[JPKab]

As if Obamacare is state-sponsored. Its a government program that helps people buy private health insurance. At no point is somebody's doctor taking orders from the government. Naturally the Republicans messaging on Obamacare resulted in Americans being against it, yet simultaneously being in favor of every actual aspect of the law provided it didn't include President Blackenstein's name with it. After all, our seniors have been enlightened with Fox News, and in their all-knowing wisdom seek to protect us from being a vassal state led by a rogue Kenyan.

The vastly more efficient thing to do would be to expand our current socialist single-payer medical system (Medicare) to cover all. However, we live in a country where large financial interests our capable of preserving themselves, irrespective of the value they provide. The health insurance companies ensured that any solution to universal coverage included them, which is an automatically bad thing. They financed ad campaigns to scare the senior citizens into thinking that any expansion of Medicare would mean less care for them. Health insurance companies (in their current role of acting as payment middle men as opposed to a necessary role of covering catastrophic costs) provide no value. They interfere with the free market, and are less efficient than a Canadian style single payer/private provider model.

Anyone who thinks the current system is acceptable has never experienced the current system: they likely are covered by a large company's health insurance company, and haven't had to watch a family member try to buy themselves insurance.

[hga]

"Anyone who thinks the current system is acceptable has never experienced the current system: they likely are covered by a large company's health insurance company, and haven't had to watch a family member try to buy themselves insurance."

Strange, a large number of us can remember buying individual "major medical" high deductible catastrophic coverage policies for quite reasonable sums of money, since they're true insurance ... policies which are now illegal. And a lot of self-insured people/families are finding their policies canceled or unaffordable, along with what they can in theory buy on the exchanges. Seeing as how Obamacare mandates 10? or so generally? new and expensive things, like coverage of your children till age 26. Or explicitly makes healthcare more expensive, like the 2.3% excise tax on medical devices: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Medical-Device-Excise-Tax:-Frequently...

As for "somebody's doctor taking orders from the government" ... well, what if they want to get reimbursed? Not quite the same thing, but just about the same effect.

As for Medicare ... well, seeing as how much it shifts costs to other customers, just how do you propose to pay for it as more and more people got moved to it? Being disabled, I'm on it, and track what my doctors get paid. Sometimes its reasonable, frequently its not, and I haven't needed anything really expensive yet....

And I do believe your race card has been maxed out: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-august-5-2010/race-car... ; why do you think we've opposed this since Truman made the first attempt? Was Clinton truly our "First Black President" as way too many said before Obama, back when Hillarycare crashed and burned?

[JPKab]

I had a HDHP from 2007-2009, combined with a tax-free HSA which I used for cash payments to providers. The problem is that you can't shop around with it. Nobody can tell you what they charge for anything.

Regarding what doctors get paid by Medicare, CMS.gov released those statistics. They are pre-negotiated with providers, and are prices which allow them to profitably operate. It absolutely doesn't shift costs to other customers for most procedures. The CMS.gov data shows this.

You are a beneficiary of a socialized medical system, and here you are railing against expanding care for others. If you hate socialized medicine so much, please get off of Medicare and go purchase private insurance. Put your money where your mouth is, instead of making the rest of us suffer a fate you are spared from. The idea that somebody who is receiving care from my tax dollars is arguing that members of my family who aren't insured shouldn't is infuriating.

[hga]

WRT to CMS statistics, obviously the government never lies, especially with statistics.

As for what I'm a beneficiary of, since I started making serious money about when FICA taxes were massively raised in the early '80s (with the significant surplus going to the general budget, of course), based on my current health and genetics it will likely be at least three decades before I'm costing the system at net. Much longer than I expect the government to be able to keep all these balls in the air.

As for what I'm arguing for your uninsured family members, it's that Obamacare is not a solution (e.g. more likely to be access to a waiting line than healthcare), not that they shouldn't get insurance. The latter is pure hateful strawman fantasy, but I suppose par for the course of someone who suggests my opposition to Obamacare is born of racism.

[JPKab]

The CMS statistics are a lie? So because I suggest data for you to examine which may contradict your pre-existing beliefs, you immediately jump to "The government lies!" First off, its not statistics. Its raw data on payments to various providers. Feel free to examine it.

I never said you were racist. Not all Republicans are racists, just like not all Democrats are hippies. But all racists are Republicans, and all hippies are Democrats.

My family is better off with access to a waiting line than nothing at all. But you wouldn't know that.

BTW, every geezer on Medicare thinks they're entitled to it, just like every farmer getting a farm subsidy thinks he's entitled to it. There isn't a single person getting an entitlement check that doesn't rationalize some way they paid in more than they'll ever take out. Join the club.

Please enjoy your Fox news. It is after all the preferred news source of Medicare recipients who think that its only Socialism if people other than themselves get it.

Here is an article you posted in 2010 predicting economic doom in 2011 courtesy of Obama: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870411350457526...

You were wrong then, and you are wrong now.