Statement from Obama today that rings so true with me: "In the "years to come, health care inflation, which has been rising about three times as fast as people's wages, will start slowing," I find it so incredible that I am the only one here on Skybox who saw such an astronomical increase in my health care costs after Bush took office. Maybe the rest of you saw a reduction....I dunno..... :shock:
I also find it very odd...amusing...etc. that I hear the argument here over and over that "if you think it was bad under our guy....wait until you see what it is under your guy". Doesn't that sound a little......unsound?
Here's a pretty well written article that discusses health care costs. http://www.kaiseredu.org/topics_im.asp?imID=1&parentID=61&id=358 The reasons given They completely forgot to mention the Bush administration. Interestingly, medicare is "increased at a slower rate than private insurance." Of course this is because medicare negotiates it's own reimbursement and it is why we see more and more doctors deciding not to take any more medicare patients. (The Mayo Clinic in Arizona has also announced that they are no longer taking medicare patients.) The fact is, the government controls reimbursement to physicians and doctors are no longer taking the crumbs that medicare is offering. With the new Health Care program we'll see more physicians leaving the profession while more are now taking advantage of their new free health care. It's another "feel good" unsustainable entitlement program that like Social Security and Medicare will be unable to be deficit neutral and destroy this country's financial future.
Of course health costs are going up... We all want and expect to have the BMW's of health care rather than the Pontiacs...it's our "right"....and someone else should pay the freight.
Today's Stu's B'day??? Happy Birthday Big Ten guy. Hope ypu don't get to celebrate a OSU win tonight though! 8)
Well...that says it then. Let's go all GOP next chance we get and instead of a family of four paying a monthly insurance premium equal to a mortgage payment they can pay double what a mortgage would cost if the premium increases maintain their same pace as they did under the Bush Administration, :shock: Oh.....and by the way....if you personally haven't been a family of four in the last 10 years please refrain from your uninformed.....biased comments.
Why don't you just start your own message board where you and others who think that you are the only ones in this country who matter can post all your complaints?
Listen man....I've been living this thing. Have you? Has Limbaugh? Has Beck? Has anyone who speaks out with such venom as those guys actually been dealing with all of the costly ******** of the last 10 years? When guys like me......heads of families of 4 or 5 or more and who make a normal living and still work for someone else have something to say I will listen.
You of course do realize that your children will have to pay incredible taxes to pay for the new health care plan that covers everyone (including soon to be proposed illegal aliens.) I care about my kids, I care about my grandkids. I hate to see what is happening to their future. But if it makes YOUR life easier, who cares about anyone else?
You don't even care to listen to what anyone else says. You take one small part of my post, and smugly say "that says it all" without even a token attempt to see what I'm saying.
Dave, You have no idea what the rest of us are going through. Everyday you come on here, climb up on your cross and hang there looking for pity. How dare you pre-suppose that no one else here is hurting. Just because we don't come on here every day blaming talk show hosts, past presidents, greedy bankers etc. for our fates does not mean that we are immune to the times nor are we ignorant of the various injustices. Where we disagree is in basic economic philosophy. You believe in spending your way out of debt and in income redistribution as a way of retribution. I think the rest of us believe in smaller government, reduced spending and lower taxes. As Gipper pointed out, Obama has spent us into debt that is incalculable in the name of his brand of social justice. He has shredded the constitution in the process. Our national debt within ten years will be an estimated 90% of our GDP! Our lives will never be the same. My wife and I, like everyone else, have seen a tremendous erosion of our assets. We are working harder than ever and have less to show for it. But we had our moments in the sun. To us, the saddest thing is that our kids and grandkids may never have even a single moment. Think about that for a minute.
George, I posted this because for me Obama's statement about the tripling of health care costs for the typical American family rings so true with me.....especially in the years from 2000-2008. I not making up those years if you see any connection. Those are the years in which my family's health care expenses skyrocketed and I had the same insurance with the same company so no variables there. Maybe you feel that kind of rise in family expense is justified......maybe unavoidable.......maybe under health care reform those expense would have quintupled. For me.....when my premiums alone approached that of a mortgage payment......not to mention the significant increases associated with co-pays.....enough was enough. My 21 year old son is currently without coverage but maybe under this new plan that will change. Anyway......glad to see the rest of you share in these same kinds of experiences. Man....it's a small world ain't it?
Dave We've seen a number of posts by you about trying to sell you house and the steep decline in value. What caused that is the collapse of the housing market. The biggest contribution to that collapse came from the millions of forclosures on homes pruchased by people who really could not afford them. We're all now suffering the consequenses that occur when we as a country purchase something that we cannot afford. So what are we now doing as if the economy of this country is not screwed up enough? We're now instituting a health care system that WE CANNOT AFFORD!!!!!! It's hard for me to believe that someone who's seen what overextending can do is standing on the sideline cheering for our government to do it again!!!
So....Gipper....you think the answer is let the system run itself....without interference as is the philosophy of the right. The American people can withstand more of the same kinds of increases in health care costs that we have seen in this decade? How can that be? You really think the health care establishment will be all about reducing costs with no pressure to do so? Credit card card companies wouldn't have changed a thing without a law reeling in their sorry asses and I'm talking about things like Sears Mastercard raising my rate to 29.99% from 5.99% because I was out of town and I made the payment in the store one day past due when I returned and remembered it was due. And that leads me to a final comment about your mortgage analogy. Some of those foreclosures....not all.....were not a function of stupid Americans being led astray. They were a result of hard working people with good jobs and the means to pay for those mortgages losing their jobs and not having the income they thought they could count on. Same with any debt that people take on when they do have the means to deal with it. Take away that means and you have troubles. Our economy would grind to an absolute halt if every transaction required cash but that's almost the way it's going with no one willing to assume any risk. That is the mentality that is holding our economy back and given the recent situation who could blame anyone......or even companies for that matter for not assuming risks? That's why hiring is slow to recover and it's why our economy is mired in the muck. I know I will never use a credit card ever again no matter how rosy the job outlook and I have been keeping that vow since my layoff in Dec. of 2008. Of course at the time of the very unexpected layoff I had incurred some credit card debt that I am still paying off and will be for a while unless I tap 401K money. I know it looks like foolishness but it's an easy trap to get in to when you think your means to making a good living has no bounds. I don't think anyone expected the depths of our economic implosion to be what they are but that's what happened. The same kind of thinking is what trapped so many people with bad mortgages. As I said......it's not a matter of people doing things they know they cannot afford it's a matter of the unexpected being worse than expected.
:evil: Again you have opened your mouth on a subject you know little about, I have for the past 30 years worked for credit card companies..(SEars included.)..they have been raping the American public the whole time... you just never noticed it.....Obama didnt do anything to solve this he gave all the credit card companies enough time to "fix" what they thought they were going to lose trust me....... interest rates are going up and will continue to do so... they are only limited at the amount of penalties they can charge .... but with notifications on your statments the fine print no one reads...... that will change to because the minute you accept the terms by making a pmt or a purchase you are screwed...its the same way finance companies can charge whatever interest they wanted even if states had caps... no one ever checks but the minute you signed the contract it is binding..... and raising a rate frm 5.9 to 28 is how they make there money.. eventually everyone is a day late or .02 short that allowed them to change your rate..... and they will continue to mk the money too.. Obama cant stop them..... only the consumer can... but then that takes dedication on the part of the consumer...