franec, britan, canada, these countries have universal health care n its FAILING!!! france trying to get out of it. canada sends 300-400 women each yr to usa for emergency child birth. 65+ u get NO HELP, go home n die!!! hope u sheeple, specially 65+ are ready to go home n die!!! if they cover everyone, then ur too old n use too much health care. great way to reduce the population!!! baaa baaa little sheeple big bro will prot u!!!!

truth hurt? And I certainly don't need your permission to put my two cents worth in if they will take your plug nickel.

...and it is a joke. I am retired military and live near a military post with a military hospital and what I will describe is one model for Govt HC. This is my personal experience, and the timeline is accurate.

I sustained a back injury some years ago and recently the injury was becoming aggrevated. The injury was originally sustained in service related activity.

Day 1: get an appointment to see my HCP (health care provider)...who happens to be a NP...not a PA or MD.

Day 6: See my HCP "Doc" who gives me a routine exam and makes appointments for me at the blood lab and X-ray and a follow up appointment

Day 14: My follow up. "Looks like the old injury is causing sciatic inflammation due to bone spurs...take Motrin x3 daily, another prescription, and use a heat pad."

Day 29: Make another appointment to see "Doc" and further explain that the pain is not mitigated in any way...I would like her to refer me to Orthopedics.

Day 34: Another appointment with "Doc" who refers me for MRI.

Day 63: Get my MRI (yes, it took 29 days to get it done ...first MRI experience...pretty cool).

Day 66: Go back to see "Doc". "Gee looks like the Xrays had it all wrong...you have two herniated discs (L3/L4 and L2)and what looks like a miniscule bone fragment at your L3" Currenly on Prednezone awaiting the Physical Therapy folks to call with my appointment for my initial consultation and referral to an off-post specialist (5-7 days...not sure what the calendar looks like yet)...at least that is the plan.

63 to 70 days. Or I could have gone "off the res" at my expense which I am about to do with a PT specialist, massage therapist and chiropractor depending on what the folks at my consultation say...since they cannot cover retiree expenses (TRICARE will pick up some)...meanwhile would someone mind please getting this railroad spike out of my lower back?

The Conservatives are going to win the next election, no doubt about it. And one of their first projects will be.....privatizing the healthcare system.

While europe moves further to the right, America retreats into the puddle-deep logic of socialism and government dependence.

Some of you crack me up, when the facts are staring you in the face. Use your computer for something other then posting and go read the news coming out of the U.K. I have friends over there and they find it so damn funny that we are trying to start GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE when they are trying to find a way to privatize their system. I saw the argument about the difference between the healthcare at 30K and 300K. I don’t hear anybody talking about the healthcare that government officials will get. You can bet that they won’t be treated the same way as us.

But then again, their wonderful people, their looking out for the little guy! (N O T)

AND IT KEEPS GETTING FUNNIER!

"Elected officials should wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers. That way, it would be easier to identify their corporate sponsors."

Neal,

You're wrong about Sotomayor. She's a racist.

For the most part, I typically agree that honkies are the only people capable of racism, but racism has nothing to do with who has the power (that's a bunch of black power BS). It has more to do with who feels superior to whom, and for whatever reason it's always white people who make those sort of asinine statements. Ethnic minorities tend to feel inferior in this country because they look around and see a country that was developed and innovated by white colonists, which is the same reason hicks feel artificially superior.

That being said, most non-white honky-haters are just plain bigots. Sotomayor is the exception. She made a blanket statement that latina females were smarter than white men, which fits the definition of racism.

I won't tolerate a white racist, and I certainly feel the same way about non-white racists. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

that was not me

As a white male who has lived experiences an hispanic female couldn't possibly fathom, I can arrive at much better conclusions than she could.

And according to Neal, this isn't a racist statement?!? Come on Neal, you're wrong on this one.

You said, "The teacher earning $30000 a year deserves the same quality health care for herself and her family as the lawyer earning 300000 a year."

Simple question: Why? Seriously....why is that? Because you say so or someone else says so? Really - tell me by what measure you come to this conclusion that they "deserve" it.

Oh wait...my bad, you answered that with, "The teacher's contribution to society is just as high as the lawyer's."

Ohhhhh....so they've made a contribution to society. And just what led you to draw this conclusion that just because someone teaches or designs an airplane or defends a plaintiff or whatever that they have earned the right to health insurance. I know that's not what you said, but it is what you implied. So who determines this contribution to society and to what levels one has contributed?

And please cite me one legitimate example to defend this statement, "And no-one should be denied coverage because they don't earn enough".

BTW - I've seen several commercials lately for companies that are offering health insurance for $6 a day with no pre-existing condition exclusions. Doing the math it would seem that the total per month is less than a typical cell phone text plan. By Joe...even a $30K per year teacher should be able to afford that. Well - that's assuming she actually believes in taking care of herself.

How about YOU show us a SINGLE government-operated program that works, then maybe I'll put a speck of faith in socialized medicine.

(chirp-chirp)

Government Healthcare would have the efficiency of the post office and the compassion of the IRS. Be careful what you wish for.

