Saturday, November 28, 2009

Health

On Health and Money Blog -- U.S. News & World Report

Obama's Plan Wins at Covering the Uninsured

August 27, 2008 12:28 PM ET | Michelle Andrews | Permanent Link | Print

Reader Comments

American's health

Corporate America sells 3500 calories of stuff they call "food" on average to each and every American each and every day. At that rate of caloric intake, no heath insurance can help you. If "Your Candidate" is seriously concerned about your health, he/she should first educate you about how to take care of yourself.

The best health insurance is "Exercise daily and have a sensible diet".

If you are not a lobbyist, "Your Candidate" does NOT work for you.

Trust me.

Insurance for all

We must insure everyone has basic right at all cost. We must stop the greedy, manipulative, bourgeosis to help those vulnerable poor people. In the name of the people, we must nationalize all private method of production and have central committee to redistribute those jobs to more worthy people. We must in the name of the people crush all counter-revolutionary and send their greedy soul and their seeds to political retraining camps like Kolyma. Power to the people and death to the enemies

Misleading Headline

The article is good. The headline is very misleading! Is this meant to promote an Obama agenda? The article says the results are "very, very, very preliminary." The healine says "Obama's Plan wins." Very biased, to the say the least.

45.7 million uninsured a very misleading statistic ...

According to the Census Bureau, someone is: considered “uninsured” if they were not covered by any type of health

insurance at any time in that year.

In other words, anyone changing jobs was counted in this number ... wondering how many that is? In 2005, it was over 50 million (both voluntary and involuntary).

Also included: people who qualified for medicaid or SCHIP, but weren't actually enrolled in the programs.

If we're are going to stand a chance of fixing the US Health Care system, we need to look at the statistics openly and honestly, and not enter with preconceived notions of what is broken, and worse, what needs to be done.

Unfortunately, it seems that most people have made up their minds about the problems and solutions are, based on very incomplete data.

Why?

Would someone please help me understand why government control of personal health and economic choices, such as whether or not to purchase health insurance coverage, is a good thing? Why do so many people assume that the government must eventually ensure that everyone has health insurance? Is personal health insurance coverage a national security issue? Why should the government get involved in health insurance at all?

It would be wrong for me to drink up expecting every in the bar to help pay my tab. It would also be wrong for me to make unhealthy lifestyle choices expecting my neighbors to help pay my medical bills. And it would be equally wrong for me to engage in risky behavior expecting the government to force my neighbors to purchase health insurance coverage in order to help pay my medical bills.

Health Care

If you can't afford children and all that comes with it, don't have them. If you choose to buy Ipod instead of insurance, live (or not) with the results. Not my responsibility to pay for your bad decisions. The 47m number is bogus, the study is biased and neither candidate properly fixes the root causes.

47 million uninsured, a confusing statistic

I don't know why people keep coming back to this number that the Census Bureau provides; the way they compute it, makes it virtually meaningless in trying to identify what ails health care in the US.

For a more detailed discussion on what this 47 million uninsured means, go to:

http://playingdevilsadvocate.com

Insurance IS the problem

For profit health care is immoral and should be illegal. The system we have now is only there for those who can afford it and lets anyone else whither and die. We should be ashamed, such a rich country and so little concern for our people. Just look at how Europe and Canada deal with health care for excellent examples of how it can and should be done.

A single-payer system would provide basic health care for ANYONE in this country, yes even those pesky illegal aliens. We get the bill for them anyway in write-offs, taxes an higher premiums. Just get over it and calculate it into the bottom line.

And the beauty of the single-payer system is that anyone with money can still always buy better services. You can pay now or you can pay later, but we will all pay eventually. Why ruin families and lives by letting corporate welfare and greed define our health care system? I guess it just makes good business sense, but what about thinking of the people for once?

This 47 Million number is very misleading

I don't know why everyone is so fixated on this number; Hillary even mentioned it in her speech at the Democratic Convention last night. The truth is that it's calculated in an odd manner, and provides little insight into what actually ails health care in America.

I've spent some time digging into this commonly quoted statistic at: http://playingdevilsadvocate.com/

Insurance IS the problem - not health care

The fact that most people in this country depend on "for-profit" health care insurance IS the actual problem with America's health care system. Until we take the "profit" out of health care, we will have an unbalanced system that only the well-to-do can benefit from. The rest of us will continue to pay more and get less. there are enough other ways for these companies to make money besides profiting form the miseries of sick people and their families. It's time for single-payer health care. Those who can afford more would not be stopped from buying more. It would still be a class system, but at least everyone would have a minimum of services.

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About On Health and Money

Senior Writer Michelle Andrews reports on how to be a smart health consumer and get the best care for your money. Write to her at onhealthmoney@usnews.com.

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