The trouble with your position is that the entire electorate isn't 26, single with no children on what I'm guessing is a government-sponsored student loan program and no experience what a wrenching experience having to go through a major illness is all about. I'm betting you don't have ANY insurance, either, because then you'd know what COBRA really costs.

I could be wrong, but I'm also guessing your whole plan vis-a-vis your own personal healthcare is I'm Not Ever Going To Get Sick.

Have you been to an ER lately on a Saturday night? Unless you're brought in by an Advanced Life Support unit, you'll wait what seems like an eternity and have to pay over $1000 for the 'privilege'.

Do you know what it's like to be stuck between an insurance company and a provider who double-billed for the same procedure? Have you ever been threatened with a collection agency because your insurance company was a habitual foot-dragger because some MBA figured out they could save millions leaving the billions in premiums simmer a little longer in the investment market while they hang you out to dry? Had the provider miscode your procedures and have your insurance company refuse to pay them, leaving YOU to straighten our the mess while the provider declares your records are private and even YOU can't see them without a court order?

See, it's my opinion that you don't know any of this stuff because you just don't believe it can happen to you.

I was only a little older than you when I had my first bad episode. My age caused the internist to discount the possibility of what turned out to be the correct diagnosis.

Cold hard fact- it CAN happen to you or somebody you love at any time and you'll find out all to quickly how your fellow libertarians will abandon you in your time of need like a leper that's costing them money.


-Kerry O.

You believe that things will be better with the government in control? You should go to an IRS office and sit for hours for the "privelege" of giving them money. You must really enjoy wasting hours at the DMV office. The postal service can't even read well enough to insure that the mail ends up at the correct address. Government run health care is going to be sooooooooooooooo much better.

The entire health care debate is pointless if the unemployment is rising rapidly and people are worry about having a job, let alon having health care.

Let's go in order. Jobs first, healthcare later. Of course, I can even scream out of my lung and no one listens because everyone is mesmerized by either fox news or cnn , to make sure they don't wake up for the fact that unemployment is gonna be even worse next year.

click play in this link (this map only shows it up to october)

http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html

That sounds grounded and logical.

Sheep don't understand or use logic. They follow the Master without question.

Close... yes, I'm on a student loan program but not in the traditional sense - I have paid cash for every dime of my schooling up to this point because my parents made too much and I still had to claim their income even if I wasn't living with them. The federal gov is having issues with getting IT people that can attain a security clearance. Thus, they pay for school and give a small stipend and living expense check in exchange for a few years service with the government - kind of works like the GI bill. Either way, it does not kick in for another month or so.

however, I have zero income right now and am living off of my savings (there's a thought)... christmas shopping and all. I'm still waiting for my unemployment to kick in (because as much as I hate the program, I've paid in for 8 years so i'm not missing the opportunity to get some of that back) so I'll get something for an income.

As for my health insurance, if my employer ever offered it, I bought it. If they didn't, I used COBRA or found some provider to give me a higher deductible plan that at least covered emergency care. Even if that meant skipping a few concerts when I was younger or not eating out (or as in the case a few years ago, eating well) I still paid for it. $*it happens and I realize that. I'm still waiting for my COBRA paperwork and when it comes, I'll adjust my budget to allow for that too. I've used it before in that timeframe where I'm not eligible for my new benefits and I'll use it now as long as I can until I finish this next degree. Unless I can find a "major issue" only policy on the cheap.


However, I do not see how my position alters anything in the grand scheme of things other than my personal opinion. Even if I had some major life illness, my opinion would not change on the public option or in government regulating healthcare in many of the ways they are discussing. I believe reform needs to happen to stop all the double-billing and procedural issues as well as start with tort reform, but i cannot support a plan that will ultimately lay the groundwork for a single-payer medical plan. It is against every single economic ideal I have.

Wow so now we are getting to the bottom of this. I had no idea you wanted to work for the government Andrew and I am sure your arguments here will help get you security clearance. When you do get your unemployment please thank a democrat for medling in the free market to ensure people do not starve when they lose a job through no reasone of there own. Just and FYI unemployment insurance premiums are paid by your employer not by you.

