I'm not to sure that even Baynor & co. get what the people want. At least what I think they want. There are some real hard choices to be made as well as some hard cuts to the budget. We can handle a little hardship and tough times but lets get the job market moving by permanently keeping the current tax rates and lets require all of the freeloaders collecting welfare and unemployment to submit to drug screening tests before they receive benefits.
Kill Obama care and let the free market work, and I do mean FREE market, across state lines competition. Limits on liability's for doctors and cut out all of the junk law suits.
That would be a good start!
I'm sure there are lots of ideas you guys have, throw em in!

 

Unfortunetly, there will not be enough votes in the Senate to get rid of Obummercare. Even if a overturning of the healthcare bill passed I'm sure Obama would veto it. Hopefully, the courts will declare the mandate, that we are legally obliged to carry healthcare, will be declared (rightfully) unconstitutional. I'd like to see a phasing out of Social Security too. Let workers just entering the system invest on their own. And those already working that have been paying in can start gradually to switch over to savings and investment.

 

I don't think the government is capable of managing healthcare, but mandatory health insurance is something I do agree with. People who chose not to pay for health insurance will not be left to die when they need health care. They'll still get it, and the rest of us will have to pay for it. Besides, if everyone had their own health insurance, we wouldn't need Obamacare.

 

I understand the argument that hospitals are going broke because of people using the emergency rooms as their primary care physicians every time they get a cold, etc. But, to mandate that everybody has to carry health insurance is certainly not Constitutional. Where is, the freedom to choose what we feel is best and right for ourselves and our families. I've had to deal with the lovely system non-conservative Mitt Romney left here in Massachusetts. It mandates that everyone has to have insurance or you pay a penalty. A year after my wife lost her job we were without insurance and had to purchase our own. The insurance companies all referred us to the state program. We signed up, paid our first months hefty cost, and were added to the system. This was in July of 2010. I learned in August that my wife had made a clerical error and had picked a plan that did not include our doctors. I'm diabetic and have a doctor that knows me and my condition. So, I called them and explained the situation. Long story, short, is that after literally dozens of phone calls and months of sending them letters, they still would not allow me to get different coverage until January of this year. We were trying to do what we were told we must do and they couldn't get their act together and change it until January???? Fun, can't wait until the federal system comes into effect.

On the hospital front, they should be allowed to garnish the wages of the freeloaders who don't pay for the services they received. I was between jobs and had a massive ruptured appendix that almost killed me. I ended up in the hospital for 12 days. I paid the hospital, doctor, and anesthesiologist off over the space of the next couple years. If I could do it, others can too. If the people are coming here illegally to get free care they should be deported, plain and simple.

Instead of people taking responsibility for themselves we've become a society that wants the government to take care of us. Whatever happened to family, friends, and neighbors helping each other out. It's a whole lot less expensive than getting the government to do everything for us. Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid are all out of money. Let's add some more government programs....

 

We lost that when Social Security came into existance. All workers are forced to pay into that mandatory retirement fund. We'd have been better off if that money would have went into private sector investment funds. I read somewhere that the average worker would retire with over a million dollars if all the money he or she, and their employer, put into social security over their working lifetime had been put into conservative investment funds instead.

Obviously, it would be better to require people to buy health insurance on the open market than to have that money go to the government like our Social Security payments did.

When hospitals have to hire collection agencies to chase deadbeats, that costs money which the rest of us will see in our hospital bills. That's just plain unfair. There are too many people who would rather spend their money on things other than health insurance premiums. I'll admit to being tempted myself. The money I spend on monthly premiums would cover payments on a couple of really nice quads, or maybe even a new 4wd pickup...or a bigger 4-stroke outboard for my bass boat...and my snowmobiles are getting kind of old. My wife wants new carpeting and granite counter tops. There's a heck of a lot of temptation.

 

Yep, I think the current Social Security system should go the way of the dodo. Extinct. To me, the government programs become an unreliable crutch. While we were fighting with the state about insurance we found how much cheaper it is not to have it. Spent maybe $300 a month on prescriptions and doctor's office visits rather than the $1600 per month they were trying to make us pay for insurance that didn't include our primary care physicians. I can only imagine what a federal program would do. And the thing that really makes me wonder about is the fact that it would create 16,000 new IRS jobs. Yes, this is part of the Obummercare program....????

I hear you about temptation on buying things. You'd probably still spend better than the government does though. We have to live with keeping in our budgets or paying the price by way of foreclosure or confiscation of things we can't pay our monthly bills on. The government is actually thinking about raising the debt ceiling. How nice. They want to add to the 14 trillion dollar debt. Even if you taxed the top 10% of wage earners 100% of their earnings we still can't pay that down.

The simple fact is this; Government is not a money making institution. It is a money taking institution. We've got to stop spending and start getting rid of programs, not keep adding more and more.

 

Moose....Have you been to an emergency room in the last 20 years? Nobody uses them as their primary care facility. You'd sit for two days if you're not bleeding all over the floor. Also, States mandate auto insurance. This is no different and it will not be declared "unconstitutional". Everything is "unconstitutional" these days. Hummm, wonder why that is.... Gotta have insurance and you gotta pay like the rest of us. I agree with Deep.

BTW: Hi Moose. Hope you had good holidays and all's well.

 

I live in Massachusetts and am thinking of moving to NH. They don't mandate car insurance there. It leaves the market open for true competition. I've talked to my two brothers who live in NH. Yes, they have a slightly higher property tax. But, they also don't have state income tax and they don't have to carry auto insurance or health insurance if they don't want to. One works for Raytheon and gets health insurance through them and the other is a private contractor that puts a little money away towards any needed health costs. He pays in cash. I just believe that we should be able to say what we want to buy or not buy. All the government does is add a multitude of layers of cost that are unnecessary. Would I buy insurance in NH for car and health? Yes, but on my terms, not the government deciding what I can or cannot buy.

Holidays were good. Got to see my sister who lives out on the Left coast on Thanksgiving and we had a good Christmas with family here in town. Hope yours was peaceful also.

PS I've been through emergency rooms here in the Boston-Lowell area. And, yes, there are tons of people using emergency rooms for their healthcare. I've talked to doctors and nurses about it too. There have been a few eye opening articles about the trend also but I honestly can't remember the publications. I don't fabricate or lie though. The articles spoke of people not having regular physicians and going to emergency rooms for treatments that could have been taken care of for much less money by a general practioner. Also, many in the articles didn't have their own vehicle or fare for public transportation. They often call ambulances. What I don't understand, personally, is the mentality of not paying for care you receive. If you can't afford to pay in one lump space out the payments. Whatever happened to dignity and integrity? I think the Social Security program changed the attitude of too many Americans from I will take care of me and my family to the government will care for me.
I know we can't make people have moral character but it would be nice if people would meet their obligations instead of taxpayers bailing them out. And, I include the banks, brokerage houses, auto makers, and individuals. If your business isn't working and you're losing money at it you may need to close shop or declare bankruptcy and start again with a reorganization.

 

My nephew is an emergency room physician and yes, people do use the emergency room as a primary care center.
He could tell you many stories of the people sitting in there with the cold, flu or other minor illnesses that do not require care, let alone emergency room care.
And as far as states mandating that you have car insurance? Well, I don't see the states mandating that everyone have car insurance, only those that choose to own and drive a car.
The fed. government will mandate the everyone BREATHING must purchase health insurance. There is a huge difference.

 

Social Security was never meant to be a "retirement fund".
When SS was instituted it would be paid out at the age of 65, the average life span of the American male at that time was 62.
So SS was meant more for the surviving spouse (female) who never worked than it was for the male as a retirement benefit.