Gotta say I’m not happy the Ryan plan failed. ACA is not a good system; OTOH, going back to the “old” system (more of a non-system, really) would be bad for lots of folks, including some of us with pre-existing conditions….
March 25, 2017 at 8:29 pm
formwiz
People came from all over the world to get the advantages of our non-system over their system, so it must have worked pretty well.
March 25, 2017 at 11:58 pm
Brian H
Pre-existing conditions: sign up only after you get sick. Not viable.
March 26, 2017 at 6:30 am
Bill G
Geez, why not? Next thing you know, the car insurers are going to want me to sign up with them before having an accident…
The possibility of getting catastrophic illness/injury insurance was taken off the table by the giant rat of health care, as far as I can see.
March 25, 2017 at 8:16 pm
Oliver Heaviside
I’ll ad that if you believe we should not let anyone bleed to death on the hospital steps, then that statement right there creates an entitlement. If people are entitled to emergency medical care, well, there’s that word again. Entitled. Personally I don’t want to live in a country where they weill let you bleed out because you don’t have your insurance card with you….
March 25, 2017 at 8:30 pm
formwiz
You want to bleed to death, do it in your own country.
In Venezuela, bleeding to death is almost a given now. And winter is coming on in the southern hemisphere. Drought in Brazil is ongoing.
March 25, 2017 at 11:44 pm
NotYetInACamp
Doctors and hospitals always USED to do charity care. Many major hospitals were religious or non profit and built care into the budget.
It was only after every hospital had to care for the invading armies that many hospitals began going bankrupt. many hospitals closed their Emergency Rooms to avoid bankruptcy. California, hotbed of mandated care, lost ER’s all over the state. many communities lost hospitals in the bankruptcies and consolidations. Level and quantity of care was reduced while mandated levels of care increased.
The minimum became the maximum. Increased pricing became the norm in the new monopolistic environment progressives created. Crony socialism is profitable for the rulers.
Check the internet for details. It has all of the truth. The NSA and friends only have all of the electronic data produced for the last 20 years, including what you did in front of your television or camera phone. You are all stars of some sort.
Can I get a copy of the clean up at DD’s ‘ye olde swimmin hole’ just finishing up, NSA? Unless the kid is good, you guys have access to every electronic transmission. And you NSA people always listen in on treal time to the interesting people. So i have been led to believe.
March 26, 2017 at 1:34 pm
Desert Lion
Personally, I don’t want to live in a country where the government presses anyone into slavery, but that’s exactly what you describe if the law requires anyone to do anything without appropriately compensating them for it. This whole so-called “health care” mess was caused by two major government actions – salary caps and requiring hospitals to provide emergent care (with the term “emergent” so loosely defined as to be whatever anyone decides they want it to be) without being able to expect and exact compensation. The former caused businesses to get “creative” and find non-salary means to compensate individuals so they could keep them at market value. Before that, there was no such thing as employer-provided health care; now it’s considered a right (aka, a demand by the government). Sorry, health care is no more a right than having a car to drive. The latter has created a system where anyone can go to any emergency room and demand care without the expectation of having to pay for the services rendered (i.e., turn the medical staff into their slaves). Yes, someone else will pay, often the government (i.e., those of us who pay taxes), but at rates far below market and with an administrative burden that is a large part of what drives the cost of health care in this country far above that in any other country in the world. Yes, it’s the best care anywhere, but not twice as good as anywhere and that’s what it costs.
It’s not charity care when it’s demanded.
I agree that people who are bleeding out should be treated. I don’t agree that their inability to pay should absolve them of the debt. If they get the care, then they should do whatever it takes to pay for it.
The whole pre-existing condition canard is easily resolved. Yes, lots of people were irresponsible and didn’t obtain insurance to pay for the unexpected. The government bears much of the fault by making it easy to be irresponsible with no personal consequences. So the government changes the laws to remove those irresponsible provisions and gives a grace period where anyone who doesn’t currently have coverage can choose (or not) to purchase it. Some will be like Oliver who already need care and didn’t provide for it. Others will be young studs who think they’re invincible but realize that might not always be the case. Insurance companies can provide whatever plans people want wherever, not subject to the whims of what some government bureaucrat thinks should be included or not included, and at whatever price the market dictates. If you already have a condition, you can still get insurance just as now under ACA. At the end of the window, anyone without insurance buys it at whatever the market offers. If I don’t want an insurance company involved with my health care, I can choose to pay for whatever I need – no penalty, no subsidy, no freebies. If I want a catastrophic-only plan where I get assistance from insurance to cover bills associated with SHTF, I can buy that sort of plan, pay those sorts of premiums, and make arrangements with my medical provider for routine care.
Right now, the government biases the rules against such a plan – sounds far too much like personal choice with personal responsibility. Take care of yourself and plan for your future. You don’t plan, you don’t get care.
Just like in the real world…
March 26, 2017 at 8:07 pm
Henry
“The whole pre-existing condition canard is easily resolved. Yes, lots of people were irresponsible and didn’t obtain insurance to pay for the unexpected. The government bears much of the fault by making it easy to be irresponsible with no personal consequences.”
The government bears the majority of the fault by forcing the citizen to discontinue the insurance he had taken out BEFORE the condition manifested itself, by decreeing that that insurance no longer “met its standards.” My conditions are “preexisting” only because the government forced me to contract with a different insurer.
March 26, 2017 at 8:02 pm
Henry
If enough people in America truly believe that charity health care should be available to people who can’t afford it, they will privately donate the funds and government intervention will be unnecessary.
If not enough people in America truly believe tht charity health care should be available to people who can’t afford it, then government intervention is undemocratic.
Either way, government intervention is improper… not to mention unconstitutional.
March 25, 2017 at 8:31 pm
formwiz
Clothes back on the ladies.
All good things…
Ah, well, Summer is coming and a warm Spring has sprung.
March 25, 2017 at 8:33 pm
Grunt GI
So what do we know?
1) in spite of liberal hysteria, hospitals have always treated emergency room patients.
2) We have to remember the difference between health care and health insurance. They aren’t the same thing.
