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We all have our opinions. Some, like me, feel the need to express them. Others just remain silent. This is okay, but unless we get to the heart of the facts, we cannot make legitimate and informed decisions. We all should expose ourselves to facts and opinions from all sides. Just viewing and pondering reinforcements for our set positions will not help us learn and act.
One item getting much attention right now is "health care." Here is my opinion on it --
Insurance premiums have been rising much faster than inflation has in other areas-- including wages and earnings. This is completely unsustainable. We therefore, need some reforms. The very first one should be in semantics. We are not talking about "health care reform." WE ALL HAVE HEALTH CARE RIGHT NOW! When one needs it, one gets it. Paying for it is the problem. Calling all this, ruckus before our legislators in Washington, "Health care reform" IS WRONG, and should throw up a red flag to each of us. We have the best health care system in the world, but, once again, the problem is paying for it. NO REASONABLE PERSON WANTS SOMEONE bankrupted due to sickness.
Making a living on the battlefront, as an insurance agent, has helped form my opinions. I have railed against high premiums for twenty years, and have cried with people as they related their inability to pay bills since getting ill. Many times I have sat with people who could not even get insurance due to health issues. We NEED "health insurance" reforms.
One should applaud those who recognize this and are making attempts toward positive changes. While avoiding partisanship, we should not look too favorably, however, upon those who have not done this in the past. I feel reforms can be done step by step without throwing the "baby out with the wash." What some in Washington are doing is going to kill the "baby" either on impact or within four years. Once our present freedoms are confiscated, restoring them may be impossible.
So what should be done?
1) Tort reform. Doctors are skiddish. In order to avoid appearing before judge and jury unprepared, they order back-up data in the form of many unnecessary tests, even when they instinctively know their diagnoses are correct from the start. Often doctors also feel the need for other observers present at their every move. This is done for the same reasons. Both of these are running up the costs unnecessarily. If a physician is completely negligent, such as leaving a sponge inside a patient during surgery, there will always be recourse for those who are grossly affected. It is the punitive damages that are hurting everyone. Cap them at a reasonable level, plus reasonable attorneys' fees/expenses, and include patient loss reimbursements.
2) Portability. Allow consumers to purchase and retain medical insurance coverage across state lines.
3) Pre-existing condition rate-up and/or elimination clauses. Remove them! Allow everyone to buy coverage at the same rates per the same age level, with allowance for regional medical costs. Verifiable losses for this additional coverage could be reimbursed to the insurance companies from the taxpayer base. This would fix this problem with a fractional cost to taxpayers compared to what is being proposed by Congress and their bureaucratic minions.
4) Cap profitability. Since sicknesses are an unwelcome consequence of existing on this planet, this is justified. Most grocery store chains work on a less than 4% profit margin. There is no reason, insurance companies cannot do likewise. This is one of the only allowances I would make for this form of legislation. I dislike the option, but one can make an argument for it.
5) Prescription drugs should not cost more within the U.S. than they cost within other countries. Americans continue subsidizing the rest of the world long after we can afford it. Discourage, but not legislate, pharmaceutical firms from advertising their usage outside the medical community. This adds too much cost to the prescription.
There are people leading our nation who obviously want more than insurance reforms. They seek to attack capitalism and our freedoms, thereby setting the stage for weakening America and its positions in the world. One of the strongest approaches for advancing their position is to attack 1/6th of our economy. By controlling our health delivery system they can begin controlling more of our finances. After all, taking more from our earnings at the point of earning via taxation leaves less to spend on other items, like necessities, and other things.
Let us make it simple -- less money to spend after taxation, leaves less discretionary money to spend at other private enterprises. Non-essential-supply businesses will see their incomes dropping over time. More will go out of business and the downward spiral will continue until our nation is unrecognizable. Just ponder how each dollar not privately spent is withdrawn from the whole system and cannot reverberate and compound its effects. Former generations seemed to grasp this much better than today's generations. Perhaps this is why they were so willing to die to retain their freedoms.
Never in my life did I ever believe I would read comments espousing socialism as I do while reading articles today. These same people are spitting on the graves of many of our family and friends. It is our fault for allowing this ignorance to grow with insufficient challenges from us.
Please keep it between the lines.
