Did anyone watch this last night?

I would argue on my personal experience and a Dr. friend of mine from England.

1) socialized medicine I suppose is fine as far as you never get really sick or hurt.  For a non emergency operation one can wait 6-8 months to get that surgery, IE knee surgery.

2) My Dr. friend came here because of the above. He did not like treating his patients that way.

3) My daughter spent the majority of her pregnancy in England and the records she brought back were a joke. None of the routine tests we run here were done and the few they did do were simply checked off, no results. The hospital here laughed.

4) In Canada a small town did fund raisers to get a CT machine for their hospital because the closest one was over an hour away. When the Health Minister found out he said since it had not been approved by the government they could not use it. (I have relatives in Canada) So you know who is using it now? The local Vet.

So yes government health care is not all it is cracked up to be. I have worked in the health field and even with our flaws I would not want government run health care ever.

I have worked in the health field and even with our flaws I would not want government run health care ever.

I suspect it has more to do with your political leaning than any real world experience.

For a non emergency operation one can wait 6-8 months to get that surgery, IE knee surgery.

Simply a lie.  There is a waiting list for elective surgeries, like plastic surgery, but not for something like a knee surgery.

In polls, the English and Canadians have a higher level of satisfaction in their health care system for availibility and quality  than Americans.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/...

I saw about five minutes of the conversation between Moyers and the former health care executive on Michael Moore's website. I'm going to watch the rest of Moyers's show later. I'm going to keep a closer eye on healthcare issues because I know politicians won't be brave enough to confront these corporations, unless their constitutients urge them to take action.

I guess no more TV or surfing the Internet until I get caught up on what is being done to stop these profiteers from taking money away from sick people.

I'm over halfway through Moyers.  I'm taking a break from the show because I'm so sick of politicians being prostitutes for corporations. They sell out so easily. My friend had an internship with a house of representative member after 9/11, and the stories that she told apalled me. She was excited by the experience. But, it sounded like most of the representatives were so removed from American's daily reality. They went to many parties,dinners, events that were held in somebody's mansion, usually friends of the congressional representatives. It just seems that they should be partying less and spend more time reading legislation (they don't read the entire bill) or at least tour the bad part of DC and develop a program to help the homeless and reduce the rates of HIV infection.

jf:  Too many health insurance lobbyists involved.  Too many lawyers involved.  Too many pharmaceutical company lobbyists involved.  Not enough oversight over Medicare and Medicaid.  Waste there could probably provide health care for a small country.  Too much waste.  Too much greed.  And too many doctors have to practice as though they were about to get sued.  Too much paper work.  For everybody.  Think of the extra government workers needed to oversee what they have now?  A "public option" would exacerbate that problem.

"The government" has been stealing from Social Security for years.  That needs to stop.  There are too many angles to this problem. 

Private inudstry is no more efficient.  As bad as you want less government, I want less private oligopolization.  Total private control exascerbates the problem.  Let the public v. private compete against each other and see who wins.  Continuing to do the same is not the answer.  Letting lobbyist shoot down ideas that cut into their bottom line and then admitting after the fact (a la Wendell Potter) that there are better options is wrong.  People are dying for the sake of dollars.  This is wrong.

spam code: gtlmn (not)

jf:  A public option will mean that eventually there won't be any private options.  Eventually it will be a gargantuan government-run "option" that will leave most people without many options.  Then, as I've asked before, where are the Canadians going to go?  I guess India is one option.  Pakistan is another.

I'm not for monopolization of anything.  Let there be choice.  Except that soon it won't make sense to most people to choose private health care.  That's when all the public "options" will be dropped in favor of the one "option" that can -- and how it can -- "compete" (translated:  take over).

jf:  By the way, is that Bill Moyers?  Obviously I didn't look at the links.  Seldom do I do so unless I paste them into my browser later.  If it's Bill Moyers, well, uh, let's just say I won't paste that link.  I know precisely where he's coming from.

Yeh, it's from Bill Moyers.  He had an ex-Executive from the health care industry admit that he tried to sabotage the movie Sicko.  I still think Potter is slime for doing this to people in the name of profits.  Even now the guy has ulterior motive even though he is trying to promote the public option.

I'm not for monopolization of anything.  Let there be choice.  Except that soon it won't make sense to most people to choose private health care. 

I would be for the current oligopoly if I thought it was effective.  I have no problem with people not choosing private care if it doesn't make sense.  Right now it's about doing what's right for the people, not about choosing the best ideology.  I hate that people are dying over the games that the industry is playing.  Some things just are not about money.

Have you ever watched Sicko?

First time I've ever blogged.  I Had to get my son to show me how this works.  So if I make some ethical mistakes PLEASE go easy on me as I am sooooo sensitive.  My son is now on the floor laughing. I have some questions, and I hope some of you can take the time to respond. Thanks. I'm kind of a research nut and dig...dig...dig. I'd just like to get someone elses' opinion.

Kevin Jennings...your opinion...why ?.   Scale from 1-10 , how much research have you done?

Ron Paul   same thing..................

Sarah Palin  etc...........