3) This attempt failed. But Obamacare is gonna implode. It was iniended for one thing only–to usher in single payer via the never implemented “public option” insurance plan. It was never intended to do anything more than destroy the private health insurance industry.
4). Democrats shouldn’t be too smug. It’s still called Obamacare.
What else did we learn?
1) Dayum, these women are gorgeous.
2). Apparently they like to go braless and commando, which can only be a good thing.
3). The artwork here is definitely as awesome as the political snark.
March 26, 2017 at 12:43 am
TomZ
2a) There is a difference between health insurance and pre-paid health care.
March 25, 2017 at 8:46 pm
CitizenOutkast
The government needs to get out of care entirely. Period. It’s not its job. So much it does isn’t, and the more it’s reduced, the better.
Pre-existing conditions? If you want to do anything, reduce the corporate tax rate, or even personal income tax rate, for all CEOs/healthcare businesses that take such clients. Given that they also keep them. Make there be a financial reward for doing so. Carrot instead of the stick.
The following comes from a financial forecaster with a good, long-term record of accuracy.
This is how things will go for the time being: in the short run, nothing will be done.
However, in the long run Obamacare WILL be repealed and tax reform will be passed.
What will replace Obamacare, if anything does, I don’t know, but yes, ERs always treat emergencies, period, and yes, the government needs to stay OUT of health care and health insurance altogether.
March 25, 2017 at 10:40 pm
CuriousB
CitizenOutkast – “The government needs to get out of healthcare entirely”. Amen brother…
If you believe that “health care is a right” regardless of your ability (or willingness) to pay, and the cost whatever it may be is the responsibility of others to pay…then you are a socialist.
March 25, 2017 at 10:54 pm
Grunt GI
Unfortunately FAR FAR too many DemocRATs and liberal progs in general want to implement FDR’s second bill of rights.
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
These are, of course, nothing but socialism, but to liberals, they are now RIGHTS that you should pay for.
Forget the fact that nearly 50% of Americans, mostly lower income, pay NO freakin’ income taxes.
SIGH..
On a lighter note, one other thing we know, or at least can confirm, is that on Sam, the carpets and drapes match…no artificial colors on her.
Oyyyy
March 25, 2017 at 11:49 pm
NotYetInACamp
That rather reminds me of what is contained in the old Soviet Unions constitution, and, in some of the changes that Barrack Hussein Obama / Barry Sotero wanted to put in the US Constitution.
Oy!
March 25, 2017 at 11:59 pm
NotYetInACamp
So. That socialism stuff means that we all have slaves. Doctor Slave. Nurse Slave. Sound like that fetish stuff, but reality as espoused by socialism.
Where is that Reagan video about telling doctors when where how etc they will work, meant as a warning?
March 26, 2017 at 11:54 am
John
The very core of Socialism is that each becomes the slave of all. There is no freedom. There is no liberty. There are no Rights against the all-powerful State, the Slave Owner.
Socialism is doomed, has always been doomed, and will always be doomed by the War of All Against All for the spoils of the State. This is an on-going lesson of history that the Socialists will deny to their dying breath.
And in the meantime the blood, sweat, and tears of the people are shed for naught but the false bragging rights of fools.
March 26, 2017 at 8:17 pm
NotYetInACamp
Well put.
But “THIS” time, they will get the right people to make it work. So the insane destruction continues. Unless they let Islam destroy and enslave all as primitives. (So the global elite believe they can control)
One has to think that even FDR could not have foreseen that NYIAC’s “invading armies” seeking not opportunity but conquest, would make a mockery and collapse of the productive structure that paid for all of those “rights” a certainty.
MANDATORY “free” medical care, housing, education, etc. etc. etc. for all comers? Not for long. What did somebody say up there? Let them bleed out in their own space and time.
“Life, liberty, and the PURSUIT of happiness. You were never guaranteed it, only the freedom to PURSUE it.
March 26, 2017 at 8:27 pm
NotYetInACamp
Look at all where Islam has conquered. There is no paradise or even close.
Islam conquered the heart of Western Civilization’s breadbasket, intellectual center of Christianity, and turned the Mediterranean into a slave capture transport system, as well as destroyed the productivity of all farms along the North African coast with their goats eating the Christian dhiminis fields crops to the roots, and drove well into France in the first hundred years of conquest.
In that cult one has no freedom. there is no democracy. The libraries were burned, as one caliph said, because if the book contained what was in the Koran, then we already had the knowledge, and if the book contained information that was not in the Koran, then it was false or unimportant. Alexandria’s library had 1 of 10 books preserved and translated by Christian slaves. Much of the “golden ages” of Islam was using Christian knowledge. One only follows the dictates of the cult, or dies. The West has the same cultists striving to take what Sharia Law tels them belongs to them. At this point, unless another temporary “truce” convenient to Islam is called, it is they kill us, or we kill them. That is the law of Islam.
Franklin damn sure wasn’t Teddy, as I remember history.
March 26, 2017 at 7:42 am
sigofmugmort
TR may have been a soldier, sportsman, conservationist, and apparently almost bulletproof (Google “John Nepomuk Schrank” aka “John Flammang Schrank”), but he was also an advocate of eugenics enforced by government fiat.
Part of that would have been the “benign neglect” of those considered less desirable, or “useful”. Like certain minorities who wold have been prevented from reproducing, and older people who would be encouraged to “go gently into that good night”, to invert Robert Frost.
There seemed to be a streak of authoritarianism of the “we know best” variety in the entire Roosevelt family.
What is the difference between “enforced by government” and “benign neglect”?
The results may be the same, but the former is inflicted by outside forces, the latter by inside forces.
The first is bad, the second is good, the outcome is irrelevant.
March 26, 2017 at 11:04 am
markm
Never trust a guy who thinks “bully” means something good.
March 26, 2017 at 11:00 am
markm
If someone else’s labor or property is required to grant a “right”, it’s not a right – it’s the _power_ to demand others be enslaved.
March 25, 2017 at 11:43 pm
Pete231
Are the ladies required to have concealed carry permits for those magnums ? I, myself, would prefer to see the open carry mode regarding their weaponage….
