Health Care Reform: All our problems are solved!

Miscellaneous Current Events
1

Alright! They finally passed it!

220-215. 50.6% voted for the plan, 49.4% against. Rounding up the winners’ vote to 100% and the losers vote down to 0%, democracy is clearly of the people and by the people.

The Affordable Health Care for America Act will apply to everyone whether they want it or not because that’s just how it works this is a democracy case closed.

A short summary of provisions is posted on wikipedia, but I would like to add some clarifying notes for all those naysayers out there who doubt the wisdom and good will of lobbyists who spent millions of their own dollars pushing this bill through. All for our benefit.

They are as follows:

“prohibit health insurers from charging different rates based on patients’ medical histories or gender [and] prohibit health insurers from refusing coverage based on patients’ medical histories” Because you have a right to the pooled resources of other people. They have NO right to deny you entry into their free and voluntary associations.

“repeal of the exemption for insurance companies from anti-trust laws” Because otherwise government would be in violation of anti trust laws, and government is NOT a monopoly.

“requiring most employers to provide coverage for their workers or pay a surtax on the worker’s wages up to 8%” Because those greedy employers hate poor people! If the government didn’t require employers to offer health benefits they wouldn’t.

“An expansion of Medicare to all low income Americans.” Because what if someone needed pharmaceuticals or they’d die? We need to stop people from dieing so lets massively expand the pharm industry. It had an annual 17% growth rate before this bill, I wonder what will happen next? :smiley:

“provide a subsidy to low to middle income Americans to help buy insurance.” The subsidy will also be paid for by low and middle income Americans.

“a central insurance exchange where the public can compare policies and rates” Because that information isn’t available anywhere else!

**“**a government run insurance plan (public option)” Because the free market isn’t competitive enough for some reason…

**“**requiring most Americans to obtain health insurance or face penalties” Because people are dumb! What if you had an accident and didn’t have insurance? You should have bought insurance! For your own good you should be forced to buy some.

“a 5.4% tax on personal income over $500,000 (individuals) or $1,000,000 (families)” Because those people are rich and greedy! Don’t worry though, The valuable rich people of society like doctors and lawyers will more than break even under our expanded health care system.

“reductions in projected spending on Medicare by $400 million per year**” Because we’ll spend less… eventually. But right now we need to expand the $#@! out of health care. We can stay on budget just like we always do.**

**“**a 2.5% excise tax on medical devices” Because we’re going to pay for health care by taxing health care…

Anyway, I hope this answers your questions! Libertarians just seem not to get it. Hang in there mises people, you’ll come around sometime :wink:

2

Great commentary.

3

As far as I’m concerned, this tops the list.

This is really just a transition from fascism to communism anyway. The US healthcare system wasn’t free market to begin with.

4

Hey now you guys will know what it’s like to live in Australia! We’ve had socialized medicine for a long time. During that period, the cost of healthcare has constantly spiralled upwards and there are long queues to get certain types of surgery.

Welcome to the socialized healthcare club! [:D]

5

I love U.S. politics, it’s like watching monkeys breaking broken things. Seriously guys, you need to throw out those monkeys! Wel, I guess we’re not much better here in europe, where we are also artificially lowering interest rates and centralizing power. We are actually privatizing though (even though some of it is phony). But I wonder if any country has grown so statist in such a short time (Bush/Obama era) without a revolution, I don’t think so, but it might just be a failure of imagination on my part, after all, I am no historian.

6

Aye, comrade! Soon we shall be eating cakes and drinking vodka on top of the corpses of all those dead capitalists!

7

I thought everyone in europe loved the government because it gave them all this stuff and made everyone middle class.

8

Yes, but we have some pragmatic politicians elected, and they are privatizing the phramacies here, and we’re doing a lot of privatizing in the health care sector, even in psychiatrics. Sad as it is, we’re getting a lot of statism fro being part of the EU, most statist legislation actually come straight from Brussels.

An example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPRED

But yeah, the people are a bunch of socialists. But since the health care is getting worse (only about 20% of hospitals are actually holding governmental standard, the rest are below that.) There are long lines, and sometimes people die because of them, although their illness might have been cheap to cure. Our vice prime minister here in Sweden is starting to talk about “eco-efficient economy” whenever she gets the chance though, me and my friend confronted her on the issue (small country, you can actually do this type of thing), but she started to talk about statistics on GDP growth during environmental tax increases and said that there can be growth and environmental policies at the same time. Obviously we started talking about why an empirical approach to economics is bullshit, but she simply wouldn’t understand what “empirical” even meant.

