First of all…thank you Mr. Muir. Wonderful art as always. Dang. THANK YOU THANK YOU.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Now as far as today. This is a setback, but not unexpected. In all the BREATHLESS analysis by the talking heads, several things needs to be kept in mind.
1) What the Republican party is trying to do (or should be trying to do) is UNPRECEDENTED in recent American history—they are trying to end a government ENTITLEMENT program. This is hard work because there are people, most of them hardcore libs, that will FIGHT TO THE DEATH to keep what they believe is their ENTITLEMENT.
2) Now did the Republicans screw the pooch? Well yes, a clean repeal would have been best….THEN the fussing can begin about it’s replacement. So we shall see where this leads.
3) But here’s a couple of things to keep in mind before Nancy Botox gets too smug:
a) Obamacare lives…with all its warts…and it still totally belongs to the Dems…totally…ITS STILL OBAMACARE NOT TRUMPCARE. So now Trump can say with a straight face that since Congressional Republicans cant’t get their shit together, everyone may have to live with Obamacare for another year. And the 50-100% rate increases that are coming with it…and deductible increases, and all the other pain points, like HEY it’s frikin’ Tax Season, how’s that penalty working for ya?
b) As far as a bungling Administration narrative…Obama didn’t do SHIT his first two years in office except spend a crap ton of money (the Porkulus Bill) and Obamacare. No immigration reform, federal minimum wage hike, LGBT rights, or ANY OTHER liberal agenda…and they barely passed Obamacare because of backlash from the Blue Dogs, who are now extinct, and then only because of sketchy parliamentary maneuvering. SO the Dems shouldn’t get too gleeful. I doubt Trump will make the same mistake twice.
Bullshit repeals that they know were never gonna pass are one thing…actual governing is hard. Maybe a hard swat on the nose is what they need to get their shit is one sock and start getting stuff done. I mean hell, Trump still hasn’t hit 100 days…he can take some lumps…hell the guys been through Chap 11 a time or too, this won’t stop him.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sorry for the early rant, this is a subject near and dear to me. Before my special needs daughter died in 2014, we LIVED the health care crisis, fighting insurance, doctors, hospitals to get her the care she needed….and insurance NEVER COVERED everything…even when I had pretty decent Pre-Obamacare insurance. It’s a difficult subject and NO ONE will ever be totally happy with the result.
WE SHOULD ALL remember one thing…the liberal progressives won’t stop until the achieve their ULTIMATE victory…SINGLE PAYER government healthcare…then they will control your life……all my liberal friends keep shouting MEDICARE FOR ALL! Really? My daughter had MEDICAID her last few years of life and it wasn’t all that freakin’ great. Many doctors wouldn’t even take it as a primary insurance (unless they were from India or Pakistan) and it was great for somethings, but horrible for others.
Any idiot who thinks single payer is a Utopia should ask a vet how great the fukking VA is…then ask if you want the government running your healthcare.
SIGH, thus endeth the rant…getting a Guinness and starting my weekend.
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Again, thanks for the artwork Mr. Muir…Sam and Jan, you make my week end on a high note….
Joel Pollak at Breitbart said something similar (http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/24/health-care-bill-failure-art-of-the-deal/). This was just Trump’s opening move; let the establishment fall on its face, then ride in to the rescue. We haven’t really seen what he has up his sleeve. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few weeks/months.
March 25, 2017 at 1:01 am
Swansonic
I see it similar to many of his business deals. They were not usually done in one shot. They took many rounds of back and forth to complete.
It’ll be the same for tax reform, immigration reform, etc. At each step the presstitutes will call it another abject failure for the President and then it’ll get done to their utter shock and dismay.
The lame-stream is busy projecting their dreams, not reporting the reality of the situation.
And THAT is what I see as a tactic. The Donald has an ace up his sleeve for sure.
March 25, 2017 at 5:20 pm
Grunt GI
Yup. I think Mr. Pollack is spot on. This is on Congress. Trump should let Obamacare ride and then the Dems will have to come to the table.
March 24, 2017 at 6:44 pm
Chris Muir
Thisx1000.
March 25, 2017 at 8:28 am
noncom
Nicely drawn….Jan seems to be getting perkier….
March 24, 2017 at 8:24 pm
Deplorable B Woodman
I’ve been listening to Rush Limbaugh with half an ear while at work and repairing. As bombastic as he is, he makes the most sense of anyone out there, including and ESPECIALLY Kongress Kritters. If I heard him correctly, he’s in favor of this current interim bill, IF (the biggest little word in the English language) the Republicans (are able to) follow through, year after year, to continue to disassemble O’BozoCare.