“I, myself, would prefer to see the open carry mode regarding their weaponage…”
One could argue that we’ve been seeing it for the last few days now. 😉
March 25, 2017 at 11:50 pm
NotYetInACamp
Oh yeah! She is gifted with big guns.
March 25, 2017 at 11:53 pm
Redleg
From the Gorsuch hearings, we know that the Democrats worship precedent, and a precedent has been set: the President may change any aspect of the ACA with an executive order. This gives Trump a choice of two strategies: the first, eliminate most of the rules and regulations of the ACA through EO; the second, again through EO, revoke the exceptions to the ACA made by Obama.
The first exception to be revoked is that excepting Congress and their staffers from the ACA; Congress should live under the same laws that the citizenry must. The second is the exception freeing union members from the taxes on the “Cadillac Health Insurance Plans.”
March 26, 2017 at 12:03 am
NotYetInACamp
I believe that you see into the mind of President Trump.
Unions, the congress, and other exceptions will scream bloody blue murder when they see that they must live in the house that they built. There are many methods of negotiation. The deal is not done when political DC tradition says the deal must be done. These Politicos do not understand real life business negotiation. Aint life a pisser sometimes?
You KNOW The Donald has a plan. How does one do that “evil grin” emoji?
March 26, 2017 at 7:57 am
eon
Google “Xanatos Gambit”. Defined as “One in which no matter what happens, the end result gets the perpetrator something he wants”.
In this case, Trump could have gotten a clean Act that got rid of the many destructive elements of O-Care. Instead, what he got was Congress and Ryan discrediting themselves.
He also could have gotten a GOP victory. Instead he has the Dems including the media and academia crowing about their victory- until O-Care implodes like any other pyramid scheme, which is exactly what it is.
Either way, the winner is…Trump.
The Dems think they will ride O-Care into regaining control of the House and Senate in ’18, OR riding a UK-style “National Health Plan” replacing it to same. (Remember, government-run single-payer with all the Orwellian trimmings has always been the intended outcome of the ACA.)
The Dems openly state that they rely on the public’s stupidity to achieve their goals. Trump is counting on the public being smarter than the Dems think they are. And on the public being fed up enough, angry enough, and scared enough about what ACA has done to reject anybody who advocates an “ACA Phase Two” or “Phase Ultimate”.
As the old saying goes, remind me, which of the two protagonists here, Trump or the progressives, has more “wins” on their record?
Progressives like to govern through fear, because of their arrogance, narcissism, and their contempt and hatred for others. It makes them feel superior, especially when they are inflicting misery.
Trump runs his businesses on the principle of “Get what you want by getting others what they want”. Plus “Find out who the monkeywrenchers are and get rid of them, preferably by letting them very publicly self-destruct”.
I believe we are now seeing these principles applied to government.
I could have said this in several places, but the Hippocratic Oath says, basically, care for the deathly ill. Save them from death if you can. Optional shit, not so much. There is no “right” to healthcare other than the doctors being required by nature to keep you alive at the ER. Therefore, that is the ONLY “healthcare” the government should be paying for, the only clinics they should provide.
And it is a true shame to see those clothes going back on. SIGH.
March 26, 2017 at 6:47 am
Astroprisoner
If the repeal had passed, then by now the Democrats would already have vowed to bring it back as soon as they are back in power, and it’s possible that they would succeed. All we would have heard from the Ds would be how good the plan was, and denials of its flaws. What we would end up with would be something even worse.
But when Obamacare collapses under its own weight the flaws will be obvious and undeniable.
Let it die on its own, when the Rs have the power, so that it can be replaced.
There’s an old adage that applies to Obamacare: “When your opponent is self-destructing, don’t try to stop him.”
The Astroprisoner’s corollary: “But don’t assist in the self-destruction, you’ll only turn him into a martyr.”
March 26, 2017 at 11:09 am
markm
The problem is, the media and other Democrats will blame the collapse of Obamacare on Trump. They’ve spent the last six years trying to blame it’s most obvious shortcomings on the Congressional Republicans – the ones who weren’t consulted at all when it was passed – either because they refused to pour MORE MONEY into that pit, or because they wouldn’t make the slight changes the Democrats decided they wanted after they passed it and THEN found out what was in it.
ACA will be repealed, just not right now. Have patience.
March 26, 2017 at 6:50 am
Bill G
Big guns, indeed, and well maintained. Different weapons are being deployed in the health care fight. Here’s hoping something decent comes out of it in the end.
March 26, 2017 at 6:54 am
Bill G
Off topic and perhaps too long. Kyle Reyes, CEO of The Silent Partner Marketing, has developed a new questionnaire for prospective employees. I haven’t been able to find a link to the full test outside of Facebook, so I’ve cut-and-pasted from there. Here it is, the full Snowflake Test:
1. Outside of standard benefits, what benefits should a company offer employees?
2. What should the national minimum wage be?
3. How many sick days should be given to employees?
4. How often should employees get raises?
5. How do you feel about guns?
6. What are your feelings about employees or clients carrying guns?
7. What are your feelings about safe spaces in challenging work environments?
8. In a creative environment like The Silent Partner Marketing, what do you envision work attire looking like?
9. Should “trigger warnings” be issued before we release content for clients or the company that might be considered “controversial”?
10. How do you feel about police?
11. If you owned the company and were to find out that a client is operating unethically but was a high paying client…how would you handle it?
12. When was the last time you cried and why?
13. You arrive at an event for work and there’s a major celebrity you’ve always wanted to meet. What happens next?
14. What’s your favorite kind of adult beverage?
15. What’s the best way to communicate with clients?
16. What’s your favorite thing to do in your free time?
17. What are your thoughts on the current college environment as it pertains to a future workforce?
18. What’s your typical breakfast?
19. What’s your favorite drink when you go to a coffeehouse?
20. How do you handle bullies?
21. How do you handle it when your ideas are shot down?
22. What do you do if a coworker comes to the table with an idea and it sucks?
23. What does the first amendment mean to you?
24. What does faith mean to you?
25. Who is your role model and why?
26. “You’re in Starbucks with two friends. Someone runs in and says someone is coming in with a gun in 15 seconds to shoot patrons. They offer you a gun. Do you take it? What do you do next?”