TL;DR: Sweden is getting more statist due to the EU, otherwise, we’re privatizing.

9

Lol I can hardly wait m8… So I know it got through the house did it get through the senate? Fortunatly most of it doesn’t come into effect till 2013 and by then chances are this wont matter much or won’t for to long

10

It hasn’t made it through the Senate yet, and there is always the possibility it may not make it through there; they need 60 votes, and the Democrats control exactly 60 seats. They have no margin for error.

11

I wish I’d kept those Sanofi-Aventis stocks I’ve sold in October… it’s a great day for Big Pharma! [:)]

Now… what was Mussolini’s definition of Fascism?

12

Sweet. Still time for me to buy lots of pharmaceutical stock. Bwhahah.

13

I guess this means we’ll never be sick ever again.

14

Just of the whole boot licking thing. Maybe some Europeans could help us out with adjusting to that. Anything we should know about licking boots? Is it best to lick from heel to toe, or vice versa?

"S"ociety is God, and the state is its proper church. The Social Scientologists, aided by Durkheim’s slight of hand, have won over America…for at least a hundred years. If you’re an American wondering what it is like to live in a state run theocracy, the question is, “Why? Where do you think we’ve been living for the last hundred years?”

You carryinbg your Social Security card?

Did you study your SOcial Studies?

Have you been properly socialized?

Do you know anyone who exhibits any anti-social tendencies?

Have you ever , in your entire life, participated in a political debate that did not refer to the singular myth "S"ociety and its corollary, ‘The’ Economy?’

The Matrix is real, because we’ve been taught from birth that it is real. Not only us, but those who taught those who taught those who taught us have long been ‘socialized.’ The zombie dance we are witnessing is generations in the making.

15

As a general rule, I see the word “social” in any kind of political context as a euphemism for “run by unelected government bureaucracies and dependent upon guns, fear, death and torture rather than rational argument”.

16

No, actually they need only 50 (with the VP as a tie breaker). Everybody assumes a filibuster for some reason so they think of 60. I wouldn’t count on it. They will pass something! You’ll see.

17

True 'dat. And yet…it’s pervasive in our modern theocracy; "S"ociety is God, and the state is its proper church.

Can hardly avoid it in political debate, the high priests of Social Scientology have made certain of that. You can take any position on anything you want, as long as it is couched in sociological terms…

Entirely analogous, and for exactly the same reason, that it is impossible to discuss things ecnomic without referring to the totalitarian term of art “The” Economy, as if there really was just one of them in any meaningful sense. Only in a totalitarian context…

Carville didn’t do freedom any favor with his post Berlin Wall falling, “It’s THE Economy, stupid!”

Should have been, and still, is, “It’s the economies, stupid.”

But, we seem to be generations beyond being able to widely accept that. In the current madness of crowds zombie trance, of course there is “S"ociety, and of course there is 'The” Economy; it’s all we’ve been preached to about every day of our waking lives, since birth, how could ‘it’ not be real…

The problem with all this deep religious instruction is, it wasn’t just our generation, or those who taught us, or even, those who taught them, but even, those who taught them. We are generations beyond being able to see anything but “S"ociety and 'The” Economy., the over-running of our once free,m secular nation by the Social Scientologists was that deep. America has long been a theocracy, our civil state religion is Social Scientology.

Durkheim’s slight of hand was the surrpetitious presentation of 'the sociology of religion", which was in fact the leg-lifting of 'the Religion of Sociology."

It worked…

Durkheim was an eyes rolled into the back of the head religionist. You can’t read his summary at the end of Formes and not smell religion about. Had nothing at all to do with science, everything to do with "S"ociety is God, and the state is its proper church. We’ve been eating our freedom ever since in our modern theocracy…

18

Why the quotes…

19

A doctor came to my school to talk about “health care reform,” and she literally told me that health care is not scarce, or doesn’t have to be. She claims that the profit motive is too blame for the current state of health care-namely its scarcity. My liberal economics professor, who was right next to her, began to blush uncontrollably. It was quite embarrassing for her.

20

Why did anyone ever think that 50%+1 meant something was legitimate ><