Forbes has put together a list of Health Reform’s Winners And Losers. We’re sure you won’t be surprised.
WINNERS:
- The Uninsured
- Private Insurers (HMO’s)
- Drug and Biotech Companies
- Seniors Who Need Prescription Drugs
- Trial Lawyers/Litigious Patients
- Medicaid Recipients
- Labor Unions, Goldman Sachs ( GS - news - people ) Execs (and anyone else with gold-plated health benefits)
LOSERS:
- The Insured
- Doctors
- The Wealthy
- Banks
The biggest loser here is the already-insured American. For the next four years you’ll be paying for your existing health care, while also being taxed for health care that will eventually be provided to your uninsured neighbor. In addition, we already have evidence, one day after the President signed the health care legislation, that private insurers are raising rates – one insured American has reported that his health insurer contacted him by phone and advised that his family will now be paying an additional $200 in premiums per month. So much for that $2500 in savings Mr. Obama promised.
This is a disaster waiting to happen.
Imagine, for a second, what a visit to the doctor will look like 10 years from now. We’ll give you a visual that might help. Go to the post office during the Christmas shipping season. You’ll usually find about 25 people in line, with two apathetic life-time union employees taking their sweet time to process packages. Wait time, just to get to the window, is about 45 minutes to an hour. It’s usually hot in the post office, with a weird odor emanating throughout the lobby.
We’re talking about shipping a package or two, a process that doesn’t take even an inefficient postal worker more than four or five minutes to complete.If you’ve ever stood in a line like this, you know how stressful and aggravating it can be.
Now imagine a unionized health care workforce, dealing with patients that have a variety of medical conditions from cancer to ear infections to a flu virus.
It was not unheard of, in fact it was a regular occurrence, for patients to wait in excess of four hours to be scene by a general practitioner under the communist health care systems of eastern Europe.
The big joke in socialized medicine countries is that you don’t go to the hospital to get well, you go there to die.
In the end, all Americans will be losers here, including the insured, uninsured and private businesses.
The effects on innovation, long-term medical advances and quality will be disastrous.
And it’s already started – reports out this afternoon that, surprise surprise, the reform bill really DOESN’T cover all children as was trumpeted! It really doesn’t DOESN’T fix the prescription problems as was trumpeted! And those poor Congresscritters who swore they knew what they were approving and had taken their time to get everything right are just now finding out they DID NOT REALLY KNOW what they voted for!!!!! THEY may be surprised – most of the rest of us are not!
In looking at the list of “winners”, I’m thinking that the only ones that should be on there are the lawyers, ‘cuz I’m pretty darn sure every one else in the country is gonna lose!!!! They just might not know it yet.
Sadly , my niece will be a looser , she is getting ready to graduate from a University majoring in Criminal psychology. Now all she has to look foward to are a large stack of bills and a student loan debt. and a president who will say she can’t earn a decent living , So she is off to the military to pay down her debts .
Hate to hear that, Airborne71. When the Nazis, Chinese, and many other dictatorships started, one of the first groups to be removed were the educated and the teachers. The last thing repressive governments want is to have thinking, educated people in a position to question their leadership. Our particular ‘leadership’ is just going to make getting higher education too expensive and effectively keep any but their chosen few wealthy elitists from getting a college education. They accomplish the same thing without hauling people off into the night.
Granny, it’s important to remember that the people you’re talking about being rounded up here were the “liberals” in their society. Â The dictators weren’t running around executing the hard line conservatives. Â They were killing the folks that they thought would be the most liberal in their society.
It’s very important to have a 50-50 balance between the two. Â When the scale goes too far right, you end up with Hitler. Â Too far left and you have Stalin. Â Everyone needs to calm the fuck down……..
Mac, I know you’re an old die hard-hard liner, but I’ve gotta tell you…..The DMV workers in my state are unionized, and guess what, there is NO WAITING. Â I’ll say that again……NO WAITING AT THE DMV!!!!…………………..I know that it’s popular to blame unions for everything, but please just look around first. Â I’m not defending the teachers union here, or the seiu, but look around before you go union bashing…….
Johnny, I admit, the DMV in recent years has done a good job. I just got my license, only 4 people in front of me and the wait was maybe 15 minutes, and they are doing a lot more than just putting a stamp on a letter. But it also depends on which DMV and the time you get there. I’ve sat in recent years, for a couple hours during the Friday rush.
In regards to the USPS, it’s more of a government employee issue than a union issue. That’s the point I was trying to make, more or less — the union thing kind of just snuck its way in there.
The point is, I personally feel like many government employees make way too much money for their skill level and lack of customer service. The private sector weeds these people out and sends them to the bottom of the employee pool – the public sector seems to promote them.
Mac, giving you props dude! Â You’re right about the skill level and customer service thing. Â I’m in the Building Trades Unions. Â We build really big buildings. Â No one around me has any sympathy for post office people either…..
@Jonny V: I agree with you about the need for some calming down. Just some, anyway. But regarding who totalitarians round up, it is whomever they feel threatens them, whether it is liberals in Nazi Germany, or conservatives in Stalinist Russia. The frightening thing in the USA today is that the establishment, e.g. DHS, has published documents essentially saying that people who value the Constitution are threatening to the government. The DHS has defined “Rightwing extremism” to include people:
“…that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely.”
(see http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf, the bottom of page 2)
So if you oppose whatever the government does, such as plunging the country into Socialism, you can be considered a “rightwing extremist” by the government. I’m not sure I can calm down a whole lot about this.
Comments…..Jonny V
March 24th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
Granny, it’s important to remember that the people you’re talking about being rounded up here were the “liberals†in their society.
Wrong…..  The prolatariats were the rioters. A minority I might add. The educated and thinking man who was opposed to violent revolution was killed off.  The poor will always be the violent participant in a revolution. The liberals harbor that group in their ranks I’m afraid. Point in fact…. listen to the hate for Fox News and limbaugh. Liberals voice pure hatred with outright desire of killing everyone associated with these outlets. They are actually the least tolerant in practice regardless of the claim of tolerance for all. Tolerance is given only to those who tow the line. History has shown us the truth.
And regardless of your schooling…. Hitler was a socialist. Any move toward centralized government goes to the left. It’s all about control. Freeman never vote this way. A TRUE conservative party de-centralizes government. The term Republican has lost all meaning today. It resembles nothing of conservatism anymore.
Today’s Diane Rhem Show hosts three experts with a reasoned analysis on what is and is not in the new healthcare legislation.
http://thedianerehmshow.org/