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I am extremely fearful of a government run healthcare program that will compete with private insurance. We're already hearing about major cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. We know Social Security is not far from being bankrupt. Now we have to worry that at the time of our lives when we will most need healthcare, that some government flunkie will have the right to say we can't have an MRI or hip replacement because we're too old and of no further value to society!! I'm fearful of retirement in the U.S. I've been told that in the Canadian system, you can't even pay for services with your own money if you choose.

Socialized healthcare is great as long as you don't need it! God help the older people who need healthcare in a socialized medical program.

Senate Republicans Cry Real Tears Over the Fate of Insurance Companies; Little To Spare for the Uninsured

Posted: 16 Jun 2009 06:30 PM PDT

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After the rape and pillage of the last several decades, do we really care all that much about the survival of the insurance companies? If they were providing adequate service at a reasonable cost, it might not be so infuriating. But to pay all that money and get so little in return?

Yet the Senate Republicans, the Party of No, the Handmaidens of Corporate Welfare, are more concerned about losing their political patrons than the fact that people all over the country are, quite literally, dying.

WASHINGTON — The mood was upbeat in early March when scores of powerful lawmakers and lobbyists joined President Obama in the East Room of the White House to talk about fixing the nation's health care system. Still, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, rose to tell Obama that many Republicans had a problem with his plan to let the government compete with private insurers.

"There's a lot of us that feel that the government is an unfair competitor," Grassley said. "We have to keep what we have now strong, and make it stronger."

Translation: We can't possibly let you cut into insurance companies' obscene profit margins!

Three months later, disagreement has turned to discord over a key element of Obama's health care prescription: his insistence on a "public plan" to compete with private insurers. America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry trade group, is joined by the American Medical Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others that have expressed misgivings about greater government involvement.

"We're not sure that the government is very good at running a health plan," said Nancy Nielsen, president of the AMA, which heard Obama defend his plan Monday.

does this mean republicians like paying those high premiums to private insurance companies?

stcardinalfan, you know i am an obama supporter, but i have to tell you, your avi's crack me up

it is great your are in a position to pay for sky rocketing health care, you are very lucky, dick and i are very lucky, many are not so lucky, we will never change each others mind so i am going to give up for now

("Um . . I know this is a bad time but . . . .you're not covered.")

The endless debate on Health Care. Every time the subject is brought up, screams of "Socialized Medicine" pop up - and somewhere, the ones doing the loudest screaming appear to come from the American Medical Association. Curious, that.

Case in point - this rather historic debate between Walter Reuther (yes, that Walter Reuther) and Dr. Edward R. Annis from the AMA from February 23, 1961. The gist of the debate centered around the Kerr-Mills bill, which had been introduced as an alternative health care plan.

The case for some kind of universal Health Care has been going on since somewhere after the Stone Age. Reuther, a staunch union man, makes the case for Universal Health Care. While Annis, a man with somewhat suspicious motives, is adamantly against it. Although he doesn't come right out and say as much, his argument is peppered with the buzzword "Socialized Medicine" and it's clear where his loyalties lie.

Needless to say, he was no supporter of Medicare when it came to light in 1964 and became law in 1965. He was also no supporter of the warning on cigarette packs saying it would be bad for business if people stopped smoking. But that's another story.

There is an interesting postscript at the end of this broadcast. CBS began a series of "Letters To CBS" and Smith reads some of the letters that poured in after the first hour of the debate from two weeks earlier. One writer, a doctor who chose to remain anonymous, supplied a copy of a letter allegedly circulated by the AMA to doctors, urging letters of condemnation of CBS and the concept of Universal Health Care as a step towards Socialism.

Even then, the fear card was being played for all it was worth.

WOW, since 1961!!!!!

I already have excellent health coverage! I don't need his! They need to cncentrate on the government and keep their fingers out of our wallets, bussiness' and Organizations! The gov. has no right to it(until now)!! and it's wrong! we are a democratic and free country!! Deal with it!!

I work hard and go to work full time and have a fam plan. My copays are a little pricey but thats part of why I work. I don't think it's the gov. responsibility to pay for me or my family(JMO). My state actually has health cov. for low income which I have been on and it was good but you could only go to certain doctors. I have had med. thru my work for over 10 years and for the most part it works for me! I don't cre what others do as long as I don't have to foot the bill! I have my own family to care for!!JMO!!

My state does 2. My family of 5 Qualify's but my boys doctor(they both have ADHD isn't covered. so it's lose lose in my opinion

Obama's Doctor Knocks ObamaCare

Dr. David Scheiner took care of Obama for 22 years. But they don't see eye-to-eye on how to fix the health care system.

www.forbes.com/2009/06/18/obama-doctor-knocks-obamacare-business-healthcare-obam...

i have a question?? you have a great job, great benefits, a wonderful family, a nice house, living with in your means, things change where you work and you are laid off, your income is drastically reduced, your company gives you a nice severance pkg when you leave, you have a hard time finding a job, and i am not saying a $10/hr job, you still have all the expenses and things are beginning to get tight, what happens then? please tell me so i can pass that along to 3 very good friends, incidently they are all over 50, none of them have health insurance, do you have any advice?