The only thing Mittens had in common with RR is that they both had good hair. But then again, I'm just a hick in flyover country who doesn't understand nuance.
These folks in the Executive branch must be very concerned about a republican takeover of the Senate as they are extremely busy with this, the coal plants, more trades than the Texans on draft day. No wonder Carney quit from exhaustion. /sarc
“The VA is a big organization that has had problems for a very long time with both management and funding,” - AKA it was Bush's fault.
Is Mr. Gates willing to put his money where his mouth is? Will he be putting his children through the public school system?
The creativity of the EPA shows no bounds.
How many examples of putting lipstick on a pig are we going to get? That's a rhetorical question. :)
Third-party payors are a symptom of the problem. Insurance companies essentially respond to the marketplace. In the early 80's there were relatively few HMO programs. Folks had a deductible and coinsurance so they had some skin in the game. Problem was that those plans never kept pace with general or medical inflation. Eventually the marketplace became overwhelmed with managed care programs like HMO's, PPO's and so forth. These program reduced folks skin in the game. Once that happens the cost curve took a bit steeper acceleration of costs. The marketplace demanded these types of programs and the insurance companies built them. There was most likely no thought to the psychological aspect of reducing the interaction between patient and provider. There are plenty of other reasons just as you've pointed out, including medical technology. When I began in the industry there were no such things as MRI machines, AIDS and the lawyers didn't completely run the industry.
I have spent more than 20 years in the health insurance industry in various capacities from the underwriting of large group plans to selling benefit programs to managing those same accounts. At no time has the cost curve ever bent downward. From the widespread implementation of HMO programs to the remainder of the alphabet soup of programs such as PPO's to EPO's to DMO's there has not been one year in which costs went down on an aggregate basis. This legislation will serve to exacerbate the upward trajectory of all programs.
Several years ago, the president was caught on tape telling some that it would probably take 10-15 years to set up the system to lead to a single-payer system. He was wrong. It will most likely take much less time to fully destroy the system we've had in place for the last 60+ years. While the financial aspects of the system we've been working with would not exactly be termed a success, it has enabled the care we receive to be second-to-none. IMHO, you can kiss those results to level off rather rapidly and I fear that we will be as successful as the NHS, which many in power seem to idolize. Not good folks.
Aw come on. Uncle Joe and The Won told us green is good. Hundreds of jobs. I must have missed that part where they said it was gonna lose thousands of 'em. Were they just kidding us? If they keep this up, the only place people will be working is in DC.
Boy am I lucky. Since I moved to TX over 30 years ago, I only have to deal with morons like Sheila Jackson Lee. Y'all can keep electing these kind of loonies and I'll take my chances.
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texan59 
Creation