In an ideal world, the whole rotten O’Care edifice could be brought down at once. But this is the real world, with all it’s DildoCrat ProgTard Socialist intrigues, and RepubliTard spinelessness.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
March 24, 2017 at 8:28 pm
Deplorable B Woodman
Now, all the serious aside, THANK YOU, CHRIS, for the LOVELY view. Uummmmm………makes me even want to brave the wrath of Naomi.
March 24, 2017 at 9:38 pm
Grunt GI
Well now the DemocRATS still own Obamacare so when it implodes. And it WILL then Trump can say I told you so.
Yup so Sunday we could have the big finale with the trio of lovelies and finish out the week.
March 24, 2017 at 8:51 pm
formwiz
Actually, the Rs did let people a few select allies see it before they passed it. This is why where we are tonight.
PS Love the ladies, as always. I was hoping we’d see more of them.
March 24, 2017 at 9:05 pm
Interventor
We’ve seen about everything. Still don’t mind more of the same. >:-)
March 24, 2017 at 9:04 pm
Interventor
Should have done taxes. Then, immigration. While doing healthcare in the background.
March 24, 2017 at 9:18 pm
Doc Epador
I think they are thinking: Kabuki
This sets the stage for the next act
And as Grunt lays it out
That dog does hunt
Sorta
Because of contractual fealties, I will keep up with my practice for 11 more months as is. But then, if there are no changes in a positive manner, I am going cold cash, no insurance accepted, no credit cards accepted, no checks until you have a year under your belt and prove trustworthy. To keep costs down I may have to downsize office or go home visit only, but telemedicine will be offered to a select few.
There are many docs who are simply closing shop. Already my town >60k has lost two specialties entirely and several other critical ones are severely undermanned. ER had to airlift patient with hot gallbladder because no beds available because of staff shortages in hospital even though lotsa empty beds. So even other parts of the health care system here are dangerously crumbling. The demise of health care as we know it is already here.
If we wait a year, we’ll be building from scratch like rebuilding Dresden or Hiroshima.
March 24, 2017 at 9:37 pm
Henry
What you are doing (Gulching) is the only real solution. Reject all government intervention and perform work in the free market only. (Exactly how Uber ate taxi companies’ lunch.) If you lived here, I’d look you up tomorrow.
March 25, 2017 at 8:36 am
eon
ALL “national health services” end up like this. The objective is government control, not “health care”.
Specifically, the government either directly or indirectly “culling the herd”, deciding who lives and who dies. Usually in the never-ending “progressive” quest for A Perfect World.
Eugenics in action on steroids is the goal. And best of all from the homicidal Utopians POV, they can blame everybody else. “You didn’t fund it enough!” “You didn’t work hard enough!” “You didn’t BELIEVE hard enough!”
While laughing behind their hands as they see “the lame, the halt, and the blind” removed from the world. Leaving them with the Perfect Soldiers of the Revolution they want.
Doc, you’re fighting an uphill battle against a system with goals exactly opposite those of the Oath. I think your solution may be the end result under the Law of Unintended Consequences. Unless of course it’s outlawed, as our “Fearless Leaders” are quite capable of doing.
(NB: If Hillary had won, they’d probably already have done it. See the 1974 novel The Bladerunner by Alan E. Nourse, which has nothing whatever to do with a Harrison Ford movie.)
As the old saying goes, if you think health care is expensive now, just wait until it’s free.
Corollary; If you like Planned Parenthood, you’re going to just LOVE “National Health Care”.
clear ether
eon
March 25, 2017 at 1:11 pm
John
“In Russia all medical care is free…and you get what you pay for!”
March 25, 2017 at 5:23 pm
John D. Egbert
Also: “We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.”
That old saying makes it clear in this context but of course “free’ should be in quotations pretty much always. No cost to the recipient only means the cost is borne by others, a good basic definition of socialism, which of course is what gov health care is.
It’s an upside down approach to dealing with the real problem of health care “billing” amounts as opposed to actual cost. A good example is my 84 yo Mom going to the ER in December for a palpitation/breathing episode (4 hrs there, no admittance) for which the hospital billed $8K but was reduced to $2K with Humana’s “discount” leaving her $125 to pay out of pocket…it’s all made up bullshit to compensate for gov involvement and the high percentage who pay nothing but must still be treated.
A genuine fee for service system with transparent costs and billing would result in most people like me paying their own way with private insurance for catastrophic care, or even self-insuring which sounds scary but playing those odds is how normal insurance (car, home, life) is a profitable business…the odds are good that you never need anthing but good affordable routine care.