27. What does America mean to you?
28. You see someone stepping on an American flag. What do you do?
29. What does “privilege” mean to you?
30. What’s more important? Book smarts or street smarts? Why?
March 26, 2017 at 8:01 am
eon
Depending on the CEO’s attitudes, that could either be a way to weed out conservatives or a way to weed out snowflakes.
Either way, I’m pretty sure that it could be challenged in court and would be ruled unconstitutional. (Except maybe in CA.)
clear ether
eon
March 26, 2017 at 11:22 am
markm
None of that is unconstitutional for a business – although there are liberal flake judges that would try to warp the Constitution, so you might have to take it up to the Supreme Court. Depending on what they do with the answer, #24 is possibly in violation of legislation (not the Constitution) banning religious discrimination at the workplace. The rest is legal; an employer _can_ invade your privacy that much, although it might not be a good idea. If you don’t like it, walk out. I’d definitely resent the invasion of privacy, but might fill in the answers to see it they were going where I think they were going with it.
March 26, 2017 at 5:10 pm
Bill G
He was after weeding out the snowflakes. And one of the posts I saw was a snowflake saying she’d love to sue; he said he’s shown it to his lawyers and they loved it.
Oh, they wouldn’t like my answers to some of those questions. 🙂
March 26, 2017 at 7:03 am
Halley
How many of the Democrats’ stealth-socialism schemes is the GOP now proudly supportive of – Social Security? Medicare? even “public schooling” one could argue? A party this deeply compromised in its premises of course has a hard time respecting the constitutional right of the people to be free from government-controlled health care. We can at least trust that DJT is trying to move things in the right direction. And Jan is today’s Top Gun winner…
March 26, 2017 at 8:21 am
eon
Keep in mind that when this country was young, there was only one major political party, the Democratic Republicans. It split in the 1830s, resulting in the two parties we have now.
However, for the last 30 years (since 1987) to all intents and purposes the Democratic Republican Party has recreated itself. Minus all those pesky Whigs, Free Silver types, and etc.
The Party may however split once again. Or rather, those who claim to be Republicans will drop the facade’ and openly declare themselves Dems.
What will do it is what did it the last time. In the 1850s. Slavery.
Back then, it was over the issue of “Should people be allowed to own blacks?”
Today, it is “Should we have cheap ‘ethnic’ labor via unlimited immigration?”
It’s the same issue, just slightly recast.
The use of illegals voting to cast progressive governance in stone echoes the “three-fifths” rule in the Constitution. Progressives demagogue that as proof of our country’s inherent racism.
They don’t talk about the fact that the purpose of that rule was to keep the slave states from having an overwhelming majority in the U.S. House of Representatives by counting every owned slave for the purpose of apportioning House seats, when slaves were legally banned from voting.
As always, “progressives” want slavery for their own ends. Those being , power and the ability to abuse it with no fear of consequences for themselves.
This is simply the latest iteration. And it’s shaping up just like the 1860-65 version. “States rights” then, “sanctuaries” now.
And like the previous version, the progressives will not settle for “going their own way”. Whatever Robert E. Lee wanted, Jefferson Davis wanted the United States as a single,slave-owning country from the Rio Grande to the Canadian border, and seriously considered taking Canada, too.
His modern disciples will settle for nothing less that the entire country being like Los Angeles and NYC. As a prelude to making the entire world like them. By the proverbial “Any Means Necessary”. (NB; After Appomattox, Davis was barraging Lee with messages demanding the immediate resumption of “offensive operations” for three weeks, until he was arrested.)
Progressives don’t do “peaceful coexistence”. All they care about is power and the ability to hurt others while being invulnerable themselves.
Which is why while their tactics and “justifications” may change, their strategies never do. They just change the logo now and then.
And keep an eye out for a new category of slaves. And useful idiots.
clear ether
eon
March 26, 2017 at 9:55 am
Kafiroon
The proglodites do want all that but, they seem to forget Soros, and everyone else do not have enough money to pay for all that in reference to LA, NYC, etc.
Besides, American workers tend to have an attitude that really screws things up when they are poed. They will make the old pretend to pay-pretend to work look productive. And revenge? Do Not be on their bad side.
Notwithstanding for the purposes of this discussion that this historical parallel is flawed beyond any relevance ie: that slavery was to the CW as tea was to the RW and that the original RINO, much as his heirs do now, crassly and callously used feigned concern and protection of declared underclasses as a ruse and a pretext to stir and incite rage and to invade sovereign states and commit unspeakable mass politicide.
Still, the solution is the same, secession and sovereignity. Let sanctuary cities states be their own nation, with their own laws and under their own control. But that stated unwillingness to “go their own way” will not allow that, they must impose their will and power on unwilling others by force…as they know not doing so will ensure their own demise.
Just as RINO 1 made clear in his private letters and innermost conviction, forced control over geographical and montetary assets is the only way to guarantee the survival of a government entity that has no qualms about -in fact revels in- the signaling of virtuous goals and faux freedom when in fact the only goal is self-perpetuation by any and all means.
Lincoln is Ryan is Obama. Smoke, mirrors, lies, and the most evil and selfish of motives and methods.
Edit to strike that next-to-last sentence…Ryan is so irrelevant as to not warrant a mention in this analogy which more accurately should have been:
Lincoln was to the eastern elites of then as Obama is to the bi-coastal elites of now. Just a charismatic tool to take and perpetuate by bloody force money and power for his patrons. The smoke, mirrors, lies, and evil part stands.
Follow the money/power, always follow the money/power, then as now.
March 26, 2017 at 5:25 pm
Kafiroon
I think that the proglodites might gladly jump at Balkanization. Until they find the included slaves cannot fund their ideal “country”. Then, there should follow the endless wars for the same endless string of reasons. TEOTWAWKI.
March 26, 2017 at 9:16 am
Corvette
So SAM is bra less and going comando in them jeans, guess that is her “quick draw” package for her guns when she sees Zed.
Corvette
March 26, 2017 at 10:44 am
PlasticMan
Oh Lord. Jan putting the jeans on is great poster material!!
March 26, 2017 at 10:59 am
Ron
That’s Sam in the jeans. Jan is wearing the dress.
