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Goanetter Francis Rodrigues (Vasco/Toronto) book launch in
London, England @ the World Goa Day festivities on 15 Aug at 7pm
Details http://www.konkanisongbook.com
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To begin with, I commend Jose Colaco for giving us some very thoughtful,
balanced and constructive comments about the US health care system, even though
he could not resist taking a cheap shot at "the Right". It shows what he is
capable of, something we don't see often enough.
Gabe Menezes wrote:
> Why would anyone want change in the Health Care programme, if one's own
> family members benefit from the status quo?
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:23:05 -0400
From: "J. Colaco < jc>" <[email protected]>
It all depends upon what you mean by "benefit from the status quo".
Mario observes:
I think JC may have missed the fact that Gabe thought he was taking a dig at
me, but as usual, proved that he has no clue about the raging debate about
socialized health care versus the American system, even though he lives in a
country that just did this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5955840/Patients-forced-to-live-in-agony-after-NHS-refuses-to-pay-for-painkilling-injections.html
JC wrote:
Allow me to suggest that the following are the beneficiaries from the
"status quo". - in No particular order
7: Those who are covered by existing Government run health-schemes.
Mario asks:
JC,
Though I am covered by Medicare, you must be aware that I paid for this
privilege throughout my working life in the US through payroll deductions, and
still have to pay a monthly premium. In addition, I have had to buy
supplemental insurance to cover what Medicare does not.
Secondly, Medicare is projected to run out of money by 2017 because of the
typical inefficiencies of a government run program. The other government run
programs, Medicaid and the VA are in similar dire financial straits. This is
not a good sign for expanding these models nationwide.
Thus, in spite of the classic Goan crabby and uninformed insinuations of
Marlon, Gilbert and Gabe, I am not getting any special benefit from the status
quo that I have not and am not paying for, while the system itself is in
imminent danger of financial collapse.
JC wrote:
Allow me to say this: No Govt run scheme ...runs as optimally as it should.
Mario responds:
I agree. No government business scheme CAN run optimally over time, because
decisions are made on political grounds and not financial and economic grounds
and there is no personal incentive, responsibility or accountability for those
managing the system.
As a classic example, Franklin Raines who was one of the bureaucrats at the
heart of the financial crisis as the CEO of Fannie Mae, paid himself bonuses of
some $90 million, was then found to have cooked the books to inflate his
bonuses, was forced to resign and made to return some $40 million, and just
moved on with the balance of $50 million.
Nice deal, hanh?!
JC wrote:
A good example is UK, another is Canada. While both these systems
cover most of the people, most of the time - huge amounts of funds are
wasted. For the amount of taxes which go into health care in the UK
and Canada - a patient should have had zero wait time.
Mario responds:
Absolutely correct. I hope your cronies in Canada and Blighty are listening.
JC wrote:
Presently, in the US there is a two-tier health care system ....for
those who can afford it and those who cannot. And yet, IF ...one had
cut the "skim" from the cost of private health care - one would have
had enough of funds to cover everybody.
Mario responds:
Correctomundo, AGAIN. Nice going, JC. Bravo!
There are some 300 million Americans. The left wingers claim that 47 million
are uninsured. Once you adjust this for illegal aliens, legal aliens who are
not citizens, people who earn over $75,000 a year but have chosen not to buy
health insurance, etc. the core group that really need help is around 12 to 15
million.
Rather than destroy a system which has superior medical technology and
redundant equipment so that no one has to wait for a test or a procedure, a
system that covers over 90% of Americans, 70% of whom say they are happy with
the health insurance they have, it may make more sense for the government to
simply buy private insurance for these 12 to 15 million people and reform the
excesses in the current system with tort reform, insurance reform and other
administrative procedures.
http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba649
The good news is that President Obama has scrapped his long term desire to
impose a single payer system and has specifically rejected the Canadian model
as unworkable in the US, now saying we need to come up with a unique American
solution.
The bad news is that he doesn't seem to have a clue as to what his far left
wing allies in Congress have put into their initial monstrosity of a plan which
runs 1,017 pages long and is incomprehensible to even lawyers who have read it.
Thus you see the number of misinformed comments he has been making in his
recent speeches on the subject.
By the time the smoke clears, we should have some workable reforms that cover
the people who need help.
