Seriously, that's the shit a very, very small & crazy minority are peddling on the streets. Some goofy, off-balanced prick asked me if I wanted to know more about Obama's "Nazi" health care plan when I was walking into one of the state house office buildings today to file some paperwork. I wanted to ask if he was "fucking stupid," but I figured I should just ignore him. I'm 99% sure he was a LeRoushian nutjob. Those people make the birthers and teabaggers look sane.
Tangently related, I'm going to let Rachel Maddow's words echo here in regards to the teabaggers at Town Halls acting like freaking lunatics because corporate Republicans know how to push all their buttons in pure astroturf politics.
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It's been clear the corporate Republicans fear Obama's success on many fronts, including turning around the economy that they screwed up.
Hysteria and emotionally charged buzz words prevent a rational discussion of issues and the Republicans have had a great deal of practice.
Too bad some actually believe the fairy tales!
Should we blame our educational system?
The problem is, what is Obama's health plan. Where can you go to look at the specifics. If all we have to go on are some well versed lines "everyone will be covered" " I won't raise taxes on the middle class" what are people to expect. 20/20 showed an investigation of the Canadian plan and it's flawed, that's what people are afraid of. A well crafted specific bill can be debated, but there isn't one.
For an example McGovern (who represents Worcester) was asked on TV if Autism would be covered under Obama's plan, he said "Oh, I don't know" It's like a light went off and that disease had never been discussed.
5:07 - The plan has been well fleshed out in public. It isn't a completed bill yet, but that's how the DC process works. It takes a long time to get a fully crafted bill when hundreds of people have a part in writing it. We'll have a completed bill that will be voted on, politicians will have time to read it and it will be analyzed and posted on TV.
That said, if the major Democratic Party goals pass, here's the gist of what we'll get:
- Preventing companies from denying insurance based on previous conditions.
- A public option to compete with private plans, but not to replace it. This could drive down the cost of all insurance, including the insurance you currently have, as private companies reduce costs to compete with the public plan.
- A little additional funding to help open access to ~97% of America, insuring an additional 40 or so million people.
The costs of doing this is actually a lot less than people would realize. We could simply roll back *half* the taxes on the top 2% to Clinton-era rates and it would be covered. Those taxes would still be substantially less than the Clinton era on the top 2% - and parts of the Clinton era was less than the Reagan era when it came to the top 2%. In other words, the tax rate on the top 2% of America would still be a very low tax rate historically speaking, especially compared to other advanced countries across the Globe.
A few other points:
- Comparing us to Canada is very silly. The health plan proposals floating around out there with a shred of a chance to pass will look nothing like Canada.
- Even if it did, Canadians do actually have a significantly better health care system in almost every regard. Their life expectancies are higher. They cover everyone. They spend less money doing it. It's certainly not perfect, but I wish 20/20 would spend more time critiquing our health care system than confusing the issue with things that aren't going to happen (single payer).
If I had a computer in front of me and sincerely desired the answer to a question, such as "What is Obama's health care plan?" an internet search would seem to be called for, instead of disrupting town hall meetings with hysteria and destroying the democratic process and civil discussion.
In that manner, information about the basic proposal - that is, factual information, could be reviewed BEFORE I attended a town hall meeting to allow consideration of questions.
One senior citizen screamed about Medicare becoming a "government" program and not wanting to lose her coverage. Huh?
One thing for sure. I wouldn't count on 20/20 for an accurate, detailed explanation.
Regarding McGovern and Autism???
If you've never spoken in public, you might not appreciate the phenomenon, but there must be a name for the sudden evaporation of information.
There are many countries with many different system of health care coverage for their citizens and there seems to be no mass migration to the US to escape from poor medicine.
Considering how poorly ranked the US is in significant benchmarks, i.e. infant mortality, longevity, women dying in childbirth, women without mammograms, men without PSA testing, we need to improve.
In some of the statistics, the US ranks with Third World Countries.
People do come to the US for better medical care in many instances. So 20/20 is only accurate when it pushes a liberal agenda? The bill is well fleshed out\ it isn't completed yet - which is it. Regarding Canadians being healthier, I bet Icelanders are healthier and the Swiss but we are a much more culturally diverse society and we're fatter than anywhere else so pass the "fat tax". There is migration to this country because people have the belief that if they work hard they can build a life for themselves and their families as free from government interference as any where, an idea which is slowly slipping away.
Comparing cost of Healthcare with Canada is ridiculous. Why? Because they spend $0 on research and innovation. They rely on the US for that. Repbulicans don't fear Obama's success, they fear his attempts to destroy this country. What has he done that has succeeded? Where are all the jobs he was going to create? All I hear out of the White House are excuses.
Ryan, I'm very happy with the health plan I have. I consider the costs reasonable. Naturally I don't want change. I have it because I pay for it through hard work. If I don't smoke, and take care of myself I get a discount. My health club is 50% paid for through my system. I view change to the health system as an attempt to eventually lead to a single player plan(which Barack has endorsed and now denies) where I'll be sitting behind lazy fat junkies for care because now we have a deli-type number system which allocates care. This may be hyperbolized but that's where my skepticism is coming from.
Here's a question floating around, in the proposed bill the government will have real-time access to your checking account. Sounds outlandish to me, Real or Not Real? I can't beleive even big government proponents would try to float that one by.
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