Re: Afraid of ‘socialized’ medicine? We’ve had it for decades

Lamont Cranston wrote:
> John Q public wrote:
>> On 2009-08-20 21:31:36 -0400, H&*$?%e said:
>>
>>>
>>> http://www.kentucky.com/latest_news/story/902829.html
>>>
>>> Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009
>>>
>>> Afraid of ‘socialized’ medicine? We’ve had it for decades
>>>
>>> By Tom Eblen – Herald-leader columnist
>>>
>>>
>>> There’s a fascinating audio clip on YouTube.
>>>
>>> It’s from a 1961 phonograph record in which a politically ambitious
>>> entertainer named Ronald Reagan tries his best to scare people about
>>> “socialized medicine.”
>>>
>>> The threat he warns about is legislation to create the program we now
>>> know as Medicare.
>>>
>>> So here we are, nearly a half-century later, with talk radio
>>> entertainers and some Republican politicians trying their best to
>>> scare people about “socialized medicine.”
>>>
>>> They see a threat in almost any meaningful reform of America’s
>>> inadequate health care insurance system.
>>>
>>> Some of their scare tactics, such as baseless claims about plans for
>>> “death panels,” are truly outrageous.
>>>
>>> Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin might actually believe some of the
>>> crazy things she says, but other GOP leaders who lend legitimacy to
>>> such hogwash are simply seeking political advantage.
>>>
>>> They seem to have no interest in improving health care; only in
>>> seeing President Barack Obama fail.
>>>
>>> What makes the recent tone of the national health care debate so
>>> ridiculous is that Americans have had “socialized medicine” for
>>> decades, and it has worked pretty well.
>>>
>>> The popular Medicare program that Ronald Reagan warned against — and
>>> later tried to deny he ever opposed — covers 43 million people who
>>> are disabled or age 65 and older.
>>>
>>> Then there’s government health care for veterans and insurance for
>>> public employees.
>>>
>>> Members of Congress have especially good government health care
>>> plans.
>>> My biggest fear about health care reform is that we won’t get any.
>>>
>>> My biggest concern about Obama’s approach is that it isn’t ambitious
>>> enough, especially now that he seems willing to give up on a
>>> government insurance option.
>>>
>>> There are many improvements that can be made in our current system
>>> with electronic medical records and various cost-containment
>>> strategies.
>>>
>>> But I think the long-term solution is some form of single-payer
>>> health insurance involving privately delivered medical care — like
>>> Medicare.
>>> Why wouldn’t it work to open Medicare, or something like it, to more
>>> people?
>>>
>>> That could provide a safety net.
>>>
>>> Then, individuals or groups could buy supplemental private insurance
>>> if they wanted more coverage and could afford it, as Medicare
>>> recipients often do.
>>>
>>> Every major industrialized nation except ours has some form of
>>> universal health care.
>>>
>>> Are the “socialized medicine” systems in Canada, Australia, Britain
>>> and other European nations perfect?
>>>
>>> Of course not.
>>>
>>> But here’s what you see in the United States that you don’t see in
>>> those countries:
>>>
>>> millions of people with no health care coverage.
>>>
>>> That includes nearly 600,000 Kentuckians, or 14 percent of the
>>> state’s population, according to U.S. Census estimates.
>>>
>>> Here’s what else you don’t see in those countries:
>>>
>>> Millions more people who are scared of losing health insurance
>>> coverage if they get sick or lose their job.
>>>
>>> People who can’t get coverage because of “pre-existing” conditions.
>>>
>>> And people who see their life savings depleted because they get sick.
>>>
>>> You also don’t see businesses struggling to pay spiraling health care
>>> costs for employees and retirees while trying to compete in an
>>> increasingly global economy with foreign businesses that don’t bear
>>> such burdens.
>>>
>>> Talk show entertainers and Republican partisans have done an
>>> effective job of whipping up the frightened, ill-informed citizens
>>> we see at public meetings and protests across the country.
>>>
>>> But if they want to rant about “socialized medicine,” they should put
>>> their money where their mouths are.
>>>
>>> Members of Congress who oppose a government health insurance option
>>> for citizens should give up their own government coverage.
>>>
>>> Let them try to buy a similar plan in the private market.
>>>
>>> Then they, the media hacks and other self-described “freedom-loving
>>> conservatives” should march down to their local Medicare office and
>>> renounce their “socialized medicine” benefits, now and in the future.
>>>
>>> Yes, I know. Fat chance.
>>>
>>> _________________________________________________________
>>>
>>> Yup. Got that right.
>>>
>>> Harry
>>
>> So then Harry, by your own premise that our healthcare system is
>> broken and needs fixin, its the socialist mofel thats broke and needs
>> fixin.
>
> Reading comprehension is also a problem for you, huh? The part that is
> working is the socialist part. The part that isn’t working is the “free
> market” part.
>
>>
>> What a quandary Harry, how to fix whats broke with more of the same
>>
>> Even a 3 year old could tell ya if it don’t work, get rid of it for
>> sumthin that does “”"”The Free Market”"”"
>
> Free markets *always* fail. That’s why this country long ago chose a
> mixture of socialism and regulated capitalism over laissez-faire
> capitalism.

Then why have we failed with your Socialism in Mortgages that created
the economic Apocalypse.

Your Affordable housing Socialist program took the economy into the
dumper…..

–

*BE VERY CONCERNED*

Liberals need not live by the rules they intend to force others to live
by.