Government Takeover of Healthcare

I bet if it was a Bush, you would have signed up already :)

I agree with you Leah. If it is such a great bill then why isn't all of the government employees including elected officals on the government healthcare plan? This only makes sense. Also everyone needs to realize that the current healthcare plan you are on now and want to keep most likely will not be offered by your employer once a FREE (you'll actually be paying for it if you take it or not) healthcare policy is available. Most healthcare benifits will be cut because of a free alternative. All the employers need to do is to offer a 5-10% pay raise and get the employee to go on the federal healthcare plan. My estimate is that it will take less than 5 years for 80% of the population to be on it. I still can't figure out why they can't get the "paid for abortions" out of the proposed bill. Not to mention NO IDEA of how to pay for it

Well your in luck then. The health care plan the Democrats are trying to pass is the same plan the president and all the senators and all the congressmen have. Isn't it odd that republicans have always opposed new programs that help average people. Social security, medicare, medicaid, expanded health care for children, and now health care reform that would give anyone a chance to have the same coverage as any of our elected officials.

All private insurance companies are in business to make a profit. A federal plan only needs to brake even so any government insurance plan will cost less to start with. I know some huge numbers are being floated around about the cost of a public plan but the truth is any private plan is going to cost far more and still not cover everyone.

Republicans have claimed private insurance companies could control costs better than a government plan but the truth is private insurers have no incentive to do so. In fact they have incentive to do just the opposite. All companies work on a cost plus mark up percentage. With insurance companies the higher there costs the more money there mark up brings in. Quite simply higher health care costs mean bigger profits for insurance companies and that means insurance executives get huge bonuses for nothing more than not trying to control costs.

So for me I can't wait for a public option. Yes I'm willing to pay my fair share of the cost of this new program. After all it's not a tax increase. It's a decrease in my insurance bill.

That is sad. A lot of people go bankrupt from medical expenses even though they DID have insurance.

There's a huge difference between coverage and treatment. Vital, cutting edge treatments which may or may not be covered under your private insurance plans would still exist and be available under the present system. Under Obamacare, those newest treatments will not be available to the public AT ALL. Of course, congress and other government officials will have access to the finest medical treatment on Earth, which is why they won't give up their guaranteed health care.

House Speaker Pelosi has said fines on people for not having health care is "fair" - an emotionally charged concept often used by liberals and Marxists to get what they want. Anyone who loves liberty should recoil in horror at the very idea the federal government can force private citizens to purchase anything - inevitably with regulatory strings attached; What's in your fridge? What's your lifestyle? Do you exercise? Do you own firearms? What kind of car do you drive? If it's not "Obama-agenda friendly", the "enforcer" will be the IRS. It will have far greater power over your personal life. And if that's not scary enough, Former Sec. of Labor under Clinton Robert Reich told a Berkely, CA audience the current healthcare proposals will require young people pay more and will let the elderly who are very sick die. It's all about dollars and cents and your worth as an individual to the state. Quality of life trumps sanctity of life. That point will become crystal clear when they get around to rationing healthcare - and someone you really care about winds up dead. Sorry, but that's the socialist utopia Iowans voted for when they chose Barack Obama and Tom Harkin to take care of things behind closed doors. And my, they're certainly taking care of us, aren't they?

If congress thinks they can do this healthcare thing so well, why didn't they just expand/extend eligibilty for MEDICARE to the masses??? They've been working on 'fixing' medicare for decades. They need to stay out of the healthcare industry. Open up enrollment in the existing plan or in the state-run medicaid plans and get the damm illegals and their offspring and the unwed-live-off-the-government moms off the dole - THAT might work.

Fining people for not having insurance?? Hmmm, sounds like the state highway department to me.