By all means, yes - if we have even a smidge of societal common sense.
But such a decision should be made by the individuals themselves and not by any state entity.
Current US laws make it a criminal act for someone to peaceably commit suicide or for someone to be agreeably enlisted into assisting suicide.
Such laws need to be discarded to the bin of moral superstition. God will not punish anyone in the afterlife simply because they opted at age 87 to voluntarily end their lives in peaceful fashion in order to save their family members and the community at large hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of dollars.
4) which is a voluntary variation on #1 above...We legalize Assisted Suicide
The primary opponents to this common sense public policy change are only two groups
a) religious folks who promote the message that asissted suicide will cause the deceased to burn in Hell.
b) The for-profit arms of the health care industry who don't want to let go of literal human cash cows who have no other legal options other than to keep forking over the $$ at a pace upwards of $1000 every 24 hours.
after creating a new federal bureaucracy that becomes the largest federal bureaucracy the moment it's born?
not plausible, IMHO
Your reading comprehension is a little off...I didn't say it was a bad thing...just stating the facts. Don't blame the messenger.
Steak tartar was wringing his hands over it...because he doesn't realize how socialized medicine works in the real world.
Originally Posted by steak tartar
reduce care to the elderly?..........let people die
because they're old?........im not talking about terminally ill ....what you're saying is just because they are old?........you're a compassionate man to an unborn fetus but someone who has contributed to make the U.S. the greatest country in the world you tell them oops sorry you missed the cutoff on your 70th birthday..........you die[/quote
once again you're the clueless one.........i was asking willie if he meant what he said and he didn't..........so you stop with almost name calling or this will get butt fucking ugly.....you know i think you're a piece of fucking garbage so lets be civil
An Emergency Review
The reality of government-controlled medical treatment.
By Thomas Sowell
This is an emergency book review.
Before you do anything else, make a note to read The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care by Sally C. Pipes. It might literally save your life, by checking the political stampede toward a government-controlled medical profession — usually presented politically as “universal health care.”
It is one of the painful signs of our times that millions of people are so easily swayed by rhetoric that they show virtually no interest at all in finding out the hard facts. Any number of other countries already have government-controlled medical professions. Yet few Americans show any interest in what actually happens to medical care in those countries.
Instead, we are being lured into a one-way process — much like entering a Venus fly trap — by the oldest of all confidence rackets, the promise of something for nothing.
Fortunately, Sally C. Pipes is one of the few who has explored the reality of government-controlled medical treatment in Canada and other countries. Among the things she discovered is that new life-saving medications that go immediately into the market in the United States take a much longer time to become available to Canadian patients — if they ever get approved by the bureaucrats.
No doubt that lowers the cost of medications — if you count costs solely in money terms, rather than in terms of how many people literally pay with their lives when the bureaucrats are reluctant to buy new pharmaceutical drugs, while they can continue to approve obsolete and cheaper drugs for the same illnesses.
Cancer survival rates are higher in the United States than in Europe. A recent report by the Fraser Institute in Vancouver estimates that annually tens of thousands of Canadians seek medical treatment outside of Canada, even though treatment is free inside Canada and they have to pay themselves for treatment elsewhere.
Other studies show that waiting times for surgery are months longer in Canada, Britain, and Australia — all countries with government-controlled medical care — than in the United States.
Among the many issues explained in plain English in The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care are why pharmaceutical drugs cost so much, why it is misleading to talk about uninsured Americans as if they do not get medical care, and how politicians make existing insurance more expensive by blithely mandating coverage that people would not voluntarily pay for with their own money, if it was left up to them.
In various states, these mandated coverages include alcoholism, acupuncture, breast reduction, and treatment for baldness, among other things. You may just want insurance to cover you in case you get hit with some big-time medical problem, but many state laws will not allow an insurance company to sell you that “major medical” coverage, without all the add-ons that politicians and special interests have come up with.
The net result is more expensive insurance, which in turn can mean more people being uninsured.
As with so many government programs, “the poor” are used as a political justification for imposing government-controlled medical care on everyone. But The Top Ten Myths of American Medical Care shows what a fraud that is. First of all, the average uninsured American has above-average income — and people living in poverty are already eligible for Medicaid.
There are of course some serious problems with Medicaid, as there is with government medical treatment at Veterans Administration hospitals and with Medicare. But such things only highlight the dangers of having the government take over the rest of the medical sector, given its dangerous failures where it is already involved in medical matters.