In case you wondered if America is becoming less civil, compare this "Letter to the Editor," that appeared in a Florida newspaper, to one you may find in your attic.
Title: I AM A REPUBLICAN'T --
"I am a stupid 'Republican't.' I can't think. I can't tell the truth. I can't suggest better plans. I can't disobey the people who say 'no' and I can't stop saying 'no.'
So, if you lie, lie, lie, and lie some more you too can be a 'Republican't and do nothing to help all Americans in real need now.
This message is brought to you so that you may not follow the path of the 'Republican'ts' established for them by Dr. Joseph Goebbels in 1933 and followed by Rush Limbaugh today, to lie, to lie, to lie and to lie until the people believe the lie."
HERE IS MY REPLY to the Editor of this Florida newspaper --
"The Letter to the Editor, by ____________ (Name withheld), on September 23rd, was nothing short of hate mail. Publishing it raised at least three questions: 1) Is he really this full of hate?, 2) Was he just being sarcastic?, 3) Why was this letter singled out for publication by your newspaper?
The readers may wonder why I call it hate mail. When a writer compares Republicans as being "established for them by Dr. Joseph Goebbels in 1933," what else can be construed? Maligning Rush Limbaugh in the same manner only reveals the writer has probably never tuned into the nation's "most-listened-to radio personality" more than five minutes in his life.
When the writer referred to "Republican'ts," he looked as though he is misguided, hateful, or ignorant, or all of the above. The writer should know full well that when one party controls the House, Senate and Administration, the power exists to block most all legislation proposed by others. This is happening currently and has served to prevent many Republican health insurance reforms, budget balancing and defense bills from seeing daylight. With the mainstream media (CBS, NBC, ABC, The New York Times, and others) ignoring most all Republican efforts, or spinning their intentions in the wrong direction, is there any wonder people can be led to so much hate.
I would be just as upset if he were slamming Democrats with unsubstantiated name calling, etc. Although I would give my life to defend anyone's right to free speech, I beg of you to be a bit more vigilant and help us by printing less hate mail.
We are best served by remembering, and acknowledging, that we are primarily Americans and party affiliated somewhere below this.:"
___________
There will be more about growing uncivil behavior in the future.
Please keep it between the lines.
September 24th 2009 16:42
Once in a while a really good email comes our way. Today, I got such an email and just had to share it. The writer is Stan French, who is very insightful.. So,. with his permission, it is posted here for you.
" Last March on a visit to Moscow, Sec. of State Hillary Clinton was embarrassed when she presented her Russian host, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavov, with a box festooned with a button marked 'Reset' in Russian.
The idea was to have a photo -op designed to symbolize President Obama's purpose to put U.S. relations with the Kremlin on a new, more positive footing after the bi-lateral strains of the Bush years. Unfortunately for the Secretary, the State Department mistranslated the Russian word which actually meant "overcharge"not "reset".
Based on the President Obama's decision just announced to scrap the planned deployment of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, we now know that Obama's version of resetting would best be translated as 'capitulation.' Poland calls it a betrayal.
Obama came to office evincing the reflexive hostility of many partisan Democrats to the idea of anti-missile protection for the U.S. This bizarre attitude had its roots in the bi-polar Cold War ideology of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) rather than the post cold war ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) concept that missile defense in a world of nuclear proliferation is vital.
The Left still embraces the MAD doctrine in the 1972 missile treaty. In 1984 when a missile defense system was first proposed by Reagan it was mocked by Democrats as "Star Wars". Contrary to their predictions, missile defense technology has greatly improved since then.
In practice, the 1972 accord precluded the U.S. from deploying any missile defense of its own territory---a state of grace that Democrat legislators and operatives were horrified to see Bush abandon in 2001 with a formal abrogation of the 1972 treaty and the subsequent installation of radars and interceptors at two sites, one in Alaska and the other in California.
In addition, to enhance the protection of American territory and to provide at least a modest defense of Europe against the growing threat of a ballistic missile attack by Iran, Bush proposed a so-called third site in Eastern Europe.
The Polish and Czech governments saw this as collaborative effort and a means of contributing to their own security and that of NATO allies (who voted twice unanimously for the third site). ABM is a defensive technology and self-defense is an inherent right of every country. It is not aggressive.