March 26, 2017 at 1:52 pm
PlasticMan
Dammit! I KNEW that. You can see the peek of red carpet to match the drapes. And Sam’s nipples are shaped and colored differently than Jan’s. I don’t know WHY I typed Jan. And the next frame is a poster, too. I love seeing that little tease of tuft down there. Ahhhh…. I’ll be in my bunk, but bringing the wife with me.
March 26, 2017 at 10:48 am
PaulS
“Is there any institutions in western society that hasn’t been tainted with the insanity of progressivism?”
Rush Limbaugh. 🙂
March 26, 2017 at 12:52 pm
WayneM
Stefan Molyneux of Freedomain Radio published an excellent analysis of how to “fix” healthcare yesterday, including a historical overview of what led to the current issues and how it impacts today & beyond.
68 Comments
I’m the first commenter? Wow, seems like a bug….
Gotta say I’m not happy the Ryan plan failed. ACA is not a good system; OTOH, going back to the “old” system (more of a non-system, really) would be bad for lots of folks, including some of us with pre-existing conditions….
People came from all over the world to get the advantages of our non-system over their system, so it must have worked pretty well.
Pre-existing conditions: sign up only after you get sick. Not viable.
Geez, why not? Next thing you know, the car insurers are going to want me to sign up with them before having an accident…
The possibility of getting catastrophic illness/injury insurance was taken off the table by the giant rat of health care, as far as I can see.
I’ll ad that if you believe we should not let anyone bleed to death on the hospital steps, then that statement right there creates an entitlement. If people are entitled to emergency medical care, well, there’s that word again. Entitled. Personally I don’t want to live in a country where they weill let you bleed out because you don’t have your insurance card with you….
You want to bleed to death, do it in your own country.
In Venezuela, bleeding to death is almost a given now. And winter is coming on in the southern hemisphere. Drought in Brazil is ongoing.
Doctors and hospitals always USED to do charity care. Many major hospitals were religious or non profit and built care into the budget.
It was only after every hospital had to care for the invading armies that many hospitals began going bankrupt. many hospitals closed their Emergency Rooms to avoid bankruptcy. California, hotbed of mandated care, lost ER’s all over the state. many communities lost hospitals in the bankruptcies and consolidations. Level and quantity of care was reduced while mandated levels of care increased.
The minimum became the maximum. Increased pricing became the norm in the new monopolistic environment progressives created. Crony socialism is profitable for the rulers.
Check the internet for details. It has all of the truth. The NSA and friends only have all of the electronic data produced for the last 20 years, including what you did in front of your television or camera phone. You are all stars of some sort.
Can I get a copy of the clean up at DD’s ‘ye olde swimmin hole’ just finishing up, NSA? Unless the kid is good, you guys have access to every electronic transmission. And you NSA people always listen in on treal time to the interesting people. So i have been led to believe.
Personally, I don’t want to live in a country where the government presses anyone into slavery, but that’s exactly what you describe if the law requires anyone to do anything without appropriately compensating them for it. This whole so-called “health care” mess was caused by two major government actions – salary caps and requiring hospitals to provide emergent care (with the term “emergent” so loosely defined as to be whatever anyone decides they want it to be) without being able to expect and exact compensation. The former caused businesses to get “creative” and find non-salary means to compensate individuals so they could keep them at market value. Before that, there was no such thing as employer-provided health care; now it’s considered a right (aka, a demand by the government). Sorry, health care is no more a right than having a car to drive. The latter has created a system where anyone can go to any emergency room and demand care without the expectation of having to pay for the services rendered (i.e., turn the medical staff into their slaves). Yes, someone else will pay, often the government (i.e., those of us who pay taxes), but at rates far below market and with an administrative burden that is a large part of what drives the cost of health care in this country far above that in any other country in the world. Yes, it’s the best care anywhere, but not twice as good as anywhere and that’s what it costs.
It’s not charity care when it’s demanded.
I agree that people who are bleeding out should be treated. I don’t agree that their inability to pay should absolve them of the debt. If they get the care, then they should do whatever it takes to pay for it.
The whole pre-existing condition canard is easily resolved. Yes, lots of people were irresponsible and didn’t obtain insurance to pay for the unexpected. The government bears much of the fault by making it easy to be irresponsible with no personal consequences. So the government changes the laws to remove those irresponsible provisions and gives a grace period where anyone who doesn’t currently have coverage can choose (or not) to purchase it. Some will be like Oliver who already need care and didn’t provide for it. Others will be young studs who think they’re invincible but realize that might not always be the case. Insurance companies can provide whatever plans people want wherever, not subject to the whims of what some government bureaucrat thinks should be included or not included, and at whatever price the market dictates. If you already have a condition, you can still get insurance just as now under ACA. At the end of the window, anyone without insurance buys it at whatever the market offers. If I don’t want an insurance company involved with my health care, I can choose to pay for whatever I need – no penalty, no subsidy, no freebies. If I want a catastrophic-only plan where I get assistance from insurance to cover bills associated with SHTF, I can buy that sort of plan, pay those sorts of premiums, and make arrangements with my medical provider for routine care.
Right now, the government biases the rules against such a plan – sounds far too much like personal choice with personal responsibility. Take care of yourself and plan for your future. You don’t plan, you don’t get care.
Just like in the real world…
“The whole pre-existing condition canard is easily resolved. Yes, lots of people were irresponsible and didn’t obtain insurance to pay for the unexpected. The government bears much of the fault by making it easy to be irresponsible with no personal consequences.”
The government bears the majority of the fault by forcing the citizen to discontinue the insurance he had taken out BEFORE the condition manifested itself, by decreeing that that insurance no longer “met its standards.” My conditions are “preexisting” only because the government forced me to contract with a different insurer.
If enough people in America truly believe that charity health care should be available to people who can’t afford it, they will privately donate the funds and government intervention will be unnecessary.
If not enough people in America truly believe tht charity health care should be available to people who can’t afford it, then government intervention is undemocratic.
Either way, government intervention is improper… not to mention unconstitutional.
Clothes back on the ladies.
All good things…
Ah, well, Summer is coming and a warm Spring has sprung.
