Obongo Healthcare

The health care bill is shit. It mandates that people buy insurance while, at the same time, it doesn't include enough subsidy dollars to ensure that the very poorest are able to buy coverage. Don't worry, though, the very poorest are excluded from the mandate and aren't forced to buy any insurance (nor does the bill give them any) - so the universal health care bill we were promised doesn't grant universal health care at all. It does, however, raise costs for everyone who already has health insurance - by taxing health insurance premiums on so-called "Cadillac" plans, and also through new fees directed at insurers themselves.

 All of these costs must, inevitably, be passed onto and absorbed by those who are already insured. Thus, for the >85% of Americans who already have health insurance, this bill does nothing but increase their costs of care. The bill also makes deep cuts into medicare spending, by eliminating many yearly increases to benefits that medicare recipients used to be able to count on. This has the effect of ensuring that every year inflation will eat away at the actual value that medicare recipients get from their benefits - costs will continue to rise - but medicare payments will stay flat. This just shows how the Obama administration is willing to fuck those who already depend on the government for their health care in order to score some political points. Just another great reason not to hand over something this important to the government. Who cares if the bill socialist, capitalist, whatever? The most important thing is that the bill is fucking stupid, and helps almost no one it is purported to help.

>>13
Notice how many of those other 'industrialized' nations you speak of are global superpowers. That's right, none of them. So why should we try to emulate those country's domestic policies when they are trying so hard to emulate ours? One of the things that makes America unique is that we forge new paths with political and social philosophy. Healthcare probably does need to undergo some changes, but implementing some other 'one-size-fits-all' strategy is a losing tactic. Also, The US is the most technologically advanced nation in the world, so it makes sense that healthcare here would be more expensive than elsewhere. Our hospitals use the latest technology, and medical technology doesn't come cheap. Perhaps a socialized model of healthcare doesn't apply to the US? Obongo et al. need to start from fucking scratch and come up with something new and shiny that will actually work, not just look mediocre on paper.