Who scares you more, the Federal government or Aetna?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

WASHINGTON -- The fight over health care increasingly seems like a contest about what scares Americans more, the government or insurance companies.

Republicans are conjuring nightmares of government bureaucrats blocking patients from life-saving treatment, while Democrats paint pictures of heartless insurance executives dropping or denying coverage.

The liberal group MoveOn.org is sending its members footage of sharks slithering through the water as ominous music plays and a narrator booms, "They are enormous and powerful. They prey on our weaknesses, trying to separate the healthy from the sick....Let's take on the real predators -- health insurance companies."

The Club for Growth, a fiscally conservative group, is carrying out its own $1.2 million advertising campaign. One ad shows a distraught man at his dying wife's bedside while the narrator says, "$22,750. In England, government health officials decided that's how much six months of life is worth....Life-and-death decisions should be made by patients and doctors, not politicians and bureaucrats."

...

The back-and-forth obscures a truth acknowledged on both sides -- that doctors and patients, left to themselves, often order unnecessary and costly treatments, contributing to soaring national health costs.

The public is divided over whom to trust. In a recent CNN/Opinion Research poll, people were asked whom they would rather have make tough decisions about patients. Forty percent said insurance companies and 40% said government.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124986191040518189.html

[natty bumppo 297]

make a law that all senate/representatives/voted for lawmakers from the pres down have the exact same health care as us voting stiffs first ...

then ask the same question.

[thepizzadude 26]

make a law that all senate/representatives/voted for lawmakers from the pres down have the exact same health care as us voting stiffs first ...

then ask the same question.

[Danno 1,228]

Of course the Gov scares me more... much more.

Hey we have all been screwed over by one company or another we can fight it or take a loss and move on to another.

When it's the Govt who is screwing you where can you go, you will abide by their laws and rules or you will be punished.

Anyone who has ever dealt with so much as a Building inspector who thinks he is G_D in his little cubical knows what I am talking about.

I actually passed on buying a house because of one a;hole like this. I lost a few weeks time, I bet the seller lost thousands.

The Govt is useful for doing those FEW things we are not able to do for our selves such as put out a rowhouse on fire.

Provide law and order, secure our rights and repel foreign invasions.

The power to TAX and the power to imprison is Ultimate POWER.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Of course the Gov scares me more... much more.

Hey we have all been screwed over by one company or another we can fight it or take a loss and move on to another.

When it's the Govt who is screwing you where can you go, you will abide by their laws and rules or you will be punished.

Anyone who has ever dealt with so much as a Building inspector who thinks he is G_D in his little cubical knows what I am talking about.

I actually passed on buying a house because of one a;hole like this. I lost a few weeks time, I bet the seller lost thousands.

The Govt is useful for doing those FEW things we are not able to do for our selves such as put out a rowhouse on fire.

Provide law and order, secure our rights and repel foreign invasions.

The power to TAX and the power to imprison is Ultimate POWER.

This is true, except in practice most people with health insurance get them through their employers and thus have very limited choice and even more limited ability to change plans when unhappy when their provider.

[GaryC 7]

Of course the Gov scares me more... much more.

Hey we have all been screwed over by one company or another we can fight it or take a loss and move on to another.

When it's the Govt who is screwing you where can you go, you will abide by their laws and rules or you will be punished.

Anyone who has ever dealt with so much as a Building inspector who thinks he is G_D in his little cubical knows what I am talking about.

I actually passed on buying a house because of one a;hole like this. I lost a few weeks time, I bet the seller lost thousands.

The Govt is useful for doing those FEW things we are not able to do for our selves such as put out a rowhouse on fire.

Provide law and order, secure our rights and repel foreign invasions.

The power to TAX and the power to imprison is Ultimate POWER.

This is true, except in practice most people with health insurance get them through their employers and thus have very limited choice and even more limited ability to change plans when unhappy when their provider.

But with a single payer plan you have no choice at all unless your well enough off to buy your own insurance.

I agree that congress changing their health plan to whatever they create would go a long way to putting an end to the hysteria.

[Danno 1,228]

Of course the Gov scares me more... much more.

Hey we have all been screwed over by one company or another we can fight it or take a loss and move on to another.

When it's the Govt who is screwing you where can you go, you will abide by their laws and rules or you will be punished.

Anyone who has ever dealt with so much as a Building inspector who thinks he is G_D in his little cubical knows what I am talking about.

I actually passed on buying a house because of one a;hole like this. I lost a few weeks time, I bet the seller lost thousands.

The Govt is useful for doing those FEW things we are not able to do for our selves such as put out a rowhouse on fire.

Provide law and order, secure our rights and repel foreign invasions.

The power to TAX and the power to imprison is Ultimate POWER.

This is true, except in practice most people with health insurance get them through their employers and thus have very limited choice and even more limited ability to change plans when unhappy when their provider.

Limited Choice is frustrating, no choice is maddening, in fact it leaves you hopeless.

There are so many angles to these plans to be voted on that make no sense.

I have said this before, if they were really serious of "getting this right" they would run pilot programs in States. They answer back... "ahhh no, we need everyone".

Thats BS, many of our states are more populous than most countries, why couldn't several states run several programs and we could see the wonders or failures in this competitive test.

Hell the Govt already has so many people they are covering, everyone from prisoners to employees, why not show us how they can do it better by starting with that huge pool? Lets see them Bring down the prices.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

“Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have.” Barry Goldwater

[NickD 203]

A question of motive, either the government wants absolute power or actually cares about the people. With a reported 1.4 million dollars per day being paid by the insurance companies that is ending up in some congressman's pocket with promises of high paying jobs after the congressman leaves office, those also are motives for voting one way or the other.

One thing congress can do, is simply to reinstate the regulatory laws we once had regarding insurance companies along with anti-trust laws, sounds to me to be a good compromise, keeps the government out of it and levels the playing field for insurance companies.

Health insurance was not a problem in this country even as short as 30 years ago. And medical expenses were reasonable, recall a standard charge of ten bucks to see a doctor, around 500 bucks complete with prenatal care and delivering a baby, those prices have skyrocketed to 300-400 bucks for a doctors visit and well over 8,000-16,000 for prenatal care and delivering a baby.