"The teacher earning $30000 a year deserves the same quality health care for herself and her family as the lawyer earning 300000 a year."

Well, since we are free to move about this country, I also assert that I'm entitled to the same quality car as the $300,000 lawyer. NOT!

Do you hear yourself? Healthcare is a product, not a right. Freedom is our right. The freedom is the fact that if you can put the same number of dollars on the counter as the lawyer, you can buy the same service. Pretty simple in my book.

Which cars have bigger sales: hummers or hyundais? Hyundais! Which market of entertainment is making more money: opera or movies? Movies. The free market always push towards broader reach of customers, which in turn pressures them to offer less expensive options to stay competitive.

While there may be rich, expensive health care services, the more you let the free market do its thing, the more options (and less expensive ones) will appear for you and me vs. the $300,000 lawyer.

So the target date is August? That gives conservatives two months to come up with a plan that shows the private sector can do it better. All it has to do is be affordable to anyone who wants it, allow free choice of doctors, no hassles to either the patient or provider over medically legitimate costs, and no exclusion or dropping of patients. C'mon, show us the private sector can do better! Or are you content to just sit there and whine?

......(crickets chirping).....

@tshirtdoctor

I live in Canada and can tell you it is much worse here. Try getting an "elective" surgery for something like a torn ACL or a herniated disk in your back. You will be put on an 18 month waiting list and forced to do two recoveries even though the medical "best practice" is to get surgery as soon as possible if you are a certain candidate for surgery to limit the amount of painful rehab you have to do.

Not surprisingly anyone with means also carries private insurance (often US insurance).

Did I mention the cost? The effective tax rate I paid last year was about 60%. It is supposed to be so high because of health care, but then I have to pay another $100 a month for my state health care insurance.

I guess Canadian health care is pretty cool if you live in Newfoundland but they don't pay a penny for it. Canada gives it to them as a benefit of joining Canada. I guess if it were really free it wouldn't be that bad.

I would like someone to point me to the successful government healthcare programs they now have in place? Do they deny certain types of procedures? Do they have fraud and corruption within their systems? Do they deny certain groups of people coverage?

So if this new healthcare system is put in place, will medicade, medicare and SCHIP all be discoutinued. If this new healthcare system is to provide "guaranteed" health insurance to anyone, then the other programs will be discontinued since they won't be needed. Yeah, like that will happen!

So let's see, I pay for my own healthcare, SCHIP, Medicade and Medicare, and now they want me to kick in for another program?

its amazing that this area of government growth is the only area that you complain about. what about the military growth and control? what about are police state growth and control? what about our medias conglomerates growth and control?
i'm no fan of insurance companies. they are a rip off. they take your money for years, and when you try to use them, you'll find that you've been rejected.
V. Lombardi -- you said the quality of care will go down. why to you say that? do you think the quality of doctors in canada is any worse than america? or is it what your politicians say it is, and you believe them, without fact checking for yourself?
remember, neal said you should examine what he said, and look it up for youself.

In your opening statement for this post you state that Sotomayor isn't a racist.Well Neal,by your own definition,she is.She has publicly stated that she thinks someone who is a Latina woman would make better decisions than a white male.By that statement she is stating that she thinks she is better than a white male.And by your own definition which I have heard you profess many times on air that racism is thinking one race is better than another.She thinks she is better than you simply because of your inferior race & gender.

Could nationalized health care quickly become sinister, twisted and macabre, with government controlling every aspect of one's life as it pertains to the health of each individual?

Yes, Stephen King has already written the prescription for health care; the government can just expand it, and oh, the possibilities are endless!

The teacher earning $30000 a year deserves the same quality health care for herself and her family as the lawyer earning 300000 a year. The teacher's contribution to society is just as high as the lawyer's. And no-one should be denied coverage because they don't earn enough or have a pre-existing condition.
Now the big question is "Which is better"? Inefficient government running health care - or our current for-profit insurance companies deciding who gets coverage and who gets denied. Denied services are profitable for insurance companies. Both systems have faults. Perhaps the solution is to eliminate all quotas to medical schools, and graduate way more doctors, nurses and other medical professionals. Let there be some real competition among doctors and hospitals. Let's eliminate this oligopoly.

Judge Sotomayor may not be a racist, but that was a racist comment. If you look at almost every measure of academic achievement, Latinos routinely score below Caucasians. You know, in areas like Reading Comprehension... So, I would expect that Latins would actually make worse conclusions than Caucasian men

The only way to get the attention of the itty bitty pinheads in DC is threaten to cut off their their life blood. M-O-N-E-Y!

Call, FAX, email any method you can think of to express your displeasure of the unsustainable new and old entitlements. Let them know that they need not bother asking you for donations because you are going to support their opponent, either in the primary or in the general election, if they continue to go along with the current plans. While you are at it, send a little love note to Mikey at the RNC and tell him to fish or cut bait, but there is no money in the future if he doesn't start articulating a more conservative position and opposition of the grand give-away to everyone that won't vote Republican no matter what.

So much for freedom. I will be required to purchase insurance even if I do not need it. Wait if I do not need it, it means I must have some $. It would be insensitive if not even racist for me. I gotta "give back" don't I?