CaptainEricRN says ...

Seems a little silly to try to blame everything on one politician.....

OOOOO, the evil George Bush is at fault for everything!

OOOOO, the evil Bill Clinton is at fault for everything!

HEY! The SYSTEM stinks! It has gotten worse and worse through the years -

Giving the government more power over our lives is NOT going to help!

great post...........the government is not welcome in my home, thank goodness we would never give them room to invade my pradise.  My mortgage has never even been close to the due date, and never skipped out on income tax.  Pointing the finger is not helping anything. BTW, why is universal healthcare getting involved with affirmative action?  I thought this was healthcare......right?  Check out house bill 3200. 

hey i suggested we extend medicare to cover the 50 million uninsured but nobody likes that idea HMMM i wonder why? could it be because its a terrible system that is the ultimate in gatekeeping and waste not to mention inefficient and lacking in its options?? pretty much sums up anything that is run by the government.  if HR 3200 is good enough for us than surely it should be good enough for those who are shoving it thru Congress!! as i see it now HR 3200 is good for only one thing and its used in the outhouse!!!

RNprogressive says ...

AMA approves of House Bill 3200:  In particular

In particular, we are pleased that the bill:

• Promises to extend coverage to all Americans through health insurance market reforms;

• Provides consumers with a choice of plans through a health insurance exchange;

• Includes essential health insurance reforms such as eliminating coverage denials based on pre-existing conditions;

• Recognizes that fundamental Medicare reforms, including repeal of the sustainable growth rate formula, are essential to the success of broader health system reforms;

• Encourages chronic disease management and care coordination through additional funding for primary care services, without imposing offsetting payment reductions on specialty care;

• Addresses growing physician workforce concerns;

• Strengthens the Medicaid program;

• Requires individuals to have health insurance, and provides premium assistance to those who cannot afford it;

• Includes prevention and wellness initiatives designed to keep Americans healthy;

• Makes needed improvements to the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative that will enable greater participation by physicians; and

• Initiates significant payment and delivery reforms by encouraging participation in new models such as accountable care organizations and the patient-centered medical home.

Yea, require health insurance, we require car insurance to drive why not health insurance.  Choice of plans duh not universal coverage.

If you want gov out of your lives, don't drive on the roads, don't send your  kids to public school, don't breathe the clean air gov mandates don't use municipal water etc.  The gov is in your life no matter what.

YEP! We "require car insurance to drive on our roads, we also "require" driver's licenses. In my last three accidents my vehicle was hit by a vehicle driven by an illegal alien with neither, and in one of those I was driving a marked police cruiser. Making laws doesn't make it so.

I really don't want no government, I just want a federal government restrained by the chains of the Constitution, and about 95+% of what they currently do is off those chains.

RNprogressive says ...

Sowell is a free-market economist you know the guys who got us into the mortgage and banking mess.  He is at best a libertarian with strong conservative overtones.  Innovation away from market driven big insurance company, Big Pharma and big medical equipment etc is not going to be in his playbook.  He is one of those rich folks who likes to keep the masses poor, stupid and easily fed a line that will make them vote against their own best interests.  Yes I googled and searched him for his views and writings.

 

Here instead are some more practical reforms.  Note none of these take away your right to choose your type of health care.  No one is forcing you into a government health plan.  The Right has a vested interest in killling health care reform.  They don't care about you, the deficet, access to care none of it they care about getting back into power so they can make more money.  Seriously, you think Glenn Beck. Oreilly, Limbaugh, any of them came up with exactly the same news stories on the same day using the same words.  It is all scripted by the RNC talking points of the day.  Those guys are mainstream media and they are not Liberal so cut the crap about liberal bias in the media. Also look at the Oregon model the Mass model did not have enough cost controls in it.

- For Medicare patients, amortize medical reimbursements over 60 months and charge the estates of patients who die within this period half the cost of their unamortized care. Currently, a third of the cost of Medicare goes to treating patients in their last six months of life, and neither the patient nor his physician have any financial incentive to save taxpayer money however dim the prognosis. If an 85 year-old patient requests hip replacement surgery, this approach avoids arbitrary, hard-and-fast rules and gives his physician some discretion if the patient is in otherwise excellent health.


- Require that health insurers charge all smokers, alcoholics and overweight/obese individuals proportionately higher premiums, just as auto insures do with bad drivers. Smoking, drinking and overeating are personal choices.


- Similarly, for those patients with serious preexisting conditions and no insurance, establish a high risk/cost pool and assign each at random to a health insurer relative to the insurer's market share.


- Offer rebates to those who sign a waiver accepting binding arbitration and caps on health care provider liability.


- Allow health insurers to write basic policies that cover only cancer, cardiovascular disease, and trauma and pay out a lump sum equal to the median cost of treating each diagnostic indication.