Trilateral commission etc...........

If any of you have time, watch "Fall of the Republic" by Alex Jones, on youtube  it's long but ....I actually visited 3 of those places

 Hey this is kinda fun,  my son just said I was a dweeb?  Is he being disrespectful?   Again thanks!

Forgot one.  But again how much research have you done on your own.

Cutting the water off in the valley.agree?....disagree?  Why to either.  What information do you base your reasoning on?

I completely understand that the current system is far from perfect....our health care system will never be....BUT to move to what is being touted now by our government is definitely NOT a step in the right direction.

Sica, apparently you haven't been reading the blog if you need to ask opinions on Palin.  :-)

Sica, if you like the Alex Jones stuff, you've come to the right place. Wait for a guy named Infowar - you can become BFF.

POGO, like I said I'm new at this blogging thing, but I've always been interested in politics in as far as it's mechanics and the history of it's mechanics. I'll repeat: I do my own research on potential canidates. Fortunately I'm in a position to do that. I have to travel a lot and my field research in geology suits my character. I like the solitude, I get to think for myself without the intrusion of the seemingly biased media. I don't know what BFF is, but I do know that our republic was formed by persons that engaged in many heated controversies, many, many times, before they decided that the conclusion met would serve our little corner of the world well. If one were to actually READ the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, they would find that there are and always have been provisions that protect and preserve all Americans. Having said that, I detest the act of bullying on ANY level, and for the same reason I detest cowardice.....theres' no degree of difference.  

Sica, first, try going to a larger type (the little bitty boxes labeled 'size'), my tired old eyes can't see. Glad to see you do research; most people in here do too. They look at places that say things they agree with and call it research. 

'BFF' means best friend forever. You will love Infowar if you like Alex Jones.

I guess you can have a"heated controversy" but I think they engaged in heated conversations before they did something for "our little corner of the world" whatever in the hell that means.

I've got a Master's in History and taught it at the University level, so yes, I've read the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

Neither a bully nor a coward be.

Welcome to the blogosphere.

 Pogo, I am glad you could see the itty bitty box and were gracious enough to steer me to it. Had I been lucky enough to attend one of the classes you taught,(where?), I would now be as computer clever as you. Since that is not the case and my print was too small for your tired old eyes, let me repeat larger. When I say I research, I mean demographically. Opinions based on the tired opinions of others are interesting only at the level of cheap entertainment, which I'm not above enjoying. Hence my new found blogging adventure.

J, A comment on the "two cents". Some months ago because I do some  freelance investigative paralegal work ( which means I get paid very little to spend a lot of time being very nosy)  : ) ,

I had reason to go over Georgias' 2007 budget/audit. It was very long, and very boring until..... I hit on one of the cost reports for a program called WIC. This stuck out because my best friend manages a small grocery in one of the poorest towns in Ga. She and I had been arguing over personal responsibility vs gov. responsibility. WIC was the example she laid out.  She said it was one of the few programs that was doing what it was supposed to do until the gov. messed it up.  I had no documentation at the time but I know her to be honest and we both let it go for the time.  When I came upon the name WIC I really paid close attention and was shocked. The end of the state audit gives reason for its finding and then gives recommendations for improvement for each individual government entity.  WIC was in arrears by the end of its' 1st Q by 3.5 million (?) (close anyway) due to a failure to release its' figures to the federal gov. on time, therefore it was denied the money grants needed to supplement the program.  I was livid and followed this up with Gov. Perdues' office. In response to my e-mail I got a very generic and condesending bucket of nothing, other than to say that Gov. Perdue stands by the decisions made by his staff.  WHAT??  The entire program was put in a dire state simply because someone fell a little behind on their job.  My question to the state/fed gov. was, " when this sort of thing happens doesn't it stand to reason that a human error has occcurred and those that really need the help this program provides should not be made to suffer as they have NO control over the states lack of office skills.....and where praytell does that now surplus go? It would be easier to tell you who was less than 5 million in the red than to tell you who was. These figures amounted to a little over 51 million if I remember correctly and all information is still available. 

Wouldn't be great if you could relieve government workers for cause?  What happened to teh person responsible for teh human error?

I worked in the US Attorney's Office for a clerk that could no longer do her job.  She was hired 30 years ago before automations and computers.  She had no idea how to process or maintain records.  She literally was being paid to do nothing.  Her main job was to manage interns and student clerks who did her work.

I'll go you one better. The state of Ga. allocated funds to avoid exactly what you're talking about, (by training employees already in place) only to find out that they were woefully short on the software to implement the programs statewide. Years ago I bartended...no salary, just tips. Had I run my station in the same fashion I would have starved. 

The sad thing is that she wasn't the only one.  The DOJ started offering "early" retirements to incompetent workers but I think it's sad that you have to pay someone off to leave a job that they can't even do.

It's sad that you have to pay someone off to leave a job that they can't even do.  What good are evaluation reports if they are not taken seriously?

This is the same scenario with MAJ Hasan.

I appreciate your comments..Happy Thankgiving.

Pimp on, pimping.