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get ready to pay more for less
#21

i'm not sure where some people get their information, but it sure sounds like crap that would fly out of limbaugh's mouth, and everybody knows he's full of it.



coal should be banned outright immediately. it's dirty, dangerous, and a bad investment.



money is not the correct driving force for these kinds of decisions. it is shortsighted and uninformed to think that we should be making these long reaching decisions based on what the immediate economical effects are. that's 50s thinking that is very out of step with reality. we need to be making decisions today that will shape things in 50 years. we are in deep trouble ecologically today as a direct result of what has gone on in the last 50 years. the pipeline they are planning will be disastrous to us and the planet, no matter how many short term jobs it creates. by the way, gas prices are DOWN by almost a dollar.



we need those immigrant workers. we always have. 100 years ago it was the irish. what we need to do is not lock them out, but rather give them all identification and a social security number so they can start working legally, and pay taxes. we should open the gates and let them all in immediately. there is work for all of them, and work that the lazy americans won't do, but would rather sit at home and complain that they can't find a job. any job is better than no job, but some people are too proud to work. when i had a job slump a bit over 20 years ago, i drove pizza, rather than sit at home. i have no sympathy for those who are out of work. there are plenty of minimum wage jobs out there they could be doing, while they look for better work. actors have been doing it forever.
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"It isn't nearly as expensive to do it right as it is to do it wrong."
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#22

on the subject of what the government spends on energy, we subsidize the oil industry by a fact or 6 times more than we do alternative energy development. that's right. we spend up to $52 billion a year subsidizing the oil industry. that's just domestically. internationally we spend over $775 billion. but we spend only $7.4 billion on alternative energy. let's just get our numbers right.



http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/12/world/rene...ance-unep/



http://www.epa.gov/statelocalclimate/sta...e.html#a04



http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/...gy-funding



http://priceofoil.org/fossil-fuel-subsidies/







then, of course, there's the corruption and influence pedaling that exceeds the clean energy funding all by itself:



http://priceofoil.org/fossil-fuel-indust...n-the-u-s/
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#23

Those so called "subsidies" are the same tax deductions and credits that all businesses in America, including the green ones, get for R&D and investment losses. The numbers are big because the business is big. If you want to get rid of those deductions for ALL businesses in America to continue the even tax playing field I'm in. I hate tax brakes for specific industries and companies as payback for political support that others don't get. Just don't pick and chose which industries get, and don't get, tax deductions for the same things.



The difference to me is the green energy spending is direct cash investment from Obama like he is running a hedge fund, but with with our tax money, where we taxpayer loses and the green energy Obama friends make out like bandits even when those companies go bankrupt.



In the 2011-12 election cycle Unions spent over $1B in direct donations, lobbying, and advertising to get their guys elected. So $150m from the oil companies seems chump change no?
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#24

good conversation



your information is erroneous. while some of the subsidies are in the form of tax deductions, most of it is in direct funding. this is in an industry that already holds us hostage. it reminds me of a line in the movie "dave". "you want to spend 42 million dollars so somebody can feel good about a car they already own?". we don't need to spend one dime helping the oil industry. we do need to spend whatever it takes to get off of fossil fuels. it isn't going to happen though as long as we make it easy for the oil companies to continue doing business as usual.



i hear the accusations all the time, and they have no basis in fact. obama has no "friends" in the clean energy business, to the extent that any abnormal influence was applied.. he was a relatively obscure senator a few years ago. yes, some clean energy venture capital guys were put in key positions. that's just good management. they are the most qualified to determine what projects had the best likelihood of success. it certainly is nowhere near the kind of influence peddling that goes on in the fossil fuel industry.



the oil industry spent a ton in advertising in the last year alone. every day i am seeing some lame commercial for an oil company touting how they are developing jobs, and doing everything they can to make the public think that oil is good. they really want us to think of them as heros. in reality, they are the cause of many of our problems, from the environment to wars overseas. if we didn't rely on oil, we would not have to worry about what happens in the mideast. that problem would resolve itself.



this is exactly why there should be no political contributions allowed. this is exactly why the energy industry should be heavily regulated. if it came down to what is best for our future, we would be spending a lot more on renewable energy. however, we are only doing what is best for big business, and that will be catastrophic in the long run, and likely within our lifetime.
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#25