So what do we know?
1) in spite of liberal hysteria, hospitals have always treated emergency room patients.
2) We have to remember the difference between health care and health insurance. They aren’t the same thing.
3) This attempt failed. But Obamacare is gonna implode. It was iniended for one thing only–to usher in single payer via the never implemented “public option” insurance plan. It was never intended to do anything more than destroy the private health insurance industry.
4). Democrats shouldn’t be too smug. It’s still called Obamacare.
What else did we learn?
1) Dayum, these women are gorgeous.
2). Apparently they like to go braless and commando, which can only be a good thing.
3). The artwork here is definitely as awesome as the political snark.
2a) There is a difference between health insurance and pre-paid health care.
The government needs to get out of care entirely. Period. It’s not its job. So much it does isn’t, and the more it’s reduced, the better.
Pre-existing conditions? If you want to do anything, reduce the corporate tax rate, or even personal income tax rate, for all CEOs/healthcare businesses that take such clients. Given that they also keep them. Make there be a financial reward for doing so. Carrot instead of the stick.
The following comes from a financial forecaster with a good, long-term record of accuracy.
This is how things will go for the time being: in the short run, nothing will be done.
However, in the long run Obamacare WILL be repealed and tax reform will be passed.
What will replace Obamacare, if anything does, I don’t know, but yes, ERs always treat emergencies, period, and yes, the government needs to stay OUT of health care and health insurance altogether.
CitizenOutkast – “The government needs to get out of healthcare entirely”. Amen brother…
With all due respect, even some respected folks here sound a lot like Pelosi at about 18:40 here:
http://www.nbc.com/nightly-news/video/nbc-nightly-news-mar-25-2017/3484964
If you believe that “health care is a right” regardless of your ability (or willingness) to pay, and the cost whatever it may be is the responsibility of others to pay…then you are a socialist.
Unfortunately FAR FAR too many DemocRATs and liberal progs in general want to implement FDR’s second bill of rights.
http://origin.heritage.org/initiatives/first-principles/primary-sources/fdrs-second-bill-of-rights
Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the Nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
These are, of course, nothing but socialism, but to liberals, they are now RIGHTS that you should pay for.
Forget the fact that nearly 50% of Americans, mostly lower income, pay NO freakin’ income taxes.
SIGH..
On a lighter note, one other thing we know, or at least can confirm, is that on Sam, the carpets and drapes match…no artificial colors on her.
Oyyyy
That rather reminds me of what is contained in the old Soviet Unions constitution, and, in some of the changes that Barrack Hussein Obama / Barry Sotero wanted to put in the US Constitution.
Oy!
So. That socialism stuff means that we all have slaves. Doctor Slave. Nurse Slave. Sound like that fetish stuff, but reality as espoused by socialism.
Where is that Reagan video about telling doctors when where how etc they will work, meant as a warning?
The very core of Socialism is that each becomes the slave of all. There is no freedom. There is no liberty. There are no Rights against the all-powerful State, the Slave Owner.
Socialism is doomed, has always been doomed, and will always be doomed by the War of All Against All for the spoils of the State. This is an on-going lesson of history that the Socialists will deny to their dying breath.
And in the meantime the blood, sweat, and tears of the people are shed for naught but the false bragging rights of fools.
Well put.
But “THIS” time, they will get the right people to make it work. So the insane destruction continues. Unless they let Islam destroy and enslave all as primitives. (So the global elite believe they can control)
One has to think that even FDR could not have foreseen that NYIAC’s “invading armies” seeking not opportunity but conquest, would make a mockery and collapse of the productive structure that paid for all of those “rights” a certainty.
MANDATORY “free” medical care, housing, education, etc. etc. etc. for all comers? Not for long. What did somebody say up there? Let them bleed out in their own space and time.
“Life, liberty, and the PURSUIT of happiness. You were never guaranteed it, only the freedom to PURSUE it.
Look at all where Islam has conquered. There is no paradise or even close.
Islam conquered the heart of Western Civilization’s breadbasket, intellectual center of Christianity, and turned the Mediterranean into a slave capture transport system, as well as destroyed the productivity of all farms along the North African coast with their goats eating the Christian dhiminis fields crops to the roots, and drove well into France in the first hundred years of conquest.
In that cult one has no freedom. there is no democracy. The libraries were burned, as one caliph said, because if the book contained what was in the Koran, then we already had the knowledge, and if the book contained information that was not in the Koran, then it was false or unimportant. Alexandria’s library had 1 of 10 books preserved and translated by Christian slaves. Much of the “golden ages” of Islam was using Christian knowledge. One only follows the dictates of the cult, or dies. The West has the same cultists striving to take what Sharia Law tels them belongs to them. At this point, unless another temporary “truce” convenient to Islam is called, it is they kill us, or we kill them. That is the law of Islam.
Franklin damn sure wasn’t Teddy, as I remember history.
TR may have been a soldier, sportsman, conservationist, and apparently almost bulletproof (Google “John Nepomuk Schrank” aka “John Flammang Schrank”), but he was also an advocate of eugenics enforced by government fiat.
Part of that would have been the “benign neglect” of those considered less desirable, or “useful”. Like certain minorities who wold have been prevented from reproducing, and older people who would be encouraged to “go gently into that good night”, to invert Robert Frost.
There seemed to be a streak of authoritarianism of the “we know best” variety in the entire Roosevelt family.
clear ether
eon
Dammit, I TOLD him to reset the thing!
clear ether
eon
What is the difference between “enforced by government” and “benign neglect”?
The results may be the same, but the former is inflicted by outside forces, the latter by inside forces.
The first is bad, the second is good, the outcome is irrelevant.
Never trust a guy who thinks “bully” means something good.
If someone else’s labor or property is required to grant a “right”, it’s not a right – it’s the _power_ to demand others be enslaved.
Are the ladies required to have concealed carry permits for those magnums ? I, myself, would prefer to see the open carry mode regarding their weaponage….
Open carry?! Yes please
🙂
“I, myself, would prefer to see the open carry mode regarding their weaponage…”
One could argue that we’ve been seeing it for the last few days now. 😉
Oh yeah! She is gifted with big guns.
