The problem is that a system of universal health insurance that includes a mish-mash of private insurers will not work. It’s not economically feasible. If thousands of insurers are forced to accept everybody, including the sick, then their economics won’t work, even if healthy people are forced to buy insurance too. This is because their total risk pools won’t be large enough to sustain paying for actual care (much as it is now!).

The only way to create a system where the insurer actually pays up for actual health care is to have a large enough risk pool with everyone paying in (sick or not with the very poor being subsidized). The only way this works is with single payer.

Most likely because unlike ignorant brainwashed cretins like you liberals dont tune into a radio personality to have someone do their thinking for them.

Canada: males:78.65 females:83.81
France: males:77.68 females:84.23
Germany: males:76.11 females:82.26
Japan: male:78.73 females:85.59
Luxembourg: males:75.91 females:82.67
United Kingdom: males:76.37 females:81.46
Ireland: males:75.44 females:80.88
Lichtenstein: males:76.38 females:83.52
Netherlands: male:76.66 females: 81.98
Belgium: males:75.9 females:82.38
Spain: males:76.6 females:83.45
Norway: males:77.16 females:82.6
Sweden: males:78.49 female:83.13
Finland: males:75.31 females:82.46
Italy: males:77.13 female:83.2
Austria: male:76.46 female:82.41
Switzerland: males:77.91 female:83.71——————————————————————————–>The United States: males:75.29 females:81.13…..
Now I sure wish people would please stop repeating talking points that come from fear merchants like Rush and the wing nuts at Fight Obama News (Fox)

Now it is the hate America righties bashing the president and country… they even want US to fail. I will bet Corporate America will not hesitate in continuing their monetary support towards the propaganda that benefits them.

And it is the multinational corporations that is killing America.

He is working on it and it will take time. Mean while all sick uninsured take care of yourself and seek treatment from the ER if no other place is available. If you can not pay so be it. There are too many growing horror stories of unnecessary death due to lack of access to health care.

In Obama’s weekly radio address he made these statements last Saturday:
I promised to bring down the crushing cost of health care – a cost that bankrupts one American every thirty seconds, forces small businesses to close their doors, and saddles our government with more debt. This budget keeps that promise, with a historic commitment to reform that will lead to lower costs and quality, affordable health care for every American.

I realize that passing this budget won’t be easy. Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington. I know that the insurance industry won’t like the idea that they’ll have to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage, but that’s how we’ll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs for American families.

… it’s that it didn’t have advertisers. ….
Why would advertisers steer clear of progressive talk? Chris Jones, managing editor of the blog “the Hot Points,” writes: “What respectable business is going to send millions of dollars in ad revenue to people who bash the president, the country and the war on a constant basis? Not only that, but liberals never miss an opportunity to bash corporations as evil and crooked. Why the hell would big business support the enemy?” LINK

i believe that — ever listen to Progressive talk? their commercials are a rare breed!

then here’s Think Progress’
“The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio”

* Ed Shultz would tell a different story…. his show has been a success.

* Ray Taliaferro from http://www.kgo.com has been on for decades and with high ratings. Even thou kgo is not syndicated, Ray’s show is picked up on the internet nation wide and around the world (it is day time during his show) due to his popularity.

* Peter B Collins is now heard more frequently in the Pacific NW

* Thom Hartmann is going strong

* The Portland area station KPOJ620am, progressive talk, is growing in popularity as more and more are calling in nation wide while listening on the internet. I am sure that is true with many other local progressive stations.

In general both progressive and hate America righty talk have taken a hit due to the economy created by the Bush Crime Family. The difference is big money supports the show that delivers propaganda for their cause.

As for ratings – Rush’s ratings are high only because he competes against himself.

Besides Nova M dissolving and Second Thought taking it’s place, has anyone heard any other news on this or the whereabouts of Randi Rhodes?

Nova-M has filed bankruptcy, Second Thought has been locked out of it’s offices and Rhodes is on the ash heap of the whole failed idea of “progressive talk” Radio. There was some talk here a while back about the entire failure of lefty talk. It just doesn’t work.

A middleman (managed care companies) introjected itself into the relationship between doctors and their patients in order to get a piece of the health care dollar. Once they got in, they increased their own cut by denying claims. The medical professionals who are actually doing the work haven’t gotten raises in years. Doctors also have to pay the managed care companies an annual fee in order to get the managed care companies’ patient referrals.

Health care costs started skyrocketing when hospitals began doing sexy procedures on middle-aged white men — Coronary bypass surgery costs were passed on to other insureds. The Nadya Sulemons, saving extreme infants, costs millions and those costs were passed on to the other insureds. Every hospital had to have a CT-scan, but it was cost a fortune so procedures were invented and protocols were set for all kinds of medical problems so that the hospitals could pass on the costs to the insurance companies.

We all paid so that the privileged white middle aged men could get their arteries cleaned out, and infertile upper middle class white women could get pregnant.

There will be rationing one way or another, but as it stands now, it’s only the rich who get the preferential treatment.

No, it won’t be. It’s been over 30 years since the last health care reform. Once anything gets through Congress, it stays that way for at least one generation. More often it remains in perpetuity, because everybody remembers how hard it was to get it done in the first place and it’s harder to get enough people interested in revisiting the legislation.

This is the time to get the health care that we want and that we need.

Look what they make by doing that -

http://www.aishealth.com/PressReleases/PR2007_0510.html

The salary and bonus paid to Cleve L. Killingsworth, chairman and chief executive of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, increased 26 percent last year even though the health insurer’s membership declined and its net income fell 49 percent.
http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2009/02/28/blue_cross_ceos_pay_rose_26/

Here’s a list for what the CEOs at managed cares took home in salary, bonuses and unexercised stock options in 2000 — Tens of millions:
http://www.managedcaremag.com/archives/0109/0109.compmon.html

This is a scandal and it needs to end. Single-payer, universal health care is the way to go. What’s it going to take for citizens to stop putting up with this and take to the streets?