, not death.
"for those summarily dropped
"for those summarily dropped by profit-gouging insurance companies when they get too sick"
Demonizing the other side does not lead to compromise, and needed health care reform will not occur woth out compromise.
Insurance companies exist in a competitive market and must offer the lowest premiums to survive. Though as with any human endeavor, there have been abuses, the industry as a whole is not abusive.
They are no more "profit gouging" as a whole than a government health care option is a sign of "maoist property redistribution"
the adjectival phrase is
the adjectival phrase is eminently accurate, despite the qualms it may cause your conscience
remove the Nixon-era profit-gouging, price-fixing corporate monopolies from what is essentially a human service, as in civilized nations (see Sicko), and the extreme and demonic abusiveness disappears.
We are rampant with signs of profit gouging, or do you not follow Wall Street, which has redistributed hand over fist property into the hands of the few? For this reason we have not a health care system but a medical industry.
I just read this on the
I just read this on the TitusOneNine blog: With uncharacteristic bluntness, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke warned Congress on Wednesday that the United States could soon face a debt crisis like the one in Greece, and declared that the central bank will not help legislators by printing money to pay for the ballooning federal debt.
Recent events in Europe, where Greece and other nations with large, unsustainable deficits like the United States are having increasing trouble selling their debt to investors, show that the U.S. is vulnerable to a sudden reversal of fortunes that would force taxpayers to pay higher interest rates on the debt, Mr. Bernanke said.
"It's not something that is 10 years away. It affects the markets currently," he told the House Financial Services Committee. "It is possible that bond markets will become worried about the sustainability [of yearly deficits over $1 trillion], and we may find ourselves facing higher interest rates even today...."
"We're not going to monetize the debt," Mr. Bernanke declared flatly, stressing that Congress needs to start making plans to bring down the deficit to avoid such a dangerous dilemma for the Fed.
"It is very, very important for Congress and administration to come to some kind of program, some kind of plan that will credibly show how the United States government is going to bring itself back to a sustainable position."
This quote is from the Washington Times and is directly related to how we do or don't pay for health care. The URL is http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/25/bernanke-delivers-warnin....
It puzzles me why NCR doesn't challenge itself to become & be a source of competent economic & fiscal analysis.
Maureen is buying into the
Maureen is buying into the "greedy insurance companies" line. Why is no one questioning the money that specialists, hospital executives and drug companies make? Insurance companies work in a more-or-less competitive marketplace, and their rates are controlled by the government (I know, that seems contradictory).
It's not that I'm a big advocate for insurance companies, but they only pool money to pay unconscionably high medical bills.
Why does Mark in New
Why does Mark in New Hampshire sound so much like Texas in, well, I guess, Texas, including the don't blame the poor insurance companies line about competition keeping prices low? Been watching the same FauxNews? REceiving the same industry talking points?
The Reverend Sister Maureen Fiedler is morally and economically correct, and thank God for it.
I have heard huge numbers of
I have heard huge numbers of people are deprived of proper health care services. On the other hand it is very expensive for the ordinary people such as foreign worker, international students. I am sure that all the outsider can get good benefit from International Travel Health Insurance .This will be proved to be one of the best concept and practice in all over the world.
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