Healthy Health Care Reform Debate
Not everyone in America is involved in shouting matches regarding health care reform. Some people are actually able to discuss these issues calmly on social networking sites. Here are some excerpts from the conversation my friends and I have been having on Facebook.
John Longfield-Smith
The actual Health Care Reform Bill. Many sites are telling you what is contained in the health care reform bill, unfortunately most of what they are claiming are blatant lies. Even worse though, is that most Americans are willing to accept the prop…aganda without researching these claims for themselves. Do yourself a favor, read the document, and don’t wait for Rush, Sarah, or Shaun to tell you what to think…Read More: edlabor.house.gov
Source: edlabor.house.gov
Tue at 9:22pm · Comment · Like / Unlike · View Feedback (16)Hide Feedback (16) · Share
Aimee Van Duren
but you don’t think your sources are full of propoganda and lies? not saying you are wrong, but come on – all the sources out there have their own spins….
Tue at 11:03pm · Delete
Shaun McDonnell
they need to change the costs of the public option and involve more private industry…
Yesterday at 1:08am · Delete
Brian Pacholka
In that vein John, you shouldn’t let Keith or Rachel tell you what to think either. MSNBC has become as bad as Fox for the truth. The only option is to slog through the bill yourself and make your decision.
Yesterday at 7:30am · Delete
Michelle Longfield-Smith
I agree with one point Brian made and that is to go through the bill yourself and read it. If you go straight to the government website and read it for yourself instead of bits and pieces with spin from one side or the other you can make an informative decision on your own. It’s nice to have a healthy debate but from what I’ve seen lately on TV at these town hall meetings it’s way out of control.
Yesterday at 8:27am · Delete
John Longfield-Smith
Aimee – My source is the actual bill, not some site that has an agenda telling me what it says… My main reason for posting this bill is so that people can read it themselves to find out that there is no rationing planned, there are no death panels, and the aim is not to wipe out private insurance…
Yesterday at 9:11am · Delete
John Longfield-Smith
Shaun – I agree, to a point… I don’t understand why people are up in arms about a public option, yet have no problem with the insurance companies posting record profits year after year. This while their benefits are shrinking, yet their premiums are skyrocketing. Insurance companies are already rationing your health care. Has your company moved to a high deductible plan yet? How many of those preventative care episodes are you allowed this year, compared to what you were allowed 10 years ago?
Yesterday at 9:14am · Delete
John Longfield-Smith
Brian – Exactly, which is why I did not offer information from them as any sort of source. There is spin coming from all angles right now. Everyone needs to tone down the rhetoric and actually talk about what is real, and what is spin. Then we can make an informed decision…
Yesterday at 9:19am · Delete
Shaun McDonnell
Actually, my current healthcare plan is the best I’ve ever had under an employer. However, it is a rare case. I currently have no deductible and my company pays 100% of the premium.
As we both know, federal prisoners get better healthcare than ‘free’ people in the United States. So, I definitely think the reform should cover everyone.
My main concern is that a full-out public option will stifle healthcare innovation in regards to research for new drugs, etc. The only thing our government has ever done that was innovative was NASA and now they want to cut costs for that as well…. Read More
Private industry is where innovation is executed and government has no track record when it comes to this. As a matter of fact, the more government there is the less innovation.
Yesterday at 9:20am · Delete
John Longfield-Smith
Shaun – You work for a GREAT company! Don’t you wish you could have skipped working for a couple of other companies and saved yourself some stress?!?!
This bill is not prescribing a single payor system, which might lead to less innovation. I would not support such a system.