- Require medical specialists to charge an all-inclusive, fixed fee for treating a given diagnostic indication and post these fees online along with audited treatment outcome statistics for patients under their care. Patients could also use this forum to post their comments on the quality of care provided. Purchasing health care should be as transparent as purchasing a book on Amazon. The current opaque fee-for-service arrangement that denies patients data on costs and outcomes rewards poor, inefficient medical care.


- Adopt the Oregon approach to control runaway Medicare and Medicaid spending. In this state, firm budgets are set each year which, in turn, determines the diagnostic indications treated. The state does not reimburse physicians for treating trivial cases such as the common cold, ingrown toenails or muscle aches. Nor does it reimburse futile cases where the indicated treatment makes little difference to the outcome

What got us into the mortgage and banking mess was most certainly NOT free market economists, it was your "progressives" in Congress deciding that not enough "disadvantaged" people owned their own homes and forced mortgage leders to make non-viable loans. You should get your facts straight as you are continually advising us to.

Thomas Sowell does have a big advantage over any liberal I have heard, read or talked to -- He is capable of rational thought.

OUCH!!!

i rest my case.... that last comment made me laugh outloud!! i'm sure it won't be so funny to some.

What got us into the mortgage and banking mess was most certainly NOT free market economists, it was your "progressives" in Congress deciding that not enough "disadvantaged" people owned their own homes and forced mortgage leders to make non-viable loans. You should get your facts straight as you are continually advising us to.

New York Times Article back in 1999

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders," the article, by Steven Holmes, began.

"The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets, including the New York metropolitan region, will encourage those banks to exchange home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.

"Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits."

1999 to 2009 what happened to the Republican controlled Congress and White House from 2001 to 2009?  Were they incapable of changing anything or just too fat and happy reaping the rewards off all of our backs.  Or too busy starting wars of choice, funding Exxon and Halliburton and raping the environment.  I give Bush credit for his work for Africa and against AIDs.  You all had 8 years to undo anything that was wrong about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Look up the type of economics he espouses and you see the picture of the last 30 years in the US,  I never said Clinton et al had no part in this mess although they did try to tackle healthcare (badly) and failed due to the same tactics the Right is employing now. Difference is we are all worse off than we were then and no end in sight to the jobs going over seas etc.  The companies take jobs overseas because health care etc cost too much to provide.  Don't go there on regulations for environment etc you've almost killed the planet as it is. 

Republican controlled congress for 6 of 8 years of the Bush administration.  Barney Frank was only committee chairman for 2 years. They had at least 6 if not more time to change it, sound the alarm, but they didn't.  Nice try but flawed logic and poor reasoning. 

The people who are exempt are already on government plans such as fed employees. native americans, veterans, military, fed prisoners etc.  I have government health care and have had it for 25 years no big deal.  Also if you like your health plan you can keep it. No one is forcing you to be on the public option. Also there is a lot of money in the bill for medical and nursing education.  I would thinK you would be behind more doctors and nurses.  Elder care is subsidized so the elderly will be able to stay in their homes.  I'm sure we all agree that is a good idea.

You all are going to end up in the ER with chest pain if you don't read the bill and calm down.  Besides it isn't final yet.  I know you can't wait to trot out your next pres candidate, with his/her great ideas...who will that be again? ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,sound of crickets>>>>>>>>>>.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

RNprogressive says ...

The people who are exempt are already on government plans such as fed employees. native americans, veterans, military, fed prisoners etc.  I have government health care and have had it for 25 years no big deal.  Also if you like your health plan you can keep it. No one is forcing you to be on the public option. Also there is a lot of money in the bill for medical and nursing education.  I would thinK you would be behind more doctors and nurses.  Elder care is subsidized so the elderly will be able to stay in their homes.  I'm sure we all agree that is a good idea.

You all are going to end up in the ER with chest pain if you don't read the bill and calm down.  Besides it isn't final yet.  I know you can't wait to trot out your next pres candidate, with his/her great ideas...who will that be again? ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,sound of crickets>>>>>>>>>>.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Sure you can keep your present insurance until the big draw of tax subsidized government giveaway drives all the private insurers out of business. Then you will have the choice of the government plan or no plan (OOPS!!! They won't leave you that choice.) Do you honestly believe that a government monopoly on the nation's healthcare is going to bring an improvement? If you buy that load, I do feel sorry for you.

Yes, the bill is not final yet and it won't be finalized until after Congress and the Senate vote on it. We end up buying another pig in a poke, and I can guarantee we won't be happy eating that bacon.

I am here to tell you that I am outraged at the bill! Speaking of E.R.s have you worked one lately? The ERs of this country are federally mandated that they can not turn anyone away. That is why they are inundated with everything from serious conditions (Cardiac arrest) to the mundane (a cold). Nurses joke and call it the 24 hr Doctor's Office. Guess what? Imagine that on a national scale. Lines. Overload. Oh, but if you make a mistake, you're still liable.

