Between this and their unwavering fealty to grumpy Grover, the fact that the Super Committee turned into the Super Failmmittee should be of no surprise to anyone.

Besides, if Congress continues to do nothing, over $6T in deficit reduction will slowly start to phase in on 1/1/13. So please, continue doing nothing.

I truly cannot figure out which is worse: privatizing Medicare or keeping it as is.

Either way, the fatcats win. Even now, some parts of the system are farmed out to other companies for logistical/admin services.

I expect the fatcats 1) will maintain plenty of pork through these types of firms if the Med remains as is, or 2) slip right in with their corporate bedfellows to run the system with lovely new imaginative streams of capital flow.

Why is anyone surprised? The Republicans have been trying to destroy Social Security and Medicare since they were created.

Because it's worked so well in other countries...

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AirForceVet: Why is anyone surprised? The Republicans have been trying to destroy Social Security and Medicare since they were created.

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You mean that corporate shills would like to funnel MOAR Federal cash into the hands of folks who have contributed to their campaigns?

Color me shocked.

To be fair, I am surprised that more Republicans didn't support the HCR considering how much cash is being put into private hands for insurance purposes. Only because the President was for it, I suspect, considering how popular the Romney plan was in Massachusetts. The balance to be against something that the Libbiest Liberal Ever to Lib and Live I guess was a better draw then just pocketing cash--which they did anyway to steer said legislation to more "acceptable" modes, which is to say, Federal cash into the insurance company hands, as opposed to a single payer system that would excise them from the equation...

Today's GOP is the greatest threat the United States has ever faced.

Are you kidding me? That's just so very surprising.

Next you'll tell me that they were pushing hard for tax cuts for rich people and corporations.

Well, the GOP is half right. If we don't do anything at all, we're guaranteeing that Medicare will collapse.

Medicare does need to be reformed, ASAP. Not eliminated altogether though.

Yes, let's get rid of the most efficient health care provider in the country.

Medicare needs to be fixed.

Clearly the best way to do that is to destroy it.

GAT_00: Yes, let's get rid of the most efficient health care provider in the country.

Hey, skimming cash is a Fundamental Right, and how dare we cut into folks' right to interpose middlemen into the process? HOW DARE YOU SIRRAH? HOW DARE YOU?

hubiestubert: folks' right to interpose middlemen into the process



Just because I haven't posted this since HCR was actually being debated.

Strik3r: Now, if we can just get them to declare war on themselves...............

No, they'd fark that us and probably attack the Libertarians.

GAT_00: hubiestubert: folks' right to interpose middlemen into the process

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Just because I haven't posted this since HCR was actually being debated.



Pretty damn much...

Obama doesn't impress or excite me anymore, but I'm going to work at getting him reelected just to piss off the right.

GAT_00: Yes, let's get rid of the most efficient health care provider in the country.

$60 billion a year in fraud (source: Eric Holder) is efficient. Duly noted.

some.old.lady.: I truly cannot figure out which is worse: privatizing Medicare or keeping it as is.

Either way, the fatcats win. Even now, some parts of the system are farmed out to other companies for logistical/admin services.

I'll spell it out as simply as possible:

Anything about your health that you and your physician can't or won't deal with by yourselves is going to become either a) a business decision or b) a political decision or c) some combination of both.

Me, I'm in New York and have been living all my life under a Medicaid system that has expanded in cost by a factor of more than 50 since its inception under Rockefeller back in the sixties. The state spends more on Medicaid than the next two largest state Medicaid programs combined...Washington sends tens of billions in matching funds...and yet there is constant epic pissing and moaning that the program is underfunded.

Fraud? Shiatloads of it. Billions a year. Nobody is particularly interested in stopping it. Waste, redundancies? Tens of billions more.

And are New Yorkers (on Medicaid, Medicare or otherwise) so much healthier than anybody else? Not really. Any edge we have is largely the result of an influx of young people into the city and old folks GTFOing thanks to high property taxes.

So I've seen what health care is like when it's a political decision and I am mightily unimpressed. By any non-political-hack's measure, it's a huge failure and one that can't be pinned on either party alone since each has controlled one house of the legislature for most of the past 45 years.

At this point, the fail is so widespread and profound having the private sector step in couldn't help but be an improvement. Shiat, Donald Trump could run it better than the New York state government does (and that's not a compliment to Trump).