Listened to Comrade Osama's press conference tonight. He provided no new information, called doctors crooks and theives, and blamed the uninsured for all the problems in the health care system. No, really, Comrade, the costs of Medicare/Medicaid are a much greater problem in the health care system -- the fact that the federal government doesn't fund costs, at the same time offering care "for free," urging everyone to overburden the system with trivial complaints.
Might also throw in state insurance boards, and the fact that insurance carriers can't sell insurance across state lines, and a whole plethora of other regulations that also are largely only obstructive, like requiring policyholders to pay for coverage for fertility treatments when they're past menopause, and things like that.
Oh, and the Comrade's getting real tough now, even scary. He said that socialized medicine "won't add to the deficit, and I mean it!" and stamped his little fist on the podium.
Like he meant the Stimulus bill would save jobs and restart the economy, or the way crap-and-trade would make the US energy-independent? About the latter, he also said his program would result in "skyrocketing energy costs." Must have slipped up on that. Lying is hard; you always have to remember the lies you tell. Tough during the rigors of a campaign I guess. Or perhaps he was directing these comments at something McCain had proposed, like using coal -- the most abundant fuel in the USA, and the use of which actually has a shot at making the US energy-independent.
Also, interesting, the Comrade suggested that suppose you go see your doctor for a sore throat. Instead of giving you a presciption for your immediate problem, the Comrade says the doctor may prescribe a tonsillectomy, because the doctor could charge more for the surgery. I have personal experience with that. In my early 20's, for about three years, every year I got tonsillitis. I mean every year. And it was painful. One year, even my gums swelled up.
I went to doctors for it, and none of them wanted to give me the surgery because they said at my age -- 25 years old -- it would be like major surgery. My tonsils were deeply embedded. I'd have to be in the hospital for a week and it would be extremely painful and take quite a while to heal. Besides, your tonsils actually have a useful function. If I kept getting tonsillitis, they would have to do the surgery, but the recommendation was to wait and see. I never had the surgery and did stop getting tonsillitis.
Not to say that some doctors don't over-diagnose in this way -- I mean, look at the situations with Anna Nicole Smith and Michael Jackson -- but what's to keep them from doing it under socialized medicine? Do you have any idea how many people right now are collecting all sorts of stuff under auspices of Medicaid/Medicare under false pretenses? Recently there was a huge scandal in Florida -- about nine people collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars for providing HIV therapies. And none of the people collecting the money were doctors. There were no patients. It was all a big scam.
I actually think the pharmaceutical companies are more like drug pushers than manufacturers. I mean really, promoting on TV use of a drug that will make your toenails real purty.... but it may destroy your liver. And the pharmas are totally in bed with the government. They even were with the Clintons. In the early days of the Clinton administration, when Hillary was devising her own socialized medicine program, she made a killing on pharma stock in an insider trading deal. Apparently the pharmaceuticals welcome government ownership. They must be a bunch of idiots, or so whipped by the FDA that they abandoned any concept of the free market a long time ago and now just hope the sitting president likes them.
By the way, I erred in saying that under HR 3200, uninsured people who didn't buy insurance would have to pay a fine of .02% of the their annual income. That's 2.5% of their annual income -- or 15 times as much as I thought.
Anyway, all-in-all socialized medicine is still a crock. The Comrade offered no new information about it, and even seemed to not know very much about it. Apparently he doesn't care what congress cooks up, as long as the program that passes totally puts the health care industry under direction of the federal government.
And again we come back to this: Where has this ever worked? People come from all over the world to get health care in the USA. This is all just so incredibly stupid and destructive.
Oh, another interesting point. Have you ever noticed that when the Comrade talks about "playing politics," he's always talking about those who oppose him? He doesn't politicize anything. For example, he's not making the health care industry a political issue, is he? Nah... He wouldn't do that. He's too freaking godlike. A legend in his own mind.
He wouldn't make medical diagnostics and care for every patient a decision made by a bunch of politicians, would he?
He did mention setting up a board to "cut expenses" in Medicare. Apparently that's his euphemism for "rationing." And, in any case, how is saddling the health care industry with another set of "experts" on the payroll going to reduce costs? Each of these guys will need a staff, an office, probably their own laboratories, maybe a hospital or two just to double check their recommendations... that's how government always works. It grows like cancer.
Here's a suggestion: Why not apply the ace regulatory scheme outlined in the HR 3200 first to only Medicare/Medicaid for maybe the next five years? Let's see how it wrings out fraud and inefficiency there, saves costs, and provides quality care.
Let's see how well it works there first, before destroying the excellent health care we have now in pursuit of the Comrade's personal vision of a marxist Utopia.
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