I will tell you this though, it is the insurance companies that are making all the money in health care right now. Not the docs or the hospitals that provide the care. I haven’t seen much innovation coming from them. Just greed, and I’m sick of it. I fully support a persons right to gain wealth, but not on the backs of others less fortunate than themselves. Do you think the former CEO of United deserved a $1.6B retirement package when over 40M American don”t have insurance? What about those AIG bonuses? Why aren’t those people in jail?…
When left totally to private enterprise, greed usually stifles innovation just as effectively…
Yesterday at 9:39am · Delete
Shaun McDonnell
Point well made and well taken. However, I am not thoroughly convinced that the eventual goal here by the government or this administration is to go to a single payor plan.
Too much power in either direction (public or private) can corrupt.
Yesterday at 9:43am · Delete
John Longfield-Smith
Hence the need for real discussion like this, and not shouting matches at town hall meetings… It is our duty as citizens to be informed, and demand real representation from our elected officials.
The danger in our day and age is that even though we have the ability to be the most well informed generation in the history of our country, all the conveniences have made us lazy, to the point where we prefer to be spoon-fed our opinions.
Extremist, on both sides of the spectrum, have realized this and have taken advantage of this laziness to spread their lies.
Yesterday at 9:57am · Delete
Brian Pacholka
I just ran across a list of talking points from a place called the Liberty Counsel. It lists specific sections of the bill that they have problems with. It might be a good starting point when you are reading the actual bill to find out how your interpretation lines up. This is supposedly where Palin got her death board idea.
http://www.lc.org/index.cfm?PID=19319
Yesterday at 10:28am · Delete
John Longfield-Smith
Brian – Thanks for that. That is THE list going around the conservative sites, like Freerepublic…. I like how the conservatives claim all the patriotic names for their organizations, like they are the only true Americans… but I digress…
The list is classic propaganda. It provides the reader with a supposed direct link to the data that supports their statement. The problem is that they are twisting the basic elements to fit their statement. There is an illusion of truth to each statement, if you read exactly what they outline, but the message is taken out of context, and then overstated like:
•Sec. 122, Pg. 29, Lines 4-16 – YOUR HEALTH CARE WILL BE RATIONED!In case you didn’t realize it, your health care is already rationed, by the insurance companies. They tell you what you can and cannot have in the way of benefits. The govt. plan seeks to eliminate rationing:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/4
Yesterday at 11:21am · Delete
John Longfield-Smith
Brian – check out my newest link to politifact. It covers this list extensively. I found the link on the AARP site. I figured they would be investigating the bill rigorously and would be a good resource as to it’s feasability… http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/jul/30/e-mail-analysis-health-bill-needs-check-/
Yesterday at 1:27pm · Delete
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John – I still refuse to believe that this will be a deficit neutral program, this is going to cost us trillians. Who is the plan for, how will the plan generate money, how will we pay for those who can’t pay? Some of that was addressed, but the numbers they’re using are not actual, their projected. Example: Medicare has run over seven times the projected amount — and that’s costing us. We’re also not looking at the problems that are had in countries that already have this like England, Canada, France. This is a one way street, if we go down it, just like Welfare, Medicaid, Medicare, we’ll never be able to turn back from it.
Cost of the program is one thing, what is the support and infrastructure cost? If passed this will create one of the largest Government programs. You’re going to need offices — at least one per state, and at least four datacenters to house the servers / network, and at least two large buildings in DC that are dedicated to Health Care. You’re talking at least a trillion dollars just to get the program going.
Why spend all that money to build your own when we have a system that has worked for many years, wouldn’t it be better to fix what we have instead of building a new system?
Rich, you’re coming from the point of view that the system we have IS working. It isn’t, it is clearly broken. It may be working for you, now, but what if you lost your job tomorrow? What if you got hit with a devastating disease and the insurance company dropped you? 40M Ameiricans are without health care coverage. This isn’t a tiny number, and they are all not just people on welfare scamming the system. One thing I would like to see is a provision to prosecute people that abuse any of our social welfare programs more thoroughly…
This isn’t inventing a new system to replace it, it is adding to the existing one we have in an effort to fix it.
As far as deficit neutral, I would rather spend my money on something to help the average American than on a war that we have no business fighting…