Doc’s option sounds good, and the “concierge” care that somebody mentioned is a great idea too but not possible with the current opaque and out of control system. A local doctor here, Dr. Crowe, tried a medical membership plan when O-care started several years ago whereby he had a limited number of people who paid I think $3K per year for anything and everything they need in terms of a family doctor’s routine service. But in a retirement area where most people either are on Medicare or “free” care he couldn’t make it. And yet in my neighborhood there are maybe a hundred (three on my cul de sac alone) doctors from india and various mostly middle eastern countries who live large in $500K McMansions and trade 740i’s and S-Class Benz’s every year…they are set up to exploit the labyrinthine gov and establishment healthcare systems and thrive on it.
Health SYSTEM reform has to precede health PAYMENT reform. I think Trump knows and understands the free market system as well as anybody on Earth and knows that health care is not exempt from its precepts.
40 years as a pawnbroker gives you a clear understanding in microcosm of the simple truth that is the header at my old blog: “price. cost. value. big difference.”
March 25, 2017 at 11:29 am
PlasticMan
Be glad to pay you cash. Just let us know your “general” area to see if it is a practical traveling distance. I’ve thought seriously of contracting with concierge medicine.
March 24, 2017 at 9:21 pm
Matt Parkhouse
To Grunt GI,
I’m basically pleased with VA care. When Americans are surveyed regarding satisfaction with their healthcare, the VA and Medicare come in 1 and 2 on the list……
I consider myself a gun-totin’ liberal or a single-payer conservative…..
March 24, 2017 at 9:34 pm
Grunt GI
Well. Glad it’s working for you.
Thanks for your service. I have, fortunately, been healthy enough to not require VA services.
We will see what happens.
Of course San and Jan always brighten up my day.
March 25, 2017 at 1:41 pm
WayneM
A departed friend was a Vietnam vet and his last years were spent wrangling with the VA care for treatment of esophageal cancer and cardiac issues, likely as a result of his life-long cigarette habit. Luckily, he also had health insurance as part of his workplace pension package. I mention that as he would go the VA route and if he encountered delays or denial of service, he used the private health insurance… and that happened fairly often… He extended his life a couple of years but his quality of life…. not so much…
As a Canadian living under single payer healthcare services, please be aware that Michael Moore is a liar and a sack of shit. Anyone who pitches Canadian style universal healthcare as being the best solution has clearly never lived with such. It’s not ideal and it’s not free by a long stretch.
Our healthcare system, despite being one of the largest governmental budget items is dogged with long waitlists and shortages of doctors. People end up going to the emergency ward at hospitals when they’re unable to get services at local clinics and sit in the waiting room for many hours. At one point several years ago, I brought my daughter to emerg with a broken arm. After three hours, we finally got service when she started vomiting.
It’s not uncommon to wait for months for basic diagnostic tests like MRIs. It’s not uncommon to wait for years to see a specialist. I have a rotator cuff injury. 6 months to get an MRI that confirmed the tear. 18 months later, I see the surgeon. In the meantime, in order to cope with the pain, I started doing yoga and self-directed exercise therapy… so when I finally do see the orthopaedic surgeon, he evaluates the shoulder and proclaims my efforts were so effective that it was better to not do surgery. Go figure.
Living with single payer in Canada, and working for several years in the US and listening to my co-workers, I’ll keep the single payer up here.
Wayne is right that going to Emergency will get you into a line up of people who don’t have a family doctor or local clinic, but the triage I’ve witnessed has been very good. There are always going to be incidents that don’t meet this statement but overall I’ve witnessed a fairly good system.
The local hospitals have come to understand the load of people who don’t have a family doctor and created an in-house clinic and funnel the cuts and runny noses that way and direct the seriously injured to the priority care area. Seems to work, as I been to both sides with non-emergency type with family and serious with myself.
Single payer is not cheap by any means. it is the largest single item in any Province’s budget and the largest transfer from Federal. There is a line item in the Provincial tax for health care that is $600 for the year per person with a certain income and above, $400 for lower and nil for below a certain line. So my wife and I pay $1200 a year for user pay. We also have work insurance for higher coverage plus drugs, glasses adn dental.
So far, I can’t really complain. There have been some wait times, but that is nothing compared to the thousands of $ a month that co-workers were paying in the US.
It’s not platinum care, but it is good care.
I got sick in the US one year, fast service, $25,000 in fees, flew home for surgery as they couldn’t figure it out. Thank God for Blue Cross.
VA works for some and not for others. When it doesn’t they are not held accountable in the same manner of Our Beeluvved Gummint everywhere. The bigger the agency the smaller the accountability, and single-payer health care would be immense.
March 24, 2017 at 11:32 pm
Pamela
There are many ways to dismantle something. You can set charges and blow it to smithereens. Or carefully remove the underpinnings one at a time until it implodes from within. Which is a great deal easier to clean up the aftermath remnants
March 25, 2017 at 7:38 am
Bill G
Blowing things up and burning them down are lots of fun to watch but, as you say, leaves a great mess.
