EDITORIAL: Obama's plan is good, timing is wrong
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President Obama and the Democratic Congress are diligently working on an overhaul of the health care system — one of Obama’s campaign promises — this week.
We who will probably live the rest of our lives scraping the bottom of the financial barrel, applaud and appreciate Obama’s drive for better, cheaper health care for all.
However, we worry that, despite how great it sounds, it may not be the right time for such a costly overhaul.
The New York Times reported last week that Obama’s plan could cost $1 trillion over 10 years. That’s about a thousand billions.
We’ve already spent over $800 billion stimulating the economy this year, as well as billions more on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We realize health care is important, but shouldn’t we budget out such an increase?
If we’re going to go with such an expensive plan, should we cut somewhere else, somewhere extraneous like, say, military spending? OK, OK, maybe now isn’t the time for that. Maybe we could cut the educational budget instead. Wait... that’s not a good idea either.
Oh! We get it. There’s nothing left to cut. So we have the choice of being uncomfortable for a few years, while a better system than we’ve ever had is installed, or whining
We who will probably live the rest of our lives scraping the bottom of the financial barrel, applaud and appreciate Obama’s drive for better, cheaper health care for all.
However, we worry that, despite how great it sounds, it may not be the right time for such a costly overhaul.
The New York Times reported last week that Obama’s plan could cost $1 trillion over 10 years. That’s about a thousand billions.
We’ve already spent over $800 billion stimulating the economy this year, as well as billions more on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We realize health care is important, but shouldn’t we budget out such an increase?
If we’re going to go with such an expensive plan, should we cut somewhere else, somewhere extraneous like, say, military spending? OK, OK, maybe now isn’t the time for that. Maybe we could cut the educational budget instead. Wait... that’s not a good idea either.
Oh! We get it. There’s nothing left to cut. So we have the choice of being uncomfortable for a few years, while a better system than we’ve ever had is installed, or whining
Comments
If 800 billion Obama bucks stimulated the economy, why is the economy not recovering? Why have college graduates had the worst hiring season in memory? Only half the college graduates will get a job this year that requires a college degree. The rest will be tending bar, waitressing, selling cars, or driving taxis. Welcome to the Obama Economy, graduates!
If the gubblemint is so good at delivering health care, why are Medicare and Medicaid insolvent messes? Shouldn't Obama put his vast experience running hospitals and delivering health care to work fixing those existing systems? Where exactly has the government shown such extreme competence that it leads you to believe that it can improve health care? This would be a good question for you to ponder as you stand in those long lines at the post office and driver's license offices.
Government-provided health care is neither good nor cheap nor timely, unless you are a Senator or a President. Even college students should know that free stuff is some of the most expensive things you'll ever buy. And the worst.
Steve, look at the Veteran's Administration healthcare system-as Tony the Tiger would say, it's "Grrrrreeeeeeaaaat!"
Actually, it's not, and Obama threatened to get rid of VA healthcare in favor of PRIVATE insurance and treatment. That should tell you something.
And one last note, you are mistaken when you asked, "Shouldn't Obama put his vast experience running hospitals and delivering health care to work fixing those existing systems?"
His "experience" is in agitating and community organizing. obama's healthcare experience could not provide one band-aid to a skateboarding wreck victim, nor one spritz of Bactine or Neopsporin to a victim of a small laceration. His "healthcare" will not give one single jello-cup to a nauseous person nor a starving child. He will not be able to deliver one bottle of Pedialite to a dehydrated baby. But he will sure tax the shit out of you and let you die waiting 7 years for kidney dialysis.
The opinion writer says Obama wants to bring "better, cheaper healthcare for all", but that it will cost a trilion extra dollars to do so. Cheaper for whom? The people who don't pay for healthcare now, but simply use emergency rooms for free health care? How is Obama's plan cheaper for them? Or is it going to be cheaper for those people who consciously decide to not get and pay for health insurance while they are young and healthy? Or is going to be cheaper for middle class families who pay through the nose for health insurance now, and who will be expected to pick up the tab for health care for the other groups? I've read that my health care costs will go up $1,000 a year to subsidize Obama's health plan.
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money. " (Margaret Thatcher)
Isn't one party rule great?
It is recovering. But it's going to take a long time to repair the horrible situation the Bush Administration and the policies of the past 25 years have caused.
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Right . . . blame a guy who has been president for five months (four months at the time of most college commencements) for the conditions that have been festering for 25 years.
Because they are not. They will be if changes aren't made, but all programs must be monitored and adjusted as times change.
Here you go: Trims to Medicare, Medicaid Are Proposed to Help Fund Reform...
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A trillion over 10 years. Cheaper than the Iraq war.
Which makes medical care more expensive for everyone.
I don't know where you read it, but you would be free to use the public plan. I would imagine if an insurance company wants to stay in business, they'll lower their premiums to keep their customers. Lower premiums mean lower medical costs (hospitals won't have to pay such high premiums either).
The current system is terrible, especially if your employer doesn't provide affordable health insurance. The insurance companies and pharmaceutical are making huge profits while employers and people are forced to pay higher and higher costs--to the point where people cannot afford to take care of themselves and use preventative care for themselves and their children.
People want choices when it comes to healthcare and a public plan provides them. I can't understand why you want to defend a system that makes access to medical treatment more and more difficult while straining the already shakey economy at the same time.
I can't understand why you think going the route of FAILED socialized medicine in Canada, Europe, Cuba and America's own VA health system which will cost trillions of dollars a year more than obamanation already proposes to spend is a good idea now. Rationing of healthcare ("well, you're old and it's too expensive, you will just have to wait and die in pain...") is what you will hear over and over. Kathleen "tiller" Sebelius would NOt answer that question when asked repeatedly yesterday on the Sunday talk shows.
And obamanation's promise to not tax private healthcare plans is also out the window. Remember when he attacked mccain when mccain suggested that-yep, Obama is planning on doing that now.
And nevermind his campaign promise to post bills online 5 days before signing them, as well as "the most ethical and transparent Congress in history" doing the same. that one has already been broken repeatedly and both Plastic Pelosi and Dirty harry Reid both said they won't post this bill (either).
Wake up harry-how many times do you have to be lied to before you stop believing the talking points Rahmbo Emmanuel puts in your head?
I don't and the healthcare in Canada and Europe is not at all failed (prove otherwise). Cuba is a poor country and the VA system has been neglected by our own government for years.
Debunking Canadian health care myths
Harry Selby: "I don't know where you read it, but you would be free to use the public plan."
Harry, you've said a lot of stupid things in your day, but this is the rock bottom stupidest. I'm sure lefty wingnuts like you think that anything the government provides is free because you think that it just kinda happens, that nobody actually has to pay for what the government does. You don't realize that taxes pay for what the government does and when those taxes are fed to the gummint beast, most of it is consumed before it ever reaches the people it purportedly serves.
Government health care is not free, Harry. It's some of the most expensive health care you get because you pay higher taxes to get it, then it goes through layers of government bureaucracy to deliver it, bureaucracy which adds no value to the end product, but rather subtracts value that could be spent on more and better care.
Steve, your Fox News generated outrage has clearly blinded you to some degree (get your eyes checked, dude).
I didn't say that a public plan would be free, I said, "you would be free to use the public plan."
Reading comprehension skills do pay off.