The trouble is, I don't think ANY reform is going to happen as long as people keep trumpeting the canard that Reform= Government Takeover. And that's the assumption that's almost invariably made by the people who believe the shills for the industry who keep turning up the volume on the propaganda.

I don't know if you priced insurance lately, COBRA or otherwise, but you may be astounded to see premiums quoted for as much $800 - $1000 per month for an affordable deductible. And if you have a pre-existing condition, you'll probably find them ruinous or have so many exclusions as to make the policy virtually worthless.

It wasn't like this back in the 80's. From my own experience, the really bad runup in prices for care and coverage started around 2000. I'd bet that if the government hadn't intervened and forced group plans to amend some of their practices, almost NOBODY would be able afford insurance.

Just wondering, if you have so little faith in the government generally, why work for it? That seems like a contradiction to me.


-Kerry O.

That is actually irrelavant. People need their healthcare whether they are employed or not.

Look up the word 'apochryphal'. Like get rich schemes, most people have Everybody-Knows-Yada-Yada-Yada tales about the government that don't hold water.

Even when it does happen, the government doesn't profit from screwing you around. Private industry usually _does_.

Once again-- "Public Option" does NOT mean a government takeover of the healthcare system. It just means _another_ choice_, especially for those who find traditional coverage difficult or impossible to obtain.

-Kerry O.

LOL
Read it again.

86 percent of Democrats support the public option versus 57 percent of Independents and 33 percent of Republicans.

People can have my unemployment benefits. I paid in for years and because of my disability when I stopped working I never got the benefits from unemployment for any of my jobs.

====================================================================
RIGHT ON ..

Yep. And the government very well knows that it's MUCH easier to get people to bow down for a welfare state if they aren't working and can't afford anything else.

According to the title of this thread....

" Most want Public Option ".

Has anyone paid ANY attention to the fact that those who DON'T want it are the only ones that can actually CREATE JOBS???

You can ask just about any small business owner and you will find out that they don't want anything to do with a " Public Option " because it will cause them to be taxed even more than they already are.

No matter how much the Dems cry from the rooftops that it won't raise taxes...everyone with a lick of sense knows that a public option is going to knock out all insurance companies and raise taxes.

There is absolutely no way that a privately owned business can compete with the mass that is the U.S. government.

The government WILL be as inept with health care as it has been with everything else it has tried to run. Cash for Clunkers ring a bell?? How many dealers are still waiting to get paid for the trade ins???

Not true.

http://bizfinance.about.com/b/2009/09/25/small-business-health-insurance-reform-and-the-public-option.htm

http://pulse.blogs.starnewsonline.com/10451/survey-n-c-small-business-owners-tilt-toward-public-option/

Does that mean we screwed Japan out of theirs also? They were the big winners with the most sales.

What a joke.

These people can print just about anything they want, as long as it agrees with the Democrat position, and you'll just lap it up and believe everything they say. After all...everything you read is written by someone who totally agrees with your idea of how things should be.

Try this. Instead of reading what someone else says is true, get off your duff, go out and actually ASK small business owners yourself.

I have done so. Almost every business in the town I live in is a " small business " and not a damned ONE of them actually think this " plan " is a good idea.

LoL I think I just got lied to, my opinion of course. I should be offended but I will let it go.

I only pulled off a couple out of the list of articles with small businesses supporting the public option.

Some of them are smart enough to know that if the government already has medicare, medicaid, it obviously can run a public option with little to no problems.

" ...if the government has Medicare, Medicaid, ...."

Ummm...Medicare and Medicaide aren't exactly known for paying the bills.

And when they do, they pay MUCH less than the charges actually are.

" Some of them are smart enough to know..."

Are you kidding??? Are you seriously saying that those small business owners who don't think the public option isn't a good idea are stupid???

Just because they don't agree??

They should fail, not because of the tax burden that they can see coming, but because they are too stupid to be in business in the first place??

They won't fail so what are talking about?