The "Public Option"
Oct. 1st, 2009 07:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liveonearthI keep hearing about the fate of the public option in the news, and I am appalled. We the people are smart enough to know the difference between mandatory insurance coverage and single payer care, and yet they are lumped together under this moniker. For my part, I am opposed to anything that further feeds the corporate domination of our people, nation, world. I would like to see a reduction in the amount of our money that is wasted on health insurance, and I for sure will vehemently oppose anything that is simply a requirement that I pay MORE for the lousy service I am already paying out the nose for. I support a single payer system, in spite of my libertarian leanings, because it is the way that we the people can take the most money out of corporate hands. Of course all the corporate-backed "grassroots" organizations will cry "socialism". Screw them, they are ruining our lives. The moneyed interests are making 1,000,000x more noise than the thinking people. We need a real debate, and we still aren't having it.
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no subject
Date: 2009-10-01 03:40 pm (UTC)I FUCKING HATE MY INSURANCE. So far we have paid $4,400 in premiums. We pay $25 every time we see a Dr. We have a big deductible. It was a good thing that I had surgery and went crazy in the same calendar year. Recently, I got a bill for $300 for my child's back x-ray. (She fell off a trampoline and complained of discomfort for quite a while.) I just found out I owe $400 for my chiropractic treatment. (Which WORKED! No one was more surprised than I was.) I have seen a psychiatrist 11 times, so those are no longer covered. $90 twice a year (I wanted an excuse to stop going. There it is.)So yeah, $460 per month, plus paying for nearly everything, plus $200 in our Fsa to cover the stuff that insurance doesn't cover.
Yay America. Mandatory insurance is ridiculous. Let's do the civilized thing. The British did it during austerity, which was like the depression, only with bombed out cities.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-01 05:07 pm (UTC)What is wrong with people? Do so many people have it better? We would stop carrying it, but then catastrophe looms.
catastrophe
Date: 2009-10-01 07:54 pm (UTC)WHAT IF you saved all the dough you are paying into insurance, and then offered to pay cash for the services that you need, should you have some such emergency? I am meeting more people all the time who find that it is cheaper not to play the game, even when it is surgery and advanced medical care that you need. You can get much better deals on medical services if you work directly with the provider and are willing to pay up front. The inflated rates on medical care are largely due to the insurance companies refusing to pay the whole cost of care. The cost is inflated so that the providers can get paid enough via the insurance system.
=-] Thanks for the kum ba ya offer. I hope that you know that your disagreements with me are welcome; that's how I learn! My positions are carefully considered and yet malleable given new information. I have socialist sympathies sitting right beside my libertarian ones. I am only recently registered Republican, and that was for the purpose of supporting Ron Paul, who is one of the clearest-thinking politicians I have ever encountered. Ultimately I believe he is right about what is happening to our nation and planet, given a broad historical perspective. We humans would be better off for the long run if we'd listen--but we won't because we're having too big of a party.
I think most people here in the US are painfully ignorant about politics and history. Their views on the so-called "healthcare debate" have more to do with fear and indoctrination than with facts or understanding.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-01 08:08 pm (UTC)--William Gibbs McAdoo