*Percentage change since ’02 in average premiums paid to large US health-insurance companies:+87
*Percentage change in the profits of the top 10 insurance companies:+428
*Chances that an American bankrupted by medical bills has health insurance: 7 in 10
From Harper’s Index 9-09
Everything?! If the US government cuts private lenders out of the student loan market they would save $80 billion (with a b). But don’t take my word for it.
Let’s see……. Medicare. Ask Grandma if it would be okay to abolish Medicare and replace it with a private plan and premiums. Go on- I dare ya! The federal govt. DOES have a student loan program through the Dept. of Education. My wife re-financed her Sallie Mae loans through them and cut thousands of the term because of their much lower interest rate.
If insurance companies were actually being SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE we wouldn’t have so many uninsured people, and they would take care of people when they GOD FORBID get sick.
Great. You’ve now described Medicare, which is going bankrupt. And that Department of Education is funded by federal dollars. See, you’re talking about programs that taxpayers pay for, yet they still lose money hand over fist. Does the Dept. of Ed. make money, or lose it? Apparently, you weren’t a math major. The money comes from somewhere, and when it runs out (which it will eventually), everyone in the program will lose coverage or the government will take more in taxes, in which case we’ll all be speaking Chinese right quick. It’s a slippery slope, and one that comes to an all-too-chilling end.
Tonka, we’re into the Chinese for trillions of dollars as it stands today, chiefly because of the war on terrerism…so much so that I’m surprised they’re not teaching Mandarin as a First Language already.
Medicare has ONE TENTH the administrative costs of private insurers. And much of the costs for the bloated private bureaucracy goes towards denying care to customers in every devious way possible. And forget preventive medicine, they are mostly into PREVENTING medicine.
I was a math major so I don’t know where you get your information but it is very suspect. The department of education not making money is such a weak argument. I wonder how the profit margin per student would be calculated if our entire education system were run by private enterprise.
It is foolish to think of anything done by the Dept of Ed as a cost. That’s an investment. A recent study shows that in the US, the net value of a college graduate to the tax base over a non-graduate is about $100K, after accounting for any public funds that helped pay for their studies.
When government is run by people who are determined to prove government doesn’t work, government doesn’t work. It’s the best argument ever, “See I told you, we’re incompetent.”
Would you rather we didn’t have public schools? Would you like all roads to be private and tolled?
This bill is about regulation in an industry that has destroyed itself. I just don’t understand the vitriol that follows any talk of a public option or single-payer. Both would be better than what we have. Most of my friends do not have health insurance as it is almost rare to have businesses offer insurance (they usually offer to pay part of it). I do not have the option through the small business that I work at. I have minimal coverage even though I’m young and it costs me hundreds each month. I can’t even go in without it costing me money. In fact, it does nothing for me unless I’ve already paid thousands of dollars up front, and then there is a pretty damn good change that insurance company will weasle out of actually helping me when I need it.
We don’t live in a ‘capitalist’ society. We live in a shared country that pools its resources socially for the greater good, that cares for its people where it can and protects them from attack.
IF what everyone paid for health insurance was redirected into a Universal Health care system there would be no short-falls.
Starting from the premise that the government fucks p everything it touches is a flawed place to begin at. And a thoughtless one as well. We get bombarded continuously with the things that go wrong we fail to acknowledge the vast majority of things that go right because no one remarks about them. If you watch the news, read the papers, listen to people who bitch about everything under the sun and base your opinion of how things are going solely on that, you miss 99% of what happens.
Yes, government needs critics and people to push it to act better, but just saying government doesn’t work is not a criticism, it is ignorance.
I’m sure if you have kids, they would be thrilled to know that investing in their education equates to “losing money.”
And by the way, society as a whole is better off when everyone is well taken care of and wealth is more evenly distributed. People are less stressed, it’s easier to raise healthy families, there are fewer problems of social decay (like blight and drugs and crime e.g.), and even schmucks like you get a dividend of increased happiness and stability. (Of course, the opposite applies to our ultra-capitalistic U.S.A., the most stressed society on Earth. Thank Reagan for that).
*Percentage change since ’02 in average premiums paid to large US health-insurance companies:+87
*Percentage change in the profits of the top 10 insurance companies:+428
*Chances that an American bankrupted by medical bills has health insurance: 7 in 10
From Harper’s Index 9-09
Will someone please explain to me why they will trust the government to run something this big when they have f’ed up everything else they’ve run.
Please, pray tell.
