First of all, I'm not sure if there is a topic on this already so please link me to the correct area if I'm wrong.

Tonight I went to a town hall meeting in Santa Cruz to listen to Congressman Sam Farr outline the public option health care plan. About 600 people showed up and the room was completely divided between people who wanted universal health care and people who opposed it. I went to the meeting because I wanted to gain a greater understanding of both viewpoints, but I left with more questions than answers.

It was kind of embarrassing because everyone in the room was either loudly cheering or booing and Congressman Farr didn't have much control over the crowd at all. Also, he didn't seem to understand the 1200 page bill as much as he said he did because he had assistants running around giving him answers whenever a question was asked. I'd like to think that our politicians that we elect have a greater understanding of things that they are endorsing, but this didn't seem to be the case.

Regardless, SOMETHING has to be done about the current state of health care in the United States. I went uninsured for three years, and now that I finally have insurance I find myself paying ungodly amounts of money for simple check-ups and procedures.

What are your thoughts?

Yeah, this health care nonsense has been driving me nuts.
I agree with you that something needs to be done. Insurance is unbelievably expensive and still doesn't cover everything, and if you have a pre-existing condition, you can just forget it.
It seems like no one has read this bill (I know I haven't). People on the left have decided its wonderful and people on the right have decided it has a 'kill all the old people and establish death panels' clause. And now rather than have an actual educated debate about the details of the bill, everyone is too busy either spreading or dispelling rumors about clauses in it that don't even exist. So if it actually does have stuff in it that isn't very desirable, no one is even going to notice until it gets passed into law. Plus, watching those town hall meetings makes me sad. Why do people have to act like fucking idiots? If they really want to show that they oppose this bill they can protest (in a way that isn't mob-like), write to their congressmen, or educate themselves, go to a town meeting and actually ask a relevant question rather than just shouting "Liar" or yelling and trying to intimidate. You'd think we were past torches and pitchforks by 09, and that these people would have learned that fear mongering isn't necessarily the way to go. I mean, it worked for a long time under Bush but I think most people are sick of it now. It didn't work when everyone was alleging that Obama was secretly a terrorist, socialist etc. during his campaign.
It seems like we could look to other industrialized countries for guidance on how to do this, but since US is bigger and more diverse, its hard to say how it would go here. I think we need to figure out our own plan to fix health care. That being said I have no idea what we should do. A public option seems like a good idea, and maybe regulations on insurance companies that prevent them from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions or picking and choosing what they will cover and won't cover based on cost.

am i really about to read this entire thing? i really don't want to. i guess i will. i've read stranger bills.

all of i've read so far is this summary

i've also read random speeches obama has given on the healthcare plan but i've noticed that yes obama is a great speaker but when his speeches aren't "scripted" he never really answers the questions asked and doesn't explain the answer he gives.


This is what happened when our congressmen talked about the healthcare plan.


another thing is
some of the americans who don't have health insurance choose not to have health insurance. but with america's affordable health choices act you don't really get a choice when it comes to that

Quote:

Individual responsibility. Except in cases of hardship, once market reforms and affordability credits are in effect, individuals will be responsible for obtaining and maintaining health insurance coverage. Those who choose to not obtain coverage will pay a penalty of 2.5 percent of modified adjusted gross income above a specified level.

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"sometimes i'll do something and i'll think to myself, that is so raven"

fuck this, im moving to canada!

I wouldn't move to Canada unless you like long lines at the doctor. In both public and private health care systems, you have people shut out of the system, that's just the way it is. Being a doctor costs too much money to start up (Medical school and all that) that you don't get that many coming into the field, so there aren't enough doctors and surgeons to go around even in Private healthcare, so they need to pick and choose, and the way they do that is price. It's the way every one picks and chooses who they want to give service too, that's the grand divider is the price of things. You take that away however, and what you'll have is a mad rush to the doctor, people saying hey... I kinda feel bad, and since I don't have to pay for it, I might as well go to a doctor and get it checked out, when before they would say, hey... I might be able to push through this, and if not I'll go to the doctor. We as human beings love free stuff. So either way, people are not going to get the care they need. That doesn't even cover the problem with pharmaceutical companies and R&D. Health care is something that making it universal or privatized isn't going to fix, there's a lot more to it than that.

Congrats!