These key post-Cold War allies also saw it as a tangible expression of the US commitment to their security in the face of assiduous Russian efforts to reassert a sphere of influence that would turn the clock back, reestablishing in some form their unhappy status under the Kremlin's thumb.
It was precisely in the interest of advancing that ambition that the Russians assiduously opposed the deployment of that third site. They absurdly claimed that the ten interceptors in Poland would threaten the deterrent power of many hundreds of nuclear warheads they could rain down on Europe. They threatened nuclear attacks on Poles and Czechs if they did not abandon the plan.
President Bush stood firm as did Poles and Czechs but last week President Obama pulled the rug out from under them. There was a time in this country when American politics "ended at the water's edge". Foreign policy was unified. That day is no longer. Obama of course argues his case for substituting ships and submarines . Eastern Europe thinks they have been betrayed.
With his capitulation to Russia, Barack Obama has just affirmed the Obama doctrine. Team Obama believes that by canceling land based missile defenses and leaving our allies hanging out to dry, the U.S. will secure assistance from the Russians in minimizing the Iranian threat.
There is little reason to believe that will happen. The evidence suggests otherwise. Vladimir Putin is enabling the Iranian threat with nuclear technology, anti-aircraft defenses and political protection against any effective sanctions on Iran. BHO's action will reinforce present behavior.
Obama argues that his sea-based interceptors will work better but it is a safe bet they will not begin to offset the damage the Obama administration has done to our relations with key allies world-wide by "resetting" relations with Russia in a manner that looks more like capitulation."
Daily Digest and Stan French
September 11th 2009 21:31
The American president appears to be driving a deeper wedge between the public consumers and their private insurance protection companies. Many people already have a sordid view of all persons associated with insurance because of negative personal experience with questioned or denied claims, and rising premiums. Some may also have had poor encounters with office personnel or agent misbehaviors—whether real or perceived. For every one negative encounter, however, there are many more who boast of their service, and happily recount the times when having insurance coverage “saved the day” for them. So, in fairness, let us take a look at the other side—the insurance side—while deciding if the president is correct in his accusations or not
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Have you ever been on the road for several hours, going into the night, when your eyes began to itch, ache or start an overall rebellion? They are tired--tired from the bright sunlight flashing through the roadside trees and buildings, tired from facing west with the visor pulled down for protection, and tired from the oncoming headlights--especially the ones from the self-centered who refuse to dim them upon approach
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You can identify with this: "What?--How dare them?--those thieves!!" You open up your utility, phone, credit card, or installation bill, only to suffer from STICKER SHOCK. Am I "preaching to the choir" to vent some frustration here? I just have to get some things out. Here we go
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Back when I was growing up in the early 1950’s, even a child, just a bit overweight, was criticized by schoolmates and left on the sidelines for most activities. He or she was the last one selected for team sports, and the last one chosen as a dance partner. These children were often shunned. Most of the time, they were left sitting alone. Some of them developed normally, while some never got over how others treated them. Once in a great while, one of them would revolt and become a formidable opponent (due to size), if angered too much. Over fifty years have passed while things have only gotten worse by the degree of weight gain, and by the population statistics
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This is an opinion post about turning age 62 and the options presented to us relative to Social Security. Please remember that we have been given no choices prior to age 62 (unless disabled) as to when we receive the payments, or how our contributions have been invested or allocated. We have been forced to contribute with the threat of losing all assets if we do not comply
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America HAS changed. This is one of the baffling aspects while witnessing the rhetoric during the last election. "Change", "change" and more "change," was ingrained into us in a propagandistic manner. What was the purpose in chanting for more? The U.S., and indeed the world, have been changing so fast that many cannot (or refuse to) keep up with all of it
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Ah! Gold! Countries have risen to glory by possessing it. Nations have fallen into obscurity by losing it. Families have been torn apart over who owns the greatest quantity or who has the gold item with the greatest emotional attachment. Wars have been fought over garnering it. People have died defending it. Miners have labored long, intensive, sweat-filled hours in hot or frigid, close and dark, HOLES while extracting it. Just the sight of untold numbers of people squatting down by the brook, lake or river panning for it reminds us that we needed more osteopathic and chiropractic physicians long ago
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Comment by Edward Allen
on No. 47: U.S. Health Insurance Reform
Sanity Road