@ Tonka Town
Everything?! If the US government cuts private lenders out of the student loan market they would save $80 billion (with a b). But don’t take my word for it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/16/AR2009091603001.html
Let’s see……. Medicare. Ask Grandma if it would be okay to abolish Medicare and replace it with a private plan and premiums. Go on- I dare ya! The federal govt. DOES have a student loan program through the Dept. of Education. My wife re-financed her Sallie Mae loans through them and cut thousands of the term because of their much lower interest rate.
Do you trust insurance companies to not “f” things up?
What’s wrong America taking responsibility for the people “the system” has failed?
If insurance companies were actually being SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE we wouldn’t have so many uninsured people, and they would take care of people when they GOD FORBID get sick.
Great. You’ve now described Medicare, which is going bankrupt. And that Department of Education is funded by federal dollars. See, you’re talking about programs that taxpayers pay for, yet they still lose money hand over fist. Does the Dept. of Ed. make money, or lose it? Apparently, you weren’t a math major. The money comes from somewhere, and when it runs out (which it will eventually), everyone in the program will lose coverage or the government will take more in taxes, in which case we’ll all be speaking Chinese right quick. It’s a slippery slope, and one that comes to an all-too-chilling end.
As you probably know, we currently spend twice as much per capita on health care as most civilized countries, and yet our health outcomes are unimpressive at best--and this so-called “system” meanwhile hinders economic growth, TonkaTown (if that is your real name).
“Does the Dept. of Ed. make money, or lose it?”
It’s a service. Not a business. The government is supposed to provide services… not make a profit.
Tonka, we’re into the Chinese for trillions of dollars as it stands today, chiefly because of the war on terrerism…so much so that I’m surprised they’re not teaching Mandarin as a First Language already.
nice try. now, go cry wolf somewhere else.
Medicare has ONE TENTH the administrative costs of private insurers. And much of the costs for the bloated private bureaucracy goes towards denying care to customers in every devious way possible. And forget preventive medicine, they are mostly into PREVENTING medicine.
I was a math major so I don’t know where you get your information but it is very suspect. The department of education not making money is such a weak argument. I wonder how the profit margin per student would be calculated if our entire education system were run by private enterprise.
It is foolish to think of anything done by the Dept of Ed as a cost. That’s an investment. A recent study shows that in the US, the net value of a college graduate to the tax base over a non-graduate is about $100K, after accounting for any public funds that helped pay for their studies.
http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14428647
If the government has f’ed up everything, how come all the mail I send out reliably reaches its destination?
I’m not using UPS or FedEx here.
I quite sure no matter what course our country takes, there’s no way I can learn Chinese.
When government is run by people who are determined to prove government doesn’t work, government doesn’t work. It’s the best argument ever, “See I told you, we’re incompetent.”
Tonka, why this anti-government ranting?
Would you rather we didn’t have public schools? Would you like all roads to be private and tolled?
This bill is about regulation in an industry that has destroyed itself. I just don’t understand the vitriol that follows any talk of a public option or single-payer. Both would be better than what we have. Most of my friends do not have health insurance as it is almost rare to have businesses offer insurance (they usually offer to pay part of it). I do not have the option through the small business that I work at. I have minimal coverage even though I’m young and it costs me hundreds each month. I can’t even go in without it costing me money. In fact, it does nothing for me unless I’ve already paid thousands of dollars up front, and then there is a pretty damn good change that insurance company will weasle out of actually helping me when I need it.
We don’t live in a ‘capitalist’ society. We live in a shared country that pools its resources socially for the greater good, that cares for its people where it can and protects them from attack.
Pile on?
IF what everyone paid for health insurance was redirected into a Universal Health care system there would be no short-falls.
Starting from the premise that the government fucks p everything it touches is a flawed place to begin at. And a thoughtless one as well. We get bombarded continuously with the things that go wrong we fail to acknowledge the vast majority of things that go right because no one remarks about them. If you watch the news, read the papers, listen to people who bitch about everything under the sun and base your opinion of how things are going solely on that, you miss 99% of what happens.
Yes, government needs critics and people to push it to act better, but just saying government doesn’t work is not a criticism, it is ignorance.
Tonka Trucks--
I’m sure if you have kids, they would be thrilled to know that investing in their education equates to “losing money.”
And by the way, society as a whole is better off when everyone is well taken care of and wealth is more evenly distributed. People are less stressed, it’s easier to raise healthy families, there are fewer problems of social decay (like blight and drugs and crime e.g.), and even schmucks like you get a dividend of increased happiness and stability. (Of course, the opposite applies to our ultra-capitalistic U.S.A., the most stressed society on Earth. Thank Reagan for that).