Wow, what a conversation. I have to ask those that they want to change the direction the country is going, What direction do they it to go? Repealing the Health Care is okay but I don't hear of any viable alternatives. How can we honestly deny health care to people that can't afford insurance. Some say the system doesn't work but it seems to okay with administering Medicare (I am on Medicare and it works fine). They say the aaaaffordable Health Care is hurting small business but I don't hear from them. I am really disappointed with the election results and am mystified by what people were thinking. Some of the winners are definetly dangerous. They claim they can change Washington but I ask them how can they do that withhout sime support from other members. Let's hope Obama has veto pen handy. I am an ardent Obama supporter, He has a really tough problems during his term more than any other president. Mitch McConnel objective is to get rid of Obama no matter what. That is his only mission. Meanwhile, my engine is beginning to come together. Waiting for the sleeves and pistons to placed in the engine. I'm done.
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#26

The vineyard workers I work along side get paid anywhere from $100 to $175 per ton of fruit. An efficient worker can harvest 2 tons in a days time. On a good day, I can harvest a little over a ton. Then again, I'm 66 years old and most of the men and women I encounter are half my age. Occasionally, we'll see college kids turn up on picking crews. They typically don't return from lunch break! Harvest lasts 4 months. After harvest, there is pruning to be done. The same workers who harvest the fruit, prune the vines. Pruning crew leaders make upwards of $20.00 an hour. Improper pruning can severely damage a vines productivity. Grafting requires the highest level of skill and the workers who graft vines over from one varietal to another during the dormant period a paid even better. I do both pruning and grafting. After pruning there is all manner of work in the fields, such as trellis repair, weed control, removing diseased wines and replacing them with new ones. People who are capable of this kind of work are very scare and there is a significant labor shortage for all manner of farm workers in California. Mechanical harvesters are used to harvest wine grapes used to produce bulk wines that are the basis of jug and supermarket wines, but not fine wines.



During the year that I was unemployed, I had a choice. I could have accepted the $900 a month in unemployment insurance or I could work the vineyards. I chose to work the vineyards. I have friends, many of whom are undocumented, they pay taxes, they send their kids to school and to college. They are decent hardworking people who do not come to this country for the welfare benefits, which by the way you have to be documented to receive, at least in California. They can also make more money than a welfare recipient. Oh, and with the advent of Obamacare, they can actually get medical insurance if they need it. Most year round vineyard workers get benefits, including health care, and paid time off. All of these costs are reflected in the wines my winery produces which is why our wines retail for more twice the amount you would pay for supermarket wine. The only non-Latinos I ever encounter in a vineyard are winemakers like myself who believe that great wine begins in the vineyard.



One last thought, when I was a kid picking fruit in the orchards, California had a program where farm workers used to come north to work and then return to Mexico during the off season. All perfectly legal, but the program fell victim to Republican politics that wanted the jobs reserved for Americans who by and large were too soft and too proud to get their hands dirty.



"illegal slave labor" really? I'm not going to dignify that statement by commenting on it, except to say it is as insulting as it is untrue.



My regular job is mostly centered on environmental toxicology. I don't believe that the government is looking to shut down coal fired power plants per-se. The stack gases that are released into the air by coal fired power plants are toxic, to humans. Apart from the implications of burning coal to generate power has for global warming, it contains chemicals that are human carcinogens and significant amounts of sulfur that gets converted to SO2 in the combustion process that converts to sulfuric acid when it comes in contact with moisture in the atmosphere thereby becoming acid rain. The EPA has been trying to place some controls on these emissions so that we don't continue to destroy our forested and crop lands with acid rain and poison our population with carcinogens. You say that wine producers should raise their prices to cover they labor costs, I would say the coal industry and coal users should raise their prices so they can install the controls necessary to curb their toxic air emissions, fair is fair.
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Chris Vais
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#27

Cosimo. I work for a small business and know many who own or work for them. Obamacare is nothing short of a disaster. My business pays 3x as much as 3 years ago, I now play 2x what I payed 3 years ago, with triple the deductible. We are cutting ft positions and hours to try and make up the difference. I hear the same from many other business owners and workers. That is reality on the ground floor. It will be repealed by Congress, vetoed by Obama, then we see if Congress has the balls to defund it in the House like they should. That said, I completely agree that the R's need to have a solution on the table, not just say no. There are plenty of viable options but I have not seen a single R stand up and take ownership. Without that, no change will happen.
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#28

