“Coherent dissent is patriotic.” Fixed.

Now that you lefties have taken power, you feel the need to disparage grass-roots protesters.

Tell me the difference between “agents-for-hire” and “community organizing”. You don’t think the pols in Chicago pay their organizers to do organizing? They sure do. They don’t turn out in droves just out of idealism. They get paid.

I thought we were in serious trouble because a lot of financial players played a high stakes gambling game over the last decade with derivatives and credit swaps …”

So you two agree- America is in trouble because the Wall Street players screwed up and now want someone else to pay for their benefits.

Kumbaya at last.

Actually, Medicare style in terms of how healthcare is provided. Funding would be via premiums paid directly to the government, rather than to private insurers.

Yet never mentions that right now Medicare is operating with 38 TRILLIONS in unfunded liabilities. UNFUNDED.

How’s that math work? Is it based on the assumption that everyone under 65 becomes immediately and permanently unemployed, and the system is left to care for those currently on Medicare, as well as future Medicare beneficiaries as they age into the system, with no future revenues to support it?

I guess that is possible … in some kind of sci-fi movie where a plague mutates to only kill the under 65 or something.

Wonder why your healthcare premiums go up? Your government has been passing healthcare cost onto your budget for years.

Really? That’s the only reason healthcare premiums go up … because Medicare negotiates better rates with providers?

Average Medicare taxes collected are around $40-50K per person per life time. Average payout to a Medicare patient is $150K lifetime.

And RNC Chairman Michael Steele wrote the following in a Washington Post OpEd recently:

Republicans want reform that should, first, do no harm, especially to our seniors. That is why Republicans support a Seniors’ Health Care Bill of Rights, which we are introducing today, to ensure that our greatest generation will receive access to quality health care. We also believe that any health-care reform should be fully paid for, but not funded on the backs of our nation’s senior citizens.

It is the policy of the Republican Party that nothing be done to cost-control for Medicare and reduce that imbalance you cite.

This is why Canada and France and anyother nationized healthcare system is breaking under the stress of payment.

You realize, I hope, that on a societal basis Americans are paying far more per capita in taxes for health insurance.

Canada spends about $3,600 per capita on health insurance, France about $4,600.

Right now when you total all the ways tax dollars in America are collected to pay for health insurance (excluding the military system, for argument) – Medicare, Medicaid, CHIPs, VA benefits, healthcare benefits to federal, state, and local employees (including firemen and policemen, etc), healthcare benefits to teachers, healthcare benefits to federal pensioners, and tax credits to businesses to pay for employee healthcare – we’re spending around $6,000 per person in publicly financed healthcare.

In other words … societally we’re already spending more in tax dollars than those countries.

This is why America is in serious trouble, everyone wants someone else to pay for THEIR benefits.

I thought we were in serious trouble because a lot of financial players played a high stakes gambling game over the last decade with derivatives and credit swaps and other financial products that were all pegged to the concept that housing prices in America would never flatten or decline – building up debt to capital levels of 70-1 in our major financial institutions.

Now the wisdom is to cover everyone. Where is the money coming from? This is absolutely a fairy tale. Currently Medicare reimbursements are so low that medical providers will no longer see them. Those that do pass the cost not covered onto other paying customers. Thats you and me. Wonder why your healthcare premiums go up? Your government has been passing healthcare cost onto your budget for years.

Average Medicare taxes collected are around $40-50K per person per life time. Average payout to a Medicare patient is $150K lifetime. This is your government managing healthcare, collect $50K and payout $150K. This is the reason for 38 TRILLION in UNFUNDED liabilities.

This is why Canada and France and anyother nationized healthcare system is breaking under the stress of payment. This is why Massachussets is cutting coverage and raising premiums.

This is why America is in serious trouble, everyone wants someone else to pay for THEIR benefits.

You cherry-picked one, while ignoring the others.”

Whatever your point was, it’s gone adrift.

“I just got back from many years working and residing in Europe, and this ain’t so. I (and many of my US colleagues) occasionally needed medical attention, got good care, but paid for it out of our own pockets. Our US insurance carriers later paid up, but we had to put up the cash right away.”

………But you weren’t a citizen of an EU country which changes things somewhat doesn’t it?………I lived and worked in Britain and France and encountered the same issues……however UK citizens I know of have been treated for nothing in other European countries when emergencies occurred.