LOL!

Show no mercy.

Republican plan?

Why, we’re soaking in it!

Block!! Block!! and Block!!

Did I mention “Block”?

You have to watch this clip of Tom arnold and Sean Hannity debating issues like Sotomayor, Health care, Sarah Palin, etc. Arnold does quite well.

http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2185

I was told the Republican plan was “be rich” or “work as a congressional representative or senator”. Love the chart!

I thought the bottom chart was a schematic of an Ann Coulter blow job.

Wow, LOL, I never knew Tom Arnold was the great debater but it doesn’t take much to poke holes in anything hannity says. He did do quite well. and I just cannot stand that jerk Brad Blakeman who shows up everywhere lying his pointy face off. Ugh!

Yep. That’s basically it. Amounts to nothing.

I know I’ve said this before but not even with YOUR unit!

I don’t know if I am for or against single payer. In concept I am for it because I would like to see all Americans be covered health care wise. However, I don’t know anyone that really knows the ins and outs of the plan so it’s hard to be for or against. I don’t vote a straight party line because they tell me to. So, my question. Does anyone hear know how this would effect a family of 4 with income between 75M to 90m. In terms of quality of coverage. Public and private options. Any increased costs. Thanks in advance.

75 to 90 MILLION?

Miller’s committee opening statements still going on.

Link to the live stream is here.

oh I don’t know. it seems to me that the rethugs have a very easily understood plan – the rich get care, and given the spiraling costs in the Industry, increasingly shoddy care at that. For the rest, the Lord will provide. Or not.

Sorry, K as in thousands.

I would donate money to any congress person who presents this in the House. Anyone else? Take up a collection?

Their plan is NOTHING! and they are proud of it. They want government out of health care and everything else.

A “thousand points of light” will fill potholes, verify that gas pumps pump a true gallon,and look at what a great job the private sector did waging the war in Iraq!

What remains in the GOP are the loonies looking to pickup a few votes from Ron Paul, not John Chaffey.

of course they don’t have a health plan other than to let the market deal with the needs.

1. Steal underpants
2. ???
3. Universal health care!

Mr. Ehlers says middlemen who currently advise people on how to select insurance plans will not exist if the exchange is created. Nonsense. If there’s a niche for insurance “advisers,” they’ll fill it.

Hi. I do not know the answer to your question (would like to know myself). I don’t know if anyone really knows yet. That’s kinda where the rubber hits the road, isn’t it?

You might try posting your question here on this thread.
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/6356

Hope this helps a little. I like your approach of healthy skepticism of both parties. much welcomed here (if you are new to the Lake).

Scares me and I’m fearless.

I can get behind that plan.

I should add that I too do not know if I am for a “public option” or whatever. I am for whatever it takes to hold down costs. Self-regulation or whatever the greedy jerks want to call it isn’t going to fly. There is no such unicorn. So if it takes a public option to get these buttheads to hold the line, I’m for it. Right now it’s a license to steal money. I know I’m against that.

Sorry. My tone is a little harsh, but not directed at you.

Has anyone “enjoyed” an episode of Royal Pains yet? Jeebus, the main character is Mother Teresa in a polo shirt and everyone else is just as unrealistic.
In one show the “senator’s wife” bought the medical equipment for her Notre Dame bound QB son for his physical. Now, how unrealistic is that? Everyone knows the medical supply companies would be happy to give the senator’s family all that equipment!

so the rethug choice is between tax-and-no-services (aka, the Tax-and-Steal Plan) a the position embraced by most rethugs. Or the Ron Paul “no tax-no services” plan. I know which one I’d pick if I was one of their morally impaired partymembers.

Look! over there! a bunch of Republican kookie-wookies!

so crazy, so stupid, point and laugh!

never mind the Democrats behind the curtain, insuring that health care in the USA is still the most expensive, inefficient, and unequal in the world!

Single Payer makes sense, the mild-mannered Canadians adopted it, and you don’t see them crossing the border to the USA for health care.

but the opponents in the fight for a decent health care system in this country are not the ludicrous morans on the Right, who are shut out of control of Congress and the White House, but the Democrats who declare Single Payer to be “off the table.”

ok, so voting Democratic is off the table, too. fine.

Mr. Guthrie reading Luntz talking points — govt run care, bureaucrats getting between you and your anaesthetist, taxes, small businesses.

0 for 15?

What really causes me the biggest problem is getting honest answers. I know I won’t get them from MSNBC or FOX or any other cable news for that matter because it’s all opinions driven by idiology. I just know that the vote will go down and none of our reps will have even read the damn thing, not unlike the stimulus vote. It’s way too important for the country to have it shoved upon us. At least that’s how I feel. If it’s a great plan, fine, prove it. The media should be a watchdog over the left and right and they are not. And the right doesn’t even have enough leadership to offer a counter plan, not that it matters. Anyway, I’m frustrated because our whole landscape might change and knowone knows what that change is.