Chris. I said wine producers should raise prices as a rebutle to Flash saying the business I work for should just raise prices to make up for the Obama increases in cost of doing business. We all like clean air but the left goes way to far on imposing their regulations. No one wants to be like China and Japan but we also should not destroy the economy of America over miniscule gains at this point. Just like the Unions that where good when Corporations were taking advantage of employees who have not become almost irrelevant because they went to far and bankrupted companies, and sent others overseas rather than compromise pay and benifts. Just look at the Twinkie deal where the Union voted to lose their jobs and bankrupt the company in stead of being payed a fair wage for their work. They chose unemployment over employment. Of course Obama then deemed their job loss as a result of illegal overseas business practices(laughable) and they all got 80% of their pay from the government to do nothing. We also have legal hispanics working at the club. They work like no one else and do a great job. They do work Americans will not do for the money. I still say Americans WOULD do those jobs if they had to. The only way they would have to is if we stop handing out so much free money. I am all for a hand up and subsidizing people who are working at the bottom. I am completely against, for the millionth time, handing money to people that are perfectly capable of working and refuse to do it. THAT is what Obama has created by taking out the work provision in the Clinton passed welfare reform act. A law that lead millions out of poverty as they were forced to get up and participate in the work force.

.
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#29

the presumption that what some lesser amount somebody used to pay was appropriate is selfish and grossly flawed. we were not paying enough, and still aren't. other countries have a much higher tax rate for a reason. that's what it costs to provide services. we have been living high on the hog for far too long. time to pay up.



the ecological gains of switching to renewable energy, much of which we could do now, would not be miniscule, and it has to start somewhere. in the short term costs would go up. over time though, just as it did with gasoline when it first came out, the cost would go down. in the late 1800s, factoring in for inflation, the cost of a barrel of oil was higher than it ever has been since. that's the nature of any new technology. i remember paying $59.95 for a basic calculator. http://chartsbin.com/view/oau



i agree that unions have had their day and are no longer needed. the mere threat of reforming would be enough to keep things in check.



just what has to happen to convince americans that they HAVE to take one of those jobs? how many years do we let them sit on their butt? they won't take them because they think it's below them. let them become homeless and see how they like it, and how quickly they start flipping burgers.



i am also against welfare, and think it should be a work program instead. show up, get your assignment, do the job, and get a check. don't show up, or don't do the job, and you get no check.



this is not all on obama either, though i am not defending him. any president only has so much control. it's really congress we have to blame for the way things have gone (other than ourselves for electing those idiots). obama spent all of his political capital getting elected. he had almost no influence once he got in office, even when he had control of both sides. to blame him now, when there has been a republican congress for years, is ridiculous.
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#30

Harry Reid made sure Obama never saw a bill he didn't want. Obama has had control of Congress via Harry Reid since day one. Over 300 bills have sat in the Senate with no vote because Obama did not want them voted on. Obama and his inner circle have had much more control over what is going on than you can imagine. I know someone that has worked at the State Dept for multiple decades. Long before Obama was a blip on the screen. That person worked directly under Hillary at one time. The s*** that has happened in this WH is like non other in this persons career. Including both Dem and R administrations. This person has basically done nothing the past 6 years. Our country is being run by Obama, Valerie Jarrett, and a few Czars in his tight circle you have never heard of but pay for. There are people in his cabinet that have never met him because he has other people doing their jobs. Right from the beginning it was clear to this person that this admin was going to run this country their way and as long as you kept your mouth shut and stayed out of the way, you would get paid. The next 2 months is going to be very interesting.
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#31

i know a few people in politics too. they all complain that obama has been powerless. you really need to stop listening to fox news. it's probably the least accurate news source out there, and the root of quite a few of these falsehoods. they just love to blame everything on the president, rather than really look at what's going on. the fact of the matter is that from a political standpoint, no president has all that much power. it's not like they can pass laws or anything all by themselves. we just love to make them the center of attention though, and blame them for everything. it's not enough to call somebody a leader. others have to follow, and that has not been happening.



it will be interesting to see what history says. it's funny how quickly we forget that the economy tanked under bush, not obama, that we incurred a huge debt due entirely to defense spending under that regime, and it's been a horrendous cleanup since then.



as for harry reid, he only had a good grip on the senate, and even that wasn't all that tight. he has been a bit of a loose cannon. he had no influence to speak of with congress, and he is certainly no friend of obama. while he has been towing the party line, he has been criticizing obama for quite some time now.
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#32

Flash +1
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#33

30 posts and not 1 mention of term limits.