The lure of something for nothing may be seductive when you are in good health. But it can become a bitter irony when you are waiting for months for surgery to relieve your pain or when your life hangs in the balance while some bureaucrat decides whether you can get the best medication or something older and cheaper. The Top Ten Myths About American Medical Care can literally be a life-saver. What it reveals is unlikely to be told by the mainstream media or by other enthusiasts for the magic phrase “universal health care.”
The reality of government-controlled medical treatment.
By Thomas Sowell
This is an emergency book review.
Before you do anything else, make a note to read The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care by Sally C. Pipes. It might literally save your life, by checking the political stampede toward a government-controlled medical profession — usually presented politically as “universal health care.”
It is one of the painful signs of our times that millions of people are so easily swayed by rhetoric that they show virtually no interest at all in finding out the hard facts. Any number of other countries already have government-controlled medical professions. Yet few Americans show any interest in what actually happens to medical care in those countries.
Instead, we are being lured into a one-way process — much like entering a Venus fly trap — by the oldest of all confidence rackets, the promise of something for nothing.
Fortunately, Sally C. Pipes is one of the few who has explored the reality of government-controlled medical treatment in Canada and other countries. Among the things she discovered is that new life-saving medications that go immediately into the market in the United States take a much longer time to become available to Canadian patients — if they ever get approved by the bureaucrats.
No doubt that lowers the cost of medications — if you count costs solely in money terms, rather than in terms of how many people literally pay with their lives when the bureaucrats are reluctant to buy new pharmaceutical drugs, while they can continue to approve obsolete and cheaper drugs for the same illnesses.
Cancer survival rates are higher in the United States than in Europe. A recent report by the Fraser Institute in Vancouver estimates that annually tens of thousands of Canadians seek medical treatment outside of Canada, even though treatment is free inside Canada and they have to pay themselves for treatment elsewhere.
Other studies show that waiting times for surgery are months longer in Canada, Britain, and Australia — all countries with government-controlled medical care — than in the United States.
Among the many issues explained in plain English in The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care are why pharmaceutical drugs cost so much, why it is misleading to talk about uninsured Americans as if they do not get medical care, and how politicians make existing insurance more expensive by blithely mandating coverage that people would not voluntarily pay for with their own money, if it was left up to them.
In various states, these mandated coverages include alcoholism, acupuncture, breast reduction, and treatment for baldness, among other things. You may just want insurance to cover you in case you get hit with some big-time medical problem, but many state laws will not allow an insurance company to sell you that “major medical” coverage, without all the add-ons that politicians and special interests have come up with.
The net result is more expensive insurance, which in turn can mean more people being uninsured.
As with so many government programs, “the poor” are used as a political justification for imposing government-controlled medical care on everyone. But The Top Ten Myths of American Medical Care shows what a fraud that is. First of all, the average uninsured American has above-average income — and people living in poverty are already eligible for Medicaid.
There are of course some serious problems with Medicaid, as there is with government medical treatment at Veterans Administration hospitals and with Medicare. But such things only highlight the dangers of having the government take over the rest of the medical sector, given its dangerous failures where it is already involved in medical matters.
The lure of something for nothing may be seductive when you are in good health. But it can become a bitter irony when you are waiting for months for surgery to relieve your pain or when your life hangs in the balance while some bureaucrat decides whether you can get the best medication or something older and cheaper. The Top Ten Myths About American Medical Care can literally be a life-saver. What it reveals is unlikely to be told by the mainstream media or by other enthusiasts for the magic phrase “universal health care.”
PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO CLICK ON THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE AND READ THIS.
The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen's Guide
By EvanMadianosMD - Posted on November 10th, 2008
The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen's Guide
By: Sally C. Pipes
SAN FRANCISCO - The Pacific Research Institute has just released The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen's Guide. This is the latest book from health care scholar, and PRI President and CEO Sally C. Pipes.
The book's foreword is by Steve Forbes: "For anyone interested in getting to the core of America's health care troubles, this is the perfect book," he writes. "And for health care policy makers, it should be required reading."
In her 182-page book, Ms. Pipes takes on ten popular myths about the state of health care in America. The final chapter lays out several patient-centered prescriptions for reform.
"I wrote this short book as a citizen's guide. Each chapter tackles a complex issue in straight-forward, easy-to-understand language," said Ms. Pipes.
The book challenges the conventional belief that only government can fix our health care system. In fact, says Ms. Pipes, "government overreach has put the system in a state of crisis."
A complete list of chapters can be found below.