From the Gorsuch hearings, we know that the Democrats worship precedent, and a precedent has been set: the President may change any aspect of the ACA with an executive order. This gives Trump a choice of two strategies: the first, eliminate most of the rules and regulations of the ACA through EO; the second, again through EO, revoke the exceptions to the ACA made by Obama.
The first exception to be revoked is that excepting Congress and their staffers from the ACA; Congress should live under the same laws that the citizenry must. The second is the exception freeing union members from the taxes on the “Cadillac Health Insurance Plans.”
I believe that you see into the mind of President Trump.
Unions, the congress, and other exceptions will scream bloody blue murder when they see that they must live in the house that they built. There are many methods of negotiation. The deal is not done when political DC tradition says the deal must be done. These Politicos do not understand real life business negotiation. Aint life a pisser sometimes?
You KNOW The Donald has a plan. How does one do that “evil grin” emoji?
Google “Xanatos Gambit”. Defined as “One in which no matter what happens, the end result gets the perpetrator something he wants”.
In this case, Trump could have gotten a clean Act that got rid of the many destructive elements of O-Care. Instead, what he got was Congress and Ryan discrediting themselves.
He also could have gotten a GOP victory. Instead he has the Dems including the media and academia crowing about their victory- until O-Care implodes like any other pyramid scheme, which is exactly what it is.
Either way, the winner is…Trump.
The Dems think they will ride O-Care into regaining control of the House and Senate in ’18, OR riding a UK-style “National Health Plan” replacing it to same. (Remember, government-run single-payer with all the Orwellian trimmings has always been the intended outcome of the ACA.)
The Dems openly state that they rely on the public’s stupidity to achieve their goals. Trump is counting on the public being smarter than the Dems think they are. And on the public being fed up enough, angry enough, and scared enough about what ACA has done to reject anybody who advocates an “ACA Phase Two” or “Phase Ultimate”.
As the old saying goes, remind me, which of the two protagonists here, Trump or the progressives, has more “wins” on their record?
Progressives like to govern through fear, because of their arrogance, narcissism, and their contempt and hatred for others. It makes them feel superior, especially when they are inflicting misery.
Trump runs his businesses on the principle of “Get what you want by getting others what they want”. Plus “Find out who the monkeywrenchers are and get rid of them, preferably by letting them very publicly self-destruct”.
I believe we are now seeing these principles applied to government.
clear ether
eon
“… the public being fed up enough, angry enough, and scared enough…”
The Trump phenomenon and the worldwide cascade in a nutshell right there.
No one can accuse Sam of being “conservative” in the mammary department.
Chris captures it perfectly; Ryan looks like he’s just figured out he was played from both ends.
*snicker*
I thought they only had double penetration in Porn.
Everything that man does is likely pornographic.
I could have said this in several places, but the Hippocratic Oath says, basically, care for the deathly ill. Save them from death if you can. Optional shit, not so much. There is no “right” to healthcare other than the doctors being required by nature to keep you alive at the ER. Therefore, that is the ONLY “healthcare” the government should be paying for, the only clinics they should provide.
And it is a true shame to see those clothes going back on. SIGH.
If the repeal had passed, then by now the Democrats would already have vowed to bring it back as soon as they are back in power, and it’s possible that they would succeed. All we would have heard from the Ds would be how good the plan was, and denials of its flaws. What we would end up with would be something even worse.
But when Obamacare collapses under its own weight the flaws will be obvious and undeniable.
Let it die on its own, when the Rs have the power, so that it can be replaced.
There’s an old adage that applies to Obamacare: “When your opponent is self-destructing, don’t try to stop him.”
The Astroprisoner’s corollary: “But don’t assist in the self-destruction, you’ll only turn him into a martyr.”
The problem is, the media and other Democrats will blame the collapse of Obamacare on Trump. They’ve spent the last six years trying to blame it’s most obvious shortcomings on the Congressional Republicans – the ones who weren’t consulted at all when it was passed – either because they refused to pour MORE MONEY into that pit, or because they wouldn’t make the slight changes the Democrats decided they wanted after they passed it and THEN found out what was in it.
ACA will be repealed, just not right now. Have patience.
Big guns, indeed, and well maintained. Different weapons are being deployed in the health care fight. Here’s hoping something decent comes out of it in the end.
Off topic and perhaps too long. Kyle Reyes, CEO of The Silent Partner Marketing, has developed a new questionnaire for prospective employees. I haven’t been able to find a link to the full test outside of Facebook, so I’ve cut-and-pasted from there. Here it is, the full Snowflake Test:
1. Outside of standard benefits, what benefits should a company offer employees?
2. What should the national minimum wage be?
3. How many sick days should be given to employees?
4. How often should employees get raises?
5. How do you feel about guns?
6. What are your feelings about employees or clients carrying guns?
7. What are your feelings about safe spaces in challenging work environments?
8. In a creative environment like The Silent Partner Marketing, what do you envision work attire looking like?
9. Should “trigger warnings” be issued before we release content for clients or the company that might be considered “controversial”?
10. How do you feel about police?
11. If you owned the company and were to find out that a client is operating unethically but was a high paying client…how would you handle it?
12. When was the last time you cried and why?
13. You arrive at an event for work and there’s a major celebrity you’ve always wanted to meet. What happens next?
14. What’s your favorite kind of adult beverage?
15. What’s the best way to communicate with clients?
16. What’s your favorite thing to do in your free time?
17. What are your thoughts on the current college environment as it pertains to a future workforce?
18. What’s your typical breakfast?
19. What’s your favorite drink when you go to a coffeehouse?
20. How do you handle bullies?
21. How do you handle it when your ideas are shot down?
22. What do you do if a coworker comes to the table with an idea and it sucks?
23. What does the first amendment mean to you?
24. What does faith mean to you?
25. Who is your role model and why?
26. “You’re in Starbucks with two friends. Someone runs in and says someone is coming in with a gun in 15 seconds to shoot patrons. They offer you a gun. Do you take it? What do you do next?”
27. What does America mean to you?
28. You see someone stepping on an American flag. What do you do?
29. What does “privilege” mean to you?
30. What’s more important? Book smarts or street smarts? Why?
Depending on the CEO’s attitudes, that could either be a way to weed out conservatives or a way to weed out snowflakes.
