The reason we have seat belt laws is because the insurance companys lobby the polaticians for strick seat belt/helmet laws to lower there metical claims and, they still raise the insurance caust. We are actually paying the insurance companys so thay can pay off polaticians to pass laws that cost us more Something needs to be done I just dont know if this is it. I find it funny that in Texas the state is paying for this huge "Click it or Tickit" campain when it is legal to ride a motorcycle without a helmet! Again the campain will be partialy funded by the insurance companys to keep there cost's down and give the state the opertunity to make money off ticketing. If they were doing this to protect us from ourselves they sould make motorcycles allegal and cars that wont start till the seat belt is latched. By the way I am a motorcyle rider who chooses not to wear a helmet because I still have that right.
I love! it Nate maybe we can do like the Spartans and throw out all the babys born with any health problems. It could only make for a stronger county.
Nate/Paul Right there with ya, agreed. I don't see a road outta this. Current system has everyone with his hand out along the healthcare route. And they are freaking out that the gravy train is going to stop and bending the ear of every lobbyist, congressman, senator, etc. All this freaking out has the wags on Fox, CNN spinning all sorts of crap. The entire system greased by money. As someone pointed out we are paying for the uninsured either way. Liberal 'universal healthcare' via taxation or Conservative 'we who can pay for it pick up the tab in our healthcare costs'. At least with the conservative approach you don't feel it directly as a X% tax hike will but were paying it nonetheless. Obama has sure pissed off the conservatives and they are not listening to anything the man says from the get go. Some of it pretty good and some of it bloated crap. Paul and Nate also hit it on the head. Take personal responsibility and more importantly don't be tempted to compromise in the face of what appears to be all around you not. Thats the really hard!part Thanks for listening, try the veal, be sure the tip the waiters, I'm here till tuesday...........
So here is a thought. Let's assume for a moment that Universal Health Care becomes reality. Now lets go back in time and revisit the mandatory seat belt and helmet laws. One of the reasons for those were the costs associated with extra injuries sustained by not wearing the seat belt/helmet by uninsured victims being passed on to the public in general. Now that Universal Health Care is a reality and everyone is insured, does that mean I can stop wearing my seat belt/helmet and exercise personal responsibility through higher premiums should I get into an accident while not wearing a safety device? Similar to those accident prone paying higher auto insurance rates?
If one can't be denied insurance for pre-existing conditions or be charged higher rates for anything other than age then I doubt the government would allow higher rates for things like a lack of seatbelt or helmet usage. If anything I could see the government putting even more laws like this in place since they can't collect based on risk they'll legislate a safer, healthier citizen into existence.
Yes despite your human predilection for self-destruction big brother is going to try to make you live a long and healthy life :cornut: Of course if you choose you can certainly crank up the MINI, loose the seatbelt, light up a Camel, take that last swig from the fifth of Jack Daniels you've been working on all day and drive off a precipise of your choosing! (be sure to stop by the drive through for a bacon triple cheesburger on your way) Top of the world Ma'!:lol:
I may as well as add my two cents. What I find interesting in this matter is that we(the citizens) are not clamoring for a "virtual integrated health care delivery system". The technology exists to create such a system, which in my opinion, has the real potential to IMPROVE QUALITY and MANAGED COSTS associated with health care delivery. Of course, the most important benefit may be decreased mortality due to the current morass of our existing health care system where the left hand doesnot know what the right hands knows and vice versa. Why cannot we get there...the answer lies in who makes the decisions in this great country; K Street and the lobbyists! Too many oxes would be gored by such a system. There have been plenty of comments on this thread re: government involvement in health care but, if the bill that eventually passes the Congress requires the extablishment of (private sector) pilot virtual integratred health care systems for the purposes of studying if one would work, I submit that the powers whose ox would be most impacted WILL NOT come through with any meaningful change. Indiviudal responsbility is a major part of the solution but I hope the boomers rally as a group for massive change in how health care is provided FOR ALL AMERICANS. There have been excellent examples of such systems in the US for many years, but they have not received accolades or widespread acknowledgement due to the power of our current fee-for-service model of health care. For example, while I have no experience and limited knowledge of patient satisfaction with Intermountain HealthCare in Utah, I assume their patient population is very happy with the care provided and the cost to receive that care. Let's get on with business!
