• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

The Great Universal Health Care Debate w/Poll (note: it just passed both houses)

Are you in favor of Universal Health Care?


  • Total voters
    221

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
There's lots of things people are unable to do... I can't hit a 100 mph fastball. Just because I wasn't blessed with the talents to be a big league hitter doesn't mean A-Rod should have to pay for me to go to a trainer.

Then why suggest people do something they can't to solve the problem? Oh, and just in case you were wondering, we are all paying much of the costs already, whether you realize it or not.
 

bert

Enjoying the real world
pilot
Contributor
I think most of us would agree that the acquisitions process is a monster that needs dealt with, but you'd be hard pressed to get me to agree that more entitlement programs w/ the exception of CHIP are a better use of funds or a reasonable way to force the military/industrial complex to change.

You want free healthcare? Join the military.

Don't get me wrong, I would rather see the money not spent at all (seeing as how that 10% is money we don't have). But I genuinely believe that cuts to our defense budget will actually improve our readiness in the long run. It would be nice if we had the foresight (and fortitude) to reform our budget on our own initiative, but that would also require our government to take politics out of our appropriations/basing/taskings, etc.
 

scoolbubba

Brett327 gargles ballsacks
pilot
Contributor
Then why suggest people do something they can't to solve the problem? Oh, and just in case you were wondering, we are all paying much of the costs already, whether you realize it or not.

Since we're all paying much of the cost already, I guess it isn't that big of a leap for the most productive of us to pay even more for someone else's care?
 

exhelodrvr

Well-Known Member
pilot
Don't get me wrong, I would rather see the money not spent at all (seeing as how that 10% is money we don't have). But I genuinely believe that cuts to our defense budget will actually improve our readiness in the long run. It would be nice if we had the foresight (and fortitude) to reform our budget on our own initiative, but that would also require our government to take politics out of our appropriations/basing/taskings, etc.

The cuts will not be used to increase efficiency; that's impossible to do with the political involvement.
 

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Since we're all paying much of the cost already, I guess it isn't that big of a leap for the most productive of us to pay even more for someone else's care?

My point is that we already are in many cases. What happens when an uninsured person gets in a wreck and ends up in hospital? They have to be treated, so who pays the bills? It is passed on to us through higher hospital bills or taxes, since they can often get reimbursed by the government.
 

PropAddict

Now with even more awesome!
pilot
Contributor
My point is that we already are in many cases. What happens when an uninsured person gets in a wreck and ends up in hospital? They have to be treated, so who pays the bills? It is passed on to us through higher hospital bills or taxes, since they can often get reimbursed by the government.


So, it sounds like this whole gov't healthcare bit is rather unnecessary then, if what you're saying is true. The uninsured are already covered by Uncle Sam. Those of us who pay for insurance just get better coverage.:confused:
 

Flash

SEVAL/ECMO
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
So, it sounds like this whole gov't healthcare bit is rather unnecessary then, if what you're saying is true. The uninsured are already covered by Uncle Sam. Those of us who pay for insurance just get better coverage.:confused:

The uninsured aren't already covered by Uncle Sam, hospitals and taxpayers, just a lot of the catastrophic care is often covered by them by default, since the patient can't pay. Much of the preventative and/or everyday care is not, at least for large segments of the population. One of the solutions proposed to mitigate the cost is making sure everyone gets insurance so that the cost is spread around more, much like the old Blue Cross, Blue Shield system used to do to a degree.

Clear as mud?
 

scoolbubba

Brett327 gargles ballsacks
pilot
Contributor
I feel like that is a fundamental problem I've got with this idea. Lots of my friends don't have insurance, and if they do it's a catastrophic policy. Recent grads, shit economy= lots of underemployed joes out there.

These guys can't take the hit to buy insurance, but to make sure everyone has insurance, we're going to force people to buy something the governments selling? I thought we already paid monies to the government for things they're supposed to give us...oh yea, it's called taxes, and I know most of the country that sucks up the benefits of paying taxes...didn't.