12 years of total Federal Government service (be it Congress, Senate or Executive Branch) and you are done. It was never meant to be a lifetime job.Congress has to live by it's own rules and share in the same social security and health plans as "ordinary Americans". Following government service, restrict employment in lobbying firms or large contractors for 4 years. Unlimited funding through PACs has tilted the playing field, the length of campaigns needs to be limited as the most effective way to reduce the cost and amount of influence contributors can buy.



Since I'm ranting...



My opinion is that the only people who should be dependent are those who are either physically or mentally challenged and children, who have the right to grow up well fed, cared for and educated. Welfare was not meant to be multigenerational. If you are on the dole, then you need to show up for work that enhances society or be in an education program. The "haves" that pay for everything will eventually lose patience for people who always take and NEVER give, that day is coming.



Illegal aliens have 90 days to register, penalty free with a path to citizenship. If you fail to register and are caught, you are immediately flown to your home country and are persona non grata, no exceptions.



Healthcare is so expensive BECAUSE of health insurance. If you had to pay a doctor for every service you received, wouldn't you refuse a $30 aspirin, or $1,500 blood test. All Americans do have healthcare. If you show up at a hospital with a broken leg, it will be treated, at the most expensive price point on the medical scale. I think the move to urgent care is a good one, and will relieve some of the strain. Basic health care should be provided free, after that, you pay. I promise you doctors with nothing to do would reduce their prices, supply and demand..



By putting healthcare in the hands of the 15 Million that didn't have it, you are also giving healthcare to the most litigious segment of society, that are bombarded daily with ads from lawyers who prey off of them and health care providers and drug companies. Better be prepared for that tidal wave, which Obamacare did nothing to address. If you pull the tiger's tail, you'd better be prepared to deal with its teeth.



Higher education is on the same path as health insurance. Because "low interest" loans are available to everyone, the cost of education has outpaced the rest of the economy by orders of magnitude. Many college students today will be paying student loans when they are old enough to retire, and that debt can not be expunged by bankruptcy.Many training programs do nothing more than enrich their owners and leave their students unprepared AND broke.



I'd write more, but my fourth trip of this 75 hour week is just about over,and my wife is meeting me at the station...she's probably only worked 50 this week, slacker.



Jay
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#34

Powerless? Really? Obama has pretty much done everything he wants to. Thinking Harry Reid was not doing Obama's bidding and protecting him from the over 300 bills the House passed that Obama did not want voted on just does not match up with what happened the past 6 years. This election was to fire Harry Reid and repudiate the Obama administration. All the polls across the country said this election was about shutting down Obama. What the R's do with it remains to be seen. If they blow it they will lose in 2016 bad. If not, the country will turn a corner back to the way it was founded and not down the road to Socialism and Communism. I read a lot. I have even read Obama's books. In his own words he hated this country the way it was. He felt America and Great Britain stole the wealth of the world, abused other countries, and it is his job to give it back. He got that from his father and Frank Marshal Davis. His Communist mentor. He is following that plan. He said he would fundamentally change America and that is exactly what he is trying to do and America just said stop. Just like Ginsburg, Obama can't stand the Constitution and thinks it is outdated. Thank god for it or who knows where we would be today under his rule. As for FOX news. It is the #1 station and must respected and trusted in the country by a long shot. MSNBC, CNN, and the rest of the mainstream media that have towed the line for Obama and covered up for him on every opportunity are just a joke. We not only live on diametric ends of the country but diametric ends of the political spectrum. The only question is weather or not America wants to change into a Socialist country as Obama wants it to, or go back the the free market country that was the best on the planet before our government, under both parties, got too big for its britches. At least you have the guts to admit that you would prefer Socialism as most of my left side friends say Obama is not a Socialist, they would never want Socialist policies, and I just say that to make Obama sound bad. They are just lieing to themselves. Have you ever lived in a Socialist country? Under Socialized medicine?



