TIME: Obamacare's Fatal Flaw. (Pleasantly surprising)
Don't know if this has already been posted...but i am
Pleasantly surprised by TIME.
OBAMACARE'S FATAL FLAW
There are two basic points about health-care reform that President Obama wants to convey. The first is that, as he put it in an ABC special in June, "the status quo is untenable." Our health-care system is rife with "skewed incentives." It gives us "a whole bunch of care" that "may not be making us healthier." It generates too many specialists and not enough primary-care physicians. It is "bankrupting families," "bankrupting businesses" and "bankrupting our government at the state and federal level. So we know things are going to have to change."
Obama's second major point is that--to quote from the same broadcast--"if you are happy with your plan and you are happy with your doctor, then we don't want you to have to change ... So what we're saying is, If you are happy with your plan and your doctor, you stick with it."
So the system is an unsustainable disaster, but you can keep your piece of it if you want. And the Democrats wonder why selling health-care reform to the public has been so hard?
Again and again, their effort has brought us into a land of paradoxes. Public skepticism is warranted when the President promises to cut costs while simultaneously providing coverage to nearly 50 million uninsured people. It is even more warranted when his congressional allies seek to raise taxes to pay for all the new spending that this cost-cutting entails. We aren't talking about short-term spending either; this isn't a trillion-dollar investment in a new system that will ultimately save money. The Congressional Budget Office says the leading health-care-reform proposals will increase health-care spending and make the budget harder to balance in the long run. Yet saving money is the President's principal stated rationale for reform.
Health-care reformers send out mixed messages on the uninsured as well. The moral imperative of improving their health care is what drives the passion of most liberal activists for reform. But when you read the liberal policy analysts, it quickly becomes clear that getting young and healthy people to pay more in premiums than they will spend on medical expenses is the point of forcing them to buy insurance. Which is it? In aggregate, are we trying to rescue the uninsured or bilk them? Is reform something we are doing for them or to them?
The reformers' speed belies their words as well. If health-care reform is so critically important, as they keep insisting, why not take the time to get it right? Hard as it is to believe, at one point Obama was urging the House and Senate to pass legislation by three weeks after they began debating it.
One final contradiction may lie beneath all the others. Democrats, particularly those involved in health policy, were scarred by President Clinton's failure to achieve reform in 1994. They are determined to avoid a similar debacle. So on every procedural question, they have done the reverse of what he did.
Everything is different this time--everything, that is, except the plan. The Democrats are seeking mostly the same policies they sought 15 years ago: mandates, regulations on insurance companies, new government-managed markets. The major difference is that this time they also want a "public option," an insurance program open to everyone and run by the government. Obamacare is Clintoncare with a little more liberalism.
continue reading here:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1914973,00....
What's going on? This is fair and well-balanced.
What is it doing in main-stream media? Maybe the scales have begun to tip on the side of liberty.
Time magazine!? You have to kidding me!
You are at the DP and you read this junk?
Call me a jerk all you want, the men who own this publication have zero interest in you or your family.
Our emotions are being played for their ends.
This is a common concept here at the DP...the media is a control device and Time is one of the leaders.
The healthcare debate is an emotional trick to get you away from the men in power.
Unify
You didn't read the article did you?
This could be a very helpful article to send to friends and family members who still believe in obamacare or are on the fence about it. Some of us are still activists in this movement.
The "article" is great...however...
Methinks that it is simply another "plausible deniability" support article for those who would scream "liberal bias" in the face of Time's editors. I no longer pick the rag up, as it has proved itself over time to be a tool of the Democratic stage-left side of the elite's "Play of Life" that we observe each day after donning our team jerseys...jerseys which are, if you look carefully, made of the same materials, by the same manufacturer, they are reversible and each has a tag inside that says "Just Wear It".
Keep monitoring the magazine for "the other side of the story" type articles and, (for those familiar with stock charts and market terminology) I'll bet you see a decided trend in the direction of support for Obamacare rather than a preponderance of trend reactions that I'll bet this article is in the grand scheme of Time editorialism.