The Giant Rat of Health Care is quickly rotting from within and it’s still fully owned by the democrat party.
Given that our side did not use their time wisely and craft even a basic agreed-upon framework more time is needed to get something that can be accepted. so leaving democrat noses rubbing in the rotting mess they made is probably best for right now.
March 25, 2017 at 1:16 pm
John
Not only for now, but with an eye on the next election. One of the great weapons against the RINOs will be “He voted against the repeal of ObamaCare.
Like I said yesterday when they no-billed this thing, I think Trump is going long.
Anybody else think he looked like the cat swallowing the canary when he made his statement?
Could be he thinks it’s best to let ZeroCare collapse under its own weight in the next year or so, could even be he thinks Ryan will be crushed under it.
IOW, I do NOT think DT believed in this bill, and I do NOT think he trusts that Ryan and the other pretenders are even really on his team.
March 25, 2017 at 8:27 am
noncom
Should’ve had a voice vote to see who he can trust….mayber he figured the repubs cut their own throats enough already…
I think he knows already, nothing to be gained by outing them especially since he was publicly for and privately against…keep the dims, mediots, traitors (this time I’m looking at you, McCain’t) and other leftist miscelannies guessing, which I think the Donald thoroughly enjoys…me too.
The Donald has a plan. Count on that. And the ladies were absolutely divine!
March 25, 2017 at 2:41 am
Halley
The Art of the Deal is a great introduction to how the mind of DJT works. Luckily for us, he’s always been dead serious about getting things done, and done right.
Ah, the gorgeous DBD women – I always thought they’d feel right at home with Deety, Marjorie, Maureen, Dora, Hamadryad…
March 25, 2017 at 7:39 am
Bill G
And lest I forget…
Chris, loving the artwork as well as the context.
March 25, 2017 at 8:40 am
Dread
Just look at that artwork! It’s a great day to be alive!
March 25, 2017 at 5:22 pm
Grunt GI
I think for certain DBD dudes it’s gonna be a night to remember.
March 25, 2017 at 11:10 am
sigofmugmort
Pardon my babbling:
The VA IS erratic in Quality, mine is good but I have met several Vets who have actually moved here BECAUSE the local is so much better then others.
Trump did twitt that he would Veto ANY “pass to find out what it does” bill
Did you’all know that on average 48% of Canadians (Canada is THE example libs use for Gov Health care) come to the U.S.A for treatment.
Good thing I have a drool shield for my keyboard 🙂
Great as usual Chris, your problem as I see it is the various lib-progs(who are neither) give you TOO MUCH material to work with
March 25, 2017 at 1:58 pm
WayneM
I think your numbers are a bit high, sigofmugmort… massively high, actually… Think about it logically. Canadians cannot buy US health insurance so we are required to pay cash… and the reason why Americans need health insurance is because medical treatment is so damn expensive. Canada’s economy is robust but we’re not all rich enough to afford to travel to access some of the world’s most expensive healthcare services…
The only Canadians who travel to the US seeking healthcare are the 1% who can afford such… and most of them are too cheap to do so often so they likely do their basic healthcare checkups in Canada and if advanced diagnostics are required, they go to the US rather than sitting on a waitlist in Canada. There are occasions where highly specialized interventions get referred to clinics in the US. For example, local doctors were unable to diagnose what was causing my friend’s pain so he was referred to a specialist clinic in the US where they did a full body scan. He ended up having both hips replaced (age 42) and those operations were done in Canada.
Here’s a link from the AARP of myths about Canadian healthcare that is mostly accurate from this Canuck’s perspective…
For what it’s worth, anything from AARP’s is automatically not worth the paper it’s printed on. They’re almost as Conservative – “American” – as the ACLU, which has the destruction of the American system of governance as a major plank in its charter.
March 25, 2017 at 5:41 pm
John D. Egbert
“. . . AARP’s mouth . . .”
Fingers no work so pretty good today.
March 25, 2017 at 5:50 pm
WayneM
We don’t have AARP in Canuckistan so my familiarity is passing at best. Thanks for that.
Is there any institutions in western society that hasn’t been tainted with the insanity of progressivism?
March 25, 2017 at 2:03 pm
WayneM
If I installed a swimming hole, would I end up with a bevy of beautiful, buxom & brainy broads bathing in my backyard?
No, you’d end up with a bevy of beautiful, buxom icicles in your frozen pond. Canuckistan, right? 🙂
But if you want, you can come to central fla and dig up my ceement pond and take it home for free, good riddance. You know how they say a boat is a hole in the water you pour money into? Well a pool is a hole in the ground you pour water, money and constant maintenance into.