Completely on board with Term Limits Jay. No question about it!!
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#35

no rant



i agree completely about term limits. in fact, i'd like to take it one step farther, and say that 2 terms per branch should be the limit.



there is quite a bit that the affordable health care act did not get to cover (though a lot of it was in the original plan). it got watered down a lot. but, it's better than nothing.



powerless - yes - he hasn't been able to get ANYTHING done that he started out to do. everything has been watered down, dropped, or bogged down in partisan nonsense, including the affordable care act.



re: frank marshall davis - he was a socialist, not a communist. very big difference.



re: fox news - not a chance - not even close to #1. abc is #1 (i don't watch that one either though - i'm a nbc guy for the most part - not msnbc either). no intelligent person would listen to, and take as gospel, any broadcast that had a spin one way or the other. all of the cable news networks (fox is one of those) have a spin. msnbc is painfully liberal. fox is grossly conservative. they should both be ignored, and instead an impartial presentation of the events is better. i chose nbc, because i have a very hard time figuring out what the politics of any of the broadcasters is. that tells me i'm getting things impartially. if you choose to watch one direction of spin, you must then also watch the other. to do anything less would be shortsighted and a disservice to yourself and others. people who choose only to watch fox are generally closed-minded locked in the bubble types. they long for the small towns of yesterday, and the simplicity of the 50s. not realistic and they will not ever be happy with the world, and blame everything on the liberals. in reality, they are just as much to blame. we all get the government we deserve.



re: obama - he's a constitutional professor. he probably knows more about the constitution than most anybody else in the world. i wouldn't go taking pot shots there.



re: the constitution - our constitution is outdated and broken and needs fixing. no doubt about it. the country is a mess and needs serious repair as a result. it was always intended to be a flexible and changing construct. it was never intended to be rigid. the founders knew that times change, and so would the constitution. heck, they started changing it only 2 years after it was written.



re: the polls - they did not say anything about shutting down obama. what they were focused on was fixing the economy. unfortunately the republicans have no idea how to do that, and all they will succeed in doing is increasing our dependence on oil, and further widening the division between the haves and have nots. that's what happens when it's about the money and not the people. the constitution starts with "we the people", not "we the rich people". we need to tax corporations MORE not less. we need to bolster small business (and by small i mean less than 10 employees - not what the republicans refer to as small)



i think you are grossly overstating obama's positions. have you ever spoken to him? i know people who have, and they would disagree with you vehemently. i haven't yet, but that would make the 3rd president i would have met and talked with. you would be amazed at how different things are when you actually speak to one.



in a perfect kumbaya world, we would have socialism. there would be no money. people would not own anything. it's not realistic though. i'm not even sure i'd like it.



capitalism is a very new experiment, relatively speaking. it doesn't work well long term, as we are now finding out. it is really no different than older imperialist states. the division between the rich and poor grows wider with time, until a revolution upsets the whole thing. it's proven in history time and again. if we don't start limiting profits, and start finding ways to cure the poverty, we will have that revolution. it won't be some wimpy protest either, and there won't be any cake.



by the way, i don't think the democrats have it together either. they are just as screwed up as the rest. if you put 10 of them in a room, i'm not sure they could come together on any one idea. i have to give credit to the republicans on that one. at least they all focus on one thing (probably all they can focus on though - lol)
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#36

Frank Marshal Davis was a Communist in the eyes of the FBI who watched him for over a decade. It has been widely written his connections to Communist groups. Just like Obama's dad, mother, and grandparents were Communists/Communist sympathizers. It was decades ago but still relevant to how Obama was raised and what framed his thoughts and views on America. His dad was throw out of the country for being a Communist. All were members of Communist groups in America. Particularly the CPUSA. That is how/when Davis met Valerie Jarrett's father in law, and ultimately her. Working with the Communist groups and the Communist papers in Chicago. After going to Hawaii to spread the Communist word working for a "red" paper he hooked up with Obama's grandfather and started to mentor him. It is through Davis and his connections that Obama met up with Valerie Jarrett and her family. It is Jarrett and Davis's close ties with the Weather Underground that ties Obama to Bill Ayers and that group of 60s radicals, and the SDS. This administration goes back a generation that started in the late 30's and 40's with their radical parents and associates. The core Obama people have tied together, planning, for a long time. They are very good at what they do. This is why they have been able to outplay the R's for the past 6 years. A fine oiled machine indeed.
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#37

lol - wow - that's a whole lot of conspiracy theory, but even if he truly agrees with the communist ideals, it isn't necessarily a bad thing. communism works pretty well. it seems to be serving the chinese nicely. historically democracy fails miserably. imperialism ultimately crashes. dictatorships get turned over. a republic like ours doesn't do much better, for similar reasons. the only system that really works is one that prevents rampant profiteering. communism has built in protections against that. it isn't perfect, but i wouldn't say it's wrong either. we could learn a lot from that ideal.



