Grady Hospital is public health care in action. It is subsidized by 80 million from Fulton County, 20 million from Dekalb County. It's total budget is 780 million. It operates at a 50 million deficit. That is it loses 50 million a year.

The care is atrociuos. There are beds full of winos in the hall ways. You have to weight hours for emergency services.

The dialysis unit loses 4 million a year. About half the 90 people it serves are illegal aliens. thats about $45,000 a year per patient.

This is the future of public health care.

http://www.house.gov/ryan/PCA/index.htm

Look up how much it costs the government to insure its employees. The numbers may be hard to find, but one example cited the Department of Defense as an example. The extrapolated cost came to be over $2 trillion PER YEAR to insure everyone in the USA.

Relate it to Auto Insurance. Most states require liablity auto coverage. However many states allow you to OPT OUT of liablity insurance. All you have to do is post a CASH BOND of $50,000 or $100,000 and presto, you don't have to carry auto insurance!!!

Why not do the same with health insurance? People who don't have insurance COST everyone else through higher rates and taxes. These people can purchase major medical insurance with $5k deductable for about $100 mo. Why not require it? Prove you have it, or it's deducted from your paycheck. For poor folks, deduct no more than 20% Gross. Just somehow make it full participation.

AND, because Boortz dosn't want to be forced to purchase insurance, then he can put up a $1million CASH BOND in lieu of purchasing health insurance.

The costs will go down for everyone when the uninsured are finally covered. Sure, it sucks to require people to buy insurance. BUT! If you want a private industry solution, you MUST have FULL participation, or it won't work.

Check out Patients' Choice Act (S. 1099/H.R. 2520). - Rep Paul Ryan (R-Wis).

How about a "Transparency in Spending Act" so that the public remains informed of the total cost of health care?

Declare that "Health Care spending pay for Health Care services." Spending on health care should NOT come from the general treasury, but should be funded by taxes on other health care spending. That way, people can see how much of their health care spending dollar is spent on OTHER PEOPLE's health care instead of their own.

The "rich" are going to be paying for health care services for the poor in ANY case. What does it matter if they pay through an increase in the income tax, or a tax on their own health care insurance premiums?

The difference is that people will rally to resist the wealth transfer if they can see it more clearly.

For reasons that are obvious, Democrats would not let this pass -- which is yet another reason to propose it, and talk about it. Opposing transparency in spending will have a political cost.

What do you guys think?

If insurance companies would just quit bundling coverages so I could get a policy that does NOT include things like maternity (done with that) or drug/alcohol rehab, or mental health, then the premium would be half! Get the bureaucracy out of it and there's another reduction in cost.

Have everyone pay at least SOMETHING, even if it's $10-$20 a visit would cut out the visits from welfare mommas with sniffly noses and clear out waiting rooms.

Folks, we DO NOT have enough doctors or facilities or equipment to handle all this and it'll take years to get them in place.

There was a doctor who was offering his patients a "health plan". About $79 a month for a family for all the visits they needed. That would cover any treatments he could perform in office, extra charges for anything outside his office. The state said no you can't do that. He took them to court. Now they say, yes he can but he has to raise his rates.

So it was wrong at $79 but okay at a higher rate? This is why health care is so high.

No doubt they, not I, will choose what is in that coverage, so I'll keep paying for things I'll never need. I'll cover someone that can't be bothered to provide for their heatlh and medical, or alter their lifestyle to mitigate risk and expense.

You'll know when someone comes up with something fair that might actually work, because the freeloaders, dp, and msm will start screaming bloody murder.

Arguably the most galling aspect about rising health care costs is the market distorting / virtual criminal role of politicians in enacting legislation covering healthcare insurance "mandates". Where 30 years ago we had 252 mandates, today we have some 1,900+!

Today you as consumer simply cannot buy a high deductible, no-frills policy tailored to your needs. On top of that you can’t buy a health insurance policy across state lines because of various “mandates”. This is a free market?

In Canada, healthcare is perceived to be "free", but the system has to use “deterrent fees” to dampen (ie. ration) unnecessary demand, caused by the scores of moms who bring their kids in for every little sniffle / cut / scrapes, hypocondriacs, and the scores of "little old ladies" who come in regularly mostly as a kind of social visit. These scenarios represent very real attracted costs to a universal health care delivery system. Its just human nature that if some good or service; be it provided by government, the free market or religious institutions; appears to be "free", its consumption is going to get overused / abused.

Given the millions who remain uninsured today for various reasons, the introduction of a universal healthcare system would have to serve 10's of millions of them as new full fledged “patients”. Couple this with the costs to address the scenarios described above, how can there not be some kind of rationing of services given there can be no near / medium term change in the number of doctors or nurses to address the increased demand for services? Its just plan illogical at best and disengenous (an outright lie) at worst on the part of politicians and supporters to argue that the introduction of such a system here wouldn't have the same issues!

The best solution to address our healthcare needs here in the US is to move away from the largely (70+%) "employer provided" healthcare model in place today, to a true free market system unfettered by any connection to employers or government. What we need is a system where you as a consumer can actually pick your own plan tailored to your actual needs, offered in any state / across state lines, free from any government meddling and special interest lobbying. A system where you would be treated as a real "customer" as opposed to being treated like some "passive subordinate" (“patient”) as is the case with employer provided care today where you have little to no incentive to look at the actual cost of treatment options.

In spite of the Leftist / Dem rhetoric about the alleged problems with the "lack of universal coverage", its really about Dem politicians wanting to exert ever more control over us, making us ever more dependent on big government as the solution for every newly politicized "problem" in our lives. Forget about the rhetoric, big government control is what this is all about. Folks, its just that simple.

http://c4ss.org/content/652