The reason the Obama/Dem healthcare proposal is getting this type of flack is due to Congress' usual porkfest. Were they serious and sober, they'd lay off the excessive earmarking. As it is, they're simply making the same mistakes of Hillary Clinton's healthcare proposal with the extreme complexity and confusion involved.

I was going to title my reply "Lia, Liar, Pants on Fire", then I scrolled to the bottom of the article and.............

Now the illustrious Pat Buchanan has written an editorial on 'Killing Pop'.

I would like to know how these so called mainstream people can get away with misleading and lying without challenge from the MSM?

The only place to get the real story is either from internet mags or from John Stewart and Bill Maher.

I wish a Democratic Congressman would stand in front of the mic, the same way the idiot Boner does, and just call the opposition LIARS. That is what they are, bad losers and liars who say they love America, but in reality, hate Americans.

I was all over this "Kill Grandma" canard last week.

"BREAKING: Foreign born Radical Communist Obama wants to kill Grandma and Grandpa"

Link in my name.

Mike,

There are two issues I would like to raise about your article.

The concept of having a middleman standing between patients and doctors is very inefficient.

1)The exchange you said will be a different way of buying health insurance.

• You will still have the insurance company

• And you add the exchange as well

• Now you have two layers between you and your doctor

2)Medicare and doctors: Many extol the wonders of Medicare and I am sure there are good points about the program. But why don't doctors like the program? Its because Medicare pays out very sparingly and continues to drop year after year.

Let me go back to the concept of a middleman and insurance.

Think of auto insurance - you and I have it for accidents and theft. We do not use our auto insurance to buy gas, tires, windshield wipers, oil, breaks, etc. All of that is out of pocket becasue the cost of filing a claim for gasoline would cost more than then gas.

Its the same with health insurance - it should be for catastrophies, strokes, heart attacks, broken limbs, trauma. All other medical interventions (86% of which take place outside of the hospital) should be paid for out of pocket.

There is a very simple way to pay directly out of pocket and its inexpensive, less than $100 a month for all needed care - it takes advantage of economies of scale.

Remove the middleman and Obama will find his health care reform, unless he has another agenda as well.

As usual, the pro-life crowd gets played for fools by an exploitative GOP that has no interest in actually following through on their social conservative claims. After all, why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?

That's pretty much the only rational response to these people. They will lie to your face, and it's because they don't care if you die. That's the the thing to remember - they don't care if you die. A public health-care system would keep more Americans healthy and alive, but they don't care if it threatens to cut into their money.

Disgusting.

Unfortunately competing vision don't always work... imagine going on a trip and one person imagining a horse drawn buggy, and another a sleek race car, so you compromise on some kind of half-horse, half car cyborg.

I believe in free market. When I listen to the criticism of his plan, its not that controversial to me. Obama doesn't want to kill your Grandma, but prolonging the terminally ills ...not life but prolonging their 'slow death' is a huge waste of money, and of course, the government will need to end it.

So someone calls it killing Grandma, whatever.

I believe in free markets, only we haven't really had one in healthcare for a long time, and the insurance companies...the insurance companies are the main problem in healthcare. Its the whole divorce of costs from service, that has caused the ultra corrupt, bloated mess that we have now.

But the government isn't going to step in, to eliminate insurance companies and create true free enterprise. I know that.

What I would love to have, is just a healthcare system as good as in the U.K.

Thats going to mean drastic government control...and so be it. Just don't build the cyborg....thats the worst of all worlds, its a total nightmare.

Nice stuff. I'd love for you to comment at my place (link in name).

My own doctor agrees with much of what you say, but also says that the current reality is that Medicare is his preferred payer (and he's an internal med doc). Has to do with quickest net cash flow reimbursement among the hundred of 3rd party intermediaries that clog his back office.

I agree that an actuarial "insurance" model does not fit well with respect to health care.

http://open.salon.com/blog/mortimer_hayden_smyth/2009/08/05/one_of_my_28_attacks_makes_a_comeback

It's true!!!!!!!

I wish they'd all stop listening to Rush and the rest. Maybe someone needs to extract the chip from the brains of their listeners.

Today I was watching a stream of "The Music Man" - I just felt like it - and I marveled at how closely this whole issue parallels the "Trouble in River City" number, where the snake oil salesman scares the entire town into thinking the sky is falling (for his own benefit - if they're scared of that, they'll buy THIS!). I could see the same kind of manipulation that the GOP is both creating and believing, and the mindlessness of the whole thing.

Get a brain, and try it out. See if it works. Obama was NOT born in Kenya, and he is not going to kill your grandmother.

One of my clients is putting together a direct pay model with the following features:

• Annual contract between individuals, small business, big business, government agencies, government programs, non-profits and the medical providers

• Each individual has between 125 and 400 medical providers (a registry) that are geographically centralized to the patient

• Each registry averages 38 family practices and all specialties from Allergy to Urology, all labs, all imaging, unlimited physical therapy, chiropractic, and mental health

• There will be no co-pays, co-insurance, deductibles, referrals, or restrictions on pre-existing conditions

• There are two tiers: single and family

• Single costs $96.83 a month

• Family is double that cost a month

Let the feds pay for the hospitalization insurance and national coverage for travel. They can also pay (with our tax dollars) for those who cannot afford to pay.

You cannot imagine the cost savings this model provides - 10s of billions a year if done nationwide.

I am sorry but I just had a funny thought for a musical parody about the House Health Care bill.

Sorry again about this:

"Grandma Got Run Over by Obama" Christmas carol

What does your solution do about prescriptions?

I wish the earmarks were the only reason this was giving Republicans a hissy fit, but I'm afraid they'd go at any Bill like a bull on red.

Here's a letter my 80-year-old Mother just wrote and got published in her local paper. She remembers the fight to get Medicare, which was the same thing, and the stakes, which were dire:

"(Dear Sirs:)

I am a senior citizen who is not buying the scare tactics being used to stop the health care bill. The truth is, in that bill the government will pay if a senior or anyone else wants to discuss options for end-of-life decisions. It will not be mandatory, and will be between the patient and doctor, or a qualified health professional of choice. Most seniors would be glad to see their end-of-life decisions carried out according to their wishes. Seniors in that position need all the help and information available to them. This has been around for a long time. It is called a "Living Will", and my husband and I both have one. We are both on Medicare, which is of course a government run program.

Forty four years ago these same scare tactics were used by Republicans to stop Medicare. Thankfully, they were not successful. I don't know of any Medicare recipient who would want a different plan. Before it was passed, 40% of seniors had no health insurance at all.

As for the government deciding treatment, the insurance bureaucrats do that right now. Ask any one who has had their claims denied or insurance suddenly cancelled.

Sincerely....."

I must admit, I didn't know about the 40% of seniors having no health insurance before Medicare. Pretty damn shocking, and it still resonates today. How (relatively) quickly we forget what we don't want to remember.

Sorry Old Joe, my Mom knows better than you. Thanks, Mike Madden, for a strong and useful post.