And not only do buxom babes not show up, but if like me, by the time you could afford to build the damn thing the kids were too old to want to use it, nobody shows up. Paid 25K 15 years ago to buy myself a permanent part-time job where I pay instead of being paid. 🙁
March 25, 2017 at 5:13 pm
WayneM
Now that you mention it, a swimming hole up here does spend more time as a skating rink than anything else. After all, Canuckistan has four seasons; nearly winter, winter, still winter and construction.
I commiserate with pool slaves everywhere.
Eduardo, the pool boy.
I don’t think this “part 1 of 3” bill was worth the effort to pass. Remember Reagan’s amnesty bill, where part 2 border control was never done. Similar items that were “my half now, your half later” tax and spending bills come to mind. ACA needs to be blown up entirely, all at once, or it will fester for years as a money sinkhole. (a virtual national swimming pool to close the loop)
50 Comments
First of all…thank you Mr. Muir. Wonderful art as always. Dang. THANK YOU THANK YOU.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Now as far as today. This is a setback, but not unexpected. In all the BREATHLESS analysis by the talking heads, several things needs to be kept in mind.
1) What the Republican party is trying to do (or should be trying to do) is UNPRECEDENTED in recent American history—they are trying to end a government ENTITLEMENT program. This is hard work because there are people, most of them hardcore libs, that will FIGHT TO THE DEATH to keep what they believe is their ENTITLEMENT.
2) Now did the Republicans screw the pooch? Well yes, a clean repeal would have been best….THEN the fussing can begin about it’s replacement. So we shall see where this leads.
3) But here’s a couple of things to keep in mind before Nancy Botox gets too smug:
a) Obamacare lives…with all its warts…and it still totally belongs to the Dems…totally…ITS STILL OBAMACARE NOT TRUMPCARE. So now Trump can say with a straight face that since Congressional Republicans cant’t get their shit together, everyone may have to live with Obamacare for another year. And the 50-100% rate increases that are coming with it…and deductible increases, and all the other pain points, like HEY it’s frikin’ Tax Season, how’s that penalty working for ya?
b) As far as a bungling Administration narrative…Obama didn’t do SHIT his first two years in office except spend a crap ton of money (the Porkulus Bill) and Obamacare. No immigration reform, federal minimum wage hike, LGBT rights, or ANY OTHER liberal agenda…and they barely passed Obamacare because of backlash from the Blue Dogs, who are now extinct, and then only because of sketchy parliamentary maneuvering. SO the Dems shouldn’t get too gleeful. I doubt Trump will make the same mistake twice.
Bullshit repeals that they know were never gonna pass are one thing…actual governing is hard. Maybe a hard swat on the nose is what they need to get their shit is one sock and start getting stuff done. I mean hell, Trump still hasn’t hit 100 days…he can take some lumps…hell the guys been through Chap 11 a time or too, this won’t stop him.
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Sorry for the early rant, this is a subject near and dear to me. Before my special needs daughter died in 2014, we LIVED the health care crisis, fighting insurance, doctors, hospitals to get her the care she needed….and insurance NEVER COVERED everything…even when I had pretty decent Pre-Obamacare insurance. It’s a difficult subject and NO ONE will ever be totally happy with the result.
WE SHOULD ALL remember one thing…the liberal progressives won’t stop until the achieve their ULTIMATE victory…SINGLE PAYER government healthcare…then they will control your life……all my liberal friends keep shouting MEDICARE FOR ALL! Really? My daughter had MEDICAID her last few years of life and it wasn’t all that freakin’ great. Many doctors wouldn’t even take it as a primary insurance (unless they were from India or Pakistan) and it was great for somethings, but horrible for others.
Any idiot who thinks single payer is a Utopia should ask a vet how great the fukking VA is…then ask if you want the government running your healthcare.
SIGH, thus endeth the rant…getting a Guinness and starting my weekend.
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Again, thanks for the artwork Mr. Muir…Sam and Jan, you make my week end on a high note….
Joel Pollak at Breitbart said something similar (http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/24/health-care-bill-failure-art-of-the-deal/). This was just Trump’s opening move; let the establishment fall on its face, then ride in to the rescue. We haven’t really seen what he has up his sleeve. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few weeks/months.
I see it similar to many of his business deals. They were not usually done in one shot. They took many rounds of back and forth to complete.
It’ll be the same for tax reform, immigration reform, etc. At each step the presstitutes will call it another abject failure for the President and then it’ll get done to their utter shock and dismay.
The lame-stream is busy projecting their dreams, not reporting the reality of the situation.
But then, what else is new(s)….
And THAT is what I see as a tactic. The Donald has an ace up his sleeve for sure.
Yup. I think Mr. Pollack is spot on. This is on Congress. Trump should let Obamacare ride and then the Dems will have to come to the table.
Thisx1000.