Setting aside the many other issues I have with the proposed Health care reform/takeover..... For anyone to think that Americans can give their hard earned healthcare dollars to the Politicians in Washington DC and get better care for less money is beyond ridiculous.... The very enormity of the Beaurarcy (one that will make the IRS look like a corner stop & rob) alone will devour more money than all the insurance agencies profits combined and a great deal more... Just think of all the new jets Congress will need so our ICK..Representatives can travel from place to place insuring our well being....:mad2::crazy:ut: Name one place where government has delivered more bang for the buck.... Is Healthcare reform needed? Yes, through regulation not a government run system. 2cents
I am 67 years old and have worked my whole life. I am on medicare and use the VA for drugs and check ups. I can go to any doctor or hospital. I pay $1K year for suplemental insurance. I am happy with it and see that we do not need a change. Read the Constitution, there is no where in it thats says the government owes you a damn thing. Unfortuntly with Americans we have grown use to the government bailing us out. Work or starve is my point. Yes, thats right, might not be the job you want but if you have a job you can find a job, if you have no job its harder! I also think everyone on the dole, including me, food stamps, welfare, housing allowances should be randemly drug tested and if you fail your out of the system. Too bad we have become a welfare mentality. I travel all over the US and its the most beautiful country in the world. I have been around the world several times, and no one can match our Beauty and Freedom. I really feel for our younger generation, because our Education system has been downgraded for years to accomadate others. Make it a English speaking nation, go back to reading, writing and math. If you can muster those you should go to college, and if not go to work. If you want change I got a couple of pennies! Luther Shields, Charlotte, North Carolina
Ask yourself this: Why has every attempt to have Congressmen and Senators commit to dropping their present Healthcare and adopt whatever system they are tryng to inflict on us been soundly shot down? Good enough for us but not good enough for them? "Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have. The course of history shows us that as a government grows, liberty decreases." -Thomas Jefferson
I will take it slightly off topic and try to add to the above a little bit. The state of our educational system is atrocious. They literally are teaching to the lowest common denominator. Short of private schools, the public system at this point is designed to fail its students. Sadly, I blame it on the combination ofthe liberal mentality of "everyone is a winner and gets a prize" and the stupidity of "no child left behind concept". Not everyone is destined to go to college, to become a CEO, or a titan of industry. The world needs it's mechanics, plumbers, roofers and steel workers. Instead of shoving concepts that some individuals simply have no predisposition for down their throats, how about spending some time identifying and encouraging what ever it is they are good at? There is no shame in going to trade school. And one more thing. When I was young there was no ADD. There were high spirited kids whose behavior was controlled with tasks and activities that kept them busy and engaged through out the day. They were not stuffed full of pills until they became walking zombies.
Exactly, our whole society is being dumbed down... When I grew up parents were involved in their local public schools and even donated money when the schools needed something. With the dumbing down concept these same hard working folks are enrolling their kids in private schools who don't have false goal lines... What I don't understand is how it is better to have 12 people in some third world country working in sweat shops making a dollar a day and sleeping across the street 12 to a 10'x10' shed than one hard working American manufacturing the same thing and making 12 dollars an hour. The 12 over there are still poor and contribute nothing to the global economy when the US worker would be making enough to actually purchase said goods. We would not allow those working conditions here so why do we let those goods to be imported here tax free?
That answer is simple. Campaign finance and lobbyists. It has always existed (just look up Jackson vs US Bank), but is becoming glaringly more obvious as of lately. The biggest egregious (and I hope I am using this word correctly) example is Goldman Sachs. Having just recently needed a government bail out they are now in the position to pay out bonuses that average out to $700,000 for each and every employee. While I am sure that the janitors will not be seeing a $700k bonus check, those amounts are obscene. Don't get me wrong, I am all for people making money and the capitalist system. But I don have a problem with companies that make money out of thin air. Goldman Sachs managed these bonuses without actually producing anything. They did not build power plants, build a single engine, or put a single stitch into a cloth. The have contributed nothing except maybe to add to the level of the corruption that exists in our political system.