Mandating people to pay for something they don't necessarily want... sounds like freedom to me. Fuck Change.
 

eddie

Working Plan B
Contributor
I feel like that is a fundamental problem I've got with this idea. Lots of my friends don't have insurance, and if they do it's a catastrophic policy. Recent grads, shit economy= lots of underemployed joes out there.

These guys can't take the hit to buy insurance, but to make sure everyone has insurance, we're going to force people to buy something the governments selling? I thought we already paid monies to the government for things they're supposed to give us...oh yea, it's called taxes, and I know most of the country that sucks up the benefits of paying taxes...didn't.

Mandating people to pay for something they don't necessarily want... sounds like freedom to me. Fuck Change.

I didn't think it would be government insurance you were forced to buy. Truth?
 

Random8145

Registered User
I am no healthcare expert, all I know is that:

1) I highly distrust the government to manage anything as complex as healthcare when it is so monumentally complex

2) A public option will wipe out private insurance most likely, leading us to single payer, leading to enormous government control of the economy and crappy healthcare

3) I do not want the government forcing me to buy any kind of healthcare.

BTW, isn't military healthcare socialized medicine for the most part, government-run hospitals and government doctors?
 

jtmedli

Well-Known Member
pilot
I didn't think it would be government insurance you were forced to buy. Truth?

2) A public option will wipe out private insurance most likely, leading us to single payer, leading to enormous government control of the economy and crappy healthcare

The uninsured aren't already covered by Uncle Sam, hospitals and taxpayers, just a lot of the catastrophic care is often covered by them by default, since the patient can't pay. Much of the preventative and/or everyday care is not, at least for large segments of the population. One of the solutions proposed to mitigate the cost is making sure everyone gets insurance so that the cost is spread around more, much like the old Blue Cross, Blue Shield system used to do to a degree.

This is exactly what I would like to see happen. Don't socialize the option, but privatize it and help it grow. Socializing it will only lead to what we already see in Britain and Canada. IF we can get more people "convinced" to buy healthcare via a business policy or otherwise then, in theory, deductibles should go down and it should become more practical. I'm in a typically tough situation myself as I just graduated college and have no insurance as of next month, but I'm working out and running just about every day. I have no way to pay a $5000 deductible AND a $100/month payment even with me working 30+hrs a week. Let's say I break my ankle running. I'm screwed.
 

CAMike

Well-Known Member
None
Contributor
The whole cutting defense deal is kind of a smoke screen.

Watching Obama on TV last night comment on a hypothetical kid that comes into the office several times with a tonsil issue- should scare the living daylight out of you.

Are you sure you want the President or the USGov asking....

How many times did your child go in for treatment for aggravated symtoms (tonsils) in the past two years? Number of infections? How severe are the infections? How bad were the syptoms? Any other issues (compound emergencies for the AW types here) is the child likely to incurr by not treating the problem in a timely manner? You don't want your child to NOT receive treatment because your doctors new gov't issued knee pad doesn't allow them to skip any steps do you? After all, they get fined or worse if they don't follow the new fangled steps in the correct order. Seriously- Obama's writers told him to mention allergies in this scenario to convince the public to support this ill conceived program?

Let's see -the child's been seen X times at Y cost per visit and the tonsilectomy costs Z??? Do you really want ANY governmental agency to be the determining authority on how medical care is practiced? Specifically- Do you want your Doc to make sure X multiplied by Y must exceed the cost of Z before making a "Z" diagnosis about you or your childs healthcare decisions?

If this health care deal passes- STANDY.....E___.

Obama is so over his head on this one I hope his career terminally chokes on it- pass or fail. Yes- I listen a bit to the wife as she's a family practice physician and as liberal as some of her fellow docs are- even most of them think this is a huge mistake that won't ever likely be reversed once implemented.

Write to you representatives- this is a bad deal for people on multiple levels.

Sorry for the long post- but this is a truly an important issue. Can you imagine the complexity in Cancer related cases? Cancer treatments have certain protocols but it's still kind of an art form in the end. Believe it!
 
Top