Nicely drawn….Jan seems to be getting perkier….
I’ve been listening to Rush Limbaugh with half an ear while at work and repairing. As bombastic as he is, he makes the most sense of anyone out there, including and ESPECIALLY Kongress Kritters. If I heard him correctly, he’s in favor of this current interim bill, IF (the biggest little word in the English language) the Republicans (are able to) follow through, year after year, to continue to disassemble O’BozoCare.
In an ideal world, the whole rotten O’Care edifice could be brought down at once. But this is the real world, with all it’s DildoCrat ProgTard Socialist intrigues, and RepubliTard spinelessness.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Now, all the serious aside, THANK YOU, CHRIS, for the LOVELY view. Uummmmm………makes me even want to brave the wrath of Naomi.
Well now the DemocRATS still own Obamacare so when it implodes. And it WILL then Trump can say I told you so.
Yup so Sunday we could have the big finale with the trio of lovelies and finish out the week.
Actually, the Rs did let
peoplea few select allies see it before they passed it. This is why where we are tonight.PS Love the ladies, as always. I was hoping we’d see more of them.
We’ve seen about everything. Still don’t mind more of the same. >:-)
Should have done taxes. Then, immigration. While doing healthcare in the background.
I think they are thinking: Kabuki
This sets the stage for the next act
And as Grunt lays it out
That dog does hunt
Sorta
Because of contractual fealties, I will keep up with my practice for 11 more months as is. But then, if there are no changes in a positive manner, I am going cold cash, no insurance accepted, no credit cards accepted, no checks until you have a year under your belt and prove trustworthy. To keep costs down I may have to downsize office or go home visit only, but telemedicine will be offered to a select few.
There are many docs who are simply closing shop. Already my town >60k has lost two specialties entirely and several other critical ones are severely undermanned. ER had to airlift patient with hot gallbladder because no beds available because of staff shortages in hospital even though lotsa empty beds. So even other parts of the health care system here are dangerously crumbling. The demise of health care as we know it is already here.
If we wait a year, we’ll be building from scratch like rebuilding Dresden or Hiroshima.
What you are doing (Gulching) is the only real solution. Reject all government intervention and perform work in the free market only. (Exactly how Uber ate taxi companies’ lunch.) If you lived here, I’d look you up tomorrow.
ALL “national health services” end up like this. The objective is government control, not “health care”.
Specifically, the government either directly or indirectly “culling the herd”, deciding who lives and who dies. Usually in the never-ending “progressive” quest for A Perfect World.
Eugenics in action on steroids is the goal. And best of all from the homicidal Utopians POV, they can blame everybody else. “You didn’t fund it enough!” “You didn’t work hard enough!” “You didn’t BELIEVE hard enough!”
While laughing behind their hands as they see “the lame, the halt, and the blind” removed from the world. Leaving them with the Perfect Soldiers of the Revolution they want.
Doc, you’re fighting an uphill battle against a system with goals exactly opposite those of the Oath. I think your solution may be the end result under the Law of Unintended Consequences. Unless of course it’s outlawed, as our “Fearless Leaders” are quite capable of doing.
(NB: If Hillary had won, they’d probably already have done it. See the 1974 novel The Bladerunner by Alan E. Nourse, which has nothing whatever to do with a Harrison Ford movie.)
As the old saying goes, if you think health care is expensive now, just wait until it’s free.
Corollary; If you like Planned Parenthood, you’re going to just LOVE “National Health Care”.
clear ether
eon
“In Russia all medical care is free…and you get what you pay for!”
Also: “We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.”
Russian humor is really something else.
That old saying makes it clear in this context but of course “free’ should be in quotations pretty much always. No cost to the recipient only means the cost is borne by others, a good basic definition of socialism, which of course is what gov health care is.
It’s an upside down approach to dealing with the real problem of health care “billing” amounts as opposed to actual cost. A good example is my 84 yo Mom going to the ER in December for a palpitation/breathing episode (4 hrs there, no admittance) for which the hospital billed $8K but was reduced to $2K with Humana’s “discount” leaving her $125 to pay out of pocket…it’s all made up bullshit to compensate for gov involvement and the high percentage who pay nothing but must still be treated.
A genuine fee for service system with transparent costs and billing would result in most people like me paying their own way with private insurance for catastrophic care, or even self-insuring which sounds scary but playing those odds is how normal insurance (car, home, life) is a profitable business…the odds are good that you never need anthing but good affordable routine care.