My feelings are below and re-posted from another thread regarding either Media or Obotic support for Obamacare as if it was a way of striking the big bad Corporations in the face with a hot poker...the poster was supporting "his government" against the big bad Corporations:
Funny but what leads anyone to believe that "government facts" are anything but "corporate facts"? If anything is passed in Washington, regulating or de-regulating any sector, it is at the behest and ultimate benefit of the Corporations within the Sector in question and driven by its minions who have taken governmental policy making positions inside the very agencies that "regulate" their "parent" companies. This is especially true for the big boys. Corporate campaign contributions ensure political appointments of "acceptable" (read Corporate Chosen) individuals who will drive policy in the directions they are told by their masters. The "rewards" for their duplicity are then realized upon their exit form government and their return to the Corporation accompanied by cushy lucrative positions.
When Congress push's anything so hard, and the opposition's efforts are tepidly put forth by supposed "opposition leaders" or their positions are heavily vilified in the press, it is rather obvious which way the Corporations want this to go. It's like watching the manipulation on a stock chart, yes the stock goes up and down, all in an effort to mislead the retail guys as the big money drives the stock where they ultimately decided before they started their campaign. In other words, the trend is set by the big money and the big money is behind this "reform". Why?
Why are they pushing reform? Why is the lobbying body for Big Pharma spending millions on Prime-Time ads in support of Obamacare? Is it because they want to be Black-Jacked on the back of the head? Or, might it be because this is ultimately beneficial and more profitable for them? Think about it. Would they support something that would hurt them? Would they support anything without knowing exactly what was "coming their way" out of the passage of the bill?
Is this all happening because once health care is codified and decisions are in the hands of the bureaucrats, that the "private" insurers will have government set"standards" by which to measure what they cover, and that it will be commonplace to "assess" people based on their age, or BMI or other recorded lifestyles and habits and thereby deny procedural coverage thereby ensuring profits?
The eugenic bent of the elites via their institution and furtherance of the designs of the Club of Rome and other eugenic organizations certainly point in this direction...
BTW, the thread was deleted but...hey Wild-Blue...I read your other posts and I apologies for calling you an Obot. I spoke too quickly as I assumed your short-time defined you as a troublemaker Obot. It was a perception problem given that you "liked" the article.
As to the article that you posted, I still think it was a "wool over eyes" fluff piece in favor of "Let's see what the government can do for us" (something BTW that I will NEVER believe is the proper way to go). It seemed aimed at the orchestrating industry that is at the heart of the matter. But it ignored the symbiotic relationship that the industry relies upon. To say "Let's see what the government can do", is to completely ignore the facts that the insurance industry is attached at the hip to both the Banks and Government (read corrupt government). Any "article" or movement to solve our dilemma by handing "control" over to the very part of the triumvirate that gave the other two their power, is truly an emotional masturbation driven shell-game that will ultimately only be pleasurable to the very powers that we seek to inhibit.
**“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” ~ Mark Twain **
"...there is no doubt that it (socialism) could not possibly have affected us so widely and so deeply as it has, had it not been heavily financed". - B. Carroll Reece
Healthcare has always been
Healthcare has always been the Dem's version of "abortion". The Gop has had so many chances to deal with that issue by simple majority vote, yet has chosen to keep it around because the sheeple will keep electing them to abolish it. Likewise, healthcare for the democrats.
Ventura 2012
Wow! Even Time Magazine is turning on him?
I'm shocked! Good read and something nice to share with my lib friends. Thanks for posting it.
"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."
-Alexis de Tocqueville
"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."
-Alexis de Tocqueville
The definition of insanity is to keep repeating the same thing
over and over again, while somehow expecting a different result.
"So the system is an unsustainable disaster, but you can keep your piece of it if you want. And the Democrats wonder why selling health-care reform to the public has been so hard?"
This pretty much says it all.
You admit that the system is an unsustainable disaster, yet you still want to keep your piece of it. Isn't the definition of insanity floating around in there somewhere?
*******************
It is good and proper to respect the U.S. flag, perpetuated with the blood of American heroes. It is a fatal mistake not to recognize those who wrap themselves in the same flag to cover up their crimes against the American people.
~ Sherman H. Skolnick
. @ @ . Power to the People!