it's hardly a well oiled machine. in fact, it is more like a clanky old rust-bucket. any successes have just been due to common sense and reasoning (we need to clean up the environment at all costs, produce renewable energy sources, and provide basic free health care - no brainer stuff). the dems have definitely blundered and mishandled things. they could have gotten a whole lot more done if they could figure out how to unite, rather than being so fractured.
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#38

Does anyone here work in the health care field? I do. I have spoken to people across not only the political spectrum but in every facet of health care. I have not found one that finds anything good about the affordable care act. However many people who were or are uninsured could have been easily fixed by decreasing the financial limitations when applying for Medicaid. Many times this insurance works more equitably than commercial insurance. We are too rich of a country to not insure everyone. Health care won't be fixed with the current emphasis on cost. This is a red herring that appeals to the uninformed.



The affordable care act allows for a decrease in reimbursement rates to Medicare levels. Aetna has a spiffy program called the National Advantage Program(NAP) which cuts on per diems in half and then applies the benefit to it. We often come up with ridiculously low reimbursement rates that we can't afford to accept. Many docs are refusing to accept Medicare or Medicaid rates because they can't afford to.



Shifting costs to younger people who don't access their benefits as much as older folks is a complete screw job. All of those who received subsidized health insurance will find themselves in quite a pickle if the income they reported was wrong or increased this year and they didn't immediately report it to the govt. By the way, reporting this would have lowered the subsidy and increased a subscribers monthly premium. How's that for incentivizing behavior?



My Industry will look quite different in several years. Most of it won't exist or will be run by hedge funds. If the quality of treatment and access increased ok I would get it. So far these new owners aren't running a clinical but strictly a financial model with no bones about it.



There is much which is wrong with health care but I have yet to see any hope from a macro sense. There are some good points about the affordable care act. Overall not.
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#39

i'm not saying the affordable health care act is perfect. it's far from it. i'm saying it's better than what we had. people are covered now that weren't before. that's the most important thing.



the second paragraph points out a large part of the problem. rates should be regulated. what doctors can charge should be regulated. there should never be a situation of a doctor being allowed to refuse to accept a form of payment because he wants to charge more.



what should happen is that we go back to a "county hospital" structure, where there are hospitals and doctors in the "public" network, which are paid for by a government funded structure, and then those in the private network that are paid for by individuals and/or their insurance policies. it would be just like having a public defender in court.
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Talking about doctors and/or medical institutions under the current unregulated system : Health Care Blue Book is an organization which helps companies better manage their self funded benefit plans costs by assisting employees identify medical providers who offer comparable or identical services within any given proximity of the employees' choice location, at pricing variations which are often immense from one to the other. And this is counter-intuitive but survey after survey conducted on the quality of services , both from an empirical data standpoint , as well as patient satisfaction standpoint have consistently revealed that the lower to mid priced providers ranked much higher on the quality of the service than those who charged substantially more. Just as one example that I found remarkable : Costs of an MRI procedure , at ten different providers , all within a five mile radius , in the same zip code ( keep in mind, all these facilities use the exact same equipment, the procedure is identical everywhere, the technicians are compensated roughly the same, the facilities operating costs were very comparable, etc. ) The cost of an MRI ranged from a low of $ 300 to a high of $ 7,000 . ..and everything in between. Explain that ! Shop around folks, shop around !

That said, I think health care should be a right, not a privilege and be absolutely " free " to all. Of course our taxes would be higher as they are in every other civilized nation on this planet which has free health care, but I'd rather have my taxes of toward that cost than the gazillions of dollars our government spends annually on the military, when 1/50 of that expenditure would still be more than enough to maintain us as the most powerful and the most advanced and the most effective military force on this planet for the rest of this century.

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