Econo-Girl chanced to see a Congressional fool this morning talking about how even though the immigration reform law he voted for would impose criminal penalties on a doctor that treated an illegal alien, it would not be enforced that way.
What?!?!?
You mean you voted for a law that you knew was so ridiculous on its face that you never really planned on its enforcement? That speaks volumes about our Republican Congresspeople.
On a related note, did my intrepid readers see HOW MANY PEOPLE showed up at these demonstrations protesting the immigration bill? And did you hear what they said? That this is only the beginning of political change. The first step is immigration reform. Then comes other social issues.
In Econo-Girl's opinion, it's about time for universal health care in some shape or form. Econo-Girl herself has been in the precarious state of not having health insurance. And Leisure Lad had a serious health crisis a year ago. If he didn't have health insurance, he might be dead now. Fortunately, I have insurance. We shouldn't have to live like that as Americans. Call me a communist, but that's what I think.
6 comments:
I disagree. Wholeheartedly.
Consider universal health care. Yes, I agree it'd be great. But universal health care at whose expense? Is it really far for people to have to pay even more taxes to pay for the healthcare of those poorer? I don't believe so. If you make them pay, what are they being punished for? Living in the greatest nation on earth?
No, I'd not want universal health care at the price of new taxes. Call me heartless, but I'm trying to be just.
I apologize. I have a blogger user name, but I shan't use it, to avoid any type of bias (regardless of any insistence of lack of bias). However, from now on, I'll sign all my comments with the numbers 37, that way, you'll know it is me.
You talk of evening the playing field. Once again, at whose expense? The providers? Yes, I realize that prices are high. However, living in a capitalistic system, the providers have every right to charge as much as they want. If you dislike the prices, find a different provider for cheaper. They don't provide the same services? Then find one who does and is still cheap. If you can't-well, you may have to choke up more money. That's the capitalist system. And it works.
If that counts as a long speech, I apologize...
37
I apologize. I have a blogger user name, but I shan't use it, to avoid any type of bias (regardless of any insistence of lack of bias). However, from now on, I'll sign all my comments with the numbers 37, that way, you'll know it is me.
You talk of evening the playing field. Once again, at whose expense? The providers? Yes, I realize that prices are high. However, living in a capitalistic system, the providers have every right to charge as much as they want. If you dislike the prices, find a different provider for cheaper. They don't provide the same services? Then find one who does and is still cheap. If you can't-well, you may have to choke up more money. That's the capitalist system. And it works.
If that counts as a long speech, I apologize...
37
Communist!
Anonymous - the point here is that insurance companies never pay "sticker" price. So now lets talk about what is fair.
Say you have no insurance, and I do. We both need the same MRI. You get a bill for $5,000. My insurance company gets a bill for what it has told the hospital it will pay, which is probably less than $1,000.
So you pay $5,000 for the same service, yet the insurance companies pay 20% or less of what you pay.
What is fair now? Sticking people with unreasonable bills that they can never pay off? How about we just shoot sick people in the head if they can not afford to pay for a doctor. That would save a whole lot of money too. Lead is cheap, and bullets can even be recycled.
Higher taxes and universal care is better than a full out revolution. Don't think it can happen? Venezuela. Bolivia. Chile. Peru.
Econo-Girl believes in tempered capitalism. It's too easy for a pure marketplace model to be subverted by collusion and corruption. And that's what's happened in health care. Why should a healthy person in their late twenties pay more for health insurance because the group they are insured through is smaller? Or because it is an individual policy?
But in three cheers for capitalism, it seems that WalMart is starting to open health clinics for minor infections/flu/etc. Something more than the school nurse.
But the difference, and the problem with embracing pure capitalism, is that a market correction to imbalances has been decades in arriving. And real people are getting squeezed in the interim.
There is no perfect system. People forget that.
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