@ O @ -----> PEOPLE
. @ @ . NOT Corporate Entities!
exactly...
government run health care is the same type of abuse as corporate run health care... no change, therefore insanity! No thanks!
I'll say it again,
I'll say it again, in another way.
"There are two basic points about health-care reform that President Obama wants to convey. The first is that, as he put it in an ABC special in June, "the status quo is untenable." Our health-care system is rife with "skewed incentives." It gives us "a whole bunch of care" that "may not be making us healthier." It generates too many specialists and not enough primary-care physicians. It is "bankrupting families," "bankrupting businesses" and "bankrupting our government at the state and federal level. So we know things are going to have to change."
Obama's second major point is that--to quote from the same broadcast--"if you are happy with your plan and you are happy with your doctor, then we don't want you to have to change ... So what we're saying is, If you are happy with your plan and your doctor, you stick with it."
Why, oh why can't you see the irony here? YOU want to keep YOUR current unsustainable system. Obama is offering you a CHOICE.
And you fault him for offering you a choice? What is WRONG with this picture? ANYONE??!!?
*******************
It is good and proper to respect the U.S. flag, perpetuated with the blood of American heroes. It is a fatal mistake not to recognize those who wrap themselves in the same flag to cover up their crimes against the American people.
~ Sherman H. Skolnick
. @ @ . Power to the People!
@ O @ -----> PEOPLE
. @ @ . NOT Corporate Entities!
there is no irony...
the passing of the "system" from big corp./big pharma to the government is no change at all. the people who are supposedly being helped are still getting screwed. Government health care is no choice whatsoever.
No one wants to keep the current "system" which enables big pharma and huge insurance companies who admit they have become greedy... but neither is the solution to allow the government to monopolize health care and dictate policy...
You people are driving me insane.
You people are driving me insane.
*******************
It is good and proper to respect the U.S. flag, perpetuated with the blood of American heroes. It is a fatal mistake not to recognize those who wrap themselves in the same flag to cover up their crimes against the American people.
~ Sherman H. Skolnick
. @ @ . Power to the People!
@ O @ -----> PEOPLE
. @ @ . NOT Corporate Entities!
I can see why you might feel that way, amerianna
!
-
"Stand up for what you believe in. Even if you stand alone."
~ Sophie Magdalena Scholl
"Let it not be said that we did nothing."
~ Ron Paul
"You must be the change you want to see in the world."
~ Mahatma Gandhi
Yes because Amerianna is either...
an incurable optimist or a blind loyalist. One has only to look at the history of government intervention and leadership since the turn of the last century to understand what is afoot and what the "probabilities" are here. Government CAUSED this problem as well as almost every other one we have faced or that we face now...mostly all under the guise of "doing good" or "doing what's right". It NEVER turns out that way...but always, a certain group of people get very rich on what they hath wrought and later...much later...we get a tepid apology for what they "got wrong".
Blind hate for the inside color of one's reversible jersey stops all critical thinking over the possible motivations of policy authors and replaces it will the simple zeal to see a win for one's side. Any amount of critical thinking applied to this question would have to reveal a grand propensity for a boondoggle at the expense, both monetary and health-wise, of the American people...just as the governmental establishment of Medicare, Medicaid, The NIH and the University System have brought about the very problem their progenitors now seek to fix.
**“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.” ~ Mark Twain **
"...there is no doubt that it (socialism) could not possibly have affected us so widely and so deeply as it has, had it not been heavily financed". - B. Carroll Reece
???????
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ-6ebku3_E
"I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace".
Thomas Paine
"We need to attract people who create more light, than heat" (Fortune cookie-8/14/2001)
wow....
what's going on with The Times, are they getting conservative? Or just following the money?
"Unite Or Die"..
I was wondering the same thing.
Their site has many similarly great articles at the moment including ones on foreign policy and the financial crisis.
Outstanding Post
Thanks
bump
.
for anyone who missed this article
it really is a great read. And I have been sending it to friends and family because TIME is not exactly known as conservative mag.
That was a refreshing....
read! Thanks for posting it.
"I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace".
Thomas Paine
"We need to attract people who create more light, than heat" (Fortune cookie-8/14/2001)
Yes...refreshing
that is the word I would use. Glad you enjoyed.