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because they EARNED ITIt's a puzzlement why people who make average salaries are so anxious to defend $multi-billion corporations and individuals.
Anyone here worth even $multi-millions?
Okay, let's discuss health care in industrialized nations, shall we? Let's cut through some of the liberal smoke and mirrors and get down to brass tacks.
The left tells us in horrified tones that the United States spends far more on health care than any other country, whether measured as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) or by expenditure per capita. This is quite true. the United States now spends close to 16 percent of GDP on health care, nearly 6.1 percent more than the average for other industrialized countries.
What is not true is that health care spending is automatically bad. To a large degree, America spends money on health care because it is a wealthy nation and chooses to do so. Economists consider health care a normal good, meaning that spending is positively correlated with income. As incomes rise, people want more of that good. Because we are a wealthy nation, we can and do demand more health care.
The left also tells us that health insurance premiums are rising faster than wages are, and this is also true. What they forget to tell you is that government health care programs, particularly Medicare and Medicaid, are piling up enormous burdens of debt for future generations. Medicares unfunded liabilities now top $50 trillion. Unchecked, Medicaid spending will increase fourfold as a percentage of federal outlays over the next century. In other words, what we already have in the direction they want to go isn't doing any better in the "holding down costs" arena. None of this indicates that what's needed is a huge new bureaucracy . . . of ANY type.
The left loves to cite a 2000 World Health Organization study that ranks the U.S. health care system 37th in the world, slightly better than Slovenia. What they don't bother to tell you (and often don't know themselves) is that this study bases its conclusions on such highly subjective measures as fairness and criteria that are not strictly related to a countrys health care system, such as tobacco control. For example, the WHO report penalizes the United States for not having a sufficiently progressive tax system, not providing all citizens with health insurance, and having a general paucity of social welfare programs. Indeed, much of the poor performance of the United States is due to its ranking of 54th in the category of fairness. The United States is actually penalized for adopting Health Savings Accounts and because, according to the WHO, patients pay too much out of pocket. Such judgments clearly reflect a particular political point of view, rather than a neutral measure of health care quality. They also neglect to mention that the WHO report ranks the United States number one in the world in responsiveness to patients needs in choice of provider, dignity, autonomy, timely care, and confidentiality. Whoops!
The left likes to point out how much higher other countries' life expectancy and infant mortality rates are compared to ours. What they don't tell you is that life expectancies are affected by exogenous factors such as violent crime, poverty, obesity, tobacco and drug use, and other issues unrelated to health care. In fact, a study by Robert Ohsfeldt and John Schneider for the American Enterprise Institute found that those exogenous factors are so distorting that if you correct for homicides and accidents, the United States rises to the top of the list for life expectancy.
Likewise, infant mortality is highly problematic. In the United States, very low birth-weight infants have a much greater chance of being brought to term with the latest medical technologies. Some of those low birthweight babies die soon after birth, which boosts our infant mortality rate, but in many other Western countries, those high-risk, low birth-weight infants are not included when infant mortality is calculated. In addition, many countries use abortion to eliminate problem pregnancies. For example, Michael Moore cites low infant mortality rates in Cuba, yet that country has one of the worlds highest abortion rates, meaning that many babies with health problems that could lead to early deaths are never brought to term.
When you compare the outcomes for specific diseases, the United States clearly outperforms the rest of the world. Whether the disease is cancer, pneumonia, heart disease, or AIDS, the chances of a patient surviving are far higher in the United States than in other countries. Notably, when former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi needed heart surgery last year, he didnt go to a French, Canadian, Cuban, or even Italian hospitalhe went to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Likewise, Canadian MP Belinda Stronach had surgery for her breast cancer at a California hospital.
The United States drives much of the innovation and research on health care worldwide. Eighteen of the last 25 winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine are either U.S. citizens or individuals working here. U.S. companies have developed half of all new major medicines introduced worldwide over the past 20 years. In fact, Americans played a key role in 80 percent of the most important medical advances of the past 30 years. Advanced medical technology is far more available in the United States than in nearly any other country.
The same is true for prescription drugs. For example, 44 percent of Americans who could benefit from statins, lipid-lowering medication that reduces cholesterol and protects against heart disease, take the drug. That number seems low until compared with the 26 percent of Germans, 23 percent of Britons, and 17 percent of Italians who could both benefit from the drug and receive it. Similarly, 60 percent of Americans taking anti-psychotic medication for the treatment of schizophrenia or other mental illnesses are taking the most recent generation of drugs, which have fewer side effects. But just 20 percent of Spanish patients and 10 percent of Germans receive the most recent drugs.
(Thanks to the Cato Institute for this info.)
It's a puzzlement why people who make average salaries are so anxious to defend $multi-billion corporations and individuals.
Anyone here worth even $multi-millions?
and exempt themselves from itIt's a puzzlement why people who make average salaries are so anxious to defend $multi-billion corporations and individuals.
Anyone here worth even $multi-millions?
Worth millions :
George Soros
Ted Kennedy
Nancy Pelosi
Jeff Immelt
Barack Obama
Barney Frank
etc....
And they want to pass these BS policies UHC and C/T to become richer, you loons don't get that .....
When faced with the truth the right will do one of two things...
1. Personal insult
2. Change the subject
Congrats, you managed to do both at the same time!
I made my point, i demonized you the way you and the dems are demonizing the insurance companies and you folded like a lawn chair. Exactly the same way your elected dem officials are at these town hall meetings. You're making money off people looking for housing and contributing to predatory lending, that is an undisputable FACT .....
More lies and personal insults. I keep my people away from "predatory lenders."
Demonizing insurance companies? No need. They do it to themselves.
60% of U.S. bankruptcies are caused by medical bills, and have you ever hear the term "pre-existing condition?"