And my dear, they have written it. In fact, you can google it and get a copy of it. They say "we're not finished with it" because people are burning up the phone lines to their Congressmen and the Congressmen are freaking out. But yes, my dear, it IS written in its entirety.

I can not BELIEVE any nurse in her right MIND would support it. I mean, when you cap medical care, then there are shortages (Remember the flu shot shortage--thanks Pres. Clinton). And in the case of shortages, someone can't get medical care. Hmmm, and let's see...if a 45 yo man comes in with CHF and a 55 yo man comes in with CHF and there are enough supplies for one...guess who gets it? That's right!!! The one who can give 10 more years in service to the "State."

This is 1984, Brave New World, and Animal Farm all rolled into one. We are already complaining about pt. overload; too much paperwork; burn-out; liability NOW in a private healthcare system. IMAGINE it then when we have to answer to not only the family but the gov't of the USA, because after the ceiling on healthcare costs, what do you think will happen? Who is almost ALWAYS the ones laid off first in the hospital? CNAs. Guess what that means for us? Can anyone say "Primary Care Nurse?" So, then, they still can't make ends meet, so they force retirement on the older nurses. Okay, so then they have to do something with those patients....oh, I know....let's UP the patient load!!! Well, now we're taking care of 10-15 patients. There's (inevitably) a medication error. Guess what? The family is now suing you. They win the lawsuit. Hospital is out more money. They have to cut more nurses. Patient load goes up. Then, the cycle continues until NO ONE wants to be a nurse. And um, are the DOCTORS going to take up the slack? Either they do or people are going to be given pain meds and sent on home to die.

When the government takes over to "fix" things, it NEVER works. NEVER. No matter the good intention. It NEVER works. Nurses, I encourage you to call and write your Congressmen and get in their face!!! This is going to destroy our country, but not before it destroys our field.

Yes I have worked Er.  tHey are mandated to not turn anyone away so they can't dump non-paying patients on county hospitals who were the only ones to take then in the old days.  If you have an insured populace there wiil be primary care providers they can access so the colds etc don't go to the emergency rooms.  If you have an insured populace you have much more preventitive care so not as much crisis illness.  They fire nurses in Cananda, France, Germany etc in fact they would like more just like we would like more but we can't make them fast enough because there aren't enough professors and nursing schools are expensive to operate so many universities have done away with their programs or can't afford to expand the programs they have now.  By the way Primary care nursing was not driven by a nursing shortage it was driven by delivering quality care so that you had a smaller nuse patient ratio than you have on team nursing with care extenders like CNA's.  No way if they had less nurses could they do primary care.Lived through that too several times.

Quit being hysterical all of you.

By the way Angie, Hawaii was a state since 1959, the President has a birth certificate  verified and with the raised state seal from 1961.  There is no conspiracy he is a legitimate citizen and he is president.  What you are all saying in code is that he shouldn't be president because he is black.  Many of the birthers are racist and this is their way of getting around the label.  Are you racist or just believe whatever they tell you?  I live in Hawaii and know preople who know the family and saw him the day after he was born in Hawaii.  Now go find a new conspiracy.

RNprogressive, you are astute.  i was beginning to wonder about the true motivation for such rabid alarm.  It's very very very very sad to think you may just have hit the nail on the head with the last paragraph of your last post.  Sad, sad, sad.

Yes everyone, calm down,

drink the kool-aid.  Get in a neat line and drink the kool-aid, it will be alright.

He spent 55 minutes saying nothing about his healthcare reform.  He didnt say how much it would cost, who would pay, how is he planning on kicking our elderly out of care because they wont live long enough to enjoy their hip replacement.  Yesterday he even said he didnt know what was on the bill.   I feel he felt the majority of his Prime Time speech was to try to speek soothingly to the lower IQ AmericansHe because they cant read through his horsecrap dialogue.  He loves to hear himself  talk.   "Blue dog Dems"...they are the ones blocking at this point.  They serve some wealthy communities, 1 was referenced by a wealthy town in Colorado.  They dont feel its their problem to pay for the healthcare for 45-50 million or whatever the number is today........for their healthcare.   Freshman Dem from Colorado is a big thorn in Obamas side...........sucks to be him.   Yanno, when I was forced to do presentations for school, I crammed and made notes on index cards.  For tests I crammed like hell.   Maybe Nobama can learn some good study habits.  Before he addresses the country next time over how he plans on spending their money.  Couldnt hurt to try to learn about what he;s trying to take away from us.  I, for 1, find it impossible to think he has intentions of actually giving the country all those promises he made while runing for President.  How can he be believed??