Doc’s option sounds good, and the “concierge” care that somebody mentioned is a great idea too but not possible with the current opaque and out of control system. A local doctor here, Dr. Crowe, tried a medical membership plan when O-care started several years ago whereby he had a limited number of people who paid I think $3K per year for anything and everything they need in terms of a family doctor’s routine service. But in a retirement area where most people either are on Medicare or “free” care he couldn’t make it. And yet in my neighborhood there are maybe a hundred (three on my cul de sac alone) doctors from india and various mostly middle eastern countries who live large in $500K McMansions and trade 740i’s and S-Class Benz’s every year…they are set up to exploit the labyrinthine gov and establishment healthcare systems and thrive on it.
Health SYSTEM reform has to precede health PAYMENT reform. I think Trump knows and understands the free market system as well as anybody on Earth and knows that health care is not exempt from its precepts.
40 years as a pawnbroker gives you a clear understanding in microcosm of the simple truth that is the header at my old blog: “price. cost. value. big difference.”
Be glad to pay you cash. Just let us know your “general” area to see if it is a practical traveling distance. I’ve thought seriously of contracting with concierge medicine.
To Grunt GI,
I’m basically pleased with VA care. When Americans are surveyed regarding satisfaction with their healthcare, the VA and Medicare come in 1 and 2 on the list……
I consider myself a gun-totin’ liberal or a single-payer conservative…..
Well. Glad it’s working for you.
Thanks for your service. I have, fortunately, been healthy enough to not require VA services.
We will see what happens.
Of course San and Jan always brighten up my day.
A departed friend was a Vietnam vet and his last years were spent wrangling with the VA care for treatment of esophageal cancer and cardiac issues, likely as a result of his life-long cigarette habit. Luckily, he also had health insurance as part of his workplace pension package. I mention that as he would go the VA route and if he encountered delays or denial of service, he used the private health insurance… and that happened fairly often… He extended his life a couple of years but his quality of life…. not so much…
As a Canadian living under single payer healthcare services, please be aware that Michael Moore is a liar and a sack of shit. Anyone who pitches Canadian style universal healthcare as being the best solution has clearly never lived with such. It’s not ideal and it’s not free by a long stretch.
Our healthcare system, despite being one of the largest governmental budget items is dogged with long waitlists and shortages of doctors. People end up going to the emergency ward at hospitals when they’re unable to get services at local clinics and sit in the waiting room for many hours. At one point several years ago, I brought my daughter to emerg with a broken arm. After three hours, we finally got service when she started vomiting.
It’s not uncommon to wait for months for basic diagnostic tests like MRIs. It’s not uncommon to wait for years to see a specialist. I have a rotator cuff injury. 6 months to get an MRI that confirmed the tear. 18 months later, I see the surgeon. In the meantime, in order to cope with the pain, I started doing yoga and self-directed exercise therapy… so when I finally do see the orthopaedic surgeon, he evaluates the shoulder and proclaims my efforts were so effective that it was better to not do surgery. Go figure.
Living with single payer in Canada, and working for several years in the US and listening to my co-workers, I’ll keep the single payer up here.
Wayne is right that going to Emergency will get you into a line up of people who don’t have a family doctor or local clinic, but the triage I’ve witnessed has been very good. There are always going to be incidents that don’t meet this statement but overall I’ve witnessed a fairly good system.
The local hospitals have come to understand the load of people who don’t have a family doctor and created an in-house clinic and funnel the cuts and runny noses that way and direct the seriously injured to the priority care area. Seems to work, as I been to both sides with non-emergency type with family and serious with myself.
Single payer is not cheap by any means. it is the largest single item in any Province’s budget and the largest transfer from Federal. There is a line item in the Provincial tax for health care that is $600 for the year per person with a certain income and above, $400 for lower and nil for below a certain line. So my wife and I pay $1200 a year for user pay. We also have work insurance for higher coverage plus drugs, glasses adn dental.
So far, I can’t really complain. There have been some wait times, but that is nothing compared to the thousands of $ a month that co-workers were paying in the US.
It’s not platinum care, but it is good care.
I got sick in the US one year, fast service, $25,000 in fees, flew home for surgery as they couldn’t figure it out. Thank God for Blue Cross.
Damn bold, I guess I missed the end command!
We really could use an edit capability!
Sorry about that!
VA works for some and not for others. When it doesn’t they are not held accountable in the same manner of Our Beeluvved Gummint everywhere. The bigger the agency the smaller the accountability, and single-payer health care would be immense.
There are many ways to dismantle something. You can set charges and blow it to smithereens. Or carefully remove the underpinnings one at a time until it implodes from within. Which is a great deal easier to clean up the aftermath remnants
Blowing things up and burning them down are lots of fun to watch but, as you say, leaves a great mess.
The Giant Rat of Health Care is quickly rotting from within and it’s still fully owned by the democrat party.
Given that our side did not use their time wisely and craft even a basic agreed-upon framework more time is needed to get something that can be accepted. so leaving democrat noses rubbing in the rotting mess they made is probably best for right now.
