tanked_as_usual

VA Medical System in Shambles, Veterans Groups Say - Political News - FOXNews.com

what makes anyone think that the government can succeed at this?

Patters

It's no secret that during the Bush administration, the VA hospitals were not adequately run. I assume that's one of things that Obama hopes to address, but it has nothing at all to do with the insurance-based national health care proposals currently be considered. At any rate, every now and then we read about failures at hospitals. One bad hospital does not mean all hospitals are bad.

tanked_as_usual

you are so biased.........you think VA hospitals have only been like this during the Bush administration? do you believe that it is only the job of the legislative branch to make sure the VA is maintained? if so, then your knowledge is not credible.....let me guess....the VA was good when Clinton was in office? LMFAO

but beyond that, it is just proof that as a population, we cannot be dependent upon our government to provide consistently decent healthcare from administration to administration.......it will simply become another budget battleground.......forget it

BelichickFan

Going along with your questionable premise - this is why we DON'T want this to devolve into single payer because we're stuck with and subject to whatever the administration at the time chooses to do.

Patters

I think there's politics involved no matter what system we have. Single payer would carry its own set of risks (reduced competition); on the other hand you eliminate the middle man (less of a role for private insurance); on the other hand, capitalism needs bureaucratic layers in order to grow. The idea of expanding markets vertically, as well as horizontally has long been recognized by business economists.

My view is that I will support whatever kind of national health care we get in the hope that it is improved with time. The idea of changing jobs or going into private business but still having heath insurance will be a huge boon to worker mobility and the economy.

Patters

I have no idea how the VA was run prior to Bush and I doubt if you do, but there were sure a lot of headlines during the Bush years. Either the problems were largely ignored prior to that or hospitals declined on Bush's watch.

Hospitals and healthcare will be run largely as they are today. The healthcare plans are really in effect just a way to standardize information processing and regulate insurance so that we can take full advantage of the leverage that a market of 250,000,000 has. Our healthcare plans won't change but I would guess that the cheapest ones will offer fewer benefits than the more expensive ones.

BelichickFan

I have zero interest in single payer. It's a road to absolute disaster.

I have no problem with making it individually paid, just like car or property insurance. In theory our paychecks would go up (the amount the employer saves) and, yes, you would get your precious taxes on those earnings.

Once everyone pays for their own they can make choices. Not everything needs to be covered. I already pay for my own dental and optical, that's fine. I pay for anesthesia myself. Going to the hospital doesn't need to be free. We just need coverage for the big stuff - and if someone wants to pay for coverage for little stuff they could have that choice. But, obama, don't you dare take my choice away from me, you controlling dickweed.

tanked_as_usual

been around long enough to know that the VA has been pretty lousy since the vietnam war and I have read that it had been going downhill the further it got from having to work with WW2 heroes......

there are many more instances of government sponsored health program really sucking than your claim that things will be the same can support

ummmm............so if nothing is going to change, then what's the point? your match doesn't work.........

we have millions that aren't covered......who is going to pay for them? yup.....the ones who are covered.......and this money is going to come from where given that there is already a 1.8T deficit.........

any way you paint the picture, it looks the same......I'd suggest you get yourself out of your fantasy world and begin to understand reality.......

BelichickFan

Clearly the rest of us would but we need to keep it private and competitive, those who can't pay for themselves would not get the Cadillac nor the Ford package but the Kia package. The rest of us can decide what we want to pay for - but getting it out of employer paid and into individual would help because people would be more picky about what coverage costs. Employee paid hurts competition because people don't care what it costs, they aren't paying. If you're paying the bill you're going to be more picky and that improves competition.