People turn out to vote when their angry or upset. And within my personal world (family, friends, co-workers), there are a lot more people that previously were not politically aware that are really upset with Bush and the Republican Congress.

Items like this only reinforce the point.

Let’s guess how the right will spin this? Perhaps because they will say with the decrease in wages will provide Americans the opportunity to work more than one job.

Comment by Wayne A. Schneider #54

Wayne,

…how ’bout that L’il Dick, is this mofo a piece of work or what?

As long as the Excutive branch is allowed to twist arms and and turn our democracy into a bribery fest I’m afraid that the laws wont matter anymore.

Does anyone know if these actions are against the law or ethics or anything?

But I do appreciate your support. And you brought up a good point in #55. I forgot to go into the bankruptcy law changes (which will sink Joe Biden’s chances of getting the nomination).

Ask yourself something: If I needed some really important health care to save my life, do I want to be treated by people who went into medicine because they wanted to save lives and ease suffering, or do I want to be treated by people who went into the business to make money? The single biggest reason health care costs in this country are so high is because it is a system driven almost entirely by Capitalism. I do not oppose Capitalism in general, but I do not feel that it is an appropriate system for everything. How would you feel about the idea that there is medicine that could keep you alive, but because the maker of the drug is allowed to charge “whatever the market will bear”, you face the real possibility of dying just because you can’t pay for it? Does it make you feel good to know that the maker of the drug made an awful lot of money and still sleeps well at night? If so, then I don’t want to know you.

Health Care is, in my opinion, one of the things that should be driven more by Socialism and a concern for the well-being of our citizens than by Capitalism and a concern for making as much money as possible. There is a disconnect in this area that people just don’t seem to want to address. There is the very real fact that drug manufacturers charge way too much for their drugs, even the life-saving drugs. They like to blame research and development, but this is a lie. Much of the research that forms the basis for research into new drugs comes from taxpayer funded studies conducted through, possibly among other things, the National Institutes of Health. Drug companies build on research that you and I paid for. The real expenses are the advertising, freebies for doctors, and packaging. Yet we refuse to address these areas as being part of the reason for skyrocketing health care costs.

They spend billions every year telling you to tell your doctor that you need their drug. [As Bill Maher pointed out, at this point hasn’t your doctor just become a dealer?] This is not supposed to be the way the system works. Your doctor tells you what you need, not the other way around. And his (or her) decision should be based not on what the drug companies gave to them for free, but on what will cure your disease or ease your suffering the best.

As long as health care in this country is driven entirely by capitalism, people will die who do not have to die, and greedy people will get stinking, filthy, obscenely rich who do not deserve to because they never cared whether you lived or died.

That’s just me. I’ll go away now.

Perhaps you should ask why it cost $1600 to have an arm set and put in a cast instead of just bitching that there isn’t somebody else to pay for it.

We already know the answer to that I-RIGHT-I. It is because rich right wing doctors over-charge for stupid shit like setting a broken arm. Because the government subsidized pharmaceutical companies over charge Americans for drugs that can be had much cheaper in other countries, while the republican run government blocks people from importing the cheaper drugs to the US. It will continue that way until dumbasses like you wake the hell up.

Providers understand all of this when they set their charges, and they also know how much of the charge they will likely collect from an uninsured patient. In other words, the present system encourages providers to make up their PPO write-downs by charging more to the uninsured.

Or do we simply consume healthcare irresponsibly in the US? Do we simply need to ration consumption? That the effect of our present policies (higher copays, higher deductibles, prescription forumaries, preferred providers, etc., etc., etc.). HSAs seem poised only to make it worse. “Market” solutions to healthcare must not work very well if we have to resort to de facto rationing in order to keep the wingtip crowd feeling their best.

Personally, I think it probably costs $1600 because the insurance companies, the pharma companies, and the countless legions of middleman companies have wasted untold sums over the past decade on promotional crap like gimme hats, tote bags, t-shirts, and on other b2b marketing. Fact is, much of these costs are aimed only at gaming the current byzantine system, NOT reducing costs or improving service.

Market driven healthcare in this country has failed because consumers have had their choices limited and at the same time have been forced to bear the ever-escalating costs.

So why, IRI, why does it cost $1600?

Culture of life indeed. what a bunch of crap

Fact is an uninsured person will wait on medical attention until it is a crisis. That medical care is then either written off, or the person ends up paying for the rest of their life. If the medical care is written off, those costs are passed to other medical care users.

It really would be in the best interest of this country to institute a nationwide medical plan. After all we want to build a culture of life don’t we?

I have friends in Canada, who enjoy their healthcare system a great deal, and are pleased that they do not have to worry about unexpected medical costs.

Heh. It makes them feel superior to the poor who can’t afford health care.