It you're talking about fully socializing health care, it's just a transfer of who foots the bill. Since the system is so expensive, the bill should actually go down in the first year! It is after all the only reason why reform is needed. No savings, no reform. So people would save on their insurance costs to offset the higher budget. And this could help the economy too, just in time for reelection.
By fixing I assume you mean "I" pay for all non-workers, poor, maybe illegals too etc... to have health care. This guvment health care will be mediocre at best as it will lack competition. Socialism or Communism, take your pick. The middle class will lose yet another incentive to work hard and get ahead because the guvment is providing for them. Soon the working/middle class will wake up and say enough is enough. I'm too tired to work my ass of for the guvment and the poor. I'll settle for being poor and let the guvment find some other suckers to take care of me. The back of the middle/working class is only so strong and this guvment action might break it.
Healthcare is too expensive so govt can make it better and cheaper? that is a laugh. Look at all the corruption we have now. Look at what the scumbags are doing with the stimulus package. This is the same group that is going to give us cheap, quality healthcare? You have got to be kidding. -burn8
All you have to do is directly apply other countries's plans. True the american government is particularly inept and it could be setup in a very inneficient way but what's the alternative? It already is the most damaging health care system to economic growth. Just directly apply another country's model to lessen the potential corruption and pork when the plan is being formulated. And what are you saying anyway, inaction is the best solution to everything?
No other system looks appealing to me. I would prefer to see government completely removed from healthcare. Washington is owned by special interests and they are the ones pulling the strings. Anyone who thinks this will change is an idiot. -burn8
I used to trash the unions and ridicule them for being such greedy mindless douche bags , buy you know what... fuck that, the corporate heads are waaaaaay more to blame than anyone. These spineless executive fucks couldn't stand up to a 2 dollar hooker let alone the uaw. Fuck them. As far as I'm concerned the ceo's and boards of these company's should go get a job stocking shelves at walmart.
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/ GM Go Boom? It sure looks that way: "The UAW stopped negotiations with GM last night, a person familiar with the talks said. A delay in the talks could risk the automakers missing a Feb. 17 deadline to show progress in a government-ordered plan to cut labor and debt costs. Itâs not clear what that would mean." Oh I disagree - the meaning of that is crystal-clear. Any questions? I don't know what Gettlefinger and his pals over at the UAW think they're going to accomplish with this. Let me point out a few things that the employees and union members that Gettlefinger allegedly works for don't seem to understand: * If the company and thus its pension fund "booms", the PBGC will be forced to step in and take it over. The PBGC has maximum benefits that it pays out to retirees. If you were getting more than that previously, too bad. Have a banana. * The VEBA, if unable to be funded, is unable to be funded. Pension funding under the PBGC does not include "all expenses paid" health insurance. Welcome to Medicare my friends, when you are old enough to qualify. Until then, good luck. * The guarantees are much more limited than your Pension was, especially if you're not already retired. The cap is based on the law, not your contributions to date, and is invoked at the time the plan goes "boom". If you're under 45 you will get exactly nothing, with the MAXIMUM amount set by law, disregarding (for the most part) your contributions to the system. Now I'm not at all certain that Gettlefinger's "members" are aware of this, but they damn well ought to be. And if you think that the government won't force conversion to a Chapter 11 with the government providing DIP financing, you're nuts. They both can and likely will with catastrophic consequences, especially for employees with significant tenure who currently are on the job. The problem is really quite simple - there's not a prayer in hell that the automakers can go back to Congress for more money without satisfying the conditions in the previous tranche. It simply isn't going to happen, and attempting to go through Treasury, going around Congress, is unlikely to work very well either. This game of chicken killed consideration of the bill the last time around and forced the Bush Administration to play ball with the TARP account, effectively kiting a check on it. But that was with a President who was due to leave office within days along with a Treasury Secretary beating feet right behind him - not an Administration that is going to have to live with the consequences of a decision for three more years and change. I am well-aware that President Obama is a strong friend of organized labor, and so are some Americans. But very few are friends of the UAW outside of its membership, and that's a problem - never mind the hubris of the last round of negotiations that got far too much press to remain buried. The fuse appears to be lit, with Ford and the non-union Japanese automakers building cars in the South the only beneficiaries of this insanity. As for Michigan, its far too late to say "welcome to Hell", as you're already there - but this little game sure has the feel of someone cooking off a couple of nukes in the already-blistering-hot oven.
Problem with that thinking is this... Right before the big ship sinks (with all the cars on it in this case) the fat cat executives and UAW leadership cut back room deals leaving them enough pork to chew on the rest of their lives and the lives of their families and close friends. Meanwhile, the guy welding on the line is out of work with nothing but empty promises and no new skills other than those from the job he just lost. We can say F them all day long but the workers get screwed in the end. Middle/Working class work stoppages along with tax revolts may well be on the way. Saying F them isn't enough.
So how is that any different than a loan officer telling some loser, "Sure, you can afford that $500,000 house", when all along he KNOWS he can't afford it? There comes a time when the "guy welding on the line" needs to be honest and say, "maybe its not such a good idea to bleed the hell out of my employer, just because I can".