Below The Beltway

• The True Cost Of Health Care Reform: $ 2,500,000,000,000
• Robert Reich Speaks The Truth On Government Run Health Care: We’re Going To Have To Ration Care
• Here’s What Happens When Government Makes The Health Care Decisions
• Why We Don’t Need Government-Run Health Care
• How Government Policy Has Distorted The Health Care Market
• Poll: Americans Trust Free Markets Over Government On Health Care
• Majority Says That Providing Health Care Is Not An Obligation Of Government
• Obama’s Own Words: “Public Option” Is The First Step To Government-Run Health Care
• Senator Mark Warner Admits There Is No Constitutional Authority For Government-Run Health Care
• Government Run Health Care Forces Kidney Patients To Get Multiple Transplants

11 Responses to “The True Cost Of Government Controlled Health Care”

1. John Says:
   November 14th, 2009 at 9:36 am

   My wife had the same condition as this young woman, but not to the point that she lost body function control. She had extremely painful sciatica, which evinced itself in late June. After several rounds with doctors, physical therapy, etc. she finally had an MRI in September. She had spondyliolisthesis & a cyst growing against the sciatic nerve. She had the surgery this past Monday, November 9. From the onset of pain to surgery was a little over four months.

   The Canadian example is frightening in its implications for Americans. I don’t think she could have waited three or four years for surgery. At some point suicide becomes a better option than continuing to endure extreme pain levels that go on all day, every day.

   But maybe suicide is the idea for the bureaucrats running HC: One less person with a problem that costs a lot of money to fix.

2. J. Schmidt Says:
   November 14th, 2009 at 7:17 pm

   I’m sorry for Lin’s condition. I know the Canadian system has improved so I checked to see how long ago she became ill.
   She became ill in 2001.
   http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=33785

   This is one woman in Canada who had to wait to get help.
   There are thousands of U.S. citizens who have no health care at all and will never, never, never get any help.
   Here’s the Canadian system (yes it has a few problems).
   The mean wait time for an MRI is currently 3 months.
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Canada

   Here is the current very expensive messed up system we have in the United States.
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States

   If we took all the money the United States spends right now and spent it on a National Health Care System, we would probably not have any waiting problems at all.

   I spent over two years working a minimum wage job in Tennessee and most of the people didn’t qualify and couldn’t afford health insurance. I’ll bet the U.S. citizens have a lot more sad, sad stories about lack of health care than you can find in Canada.

   Again I am sorry for Lin’s condition. Thank God she didn’t live in the United States. She might have lost all her insurance and never, never, never got any help at all.

3. J. Schmidt Says:
   November 14th, 2009 at 7:37 pm

   No, suicide is not the option the bureaucrats have in mind. They just want to provide care for all U.S. Citizens. The people who are lucky enough to have good health care plans through their employers, and get surgery, maybe are just a little too smug to look around and see all the Americans who have no insurance at all. I guess some people feel a lot more deserving than the rest of the people. Maybe we should just let the U.S. Citizens that don’t have health care and are in pain, commit suicide rather than fix the broken health care system we have now. (just kidding, but that’s what you’re implying to me)

4. J. Schmidt Says:
   November 14th, 2009 at 8:08 pm

   I’ll speak out for the working poor. They don’t have internet, facebook, u-tube or anything like that. A man I know of in Tennessee lost his construction job. He moved in with his son in Florida and was able to find work. He went to the emergency room with heart trouble. They scheduled him for surgery a month later. The day he went to the hospital for surgery, they wouldn’t do it because he owed $1600 on emergency room bills. It will take him a while to earn the money. Let’s hope he doesn’t have a heart attack before he earns the money to get surgery.

5. J. Schmidt Says:
   November 14th, 2009 at 8:11 pm

   A woman I know went to the West Coast to visit her brother. She became ill and had to be hospitalized for 6 weeks. When she was well enough to return to Tennessee, her insurance company denied paying her bill because it was out of network.
   Collection agencies hounded this poor woman all the time.

6. J. Schmidt Says:
   November 14th, 2009 at 8:17 pm

   A single mother I knew worked for $8 an hour and could not afford health insurance. She needed her gall bladder out. She suffered for 6 weeks and finally went to the emergency room and they finally did surgery when the situation became acute. We are all paying for these emergency room visits. This is probably the most costly, ineffective way to provide medical care. But the country keeps doing it because we are afraid of change. So we find a few horror stories from Canada or England to prove our point. But there are way more horror stories in our own country. If you don’t believe me, go get a weekend job for minimum wage at McDonald’s or Walmart and you won’t believe how bad it is for the working poor in this country.

7. J. Schmidt Says:
   November 15th, 2009 at 6:42 am

   Here’s another U.S. health care horror story

   Ex-Jewelry Television exec sues network
   Cancer patient says age, health care costs behind his termination

   http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/may/19/ex-jewelry-television-exec-sues-network/

8. John Says:
   November 15th, 2009 at 11:06 am

   “Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.”
   Alexis de Tocqueville

   We are going to add millions to some form of HC without adding a single doctor, nurse, or hospital. Don’t pat yourself on the back for being in favor of what Congress is likely to enact. The immediate and future response will be rationing of care, medicine, procedures, and consultations.

   The government cannot and will not run a good medical system. But we will all be equal.

9. J. Schmidt Says:
   November 15th, 2009 at 8:35 pm

   How do you know they are not going to add a single doctor or nurse? Sure, we have to ration health care. I’m all for paying for plastic surgery for a woman’s whose face has been ripped off by a chimpanzee. I’m not for plastic surgery for a star like Michael Jackson. Do you want the new health care plan to cover accupuncture? Sure they will have to ration certain treatments. There is rationing of health care now. All that has to happen is for you to lose your job. Go to your H.R. dept and ask them what the Cobra rates are if something were to happen to your job. You are in for a big surprise. The government of France is running an awesome medical system. The best in the world. And they are paying far less than we are paying now. Right now most of our money goes to the CEO’s and shareholders of the health care companies.

10. J. Schmidt Says:
    November 15th, 2009 at 8:52 pm

    Now, this book is a good read. It taught me a lot.

    The Healing of America by T.R. Reid.

    http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Healing-of-America/T-R-Reid/e/9781594202346/

11. J. Schmidt Says:
    November 16th, 2009 at 5:11 am

    In the 1980’s I didn’t want the government to have anything to do with my health care coverage. But after living through the 1990’s HMO system, learning through experience, and searching for the truth (not testimonial horror stories),
    I’ve concluded that the best outcome will be to have national health care reform. Why the assumption that if the uninsured get coverage, it will be a win-lose situation? It’s most likely going to be a win-win-win situation. The losers might be the stockholders who have investments in
    Health Insurance companys and pharmaceutical companys. Oh, and the fat cat CEO’s of these companies will lose their bonuses. Everybody else will win, including the doctors who can focus on medical services and get out from under the insurance paperwork.

    http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_12523427

    http://www.usw.org/media_center/news_articles?id=0364

    Only in the United States do the drug companies waste money on television ads urging people to ask their doctors for specific medications, only for folks to find out their health care plan covers a different medication. Heck, we could probably provide health care to all by eliminating the useless advertising costs. You know those costs are passed on to the consumer.