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At the outset of this writing, I must say that money is the problem. The immediate response to that declaration usually is something like, you fool, of course it’s a money problem, but we will always have a need for money; we can’t live without it. To embrace such a notion is to say that Americans are not resourceful, risk takers, creative or inventive; these are all contrary to the things Americans purport they believe themselves to be, and that attitude is certainly one lacking vision. In due course, one day the world will wakeup to the fact that we can find ways to live without money. We will begin to abandon money. We will not reject it as impossible, we will come to an understanding that it is possible, and will be the only way we can solve problems like healthcare.
The system of monetary exchange is — in the face of advancing technology — completely obsolete. They’ve Seen the Future and Dislike the Present, Peter Joseph
… we are in the here and now capable of radically changing our society, and provide proper health care, education and basic human needs to everyone on this planet, if we would only shed ourselves of the outdated systems of the economic policies. Many people have different ideas of improving our way of life, and a lot of them make sense. Ultimately, we will have to pool these ideas, and evaluate their use in our future. Once we do this, we can initiate the transition to a society that properly reflects our current day level of knowledge and technology. Ode Magazine
It is important to keep in mind in these healthcare debates that for-profit private entities of any kind consider profit as the most important aspect of their business, and it supersedes any consideration of the services or products they manufacture or provide. It is the solitary reason they provide that service or product for sale. It’s this obsession to improve the bottom line that increases cost.
So let’s start shedding ourselves of outdated systems of economic policies and social systems, and understand that what is important in our current here and now is the abandonment of the old ways we acquire and administer healthcare.
Putting that aside, it is extremely problematic to solve any complex problem, and especially a complex money issue like healthcare, when people do not know how to read the English language; when they are ignorant of what is happening in their own backyard; when they are satisfied with the status quo; or when they accept what is essentially misinformation, or, in some cases, outright untruths.
The healthcare issues that are in contention at these healthcare town meetings and from others in vociferous opposition -- rationing, euthanasia, socialism, and cost -- are unacceptably misrepresented. In an overwhelming number of cases, they are deliberately distorting the facts. Healthcare reform is certainly important to every American, and warrants healthy conversation and debate, but deserves debate from informed, rational, and logical thinking individuals who can read and understand what is being said without illogically reading something into what they have read or heard. They need to be leaders of their views and not followers of others who want to dictate to them what to think, and control them and the debate. To do otherwise is simply being disruptive and is dangerous to honest debate.
For example, it’s ignorance to believe that under private healthcare insurance or Medicare that healthcare is not rationed. Private insurance plans are now rationed based on what one can afford to spend; otherwise, you cannot receive certain treatments. The current Medicare and Medicaid system of payment is controlled with DRG (diagnosis-related groups) and in that your care is rationed where the providers of that healthcare is by private insurance firms and subsidized or reimbursed by the Social Security Administration.
For example, there is nothing in HR 3200 that embraces euthanasia. Those who say that it does simply cannot read or understand the English language. End of life counseling is common in today’s healthcare setting. It’s ignorance to think otherwise.
For example, it’s ignorance to think that America is not socialistic. It’s ignorance to think that liberals are socialist and conservatives are not. As the Humble Libertarian writes in his article, Is America Socialist? Is America Moving Toward Socialism?, … our government can control, appropriate, distribute, and dispose of its citizens' property without their individual consent? If you doubt it, then a brief review of the American government's involvement in its economy is in order: Quantity and Price Controls, Regulations, Taxes. America is socialistic.
On the issue of cost: if something is not done to restrict the cost increases, it’s going to cost Americans more and more for private insurance premiums and increasing out-of-pocket expenses or co-payments; it’s going to cost Americans, represented in the taxes they pay, more and more if the government does not control healthcare cost, which impact Medicaid and Medicare.
Barney Franks had the right attitude towards those who are vociferous, boisterous, unruly, and vile at healthcare town meetings. At his Dartmouth town hall meeting, he lashed out at a protester who held a poster depicting President Barack Obama with a Hitler-style mustache during a heated town hall meeting on federal health care reform.
On what planet do you spend most of your time? Frank asked the woman, who had stepped up to the podium at a southeastern Massachusetts senior center to ask why Frank supports what she called a Nazi policy.
Ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it, Frank replied.
He continued by saying her ability to deface an image of the president and express her views is a tribute to the First Amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated.
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