Either way, I’m pretty sure that it could be challenged in court and would be ruled unconstitutional. (Except maybe in CA.)
clear ether
eon
None of that is unconstitutional for a business – although there are liberal flake judges that would try to warp the Constitution, so you might have to take it up to the Supreme Court. Depending on what they do with the answer, #24 is possibly in violation of legislation (not the Constitution) banning religious discrimination at the workplace. The rest is legal; an employer _can_ invade your privacy that much, although it might not be a good idea. If you don’t like it, walk out. I’d definitely resent the invasion of privacy, but might fill in the answers to see it they were going where I think they were going with it.
He was after weeding out the snowflakes. And one of the posts I saw was a snowflake saying she’d love to sue; he said he’s shown it to his lawyers and they loved it.
Oh, they wouldn’t like my answers to some of those questions. 🙂
How many of the Democrats’ stealth-socialism schemes is the GOP now proudly supportive of – Social Security? Medicare? even “public schooling” one could argue? A party this deeply compromised in its premises of course has a hard time respecting the constitutional right of the people to be free from government-controlled health care. We can at least trust that DJT is trying to move things in the right direction. And Jan is today’s Top Gun winner…
Keep in mind that when this country was young, there was only one major political party, the Democratic Republicans. It split in the 1830s, resulting in the two parties we have now.
However, for the last 30 years (since 1987) to all intents and purposes the Democratic Republican Party has recreated itself. Minus all those pesky Whigs, Free Silver types, and etc.
The Party may however split once again. Or rather, those who claim to be Republicans will drop the facade’ and openly declare themselves Dems.
What will do it is what did it the last time. In the 1850s. Slavery.
Back then, it was over the issue of “Should people be allowed to own blacks?”
Today, it is “Should we have cheap ‘ethnic’ labor via unlimited immigration?”
It’s the same issue, just slightly recast.
The use of illegals voting to cast progressive governance in stone echoes the “three-fifths” rule in the Constitution. Progressives demagogue that as proof of our country’s inherent racism.
They don’t talk about the fact that the purpose of that rule was to keep the slave states from having an overwhelming majority in the U.S. House of Representatives by counting every owned slave for the purpose of apportioning House seats, when slaves were legally banned from voting.
As always, “progressives” want slavery for their own ends. Those being , power and the ability to abuse it with no fear of consequences for themselves.
This is simply the latest iteration. And it’s shaping up just like the 1860-65 version. “States rights” then, “sanctuaries” now.
And like the previous version, the progressives will not settle for “going their own way”. Whatever Robert E. Lee wanted, Jefferson Davis wanted the United States as a single,slave-owning country from the Rio Grande to the Canadian border, and seriously considered taking Canada, too.
His modern disciples will settle for nothing less that the entire country being like Los Angeles and NYC. As a prelude to making the entire world like them. By the proverbial “Any Means Necessary”. (NB; After Appomattox, Davis was barraging Lee with messages demanding the immediate resumption of “offensive operations” for three weeks, until he was arrested.)
Progressives don’t do “peaceful coexistence”. All they care about is power and the ability to hurt others while being invulnerable themselves.
Which is why while their tactics and “justifications” may change, their strategies never do. They just change the logo now and then.
And keep an eye out for a new category of slaves. And useful idiots.
clear ether
eon
The proglodites do want all that but, they seem to forget Soros, and everyone else do not have enough money to pay for all that in reference to LA, NYC, etc.
Besides, American workers tend to have an attitude that really screws things up when they are poed. They will make the old pretend to pay-pretend to work look productive. And revenge? Do Not be on their bad side.
Notwithstanding for the purposes of this discussion that this historical parallel is flawed beyond any relevance ie: that slavery was to the CW as tea was to the RW and that the original RINO, much as his heirs do now, crassly and callously used feigned concern and protection of declared underclasses as a ruse and a pretext to stir and incite rage and to invade sovereign states and commit unspeakable mass politicide.
Still, the solution is the same, secession and sovereignity. Let sanctuary cities states be their own nation, with their own laws and under their own control. But that stated unwillingness to “go their own way” will not allow that, they must impose their will and power on unwilling others by force…as they know not doing so will ensure their own demise.
Just as RINO 1 made clear in his private letters and innermost conviction, forced control over geographical and montetary assets is the only way to guarantee the survival of a government entity that has no qualms about -in fact revels in- the signaling of virtuous goals and faux freedom when in fact the only goal is self-perpetuation by any and all means.
Lincoln is Ryan is Obama. Smoke, mirrors, lies, and the most evil and selfish of motives and methods.
Edit to strike that next-to-last sentence…Ryan is so irrelevant as to not warrant a mention in this analogy which more accurately should have been:
Lincoln was to the eastern elites of then as Obama is to the bi-coastal elites of now. Just a charismatic tool to take and perpetuate by bloody force money and power for his patrons. The smoke, mirrors, lies, and evil part stands.
Follow the money/power, always follow the money/power, then as now.
I think that the proglodites might gladly jump at Balkanization. Until they find the included slaves cannot fund their ideal “country”. Then, there should follow the endless wars for the same endless string of reasons. TEOTWAWKI.
So SAM is bra less and going comando in them jeans, guess that is her “quick draw” package for her guns when she sees Zed.
Corvette
Oh Lord. Jan putting the jeans on is great poster material!!
That’s Sam in the jeans. Jan is wearing the dress.
Dammit! I KNEW that. You can see the peek of red carpet to match the drapes. And Sam’s nipples are shaped and colored differently than Jan’s. I don’t know WHY I typed Jan. And the next frame is a poster, too. I love seeing that little tease of tuft down there. Ahhhh…. I’ll be in my bunk, but bringing the wife with me.
“Is there any institutions in western society that hasn’t been tainted with the insanity of progressivism?”
Rush Limbaugh. 🙂
Stefan Molyneux of Freedomain Radio published an excellent analysis of how to “fix” healthcare yesterday, including a historical overview of what led to the current issues and how it impacts today & beyond.
To clarify, his presentation is on YouTube.