Not only for now, but with an eye on the next election. One of the great weapons against the RINOs will be “He voted against the repeal of ObamaCare.
Like I said yesterday when they no-billed this thing, I think Trump is going long.
Anybody else think he looked like the cat swallowing the canary when he made his statement?
Could be he thinks it’s best to let ZeroCare collapse under its own weight in the next year or so, could even be he thinks Ryan will be crushed under it.
IOW, I do NOT think DT believed in this bill, and I do NOT think he trusts that Ryan and the other pretenders are even really on his team.
Should’ve had a voice vote to see who he can trust….mayber he figured the repubs cut their own throats enough already…
I think he knows already, nothing to be gained by outing them especially since he was publicly for and privately against…keep the dims, mediots, traitors (this time I’m looking at you, McCain’t) and other leftist miscelannies guessing, which I think the Donald thoroughly enjoys…me too.
The Donald has a plan. Count on that. And the ladies were absolutely divine!
The Art of the Deal is a great introduction to how the mind of DJT works. Luckily for us, he’s always been dead serious about getting things done, and done right.
Ah, the gorgeous DBD women – I always thought they’d feel right at home with Deety, Marjorie, Maureen, Dora, Hamadryad…
And lest I forget…
Chris, loving the artwork as well as the context.
Just look at that artwork! It’s a great day to be alive!
I think for certain DBD dudes it’s gonna be a night to remember.
Pardon my babbling:
The VA IS erratic in Quality, mine is good but I have met several Vets who have actually moved here BECAUSE the local is so much better then others.
Trump did twitt that he would Veto ANY “pass to find out what it does” bill
Did you’all know that on average 48% of Canadians (Canada is THE example libs use for Gov Health care) come to the U.S.A for treatment.
Good thing I have a drool shield for my keyboard 🙂
Great as usual Chris, your problem as I see it is the various lib-progs(who are neither) give you TOO MUCH material to work with
I think your numbers are a bit high, sigofmugmort… massively high, actually… Think about it logically. Canadians cannot buy US health insurance so we are required to pay cash… and the reason why Americans need health insurance is because medical treatment is so damn expensive. Canada’s economy is robust but we’re not all rich enough to afford to travel to access some of the world’s most expensive healthcare services…
The only Canadians who travel to the US seeking healthcare are the 1% who can afford such… and most of them are too cheap to do so often so they likely do their basic healthcare checkups in Canada and if advanced diagnostics are required, they go to the US rather than sitting on a waitlist in Canada. There are occasions where highly specialized interventions get referred to clinics in the US. For example, local doctors were unable to diagnose what was causing my friend’s pain so he was referred to a specialist clinic in the US where they did a full body scan. He ended up having both hips replaced (age 42) and those operations were done in Canada.
Here’s a link from the AARP of myths about Canadian healthcare that is mostly accurate from this Canuck’s perspective…
http://www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/info-03-2012/myths-canada-health-care.html
For what it’s worth, anything from AARP’s is automatically not worth the paper it’s printed on. They’re almost as Conservative – “American” – as the ACLU, which has the destruction of the American system of governance as a major plank in its charter.
“. . . AARP’s mouth . . .”
Fingers no work so pretty good today.
We don’t have AARP in Canuckistan so my familiarity is passing at best. Thanks for that.
Is there any institutions in western society that hasn’t been tainted with the insanity of progressivism?
If I installed a swimming hole, would I end up with a bevy of beautiful, buxom & brainy broads bathing in my backyard?
Absolutely.
Probably not nearly as hot as the DBD wimmins.
No, you’d end up with a bevy of beautiful, buxom icicles in your frozen pond. Canuckistan, right? 🙂
But if you want, you can come to central fla and dig up my ceement pond and take it home for free, good riddance. You know how they say a boat is a hole in the water you pour money into? Well a pool is a hole in the ground you pour water, money and constant maintenance into.
And not only do buxom babes not show up, but if like me, by the time you could afford to build the damn thing the kids were too old to want to use it, nobody shows up. Paid 25K 15 years ago to buy myself a permanent part-time job where I pay instead of being paid. 🙁
Now that you mention it, a swimming hole up here does spend more time as a skating rink than anything else. After all, Canuckistan has four seasons; nearly winter, winter, still winter and construction.
TRUTH!
Depends on what you use for bait! 🙂
I commiserate with pool slaves everywhere.
Eduardo, the pool boy.
I don’t think this “part 1 of 3” bill was worth the effort to pass. Remember Reagan’s amnesty bill, where part 2 border control was never done. Similar items that were “my half now, your half later” tax and spending bills come to mind. ACA needs to be blown up entirely, all at once, or it will fester for years as a money sinkhole. (a virtual national swimming pool to close the loop)