Our system sucks. That is why it is failing.
Wow, did you just make that up on the spot?I made my point, i demonized you the way you and the dems are demonizing the insurance companies and you folded like a lawn chair. Exactly the same way your elected dem officials are at these town hall meetings. You're making money off people looking for housing and contributing to predatory lending, that is an undisputable FACT .....
More lies and personal insults. I keep my people away from "predatory lenders."
Demonizing insurance companies? No need. They do it to themselves.
60% of U.S. bankruptcies are caused by medical bills, and have you ever hear the term "pre-existing condition?"
Our system sucks. That is why it is failing.
Bullshit, most of those bankruptcies are because they were swimming in debt. Medical issues may have been the straw that broke the camels back, but lifestyle is the main issue.
47 million people in America don't have health insurance.
60% of all bankruptcies are caused by medical bills.
The U.S. is the ONLY industrialized country that doesn't have a single payer healthcare system. Every Western democracy has a single payer system, and they pay HALF per person what we pay for healthcare.
In America the rich get great healthcare, the poor get none until they are at death's door.
What a fucked up society we have!
Wow, did you just make that up on the spot?More lies and personal insults. I keep my people away from "predatory lenders."
Demonizing insurance companies? No need. They do it to themselves.
60% of U.S. bankruptcies are caused by medical bills, and have you ever hear the term "pre-existing condition?"
Our system sucks. That is why it is failing.
Bullshit, most of those bankruptcies are because they were swimming in debt. Medical issues may have been the straw that broke the camels back, but lifestyle is the main issue.
thats because this bill ISNT reform47 million people in America don't have health insurance.
60% of all bankruptcies are caused by medical bills.
The U.S. is the ONLY industrialized country that doesn't have a single payer healthcare system. Every Western democracy has a single payer system, and they pay HALF per person what we pay for healthcare.
In America the rich get great healthcare, the poor get none until they are at death's door.
What a fucked up society we have!
You forget that we're the most powerful nation on earth. We didn't get that way from copying everyone elses government policy's and healthcare systems. There is a reason we're as wealthy of a nation as we are...
When you need to remodel your bathroom, you don't tear town the house. I'm all for healthcare reform, but bill as proposed is frickin ridiculous and upsurd.
You also forget that many of the "uninsured" are the people who WON'T work, so techinically, this won't solve crap. You'll still lazy ass people who won't work, and therefore, won't pay into the system in order to get healthcare...
Medical bills underlie 60 percent of U.S. bankrupts: study
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Medical bills are behind more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday in a report they said demonstrates that healthcare reform is on the wrong track.
U.S. MEDICAL BANKRUPTCIES A MYTH; PERSONAL BANKRUPTCY RATE HIGHER IN CANADA
* The personal bankruptcy rate was actually higher in Canada in 2006 and 2007 (0.30 percent for both years) than in the United States (0.20 percent and .27 percent).
* Medical spending was only one of several contributing factors in 17 percent of U.S. bankruptcies -- medical debts accounted for only 12 to 13 percent of the total debts among American bankruptcy filers who cited medical debt as one of their reasons for bankruptcy.
* Medical reasons were cited as the primary cause of bankruptcy by approximately 15 percent of bankrupt Canadian seniors (55 years of age and older).
* Non-medical expenditures comprise the majority of debt among bankrupt consumers in both Canada and the United States; the inability to earn sufficient income to cover these costs -- not exposure to uninsured medical costs -- is the real explanation for almost all bankruptcies in either country.
Thus, bankruptcy statistics do not support arguments for a government-run, single-payer, socialized health insurance system, says Fraser.
Fraser cherry picked data excluding years where US bankruptcy rates were higher and failed to take into account more lenient bankruptcy laws in Canada vs. the US. Fraser is an libertarian think tank (oxymoron) who put out a study designed to support ideology and has nothing to do with fact. Thanks for sharing with us….
You forget that we're the most powerful nation on earth.
It's a puzzlement why people who make average salaries are so anxious to defend $multi-billion corporations and individuals.
Anyone here worth even $multi-millions?
It's a puzzlement why people who make average salaries are so anxious to defend $multi-billion corporations and individuals.
Anyone here worth even $multi-millions?
It's called brain washing.
"Thank you, sir, may I have another!"
Wow, did you just make that up on the spot?More lies and personal insults. I keep my people away from "predatory lenders."
Demonizing insurance companies? No need. They do it to themselves.
60% of U.S. bankruptcies are caused by medical bills, and have you ever hear the term "pre-existing condition?"
Our system sucks. That is why it is failing.
Bullshit, most of those bankruptcies are because they were swimming in debt. Medical issues may have been the straw that broke the camels back, but lifestyle is the main issue.
thats youIt's a puzzlement why people who make average salaries are so anxious to defend $multi-billion corporations and individuals.
Anyone here worth even $multi-millions?
It's called brain washing.
"Thank you, sir, may I have another!"
thats youIt's a puzzlement why people who make average salaries are so anxious to defend $multi-billion corporations and individuals.
Anyone here worth even $multi-millions?
It's called brain washing.
"Thank you, sir, may I have another!"
are you sure it isnt the other way aroundthats youIt's called brain washing.
"Thank you, sir, may I have another!"
He got that from Kevin Bacon in Animal House.
Chris is a room temperature IQ fucking nitwit, who only knows canards, slogans and worn out false dichotomy questions that beg the answers he wants.
He wouldn't know an analytical thought if it fell on him.
It's true. If an original thought ever entered his coconut, it would probably implode.
But back to the topic of the truth about US healthcare. None of this is to say that the US system is perfect, because it isn't. It's just to point out that what's wrong with our system isn't what the left tells us it is, and the solution DEFINITELY isn't what they tell us.