In her conclusion, Ms. Pipes offers some ways to fix the country's biggest health care problems. "If we want to bring costs down and extend coverage to more Americans, we have to open the health care marketplace to competition -- by abolishing costly government regulations and reforming the tax code to make insurance more affordable."
"We can solve the health care problems that plague the United States," concluded Ms. Pipes. "But we won't solve them if we continue to believe the many myths that plague the health care debate."
List of Chapters
Foreword by Steve Forbes
Myth One: Government Health Care Is More Efficient
Myth Two: We're Spending Too Much on Health Care
Myth Three: Forty-Six Million Americans Can't Get Health Care
Myth Four: High Drug Prices Drive Up Health Care Costs
Myth Five: Importing Drugs Would Reduce Health Care Costs
Myth Six: Universal Coverage Can Be Achieved by Forcing Everyone to Buy Insurance
Myth Seven: Government Prevention Programs Reduce Health Care Costs
Myth Eight: We Need More Government to Insure Poor Americans
Myth Nine: Health Information Technology Is a Silver Bullet for Reducing Costs
Myth Ten: Government-Run Health Care Systems in Other Countries are Better and Cheaper than America's
Solutions: Markets, Consumer Choice, and Innovation
The full PDF of the above book, " The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen's Guide" is available on line * FOR FREE * here:
http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/docLib/20081020_Top_Ten_Myths.pdf
The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen's Guide
By EvanMadianosMD - Posted on November 10th, 2008
The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen's Guide
By: Sally C. Pipes
SAN FRANCISCO - The Pacific Research Institute has just released The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen's Guide. This is the latest book from health care scholar, and PRI President and CEO Sally C. Pipes.
The book's foreword is by Steve Forbes: "For anyone interested in getting to the core of America's health care troubles, this is the perfect book," he writes. "And for health care policy makers, it should be required reading."
In her 182-page book, Ms. Pipes takes on ten popular myths about the state of health care in America. The final chapter lays out several patient-centered prescriptions for reform.
"I wrote this short book as a citizen's guide. Each chapter tackles a complex issue in straight-forward, easy-to-understand language," said Ms. Pipes.
The book challenges the conventional belief that only government can fix our health care system. In fact, says Ms. Pipes, "government overreach has put the system in a state of crisis."
A complete list of chapters can be found below.
In her conclusion, Ms. Pipes offers some ways to fix the country's biggest health care problems. "If we want to bring costs down and extend coverage to more Americans, we have to open the health care marketplace to competition -- by abolishing costly government regulations and reforming the tax code to make insurance more affordable."
"We can solve the health care problems that plague the United States," concluded Ms. Pipes. "But we won't solve them if we continue to believe the many myths that plague the health care debate."
List of Chapters
Foreword by Steve Forbes
Myth One: Government Health Care Is More Efficient
Myth Two: We're Spending Too Much on Health Care
Myth Three: Forty-Six Million Americans Can't Get Health Care
Myth Four: High Drug Prices Drive Up Health Care Costs
Myth Five: Importing Drugs Would Reduce Health Care Costs
Myth Six: Universal Coverage Can Be Achieved by Forcing Everyone to Buy Insurance
Myth Seven: Government Prevention Programs Reduce Health Care Costs
Myth Eight: We Need More Government to Insure Poor Americans
Myth Nine: Health Information Technology Is a Silver Bullet for Reducing Costs
Myth Ten: Government-Run Health Care Systems in Other Countries are Better and Cheaper than America's
Solutions: Markets, Consumer Choice, and Innovation
The full PDF of the above book, " The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen's Guide" is available on line * FOR FREE * here:
http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/docLib/20081020_Top_Ten_Myths.pdf
hehehehehe
that might be your cost to support the bureaucracy, then add the cost of healthcare
Yeah...a lot of those HMOs employ a lot of people and I gotta admit I don't know how many are truly needed
Oh well, if they weren't employed there, they might be getting food stamps and housing assistance from the government.
NOW I gots to to store to pay for MY food and get a money order for 2nd leg of my recent tax accountant bill
Oh well, if they weren't employed there, they might be getting food stamps and housing assistance from the government.
NOW I gots to to store to pay for MY food and get a money order for 2nd leg of my recent tax accountant bill
because they're content being socialists and having 10% unemployment in a good year.
we're not, we expect much more opportunity
I guess they don't mind the long waits either. They do seem to have much more time on their hands
or maybe a good government looks for more employment while maintaining their superior healthcare on demand for everyone system