No problem.

just a quick driveby, but i have some info/links that may help you. the main single payer bill is hr 676 (conyers), some details of it in this diary: Single Payer Bills in Congress: First Impressions

in a nutshell, unlike the public option (which is a multi payer system), there are no private plans (private for profit health insurance companies are out). everyone is in the same plan (which allows for massive cost savings — enough so that total national costs remain the same even though everyone is covered). single payer is comprehensive universal healthCARE:

* everybody in, no one out (automatic enrollment)
* all medically necessary care covered
* everybody pays in through their taxes (no premiums, deductibles, co-pays or coinsurance)
* healthcare provided by private doctors, hospitals, etc who must all compete for your business

lots more info here: Single-Payer National Health Insurance

hope the above helps a little bit!

Thanks, I will read this info.

Thanks Selise. You’re the best.

The media should be a watchdog over the left and right and they are not.

Right you are and welcome to the club! :]

That’s where the blogs come in. Yes, many are extremely opinionated but at least one knows that going in. And many blogs serve as real factcheckers or at least highly populated BS alert systems!

I agree. Thats one reason I come to this site. Nice people. A good representation of the moderate left. As opposed to huff post or kos. Correct me if I’m wrong. My posts never get deleted. I appreciate that, even when I say something to rile (sp) people’s feathers.

????

!

Looks like we’ve got a no-hitter on our hands…

Hahahahahahaha.

Organizational chart put together by Repugs regarding health care plan:

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo…..hchart.png

Reality-based chart put together by a DU’er

http://tinyurl.com/nyovwq

I am a single parent with three younger children (11-16), a health care provider (psychologist) and I provide psychological services in nursing homes. I also worked for five years in managed mental health care (read that, HMO). My income the last five years since my wife died has averaged about $75,000. So, a number of points worth noting.

I shopped around, and the best health insurance I could find that was cost effective was a BC/BS plan, $2,500 individual deductible, $5,000, family deductible. The cost is $930 monthly, or about 17% of my gross income.

So, increase my taxes by an additional $11,000 to fund a single payer system, and I would still be much ahead of the game because my deductible would likely be much lower. Even if the deductible wasn’t lower, I would still be ahead of what I am paying now.

I don’t see this issue, the offset between what folk such as me are paying in insurance premiums, and higher taxes. (I do have an HSA, which saves me about $800 yearly in taxes.)

An elephant in the room that no one is addressing is that physicians and other health care providers expect to make too much money. My eldest recently had four wisdom teeth extracted. The aggregate amount of time the dentist spent with him was less than an hour. The cost was just short of $2,000. Now, the dentist has no less time invested in his degree, than I have in my Ph.D., both of our degrees were funded 50% by the taxpayer. In a good week of providing psychological services to the elderly, I will gross $2,000; the dentist, less than an hour. There is something wrong with that picture.

Medicare has the lowest overhead of any insurance plan. That is a fact. When I worked for CIGNA in managed mental health care, our profitability varied between 26 and 29%.

Ask anyone who has Medicare if they are dissatisfied with it. Very few procedures are denied–and indeed, I would argue there are a lot that should be, but that is another issue. Supplements to cover the copay are very reasonable. But of course, Medicare and Medicaid to not reimburse the provider nearly as well as private insurance. (As a mental health provider, I am reimbursed at 50% of the allowable; all other health care providers are reimbursed at 80% of the allowable, but I still make a reasonably good living.)

Bottom line is, a single payer system would mean providers would make less money–I don’t believe there is anything unfair about that–taxes for folk in my level of income would probably go up, but it would likely be widely off-set by not having to pay the level of premium currently needed to have health insurance.

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and other obstructionists just held a press conference on the “Democratic Takeover of Health Care.” (Policy note: 99% of households [pdf] and 96% of businesses [pdf] would not be affected by the proposed surcharge on the rich in the House bill.)

I CAN’T STAND when progressives call it a tax on the wealthy

the wealthy have been GIVEN stolen assets of the middle class by reagan, by bush sr then by bush jr

those are MIDDLE CLASS ASSETS, getting them back is NOT a “surcharge on the wealthy”

those middle class gifts to the wealthy were marketed as an “economic stimulous”, that investment FAILED and it’s time to STOP making those payments

reclaiming those gifts are NOT a “surcharge on the wealthy” and they are NOT “taxing the rich

they are REMOVING the mechanisms that allowed the wealthy to get middle class assets deposited in their bank accounts

What you said and what perris said @ 39! YES! I spent about 20 years involved in indigent health care (among other government-provided services such as mental health, etc.) at the county level. And now that CA is swirling around the drain of Grover Norquist’s bathtub, the situation is way past the usual critical status and well on the way to DOA. This is very painful and sick stuff. And it’s all been done on the backs of the poor and middle class, and now many that used to be ‘middle class’ are becoming the new poor. I vacillate between being grieved and simply livid.

Thanks for that. Very important points and perspective.

The republican health care plan is a two-pronged approach, and is actually quite simple.

Prong One: go to the emergency room when you need health care.
Prong Two: spend the rest of your life in heavy medical debt.

See? Not as complex as you’re implying with your chart.

Bingo. I laughed out loud.

Sorry, don’t know whether LOL is laugh out loud or lots of luck. I try not to text in the presence of my 13 year old daughter as my slowness frustrates the hell out of. On the other hand, if I hand her my phone, she will take dictation:). Texting, the new short-hand.

Uh, where’s the GOP bubble for tax cuts?

Jason, right number of question marks, but you left out all the dollar signs!!!