Rush Limbaugh HEARTS status quo healthcare

[Conan71]

I can agree on a few of your points.  One I don't particularly agree with is insurance coverage being the same all the way up and down the totem pole in a corporation.  To me, that's the same as putting limits on executive pay (I do draw the line at executives profiting via bonuses when their balance sheets are shored up with low-interest government loans).  Generally executives are awarded better benefits and pay because ostensibly their accumulated business experience and education makes them worth more to the operation. 

One of the biggest problems forcing higher health care costs has nothing to do with insurance companies other than they are stupid enough to not watch the till a lot closer.  It's the decentralization of health care into doctor-owned facilities: i.e. specialty hospitals.  That's the one thing I'm NOT hearing in the debate.  A lot of docs have also ventured off as partners into diagnostic facilities (i.e. MRI & labs), rehabilitation, long term nursing care, and hospice. 

I will probably draw fire for this, but think about how much money it takes to operate specialty bone and joint hospitals, spine hospitals, surgical hospitals, cancer hospitals, etc.  Problem is, no one nipped that problem in the bud before it exploded.  You can't shove the genie back in the bottle now.

Limpbaugh didn't kill anyone, nor did anyone die as a result of his actions or inaction, so far that I'm aware.  He went to the same lengths many other exonerated junkies have gone to to get his dope.

Now Watergate does not bother me. Does your conscience bother you? Tell the truth.

[nathanm]

One of the biggest problems forcing higher health care costs has nothing to do with insurance companies other than they are stupid enough to not watch the till a lot closer.  It's the decentralization of health care into doctor-owned facilities: i.e. specialty hospitals.  That's the one thing I'm NOT hearing in the debate.  A lot of docs have also ventured off as partners into diagnostic facilities (i.e. MRI & labs), rehabilitation, long term nursing care, and hospice. 

I will probably draw fire for this, but think about how much money it takes to operate specialty bone and joint hospitals, spine hospitals, surgical hospitals, cancer hospitals, etc.  Problem is, no one nipped that problem in the bud before it exploded.  You can't shove the genie back in the bottle now.

I fully agree with you there. I posted link to an article last year that pointed out the strong correlation between areas with large numbers of these "businessdoctor" facilities and far higher than average Medicare costs. It specifically talked about McAllen, TX.

Personally, rather than the bill currently not under consideration, I'd much rather have single payer (or even the public option) plus lightly regulated private insurance (by lightly regulated, I mean regulations regarding financial solvency, not products, except as is necessary to effect the first goal). Everybody gets a baseline, and companies that want to can offer supplemental health insurance to any or all of their employees.

As the health insurance "system" currently stands, the regulations regarding sameness of benefits make sense, given their tax-free nature. We pretend it's not part of total compensation unless certain people get better plans than everyone else. (IIRC, you can have different plans for different classes of employee, just not individually)

[heironymouspasparagus]

b.) is the sound bite version.  Does not mean the same up and down the organizaiton.  Example, my company has a range of selections from none to full, with minimal co-pay.  I think there are about 6 or 7 different main choices.  Now, the longer version is that no CEO (or any other upper management) can have a different set of selections from everyone else in the company.  They get the same choices as I get, or you get.

The first one, a.) is the big one to me, and the least likely to ever work.  No member of Congress can have an insurance plan better than the worst plan readily available to any citizen of this country.  (A little equality under the law.)

I was reading about those stand alone facilities last week somewhere (senior moment, can't remember where - Wall Street Journal??).  Apparently, the concensus is that overall, they are fairly effective at treatment and are noticeably more cost effective (cheaper) than the hospital equivalent.  Something to do with focus on one topic and not having the whole spectrum a hospital has to support.  But that pretty much by definition is "cherry picking".  Lot of tough calls out there for us.


More about executive pay later.  I think it should maybe go under a different topic.  There is a guy out here in Tulsa I know who believes a lot like me on that, so I will blatantly copy him. (It's already written - will have to find it in old notes.)

The last part mentioned several highly public figures.  Interesting how you only mentioned Limbaugh.  Clinton's BJ in the Oval Office didn't kill anyone and no one died as a result, yet there was an impeachment.  Also, Bush's lies did lead to many deaths, and no consequences for the people involved.

I have intensely disliked Kennedy ever since the Gun Control Act of 1968.  One small redeeming factor about him was that he actually went on national TV to apologize specifically to the people of Massachusetts and generally to the U.S. 

Another very public figure in recent years was Laura Bush.  Not only did she kill her alledged 'high school sweetheart' while quite likely driving drunk to a party, but her family at the time went to great lengths to hush the story.  And no where in the intervening decades has it ever been addressed publicly, let alone a public apology.  (I am certain that she is very remorseful and has apologized to the boy's family.  I like Laura much better than her husband, but it seems somewhat specious to maintain that double standard - weeks and years about Kennedy, but no even minutes about another very high profile person with very direct contact with highest levels of government.  Ok, I do grant there is a diffence in level of public standing...but nowhere near the difference between say, Kennedy and you or me.  Or even Mayor Bartlett or Gov. Henry.)